Grooming very Old short haired born feral calico(torrid) cat..a.

calicocat

Looking for some ideas ,

Ancient calico cat that hates any personal physical interventions and always has.

Coat has always been fine and never had a problem. She has been literally been cooking herself in the conservatory all summer, and is now in a right state. I have never had or known a short hair cat get matted, but have seen on another thread they do. She also has dandruff / dry skin that is vey visible .

She looks awful, have tried all type of approaches to trying to brush her, bought all sorts of different things to do it as you have to get in quick before she attacks. Have googled it to death...used silicone oven glove (already have silicone cat wipe but figure maybe a ruddy gove would work instead).

Diving in for a hard brush is very difficult as she is so skinny now and scared to hurt her....plus she will try to kill anyone involved. .
I have in the last month tried to hide things in her food to help, fish oils etc, but this hasn’t improved things as yet.
In am attempt to put weight on her and help her coat she has also had a tea spoon of butter every other day, she won’t eat that now ....but has decided she will eat lurpack spreadable if I am at work ???

So.....

In my google searches, I found warming your hands in a teaspoon of coconut oil, stroking said cat will
A) be good for coat
encourage cat to groom and help matts
C) they eat a small amount of oil....good for weight and coat

Result is, 3 days later....looks horrendous. Clearly hasn’t groomed herself at all. So I am figuring she is old and can’t be bothered, may have kitty dementia and hasn’t even noticed or forgets the matts, or doesn’t care .

She is perfectly happy in herself. Eats as she always has done, ( meaning picky but every month I find something else she gets into for a while). When a rogue cat was looking through window was trying to break glass to get to it so she is still feisty and very territorial so that discard the possible dementia theory, still likes head rubs and being chatted to. Nothing aside from generally being old until this summer with all these matts.

I am going to take her to vets which I was trying to avoid as she hates it, turns into psycho cat getting her into crate, gets stressed to heck and chucks half her coat when at vets (possible bonus), and will lose any weight I have got in her in the last week going there......but I don’t want this to get worse so will have to.

Apologies for a bit of a long post.
Any ideas welcome about what I could try to solve this before vets when next off work in a few days ?.


Title text hasn’t typed properly....looked like I have tried to type ‘horrid’ when it’s meant to say t-o-r-t-i-e.

MovingForwards

Trim the matted bits off, gives the old one a fighting chance of sorting personal grooming out.

And see what the vet says.

calicocat

MovingForwards wrote: »

Trim the matted bits off, gives the old one a fighting chance of sorting personal grooming out.

And see what the vet says.

Thanks, that makes sense but would need 3 people. At the moment I am making very Very tiny bits of headway by rubbing head and nose with one hand and trying to seperate matts very gently with the other. This isn’t going to work though bless her.

Vet said last time she was there to not bring her back due to her stress levels unless she really needs it. To be honest I think she does, before matts become bad and work there way down to skin level. A couple already have. She does need this sorting, even of it is vets . Otherwise she will end up being shaved in bits of her.

Thanks for reply. She’s always been a nightmare, but fantastic..:D.

Most of my friends are frightened of her. To be fair if you just go in and do it she stops after a few growls, but even my cat mates are reluctant. Which is actually their fear, as my ex step daughter and her partner just walked in, she ran away, we followed, I picked her up, did burrito job and nails were done . It took 3 of us, but they were visiting from miles away .

Fen1

Is she wormed and de-flead? Even if she never goes out she could still have parasites. Parasites could cause her bad mood, flaking skin, sensitivity to touch & grooming.......etc etc.

Dermoscent skin drops can work wonders on cat dandruff, if you let her apply it! It worked brilliantly on my Greebo-cat.

Has she been tested for thyroid, diabetes, vitamin & mineral deficiency?

Is she on a gluten-free diet? Also sugar- free diet? Is is amazing the crud they put into cat food, such as sugar. Why the heck does a cat need sugar!?!?!?

sheramber

Have a word with your vet and ask if you could have a sedative to give her before you bring her in. The vet nurses can then deal with the coat

I know someone who gats a sedative for her dog before a vet visit as she is a nightmare at the vets.

Savvy_Sue

Or will the vet do a home visit? One of my friends has been offered this because cat is so stressed by going out to vet. Obviously costs more, and not all vets will, but maybe?

calicocat

Yes I am sure vet would do home visit. She had bloods taken for general health check including diabetes etc a couple of years ago which is when they said going to vets is stressing her out massively. She is wormed and de-flead.

I will call into vets first and have a chat after work and see what they think and recommend . At home she is feisty , at vets she isn’t as so scared....so any intervention would be less time at the vets if that makes sense .

She’s a nightmare bless her.

Thanks for replies everyone.

adandem

You can use rescue remedy on dogs, not sure about cats?
Has she had her thyroid tested, poor grooming and coat can be an indicator.

calicocat

Managed to get a bit more out of her yesterday with a different brush again, but to realistically to get it sorted will have to go to vets to have help doing at as one person just isn’t enough. Plus she probably needs checking out again and another MOT, especially maybe the thyroid if that is an indicator.
She let me have a few more seconds than normal touching her side and underbelly ..:D...maybe another two seconds so three in total. Her underneath doesn’t feel bad from my quick feel, it’s her sides where she has literally been lying on when baking herself all summer in the really hot weather.
If she would just let me have a good go at it it would be gone then I could see if it’s a one off and weather, or something more and happens again. .....but hey ho, I have a feisty little article .

Plan of action is try to get more out every day, a few times a day. Vets my next days off....which itself is a major operation .
Will meanwhile google thyroid symptoms and see if she has any other. I’m pretty sure that’s one of the tests they did in the old cat MOT last time, but that was a couple of years ago so things could easily have changed.

calicocat

Ok.......

Bought another brush after looking in Pets at Home and literally feeling them all several times to work out what I thought she would tolerate and listening to everyone else’s discussions omongst family as to what the used, why they couldn’t as animal wouldn’t stand it etc......I am not alone in this it appears.

Ended up with a new very soft slicker for long haired cats even though she isn’t.

She flew onto dining table which was very handy, so I grabbed new attack toy, and held her by her neck to stop her moving and got loads out !!. Serious in road in around 2 mins. She tolerated it quite well for her. She was purring, not sure if actuallly liked it or was purring as stressed, but she didn’t try to move, and I was doing a yoga type style movement with neck hand and also tickling side of head and she was rubbing into it....so I figured for a very short space of time she may have liked it. :rotfl:

Revised plan is.....do this 3 times a day as now the matts don’t seem so near skin surface, attempt to get hair back to normal. See how we go from there assessing every few days, if coat continues to get into a mess, vets.
I looked up thyroid symptoms and not really sure she has that, however she is ancient, so will keep an eye on all those .

Possible result.......

zns

Just wanted to say check for thyroid as soon as you can because ratty coat plus weight loss is a key sign. I have a very tricky cat who is now on tablets and her coat is miles better. Being calmer on the medication means she can look after herself a bit better as well.