My Life Cat came from a farm when she was 3 months old, and she was pretty filthy from hanging out with the bovines. I’m not a believer in bathing cats as a general rule, but due to her advanced state of ripeness, I filled the bathtub with a good amount of water (kitten swimming depth), gently dropped her in, and ran for my life. Getting soaked did exactly what I hoped it would do–encouraged her to do the cat thing and bathe herself. That was her first bath, and she never needed another in her 22 years on Earth.
Why do you think the cat needs a bath? Is it just a flea problem?
Flea dips/shampoos/baths can be toxic to cats, especially Hartz products. This includes over-the-counter topical flea medications. I’ve seen more than a few cats seizure and die from this kind of stuff.
If you want to get fleas off the cat, go to the vet. Get a dose of Capstar - it’s a pill that will kill all fleas within about an hour. Then put on topical flea medication from the vet that won’t be toxic to the cat.
The cat will clean him/herself of the flea dirt after that. You will also want to get a dewormer from the vet for tapeworm, which the cat can get from fleas, and you need to hope the cat hasn’t contracted Bartonella from the fleas, too.
Just get the topical flea medication from the vet. Reapply it every 30 days.
No more fleas. No baths. No toxicity. No diseases.
Flea control is so easy, there’s no excuse for flea problems with dogs and cats.
My cat loves water, so he never minds a bath. (The only time he gets one is when he soils his carrier going to or from the vet.) My method: Turn on the shower, put the cat in the shower, get in with him, and wash him with a low, warm stream of water from the hand-held showerhead.
I have seen no fleas on the cat but I just had to treat the dogs. They came down with fleas. We have been flea free for 3 years. Now, late in the year they get them. The cat does not go out . I don’t want to put him through a flea treatment if he does not need it. He does not snuggle with the dogs. He runs and plays with the puppy though.
You can get flea treatment for cats that doesn’t require washing. We use Frontline on our cat, it’s just a small tube of ointment that you put on the back of their neck, where they can’t reach it.
Still easier than herdin’ them.
I’m not a Steve Martin fan, but THAT is really funny!
I have a cat with longer fur, fluffier than a normal short hair. He is getting small clumps of fur on the small of his back, like kitty dreadlocks. I groom them fairly regularly with a little metal loop comb, but it doesn’t seem to do much. Would a bath help this? Maybe something else?
Also, I sometimes see what looks like dandruff in his fur, little white flakes. He doesn’t have fleas, I’ve checked multiple times and he’s an indoor cat, and my other cat doesn’t get this.
They’re both due for a vet checkup soon, so I’m going to ask him, but asking here couldn’t hurt.
Is he fat? Bigger cats have difficulty grooming the lumbar region. As long as he’s okay with you combing him out, that’s totally sufficient. The dandruff comes up when the mats come out because they hold pieces of skin in there so the normal sloughing skin does happens in clumps when the fur is finally loosened.
You might try a comb that’s meant for undercoat - that’s what causes the matting. If the undercoat isn’t pulled out regularly by normal grooming, it gets tangled. Try a Furminator or just a regular fine-toothed comb, I haven’t had much luck with the loop-style ones myself. My long-haired boy just needs a little help with his ruff periodically and a comb works great.
He’s not fat. I’m not sure why he can’t reach back there, he can reach every other point in my apartment. I tried using a brush earlier, and it seemed work pretty well. I’m going to have to keep doing it. Good thing they like it.
Yup, a couple of minutes with a Furminator-stype comb can do wonders. Just don’t overdo it, you can irritate their skin.
My cat has a fairly short coat but sheds like crazy and has dandruff. I’m told virtually all cats up here do; it’s very dry, and I suppose that has something to do with it.