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#1
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hair comes out in chunks when pulled
I have an indoor only cat (lives at my office after being evicted from
the house by my wife almost 2 years ago). He's a long hair about 8 years old. I'm not normally in the habit of grooming him as he hates being brushed so I've just let him be for the most part. This past week though I decided that I was going to clean him up. He had some small clumps of hair around his collar, so I removed his collar and brushed him out as best as I could. There were still clumps so I tried to see if I could brush through them and break them apart with my fingers but found the hair pulls right out without bothering him. I felt all over his body and found a few areas with small clumps and the hair in those areas pulled right out as well. This sounds a little odd to me and I'm not sure if it's because spring is coming, if it's normal, or because of his diet (I feed him twice a day, about 3oz of dry food at a time and use Innova Reduced Fat as he's overweight. I realize wet food would be good as well but I have not been giving him wet). I see no sores, feel no problems with his skin, though his fur is a bit dull. Any thoughts? |
#2
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hair comes out in chunks when pulled
This sounds a little odd to me and I'm not sure if it's because spring
is coming, if it's normal, or because of his diet (I feed him twice a day, about 3oz of dry food at a time and use Innova Reduced Fat as he's overweight. *I realize wet food would be good as well but I have not been giving him wet). Food has everything to do with the appearance of his coat (and his overall health too). I noticed a huge difference in my Tucker's coat when I switched to an all-canned diet. Less shedding, fewer hairballs, and a generally more glossy coat. My guess is that, since he's long hair and hasn't been regularly groomed, is that he's just shedding. If you see any more mats that are close to the skin, I'd recommend taking him to a groomer and have them shave the area. Once his fur is mat free, keep brushing him on a regular schedule. I really like the Furminator--it really gets the hair out--but use whatever brush your cat will tolerate. Some cats love the rubber Zoom Groom vs. a metal brush. |
#3
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hair comes out in chunks when pulled
On Mar 27, 2:26 pm, "Rene S." wrote:
This sounds a little odd to me and I'm not sure if it's because spring is coming, if it's normal, or because of his diet (I feed him twice a day, about 3oz of dry food at a time and use Innova Reduced Fat as he's overweight. I realize wet food would be good as well but I have not been giving him wet). Food has everything to do with the appearance of his coat (and his overall health too). I noticed a huge difference in my Tucker's coat when I switched to an all-canned diet. Less shedding, fewer hairballs, and a generally more glossy coat. My guess is that, since he's long hair and hasn't been regularly groomed, is that he's just shedding. If you see any more mats that are close to the skin, I'd recommend taking him to a groomer and have them shave the area. Once his fur is mat free, keep brushing him on a regular schedule. I really like the Furminator--it really gets the hair out--but use whatever brush your cat will tolerate. Some cats love the rubber Zoom Groom vs. a metal brush. Thanks, I"ll take a look at some of the brushes you mentioned but I don't think it will matter, he HATES being brushed. He wraps all 4 paws around the brush and bites the brush and my hand if I even go near him with the thing. It doesn't matter where I try to brush, if he even just sees it, he goes into attack the brush mode . I'll see if I can mix in some wet food, I used to use Welness but my local source dried up and with the price of gas, it's a LONG drive to the closest place that carries it. I'll look into some of the alternatives. I'm sure the store where I buy Innova must have something of quality (Innova wet perhaps?) |
#4
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hair comes out in chunks when pulled
The Innova canned food would be a good option. Also, canned food is less in
calories than dry so that would be another reason to switch your cat over to canned since you said he was overweight. As far a grooming tools, I had a glove that was for grooming. It had rubber nubs on the palm part. You would wear the glove and just pet your cat and it would help remove loose fur, etc. I'm not sure if such a glove is available anymore, but you could check the pet stores or maybe online somewhere. S. -- **Visit me and my cats at http://www.island-cats.com/ ** --- "robro" wrote in message ... On Mar 27, 2:26 pm, "Rene S." wrote: This sounds a little odd to me and I'm not sure if it's because spring is coming, if it's normal, or because of his diet (I feed him twice a day, about 3oz of dry food at a time and use Innova Reduced Fat as he's overweight. I realize wet food would be good as well but I have not been giving him wet). Food has everything to do with the appearance of his coat (and his overall health too). I noticed a huge difference in my Tucker's coat when I switched to an all-canned diet. Less shedding, fewer hairballs, and a generally more glossy coat. My guess is that, since he's long hair and hasn't been regularly groomed, is that he's just shedding. If you see any more mats that are close to the skin, I'd recommend taking him to a groomer and have them shave the area. Once his fur is mat free, keep brushing him on a regular schedule. I really like the Furminator--it really gets the hair out--but use whatever brush your cat will tolerate. Some cats love the rubber Zoom Groom vs. a metal brush. Thanks, I"ll take a look at some of the brushes you mentioned but I don't think it will matter, he HATES being brushed. He wraps all 4 paws around the brush and bites the brush and my hand if I even go near him with the thing. It doesn't matter where I try to brush, if he even just sees it, he goes into attack the brush mode . I'll see if I can mix in some wet food, I used to use Welness but my local source dried up and with the price of gas, it's a LONG drive to the closest place that carries it. I'll look into some of the alternatives. I'm sure the store where I buy Innova must have something of quality (Innova wet perhaps?) |
#5
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hair comes out in chunks when pulled
On Mar 27, 10:46*pm, "blkcatgal" wrote:
The Innova canned food would be a good option. *Also, canned food is less in calories than dry so that would be another reason to switch your cat over to canned since you said he was overweight. As far a grooming tools, I had a glove that was for grooming. *It had rubber nubs on the palm part. *You would wear the glove and just pet your cat and it would help remove loose fur, etc. *I'm not sure if such a glove is available anymore, but you could check the pet stores or maybe online somewhere. Innova is a good brand, and Nature's Variety raw or canned is excellent as well. I believe those gloves are still available. If you can't find them at a pet store, try a place like Harriet Carter, where they tend to sell the unusual. Have you tried taking him out on a harness and brushing him that way. I've found it works great with my cats. They are distracted by outside sounds/smells, and I can brush away. |
#6
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hair comes out in chunks when pulled
That's how I clip my cats' claws....I take them outside and they are so
distracted by being outside, I can trim those nails in no time flat! S. -- **Visit me and my cats at http://www.island-cats.com/ ** --- "Rene S." wrote in message ... On Mar 27, 10:46 pm, "blkcatgal" wrote: The Innova canned food would be a good option. Also, canned food is less in calories than dry so that would be another reason to switch your cat over to canned since you said he was overweight. As far a grooming tools, I had a glove that was for grooming. It had rubber nubs on the palm part. You would wear the glove and just pet your cat and it would help remove loose fur, etc. I'm not sure if such a glove is available anymore, but you could check the pet stores or maybe online somewhere. Innova is a good brand, and Nature's Variety raw or canned is excellent as well. I believe those gloves are still available. If you can't find them at a pet store, try a place like Harriet Carter, where they tend to sell the unusual. Have you tried taking him out on a harness and brushing him that way. I've found it works great with my cats. They are distracted by outside sounds/smells, and I can brush away. |
#7
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hair comes out in chunks when pulled
On Mar 28, 8:09 pm, "blkcatgal" wrote:
That's how I clip my cats' claws....I take them outside and they are so distracted by being outside, I can trim those nails in no time flat! S. -- **Visit me and my cats athttp://www.island-cats.com/** ---"Rene S." wrote in message ... On Mar 27, 10:46 pm, "blkcatgal" wrote: The Innova canned food would be a good option. Also, canned food is less in calories than dry so that would be another reason to switch your cat over to canned since you said he was overweight. As far a grooming tools, I had a glove that was for grooming. It had rubber nubs on the palm part. You would wear the glove and just pet your cat and it would help remove loose fur, etc. I'm not sure if such a glove is available anymore, but you could check the pet stores or maybe online somewhere. Innova is a good brand, and Nature's Variety raw or canned is excellent as well. I believe those gloves are still available. If you can't find them at a pet store, try a place like Harriet Carter, where they tend to sell the unusual. Have you tried taking him out on a harness and brushing him that way. I've found it works great with my cats. They are distracted by outside sounds/smells, and I can brush away. Yeah we've tried the harness thing, in fact we tried to train him from when he was a kitten with the intent of being able to walk him, but it didn't work well. Once the cats came back inside, they would all go nuts trying to kill each other. I just noticed our 3yr old long hair female at home is having similar issues, so it's probably just the whole spring shedding thing. The glove brush thing sounds kind of cool though and I'll check out the website mentioned above. Thanks for the tip. |
#8
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hair comes out in chunks when pulled
On Mar 28, 8:23 pm, robro wrote:
On Mar 28, 8:09 pm, "blkcatgal" wrote: Yeah we've tried the harness thing, in fact we tried to train him from when he was a kitten with the intent of being able to walk him, but it didn't work well. Once the cats came back inside, they would all go nuts trying to kill each other. I just noticed our 3yr old long hair female at home is having similar issues, so it's probably just the whole spring shedding thing. The glove brush thing sounds kind of cool though and I'll check out the website mentioned above. Thanks for the tip. I also thought I would add that if you cannot find canned food close by, and do not feel like doing mail order (which is actually very convenient and a good suggestion) some pet suppliers will be willing to order the canned food for you at a discount on the shipping... This would include pets stores and also many feed stores (larger animal type feed stores). Just a though :-) Good luck ;-) |
#9
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hair comes out in chunks when pulled
That's a good suggestion. When I was looking for a particular brand of cat
food which my local pet store did not carry, I asked the owner if he could order it for me. He agreed and he didn't charge me for shipping at all. Of course, I had to buy at least a case of the canned food (which wasn't a big deal). All you have to do is ask. S. -- **Visit me and my cats at http://www.island-cats.com/ ** --- "mc" wrote in message ... On Mar 28, 8:23 pm, robro wrote: On Mar 28, 8:09 pm, "blkcatgal" wrote: Yeah we've tried the harness thing, in fact we tried to train him from when he was a kitten with the intent of being able to walk him, but it didn't work well. Once the cats came back inside, they would all go nuts trying to kill each other. I just noticed our 3yr old long hair female at home is having similar issues, so it's probably just the whole spring shedding thing. The glove brush thing sounds kind of cool though and I'll check out the website mentioned above. Thanks for the tip. I also thought I would add that if you cannot find canned food close by, and do not feel like doing mail order (which is actually very convenient and a good suggestion) some pet suppliers will be willing to order the canned food for you at a discount on the shipping... This would include pets stores and also many feed stores (larger animal type feed stores). Just a though :-) Good luck ;-) |
#10
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hair comes out in chunks when pulled
On Mar 29, 8:12 am, "blkcatgal" wrote:
That's a good suggestion. When I was looking for a particular brand of cat food which my local pet store did not carry, I asked the owner if he could order it for me. He agreed and he didn't charge me for shipping at all. Of course, I had to buy at least a case of the canned food (which wasn't a big deal). All you have to do is ask. Hey Blkcatgal, How is your newest member of the family doing? Is she adjusting pretty well? Have you accomplished the full intros with your other cats yet? Is she getting friendlier? Thanks! Melissa ;-) |
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