Cats are graceful, graceful and beautiful. Their fur attracts with its shine, softness, density and the desire to pet the pet. But this animal, and sometimes regular "self-service" may not be enough to maintain the attractiveness of the pet's coat.
In fact, it is the owners who should think about whether they are properly caring for their pet and whether they pay enough attention to its fur.
A cat's koltun: causes and consequences of the negligence of the owners
Trimming mats is not a problem: you can remove them by cutting, or fight matted hair using a special spray. But this would not have been necessary if the owner of the animal had spent a little more time observing the condition of his pet.
Static electricity and the cat's disgusting nutrition are the main reasons for the hair to fall into unaesthetic clumps.
- When the fallen guard coat becomes entangled with living hairs, this is done with the help of static electricity. How can you deal with the problem? Yes Easy! It is enough just to regularly comb the animal, not forgetting to use a special antistatic agent, purchased not in a hardware store, but in a pet market (taking into account the breed, density and length of the fur).
- Wool gets tangled and loses shine in those animals that are regularly malnourished or eat food with a deficiency of vitamins. Over time, in addition to mats, dandruff also appears, sticking together wool lumps more strongly. The denser and larger the tangled areas, the less chance of dealing with them without using scissors and a special spray. Dandruff can be all over the body, and mats usually form on the withers, armpits, hind legs, and at the base of the tail.
These "pellets" do not paint the cat at all, they are not only unpleasant to the eye, but also harmful to the animal itself. Infections, fungi and fleas quickly multiply inside a matted ball of wool, and the skin under it is constantly irritated and melted.
It is necessary to cut the mats as quickly as possible, because cats are playful, and during the game they can catch them on objects. Or pulling the lump on purpose, in an attempt to get rid of the problem on your own. Why is it dangerous? The animal will be injured and will forever remember that touching the tangles threatens him with pain and discomfort.
How to remove mats from a cat: grooming, combing and veterinary care
Removing areas of matted hair is a rather unpleasant procedure, from which the pet is unlikely to come to indescribable delight. The first rule is that the wool must be preserved at least partially. You cannot make a haircut "under zero", especially if the cat is long-haired, for example, Persian or Angora.
If the mat is not voluminous, it should be carefully divided lengthwise into strands and, picking out the dead guard hair with your hands, try to comb the rest with a fine-toothed brush. At pet stores, a caring owner can always purchase a special device called a collar cutter. This is a kind of modernized comb, supplemented with teeth-blades.
The correct approach, which consists in using such a tool, will greatly facilitate the procedure and save the animal from stress, and the master's nerves will remain intact. And maybe not only nerves, because cats, as you know, are clawed creatures and sometimes quite vindictive. A cat's mats are easier to trim than to comb out, but this is not always an acceptable option: a pet trimmed with shreds looks like a shedding wounded animal.
It is a completely different matter when the mug is voluminous and it is impossible to get rid of it by dividing it into strands. And there is no point in this, not only wool is already involved in the process, but also quite extensive areas of the skin. Attempts to comb this "ram fleece" will be excruciatingly painful for the pet.
In this case, you need to follow the path of least resistance - take scissors or a hair clipper (with a nozzle of at least 3 mm) and try yourself as a cat hairdresser. One will not be able to do this procedure, most animals will actively resist and trick, so a partner stylist will be required.
During a haircut, care must be taken so as not to damage the delicate skin on the body. And the cat should be immobilized as much as possible, which, in fact, guarantees the safety of both her and the hairdresser. The skin should be pulled without pressure and along the body.
In this way, you can remove tangles from many parts of the cat's body, but using a clipper and scissors for the head and legs is strongly discouraged. If the animal can tolerate a haircut on the rest of the body calmly, then when trying to work in these areas, it will clearly get nervous and try to escape by hook or by crook.
In advanced cases, when in a wad of matted wool wandering around the apartment, the pet has ceased to be recognized at all - you need to immediately carry it to the veterinary clinic, where the services of a groomer will be offered. These specialists have a long hand "full", so a domestic lion will be trimmed quickly, efficiently, and most importantly - safely and correctly.
“The wool grows new, silky,” as the well-known Sharik used to say. But this will not happen as quickly as the owner of the shorn animal would like. Only after 4-5 months the coat will return to normal and fully recover. An important nuance - after a radical "half-box", the guard coat often changes color. Therefore, it is better not to run your beloved animal to such a state.
For show and pedigree cats, mats and the need to get rid of them is a whole tragedy. Well, the owners of ordinary house hunters get a wonderful lesson in caring for their pet for the future.
Cats are incredibly graceful, have their own charm. Cats with long hair are especially beautiful. They are majestic, pleasant to iron and easy to hold. But there are enough worries with long hair. Hair that is not combed out in time has a tendency to fall off.... It is a mistake to believe that cats do not have a disease. What is it that every owner of a long-haired animal knows.
Long-haired cats, artificially bred, for example the Persians, require careful maintenance. They are lazy, will not take proper care of their appearance. All responsibility falls on the shoulders of the owners. Cat breeds that are over a century old are more adaptable. They take good care of the outer cover.
Mats in cats can be a sign of oral health problems. It is not difficult for an attentive owner to determine whether a pet is worried about something. Indeed, in addition to tangles, the animal will refuse food, food. If several symptoms are the same, the cat should be taken to the veterinarian. At home, it will not be possible to examine the mucous membrane.
How to use a collar cutter
The principle for cats is exactly the same as in this video:
Where, how and why do mats appear?
Felling of the animal's fur occurs in places of friction where the hairs are softer. Along the perimeter of the spine, the wool has a dense structure, the felting of which occurs very rarely. In most cases, this area of the pet's body is the last to be bumped.
IMPORTANT! The main reason for the formation of twisted beams is improper care of your beloved pet.
The coat on the belly, at the base of the paws, has a slightly curled shape. This contributes to its rapid entanglement, and subsequently the formation of tangles. The hair under the chin also falls off easily. To believe that the animal does not suffer from what is happening is wrong. The tangled villi pull on the adjacent ones, which leads to skin tension... This condition irritates the skin, the pet becomes lethargic, does not show interest in games, does not respond to the nickname.
Fighting mats in furry pets requires calmness of the owner. You need to accustom yourself to the procedure from the moment a new family member arrives.... At first, the fluffy handsome man will resist, but with a little effort and patience, a trusting relationship is formed between the animal and the person. This will help teach your pet all the intricacies of behavior in a new home.
Ways to eliminate and the consequences of tangles
The easiest way is to prevent them from forming. But if they have already appeared, it is necessary to act quickly. Fur felting occurs very quickly. With each movement, the mat adds more and more adjacent hairs.... Therefore, it is not recommended to postpone the fight against this ailment.
ATTENTION! it is difficult to remove large mats on your own - a visit to the veterinarian is necessary.
It is impossible to comb with a regular comb. Cutting off loose hair is dangerous and can easily damage your skin. It is necessary to cut off with scissors with rounded edges, while not pulling the mug itself. The safest option is to use a collar cutter... This is a special device for the safe removal of loose hairballs. The device will not be able to damage your pet's skin by carefully cutting off the bundles of villi.
If a cat's fur falls off, this can lead to disastrous consequences:
If the cat is covered in mats, you cannot do without contacting the veterinarian.
How to remove mats yourself?
Care must be taken when removing knocked down lumps. Any awkward movement will injure your pet.... The timing of the procedure is also very important. The optimal period will be the time when the pet is asleep or just woke up.
- Complete immobilization... It is impossible for one person to perform the procedure. Full fixation will help to carry out the removal with minimal loss of time and effort. Small pellets can be combed with a comb.
- Degree of defeat... If the lump has grown into the skin, it must be cut as close to the skin as possible. This should be done very carefully so as not to damage the skin. Small swaths can be combed out or with a cat cutter.
- Sequence... It is necessary to start the removal from the largest, moving gradually to the smaller ones. In the case of a severe lesion, a visit to the veterinarian is necessary. You can try to remove the clumps with a typewriter. But you need to understand, the noise of the car will scare the cat. With complete defeat, anesthesia is indispensable.
Fighting mats is not as difficult as it sounds. It is difficult for long-haired pets to care for their own coat. In order to prevent the onset of ailment, it is necessary to carry out constant combing, use special products in the form of shampoos, balms, which help the villi to be separate from each other and not get tangled.
The article allows you to better understand what you have to deal with when eliminating mats in cats, kittens and cats, as well as how to act if a pet has a similar problem and it is not possible to quickly come to the veterinarian to fix it.
Mats in cats how to remove, remove and get rid of quickly at home, cut
In well-groomed pets, mats appear quite rarely, mainly during molting. If they are small, they are selected by hand, carefully disassembling the lumps. After the procedure, the pet is carefully combed out.
Large mats are cut off with blunt-edged children's scissors so as not to damage the animal. For this, the animal is deprived of the ability to move. A large mat is cut lengthwise and then gradually removed.
Sometimes you have to completely cut an animal. Veterinary pharmacies sell a special spray for mats. It is used for long and thick cat hair. Reviews about him are very positive.
How to comb a cat's mats at home if it is not given
The brushing procedure does not please any pet, therefore, before proceeding, it is necessary to relax the cat with gentle words, scratching. It is better to comb it with two people, so that one holds the pet. If this is not possible, the paws are tied to the animal.
If the animal is very nervous, it is better to go to a veterinary clinic or a special hairdresser, where the service will be provided quickly and with minimal nervous losses for the animal and its owner.
Why does a cat's fur get tangled up the main causes and consequences?
If the cat has long hair with a thick undercoat, she cannot avoid the formation of tangles (Persians, Angora).
Mats are formed due to the presence of a thick, curly undercoat, which the cat cannot get rid of by simple licking.
The main causes of mats are:
- Rare combing of long-haired cats.
- Molting period
- When using shampoos intended for humans. A cat has a completely different hair structure, so that the hair does not fall off, you must use special care products for cats.
- Sick, lazy, too fat animal.
Small mats do not bring inconvenience to the owner, and more irritate the owner of the animal. Large ones can tighten the skin, cause itching, which leads to scratching and sores. The animal becomes nervous, restless.
Many cat lovers dream of having a fluffy long-haired cat, but not all, for many reasons, decide to have such a pet. One of the most common reasons is the need for constant and painstaking care of the coat. And this is quite fair, because such a fluffy pet needs to be regularly and correctly combed out, and the wool must be treated with special means. Many owners of long-haired cats complain that as soon as they "start" grooming a little, tangles appear. However, mats in a cat can also occur for other reasons, which we propose to learn in more detail now.
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Why do mats appear?
Mats or trichomes occur in both long-haired dogs and cats and represent a pathological condition of the animal's coat. With a trichome, the hairs of wool stick together and get tangled together into a dense, inseparable lump, which feels like a dense felt. Mats most often occur in hard-to-reach places and where the wool is most exposed to friction: belly, groin area, tail, inner side of paws, less often on the back or neck. Veterinarians associate this phenomenon with poor animal care, as well as with local pathological processes.
The most common cause of mats in pets is inadequate grooming or untimely brushing. However, among all the factors that cause trichomes, experts include:
Mats are not only an aesthetic problem: due to metabolic disorders in the skin, they cause discomfort and many skin diseases. Due to the discomfort in accessible places, the animal itself may try to pull out or gnaw the mats, traumatizing the skin.
We remove the mats correctly
Removing tangles from an animal's fur is not so easy without special tools. Many people cannot do without scissors or a hair clipper. However, we do not advise you to immediately resort to radical measures, because this will ruin the pet's chic hair. Of course, if other methods do not help, then there is nowhere to go. The first thing you can try is to disassemble it with your hands and comb the matted wool. The second popular and effective method of how to get rid of tangles from a cat is to use a tang cutter.
Combing
The first thing a cat owner should do after finding tangles on the fur is to try to comb them. To do this, you need to fix the animal in a comfortable position and follow the instructions.
- If the mats have formed recently, they can be easily untangled with your hands. To do this, you first need to divide the mats into several strands, then try to disassemble the hairs in parts. Starting from the bottom up, comb them with a fine-toothed comb.
- If it was possible to disassemble the mat only partially, for example, the upper layer of wool, then the lower one can be carefully cut along with a knife or use a mat cutter.
- When combing the mat, the skin must be held in order not to pull it too much and not to cause pain to the animal.
Never bathe your pet before unraveling the tangles. This will only make the problem worse. However, experts advise to pre-treat the mat itself and the wool around it with a special combing spray or talcum powder.
Koltunorez
The collar cutter is a modern, convenient and completely safe tool that helps to remove matted hairballs and tangles. In appearance, it resembles a vegetable peeler. Such a tool is equipped with special blades (usually there are about 10), which are located parallel to each other and are sharpened only on one side for safe use.
Photogallery "Koltunorezy"
The request returned an empty result.You need to comb the matted wool with a koltunorez in the same way as with a regular comb. The blades of the tool should be facing downward, the movements should be in the direction of the mat. You can see what the collar cutter looks like in the video (pro100vesna).
Prevention of tangles
As experts say, it is better to prevent the problem than to get rid of it later. This is especially true for exhibition animals, for which the removal of even small areas of hair is a whole disaster. In the fluffiest long-haired cats, the hair after shearing is completely restored only after 4-5 months. In addition, the guard hair may change color after clipping. Therefore, for all pedigree show cats, the main rule of keeping is proper nutrition and high-quality regular care.
So what is “regular grooming” and what does mottle prevention mean?
- Regular combing of wool will allow to remove lost hairs in a timely manner, to promote the correct metabolism of the skin.
- Regular bathing of the animal using special shampoos and hygiene products will help keep the coat clean. Clean hairs without skin problems do not fall off or tangle, they shine and lie evenly over the entire surface of the body.
- A balanced diet and additional nutrients and vitamins will help maintain healthy skin and coat beauty.
- If it is not possible to buy an animal on time, you can use dry shampoo. In addition to maintaining cleanliness, it will help remove static stress and make the coat soft and shiny.
- Always use a hair dryer after bathing and brush your cat thoroughly with a special brush.
How to properly care for a long-haired purring pet so that there are no problems with the coat? A grooming expert talks about this.
A tangle is a dense ball of matted and matted wool. Small single tangles can be gently combed, but if the situation has gone too far, and the wool looks more like a felt felt boot, there is only one way out: shaving under a typewriter.
The reasons for the formation of tangles in cats
The body coat in cats consists of two main types of hair: the awn and the undercoat. Undercoat- thin, rather thick, sometimes "downy" hair, the main function of which is to protect the skin from adverse environmental conditions. In other words, the undercoat is a kind of “thermal underwear” that is “closer to the body”. The awn is a thinner, longer and smoother hair, sometimes different from the color of the undercoat. Depending on the breed, the undercoat can be more or less pronounced.
So, in smooth-haired southern and eastern breeds (Abyssinian, Thai, Bengal, etc.), the undercoat is very light and gentle, and therefore these cats do not need constant painstaking combing. And, conversely, long-haired breeds - Siberian, Persian, Sacred Burma, Himalayan, Neva Masquerade - have a thicker undercoat, and therefore care for their coat should be more serious. The fact is that mats are mainly formed by the undercoat, respectively, such a cat must be combed regularly and carefully.
Another factor affecting the formation of tangles, is the constant molt of domestic cats. We all remember that animals "should" molt in the spring and fall. This was the case before, before the mass housing of cats. Indeed, when an animal spends a lot of time outdoors, its body reacts to the change of seasons, and then the spring and autumn molt are clearly expressed. But in the conditions of apartments, when our pets live almost all year round at approximately the same air temperature, molting has acquired a permanent character. Dying, but not completely lost wool is also capable of falling into tangles.
Cats living with free access to the street are also prone to mats. However, in this case, dirt, dry seeds, inflorescences, leaves, small branches, and so on are added to the list of reasons.
A cat's nutrition and health also affect the condition of its coat. A clinically healthy, nutritious animal always has a healthy shiny coat. A lack of protein or essential fatty acids can lead to dull, thinning and brittle hair.
What to do if the cat has mats?
If you notice one or more mats in your pet, prepare a comb-comb, a mats cutter and a spray to facilitate combing. The spray can be bought ready-made, in any variation, including under the name "anticoltun", or you can prepare it yourself. To do this, take 1 tablespoon of wool conditioner (meaning the conditioner that is used after shampoo when bathing; of course, you need to use shampoo and conditioner for animals), dilute in 400-500 ml of warm water, stir well and pour into a container with a spray bottle ...
If your pet is afraid of the sound of a spray bottle, you can simply measure the liquid with a spoon. Moisten the mats with the prepared solution and remember well with your fingers, this will soften the coat. Try to "pull" the mat a little to the sides parallel to the skin (perhaps already at this stage it will begin to diverge a little). Take the mattress as close to your skin as possible and use the comb to gently comb through the mattress from the very edge. The movements of the comb should be very gentle and unhurried, so as not to accidentally pull the cat's skin. If necessary, moisten the mats with a brush-free product, this makes the procedure less traumatic. In the case when the mug is small, in this way you can unravel it completely.
If the koltun is voluminous, dense and not completely amenable to unraveling with your fingers, use a koltunorez. There are different types of collar cutters on sale, both single (with one blade) and side cutters with several blades, similar to a rake. Carefully comb the mats, gently wiggling the mats and holding the wool. When using the single collar cutter, be careful not to hold it directly over your fingers, as moving the tool down through the collar can accidentally cut yourself. After a few strokes, comb through the hair with the comb again - the smaller pieces of mats will be easier to handle.
Ideally, combing should be completed with a very frequent small comb - "flea race", this is guaranteed to remove the smallest lumps of tangled wool. Almost certainly, there will be noticeably less wool in the place of the former mats than in other areas, but this will not be as noticeable as in the case of cutting or shaving the mats.
Please, never under any circumstances cut the mats with scissors, even if you are sure that you can see exactly where the mats are and what distance separates them from the skin! This is extremely traumatic for your pet! A scissor cut is a very painful nuisance, which, in addition to bleeding and the need to correctly and quickly treat the wound, entails a cat's shock and strong negative memories of "hairdressing procedures."
Getting rid of tangles in a cat in a veterinary clinic
If your pet has a lot of tangles, or you are not confident in your own strengths, patience and dexterity in terms of effective combing, contact a specialist. A competent groomer with the necessary knowledge and practical skills will save your mustache-tailed child from tangles in a short time with minimal stress for him. And try to brush your pet regularly as the coat grows back in order to reduce the frequency of grooming to a minimum, because even the most creative haircut cannot be compared with the beauty and harmonious appearance of a fluffy well-groomed cat.
Reception in the city veterinary clinic "VetState" is conducted by experienced specialists in grooming dogs and cats, which allows our clients to receive qualified care for their pets' hair close to home, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Without holidays and weekends, we are glad to see you from 10.00 to 21.00
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