…cat?! $15 of that is for sedation. Apparently, cats aren’t too fond of having buzzing things near their skin. I’m considering buying a pair of heavy-duty shears and doing it myself. The normal electric trimmer we have won’t cut it though (bwa ha ha ha. I slay me!).
If she wasn’t so badly matted, I wouldn’t bother, but I think she’ll like the coolness anyway. She’s always hot in the summertime.
With a thread title like that you are going to have (pardon the word play) every Harry Dick and Tom 
looking in here. Hope the matted feline is happy being a bald pussy… cat.
If you’re going to try this yourself, I have a little advice for you. First off, make sure someone else the cat trusts is around to hold her while you shear. This is NOT a 1 person job. Get all your equipment together in one place BEFORE you get the cat. She’ll have less time to start freaking out on you. You’ll need the clippers, a lubricant for the blades, and a large heavy towel, as well as an old sheet to catch the clippings. When you start, have your assistant hold the cat with one hand below the chin/neck and gripping lightly but firmly directly behind the jaw. BE CAREFUL NOT TO CHOKE THE CAT!
If you’re going to try this yourself, I have a little advice for you. First off, make sure someone else the cat trusts is around to hold her while you shear. This is NOT a 1 person job. Get all your equipment together in one place BEFORE you get the cat. She’ll have less time to start freaking out on you. You’ll need the clippers, a lubricant for the blades, and a large heavy towel, as well as an old sheet to catch the clippings. When you start, have your assistant hold the cat with one hand below the chin/neck and gripping lightly but firmly directly behind the jaw. BE CAREFUL NOT TO CHOKE THE CAT! The other arm should come over the cat’s body and pull it snugly against your own, with the hand gripping the forelegs just below the elbow. Move slowly and deliberately, and start as far from the head as possible. If the cat becomes fractious, pick her up by the scruff and set her in the middle of the towel you already have out. Fold the towel neatly and tightly around the cat, leaving the part you want to work on sticking out. You may have to start and stop this procedure a few times, so good luck.
Thanks for the advice, CrazyCatLady! What’s the towel for? I figured out everything else but that. I will probably also cram the two of us and the unlucky feline into our tiny bathroom and shut the door, so she doesn’t escape when she squirms free. She’s very, very strong and when she wants free, it’s almost impossible to hold onto her.
Ah, I see.
I thought you were going to say something about shaving your pussy. Guess I was right.
It’s usually a good idea to make sure a cat is dead before attempting to do any kind of maintenance on it.
pay the money
Don’t do it yourself
As to whether it will make the cat cooler or not:
I had a springer spaniel that spent all of the time outdoors. One summer I took the dog in and got him clipped down - all of his hair clipped off 'til he had the equivalent of a buzz cut. I then took the dog to the vet for one thing or another and got a real tongue lashing. Apparently, the long coats actually keep the animals cooler (they trap cooler air near the skin). Long story short - unless the hair is so matted and dirty as to be a health hazard, you may be doing more harm than good. I’d ask a vet before proceeding.
Huh huh, he said tongue lashing.
As to the OP, if you charge that much for the privilege of shaving your cat, I shudder to think of the cost of being able to shave your
dog. I slay me too.
We had this happen to a cat about three weeks ago. We have no idea what he did to himself to get matted over most of his body, but it looked like it feel terrible. We tried using an electric shaver (for pets) on him, but it didn’t work because of the amount of matting. Eventually we cut them all off with scissors. There was minamal blood loss to us humans, and his coat is growing back in nicely…
I’ve had to shave one of my cat’s back a few times. She is so fat she can’t groom her back (and she’s on diet food!!) and she gets “dreads”… we call her Rasta Chick when that happens.
The towel is to keep the cat restrained and more importantly to keep the claws quarantined.
Claws are not a problem, fortunately, since she doesn’t have them (unless she rakes with her back claws), and she doesn’t really bite that hard. I know, because the last time she went to the vet, I would let her bite me to take her mind off the anal probing the vet was subjecting her to.
Hi, I’m new here…a friend told me about this thread after I told him I shaved my cat today.
I used to take her to the vet to get shaved, and as was mentioned by someone else, it was really expensive because she had to be sedated. Last summer she had a really bad mat on her back and I just couldn’t find the time to take her to the vet so I got out some clippers I had and sat down on the floor with her. The minute I set the clippers near her, she totally relaxed and laid down for me to shave her. She doesn’t fight me at all and seems to really like being shaved. She is a larger cat and has problems grooming so she was always getting mats and it was the vet that first suggested the total shaving.
OK, I admit that I just came in for the thread title…
I don’t have a cat. I’ve never shaved a cat. I do have a dog, but he doesn’t get shaved. (greetings from a fellow newbie, Ladygray!)
Please, please, PLEASE do not take after your cat with scissors. Trying to scissor a mat out is THE best way to cut an animal. Most of these cuts are shallow but wide enough to need stitches, and some of them can be pretty deep… Your vet is probably tired of sewing crap like this up, and will show you how to shave bad mats out a little bit at a time. If approached properly, there is no mat you can’t get out with clippers and a brush.
Ok, Ok. I did this. I felt like shit. You have no idea. :smack:
About 2 months ago, I went for a mat on my Himalayan mix. I cut her pretty good, and she had a flap dangling off of her. It was 3:00 am on a Saturday, and cost a pretty penny to get her sewed up and shaved down at that hour, beleive it. I felt like such a brute. She has since forgiven me, but it was a horrible experience.
BE CAREFUL!!!
I had a domestic longhair that we always had clipped around May or June of each year. She’d get terrible skin lesions if she didn’t, and have to get shaved ANYWAY, so we just made a yearly appointment to get her clipped and vaccinated. She was always embarrassed about being nekkid for a few days, but then she realized that she felt SOOOOO much better when she didn’t have her heavy coat. Her vet did the procedure.
When we had her clipped, she wasn’t shaved down to the skin, but her fur was about 1/8 to 1/4 inch long on most of her body, with the fur on her face left a bit longer. Petting her was like stroking velvet.
If we ever need to have a cat shaved, no way I’m doing it myself.
But FWIW, they still make scissors with rounded tips (rather than the usual sharp points) which make it a lot harder to accidentally stab when you’re trying to cut.