Lion Cut for mats your views.

anna w

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Hi fellow cat lovers,

I was wondering whether i could get your views on something. Dexter my cat is a 2 year old persian, when i got him home a year and a half ago (from a very bad breeder) he was sick with a severe URI covered in ring worm (which i caught....YUCK!) and i nursed him back to health with lots of support from all you wonderful people on the Cat Site. Dexter is now a very happy healthy chap and my life is a better, happier life with him in it and i like to do anything to make sure he is happy...in other words HE IS BOSS...... and he knows it!!

I do groom him every day but to my horror i dont seem to be doing as good a job as i thought. Recently i have found on his back are all i can describe as dreadlocks close to the skin and i think it is hurting him as he wont let me go anywhere near and swats me with his huge furry paw when i try. So this is my question..... i did have a cat groomer come to the house last year as i thought it would be a good thing to have him regularly proffesionally groomed, however it was a harrowing experience for everyone but most of all Dexter he screamed so loud that i asked the groomer to stop and saw that Dexter had been brushed so hard there were a few scratches on his back which were bleeding i was heart broken for Dexter and i NEVER wanted to put him through anything like that again. However these dreads i have found on his back are going to need to be seen to, i feel i would rather take him to the vet and get him sedated so that he isnt too aware about what is going on would you say this is the best thing to do? I was going to ask them for what i have heard of a Lion Cut as i feel this would be the kindest thing to do so that we can start again with the grooming. A girl in my office has to get her dog shaved and he apparently gets EMBARASSED afterwards......i dont want my poor cat to feel embarrassed i just want him to feel comfortable and happy.

I know i sound completely neurotic i just want whats best for him although do feel responsible for not grooming him properly....i have since brought a large wire tooth comb as i think the last one wasnt getting near enough to the skin.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Anna and Dexter!
 

mrblanche

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Worst case, you can take him to the vet, have him sedated, and have the fur taken care of. It may be easier just to have a groomer (a good, qualified one, experienced with cats!) give him the lion cut.

ROWWWWR! I IZ BIG LION! (Imitating your cat, after his cut!)
 

baloneysmom

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My Bugsy LOVED his Lion Cut. I think since hes so fluffy it was nice to feel petting so close to his skin. Hes already a super snugly guy and the Lion Cut made him even more snugly.

If hes too bad go to the vet and ask them, I'm sure they would do a Lion Cut as its a very popular cut. We got the Lion Cut because Bugsy hates being shaved. We figured if we get a "rough" cut it would be easier. What we basically did was quickly shave his body, it wasn't even straight and even because he struggled so much and then quickly did his tail for the cute little poof. We didn't care much for perfection, just wanted the knots gone. He looked good and unless you knew exactly what a Lion Cut was, or looked closely it didn't look too "rough"

He wasn't embarrassed though, he loved it, he was the king of the house lol.
 

snickerdoodle

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My 12-13 year old persian gets a lion cut every summer, but I did it earlier this year because of itchiness and hot spots. A lion cut IMO is so cute, though I've had friends say it looks "cruel" (Why? It makes him happy and not hot in the summer!) .. Mine stopped having issues with mats as long as I brushed him at least once a week. I have to admit he gets a -little- embarassed for the first half day or so, but then he feels GREAT, his playfulness spikes and he is generally just spastic happy for awhile, then calms down again. I was getting him groomed like this at the vet, for 40 bucks, so I invested in an 85 dollar buzz clipper at Pet Co and do it myself. I should mention, I have to do it in 15-20 minute intervals, maybe just 15 minutes one day and 15 minutes the next, because he gets squirmy and mad eventually, but if you are not comfortable doing it yourself, of course let the vet groomer do it. I should add to that, when I shave him, It tends to come out uneven sometimes
But that disappears in a week or two when his fur grows in a bit. Just my two cents
 

denice

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I used to get my cat lioncuts every couple of months. I took her to a groomer and she wasn't sedated. The groomer said she was really easy to work with. I was getting it done for my other cat that was having chronic digestive problems at the time to cut down on the amount of hair that he was ingesting. I got her tail done too because of why I was having it done and her tail never grew back as big and fluffy as before. The fur on her tail did grow back in just not quite as long as it was before. I found out that happens sometimes so you might want to have them leave the tail alone.
 

xocats

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I love the look of a lion cut on a long haired kitties during the heat of summer.

If you do it, be sure share photos with us.
 

gingersmom

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My Ferris, a former feral, used to get severe mats on his belly and I had to take him in to be shaved under sedation once every spring. I was unable to groom his belly unless I wanted to bleed pretty badly.

I did it for him, for his comfort, not for me, and he actually loved being able to be petted on his skin. There are pics of him with his lion cuts on TCS.

Once he has been shaved, as the fur starts to grow back in, you can get into a regular grooming routine with him and it may help prevent this problem in the future.

Ferris has been with me for 2 1/2 years now, and has JUST started to let me comb his belly fur, so I think we'll be able to skip the need for sedating him and shaving him this year. But it was extremely worth it for both of us.


I say go for it - just make certain you communicate really well with the vet and that he has a groomer that knows what they are doing (you might want to do a search in Fur Pics for Ferris and his Pony Lion Cut.
)
 

goldenkitty45

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In this case, I would sedate him, shave him and start all over and hopefully you would not run into the matting problems any more.
 
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anna w

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Thank you everyone for your support and thoughts, glad to know that its more of a positive experience for most kitties, he is in the vet tomorrow morning at 9:50 knowing what i get like, it will probably be me that needs to be sedated!!!

Thanks again will let you all know what happens and i will take a pic for you....if he is not too traumatised!!!

Anna X
 

xocats

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Sending calming vibes to you Anna and a successful cut to your handsome boy Dexter.
 

althekitty

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Oh my gosh, I just googled lion cut on google images, wow, that is one hell of a hair do!!! The little furry boots left are hilarious, I have to say, I think I could slightly understand the embarrasment! The knots though are a problem, my kitty is semi long haired and he also gets dread locks which are a pain. I used to use a metal comb that I thought would be good to get through the furr but it hurt him. Then I changed to this plastic brush that rather than dragging the hair out it works on the staic of the fur and gets it all out. Also, he doesn't turn into kung fu claw cat when I get the plastic one out, which takes more hair out than the metal one too. It won't solve the immediate issue of the existing dreads but for maintainance purposes it works.
 
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anna w

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Ooooooo thanks everyone again for thoughts and advise.

I took him in this morning feeling very guilty as he was being EXTRODINARILY cute and well behaved today, he even seemed to enjoy the car ride..... which is a first!!

I took him in to this new vet (i have just moved). The vet tried to brush out the matts/knots himself to check whether it was necessary to put him under sedation but, as i already knew, Dexter was having NONE of it! So they have kept him in and are going to put him under sedation today. Strangely though the vet said he said he wasnt going to do a lion cut as he doesnt agree with them, so instead he is going to thin out all the hair all over by brushing, this did annoy me slightly as this is what the bad groomer did to him a while ago......AND IT HURT, Dexter had little scratches on his skin and in some parts they were bleeding. However i couldnt take another day off work so had to leave him there as something needed to be done NOW I FEEL TERRIBLE.....i would have thought it would just have been easier and kinder for the vet to just clip all the hair off the cat and start again....what do you think? and do you think i am being neurotic just because i have had a bad experience in the past?

Thanks again for your kind messages.
 

snickerdoodle

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Did he say -why- he "doesn't agree" with lion cuts? That sounds odd to me. I don't think you are being neurotic, you just don't want a repeat of the last time your cat was scratched up. Does anyone else think this sounds odd, to refuse to do a lion cut on a cat with mats? Thinning out seems way more violent to the skin than a simple shave, more pulling and yanking even under sedation. I don't know what else anyone would say here but IMHO the vet's refusal would make me a little uncomfortable.
 

baloneysmom

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Doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t agree? Thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s odd… I see nothing abusive at all with the Lion Cut. Did he say why? Thinning seems way more hurtful… Very weird. I would ask your Vet exactly why he thinks this way. Bugsy LOVED his Lion Cut. Well he would probably love any cut as he loves the feel of it when we pet him. He wasnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t uncomfortable, or neglected, or hurt in any way…
 
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anna w

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There is something wrong here i just called the vet to check he was ok after the anesthetic (i have been feeling wierd about the whole experience all day)and detected something in her voice. I asked if he was ok and she said yes and went very quiet (almost like a silent BUT) i then asked about whether he came out of the anesthetic ok (it was ketamine) and she said he was coming round but not as quickly as most cats and that he had yowled throughout the whole fur stripping........I THOUGHT HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE KNOCKED OUT SO HE COULDNT FEEL ANYTHING?????? i said how loud was he yowling and she said "VERY LOUD, he must have been having bad hallucinations although he would have been in another place so dont worry".... DONT WORRY? WHAT THE.....and as for hallucinations?????......if i wasnt neurotic before then i sure am now. I realise vets are there to care for our animals not us humans but this has done NOTHING to restore my faith. i am going to leave work now as i all i want to do is collect him. If they would just have shaved/clipped him like i had asked surely he would have been in no pain at all, all i wanted was for them to get the knots out as carefully and calmly as possible.

From what you guys have said in your messages your experiences of getting a cats matts out of their fur has been a relatively normal experience with no pain or yowling. Although Dexter can be faily vocal and chatty the only time he yowled before was with the terrible cat groomer and it looks like i have put him through the same thing again....but this time i wasnt there to stop it, i feel like a TERRIBLE cat parent.

Sorry for rambling on and on i just know that everyone on here understands, these creatures are like children to us and not just children but also very wonderful little friends, so putting them through anything bad unneccesarily breaks our hearts

Off to get him now.

x
 

addiebee

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Originally Posted by Anna W

There is something wrong here i just called the vet to check he was ok after the anesthetic (i have been feeling wierd about the whole experience all day)and detected something in her voice. I asked if he was ok and she said yes and went very quiet (almost like a silent BUT) i then asked about whether he came out of the anesthetic ok (it was ketamine) and she said he was coming round but not as quickly as most cats and that he had yowled throughout the whole fur stripping........I THOUGHT HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE KNOCKED OUT SO HE COULDNT FEEL ANYTHING?????? i said how loud was he yowling and she said "VERY LOUD, he must have been having bad hallucinations although he would have been in another place so dont worry".... DONT WORRY? WHAT THE.....and as for hallucinations?????......if i wasnt neurotic before then i sure am now. I realise vets are there to care for our animals not us humans but this has done NOTHING to restore my faith. i am going to leave work now as i all i want to do is collect him. If they would just have shaved/clipped him like i had asked surely he would have been in no pain at all, all i wanted was for them to get the knots out as carefully and calmly as possible.

From what you guys have said in your messages your experiences of getting a cats matts out of their fur has been a relatively normal experience with no pain or yowling. Although Dexter can be faily vocal and chatty the only time he yowled before was with the terrible cat groomer and it looks like i have put him through the same thing again....but this time i wasnt there to stop it, i feel like a TERRIBLE cat parent.

Sorry for rambling on and on i just know that everyone on here understands, these creatures are like children to us and not just children but also very wonderful little friends, so putting them through anything bad unneccesarily breaks our hearts

Off to get him now.

x
Yipes! That is the strangest thing! I would collect your baby and find another vet. I don't understand why the vet wouldn't do a lion cut or shave him. That's like standard procedure and yes, less traumatic than trying to comb out huge and painful mats. We have a friends who own (or are owned by) a large and very furry Maine Coon. Shadow gets a lion cut every summer. He loves it. He is much cooler. He can scratch his skin if he itches. He loves if it you scratch him!! He is a much beloved and pampered pet.

BTW - as with a physician... it is OK to question the vet about what he or she wants to do and get another opinion. As with all service providers... there are good ones, bad ones and in-between ones.
 

gingersmom

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Originally Posted by AlleyGirl

I would pick up your kitty and never take him to that vet again!

I hope he is ok


Oh, hearing your trauma here makes me SOOO MAD!!!


I really hope your poor boy is okay, and please do not EVER take him to that vet again!!!

Great big
for you!!! This should NOT have gone this way, I want to go smack that vet!
 

kluchetta

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I hope he is ok, but I just wanted to maybe put forth the theory that the yowling might not be because he was in pain...I do know that my sister had her wisdom teeth out and she cried and sobbed through the whold procedure. Didn't remember a thing, and it didn't hurt...just sometimes anesthetics do that. Maybe to animals too? I sure hope so.

Also, I don't think a cat would be embarrassed about a lion cut. But I do know dogs who have been. But dogs want our approval and cats don't care so much, LOL!
 

littleraven7726

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Originally Posted by AlleyGirl

I would pick up your kitty and never take him to that vet again!

I hope he is ok


We found a couple small mats starting on Lola last week (she's a long-ish haired cat, and has very thick fur). I've thought about a lion cut but she's so terrified of other people I don't think I would put her through a trip to the vet just for that. We actually have a small clipper at home and we used that to get the small one off of her belly. It's a pretty quiet battery operated clipper. She purred the whole time my DH was clipping her. I wish I would have known that for her other 2 mats (they were in her "armpit" area). I combed those out and I think they hurt.
We brush her, but sometimes mats just seem to form anyway.


I hope your kitty is ok.
 
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