Ill never try bathing him again... Scary little monster...

So last friday (after a grueling and thrashing concert that didnt end till 12 am) I come home to find Osiris covered in diarrhea. My original plan was to spot clean him with shampoo and water (I had no cat shampoo and was so nervous to use human stuff but i had no choice... it was around 1am at this time)... So my bf, being dumb, decided we were going to give him a full bath. So he sticks the poor guy under the faucet and the cat goes crazy mad... He starts lashing, biting, hissing, crying, growling, and squirming. We literally could not give him a bath (he was not having it... ive had him almost 2 months and he is only 6 months old)... So i ended up spot cleaning him (he let mommy do it after daddy tormented him). I decided this is something I am not willing to try again (he went way crazy) so i bought this cat shampoo that requires no water and is a foam... Apparently you lather the kitty with the foam and then towel dry, I forget the name of it. Anyone have feedback on the foam/water-free shampoo's? I would love to be able to bathe him but he is too violent and I can only shed so much blood...

The best way to bath a cat is to have the water already in the tub (just a couple inches) before putting the kitty in and have some nice warm fluffy towels ready before you put the kitty in the bath. Then you can do the job more quickly and it will be easier on both of you. I also have a plastic cup to help me rinse more quickly.

Thats what I told my bf (granted i only have experience washing dogs and it is easier and much different imo)... I told him there should be a few inches of water already in there, not to just stick him under the faucet. Well since he started off scaring the bee gee bees out of him the few inches of water method didnt work either... Cats freak me out when they get really mad or scared. I dont know why but I think I was more scared than Osiris was at that time...

We had to bathe all five of our cats this past friday (trying to keep down on fleas, saw one on Spunky so we decided to give all of them a bath).

This is how we did it, and we did the squirmy, I-don't-want-a-bath-and-if-I-have-to-maim-you-to-get-away-then-so-be-it kitties first. Spunky was first, he wasn't all that bad. Amelia was the terror.

First of all, we have one of those showerheads that you can adjust, and it has a hose so you can take it off of the wall. We got the water nice and warm, had the shampoo readily available, and had fresh, clean towels waiting nearby.

I got into Dave's swimming trunks and a bikini top, he was just wearing shorts. I sat on the edge of the tub, and he brought Amelia over. As soon as she saw the tub she started squirming and scratching. What I did was I held her in front of me, kind of between my legs. I held her front legs, right between the knee and her armpit (you know, with her facing away from me). I clamped tight, and held her up into a "sitting" position, with her butt on the bottom of the tub.

In this position, she wasn't able to squirm because I had her front legs. Her back legs were kind of forced to stay put. This meant that Dave could easily reach most of her body with the showerhead and with the shampoo, when he soaped up the rest of her, we'd do one leg at a time until they were all done. Then, since this was flea shampoo, we had to make her sit for five minutes.

Longest five minutes ever.

Basically, I didn't let her move. It's not as easy as it sounds though, as she is very lean with no fat, and was very soapy and slippery. However, we did manage to rinse her off easily and get her nice and clean, pick her up, and place her into a towel, which I then rubbed all over her.

She wasn't the happiest kitty, but at least we escaped with no scratches.

By the end of the night I too was soaked (you'll get that with five cats, and two dogs), but everyone was nice and clean, and we had no wounds!

Good luck!!

Wow I am amazed. Osiris was trying to kill us. We could not hold him still no matter what, and he was hardly wet. He is a strong bugger. Guess I need to let him know who is boss when it comes to bath time. Ive never had to bathe a cat before, its freaky... He was so ticked, his tail was triple its size and he was yelling. Oh my oh my Im having flash backs.

i use vets best foam on with good results .. it comes with catnip , lavendar or plain

Cats are the most scared of running water so that, along with your bf putting him under the faucet with running water, more then likely is why your cat was so violent. Poor kitty. It's probably not the best idea to attempt a first bath in the middle of the night after an intense concert and being tired. You have to be relaxed and in a patient mood before even trying. Many people use waterless shampoos with great success. I'm not sure about it if the cat has poop all over them though. Doesn't mean it won't work. I just don't have experience with it because I have always bathed my cats.

A few Tips for bathing:

Run water prior to bringing cat over to the sink or tub and have a bucket of rinse water prepared.
Have everything ready and open before bringing the cat over (towels, shampoo etc.)
Put a rubber mat on the bottom so the cat doesn't slip and slide.
Hold the cat firmly but gentley.
Talk to them calmly while bathing them.

Your first mistake was sticking the cat under the water faucet! NEVER wash a cat like that - even a show veteran cat would react the same if you put them under a faucet and turn on the water.

There are numerous threads in here on the proper way to wash a cat. I have washed kittens from 5 weeks old to giving baths to adult cats for the 1st time - I've never had a problem with any of them.

I don't like the spot washing or the waterless shampoos. If you wash the cat the right way, you'd never have that problem again - even after the disaster you had the first time!

We have had to give 2 of our cats a bath... One was Mango (RIP) and that was because he managed to get into our basement and get attached to a sticky mousetrap... that was not a fun bath at all!
And Chablis had to have one after he had bad diarrhea. He didnt fight a lot just stood there and screamed... I'm sure our neighbors thought we were trying to kill him.
Hopefully Osiris' next bath will go better! Hope the waterless stuff works! If so let me know the name of it!

Many years ago I used to bath my persian to get rid of fleas & their dirt. I don't remember having too much trouble. I used to do him in the laundry tub, filled with warm water & rinse him off with a spray attachment.
Thank goodness now for spot on flea treatments, I haven't had to bath a cat since. Except a spot bath on Blossom when she was a baby & had to have an enima,

Thanks for all your help guys... Poor Osiris. From now on only I will be doing the bathing.

Poor guy. Raven and Nabu are pretty easy to bathe. Stimpy, doesn't like it, is 17 lbs & is the strongest cat I've ever met, and no longer gets baths. I had to give him a couple after we brought him home from the shelter (he had a "smell" about him from there, since he was at the shelter for a month). He threw my back out one of the times I bathed him. So we don't do that anymore. Let's just say, if he had front claws, we wouldn't have even tried a bath.

We also have better luck if we run water in the tub first. Ideally having a bucket of pre-run water to rinse kitty with, I use one of those big plastic drink cups to scoop rinse water with.