All cats benefit from regular brushing to remove loose hair and dead skin cells. Grooming will also keep the coat free of dirt, debris, and external parasites. By grooming your cat often, you will help to distribute natural skin oils throughout their fur. Cats with long, silky, or curly coats require daily brushing to keep them from becoming tangled or matted. Pay attention to behind the ears, under the arms, and along the back of the legs, these areas tend to matt. Daily brushing will also cut down on the amount of hair that a cat swallows during the course of self-grooming with her tongue. In turn, this will help to reduce the number of hairballs you’re cleaning up throughout your home. Stray animals that come into the QHS are often in rough shape. Staff has been trained to carefully remove matted fur (sometimes we can brush though the matts, taking our time and ensuring there are many treats, and breaks throughout the process). In more severe cases of matting the cat will have the trouble areas shaved, and in extreme cases, the animal will have to be put under sedation at a local veterinary partner and have the tangled fur removed.

This will prevent any pain and further discomfort. The best practice to prevent tangled fur, and painful tugging on your pet’s skin, is to brush their coat daily. Cats are social creatures and if you have more than one, they’ll often groom one another and help keep each other well manicured.

Pictured is a sweet senior gal that was surrendered into care in 2020. As you can see she had quite a mess of fur, which our staff was able to remove. To be rid of this is so relieving for the animal, this little girl was carrying around .30 lbs of matted fur on her tiny frame. Grooming is an essential component of pet care and responsible pet ownership.