Coat | Nails | Oral | Ears | Eyes

General

Even though cats spend a lot of time licking and cleaning themselves, they still need regular brushing to remove loose hair, prevent matting and keep the skin free of diseases and parasites such as fleas.

Grooming plays an important part of the general health care of the pet. It enables dead hair, knots and tangles to be removed from the coat whilst cleaning the skin and fur simultaneously. It helps to detect the presence of external parasites on the pet. In addition, the psychological benefits of trust, caring and having a bond between the owner and pet are invaluable.

Many long or thick-coated cats are also clipped to provide some respite from the Queensland summer heat or to make detection of parasites such as paralysis ticks easier for the owner.

Whatever the grooming style or coat type of the cat, a few hints for cat owners to groom their cat as follows.

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Coat

Establish a regular grooming program. Once a week is usually sufficient, though longhaired cats will need several sessions a week, even daily, to prevent matting. Regular grooming is an ideal way to spend special time bonding with your cat.

Brush the cat's coat regularly and routinely to remove knots and tangles, shed hair, dead skin and other debris (especially long haired breeds.) Brushing regularly also stimulates production of natural coat oils and promotes a healthy shiny coat.

Always brush WITH the lay of the cat's coat, that is, in the direction the hair grows. Some knots may need to be pulled apart gently with your fingers or carefully trimmed with scissors. Wide-toothed combs are good for longhaired cats, and fine-toothed combs for shorter coats. Flea combs are very fine and are used to pick up fleas and flea dirt from the coat.

Cats have a variety of coat types, therefore a wide range of brushes, combs, scissors, clippers, and products are available. Please ask our staff for advice on what sort of grooming tool best suits your cats coat type.

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Nails

Cats naturally shed their nails, and depending on the breed, age and exercise techniques of your cat, their nails may be kept to a manageable length without intervention. However, most cats particularly those living in the house, will need to have their nails clipped at some stage in their life so it is best to get the cat used to this at a young age.

The possibility of cutting the nail too deeply and causing haemorrhage is a real concern. This occurs only if the nail is cut below the ‘quik', which houses the nerves and blood vessels for the nail bed. This is painful for the cat and bleeding will occur. Therefore it is important that time is taken, the correct technique is used and the pet remains calm and still during the nail clipping procedure to prevent the pet having more nail cut off than preferred. The following diagram displays the ideal length to which to clip a nail.

Most cats can be taught or trained to scratch a post and not damage other things. If these ideas do not resolve the problem, talk to our friendly staff about cat scratching posts.

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Oral

Dental hygiene in cats is of vital importance because if a cat cannot eat due to painful teeth or gums, it will become malnourished, seriously ill and possibly die.

Owners can maintain dental hygiene of their cat in a number of ways:

• Providing chicken wing tips at least once a week.

• Providing ‘chewy' treats

• Providing your cat with toys that promote dental health.

• Brushing your cat's teeth with toothpaste and toothbrushes especially formulated for cats. (Formulated tooth paste for cats is poultry flavored YUM)

• Using dental preparations on your cat's teeth that aid in plaque minimization.

• Feeding your cat specialized dry food to help prevent tartar.

Please ask our staff for further assistance in maintaining your pet's oral health.

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Ears

Ear care is of particular importance in cats as they have an ear canal that is positioned downwards. Because of this, an owner must be very careful when bathing their cat not to get water in their cat's ear.

To clean a cats ear, a commercial brand ear cleaning solution should be applied using cotton wool balls and gently wipe out those areas of the ear that are visible. Do NOT poke cotton buds into the canal of the ear or use any products not designed for cats. Please ask our staff or consult your vet for further information on cleaning your cat's ears.

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Eyes

There are a number of differences between a human eye and a cats eye, these are:

• The cornea and lens of a cat's eye are larger than those of humans to give a wider field of vision.

• A cat sees images in shades of grey rather than colour as people do.

• A cat's eye contains a reflective shield, which improves night vision; this is what makes cats eyes glow green at night.

• Cats have a third eyelid. This lies in the inner corner of the eye and can sometimes be seen partially covering the eye.

Despite these differences, cats will display sore eyes the same way as people do i f the eyes appear red, painful, or are weeping excessively you should contact your vet – this could be due to conjunctivitis, a serious ulcer, or abnormalities of the tear duct. If a foreign body such as a grass seed is present your cat may blink excessively and the lids will swell. Symptoms like these or any inflamed eye should be treated as an emergency to avoid serious complications and, at worst, loss of the eye. DO NOT apply any human eye preparations as this may irritate your cat's eye & make the situation worse.

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