Mats on my DSH...

coniferously

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My DSH tuxedo cat, Charlotte, about two years old, has many mats on her back that she cannot reach, mostly down at the base of her tail, but definitely not pertaining to only there. After she was spayed, about a year ago, she gained about four pounds or so. Basically going from 9 pounds to 13. We have all my cats on a diet now, so hopefully soon she will be able to reach her back again to groom. I guess my problem here though is that she is getting VERY violent because of her mats. We recently went from 15 cats to 14 cats, as my cat Athena passed away two weeks ago. We had to shave her regularly ourselves, as she was far too scared to go anywhere else to be groomed, but she was GOOD for us. We figured we could do the same with Charlotte, being that Athena was actually long-haired (ancestry of the ragdoll) and had very thick fur with very, very awful mats that would form. Even though Charlotte's mats are no where NEAR what Athena had, she seems to be 200% more bothered by them than Tina ever was.. she is way too agitated for us to help her or even go near her. She is running around crazy throughout the house, batting at the other cats, chasing herself in a circle trying to reach her back, and crying A LOT. We can't even touch her without her screaming at us and swiping at us with her claws or biting us. We just had her secluded in the bathroom with the clippers and shaved a bit of her back fur off, but no where near the amount we need to. She began to freak out because of the agitation on her back, so we let her out into the rest of the house, where she starting charging the other cats and basically going insane. I was able to get close enough to her to pick her up and bring her into my room, where we both are now. She isn't crying or freaking out now, but that doesn't solve the issue. We need to be able to groom her, but how, if we can't go near her with a brush or the clippers? The instant anything touches her back, she cries and gets really angry.. Any advice?
 

tabbytom

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Was just wondering, how could a DSH cat get matted hair? Did she rubbed into something sticky that caused the fur to be matted? From what I think it is something sticky that caught her fur and making the matted fur tight and thus she feels uncomfortable and painful and also irritated to the touch. Just like if we tie our hair too tight.
Could she be a DMH instead? Try to find out or see what caused the matting and try not to stress her out by chasing her.
 

tabbytom

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If it's heavily matted and if it's matted because of some substance that had already made the matted part hard and dry, it's impossible and also painful when you try to dematt it. Please take extra care on that and don't use force with the comb.
 

tabbytom

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Oh, she's such a lovely tux! [emoji]10084[/emoji]️
Yeah, maybe it's just her. Some cats don't like to be touched at certain places. I do hope the mats can be cleared so that she feel more comfortable. Anyway she can be carried at certain times?
 
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coniferously

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Oh, she's such a lovely tux! [emoji]10084[/emoji]️
Yeah, maybe it's just her. Some cats don't like to be touched at certain places. I do hope the mats can be cleared so that she feel more comfortable. Anyway she can be carried at certain times?
Thank you, she is beautiful. Just a brat sometimes. And we can pick her up, she whines a little but she doesn't turn aggressive or anything. It's mostly only when we try to pet her anywhere but the top of her head. She's actually very sweet when she's by herself, so I hope she feels a little better being in my room for awhile. I just hope there is some solutions to this. Like something I can put on her to help ease the tension on her back or loosen the fur. I've heard of coconut oil helping, but I don't really know.
 
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tabbytom

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I'm not sure about coconut oil. It might become a messy oily job if it dosen't help.
Does bringing her to the groomers help? They can shave off the matted part and after that get her to get use to brushing everyday? Otherwise she's gonna be irritated by the discomfort.
 
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coniferously

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I'm not sure about coconut oil. It might become a messy oily job if it dosen't help.
Does bringing her to the groomers help? They can shave off the matted part and after that get her to get use to brushing everyday? Otherwise she's gonna be irritated by the discomfort.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. And I have thought of that, but she gets so stressed when we try it, and she knows us and trusts us.. I doubt they'd want anything to do with her since she's so high-strung and turns wild when she's touched on her back. I just don't know what to do, I just know that the groomers would not be able to help. I wouldn't wanna put her through that stress anyway. She was breathing so heavy when we tried with her, and it was literally within like 3 minutes maximum.. We weren't being aggressive or mean or anything nasty at all to her, we were being calm, playing calm zen music, not holding her down, just trying to shave her whenever she would settle down and lay near us. Even being that careful, she bit me once and tried multiple other times and was crying so loud, just drawn out cries, so that's when we let her out and she went crazy.
 

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Unless bring her to the vet and get her lightly sedated for once and shave off the mat and there after diligently brush her everyday.
Otherwise with her not so eager mood, nothing could be done to ease her irritations.
 
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coniferously

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Unless bring her to the vet and get her lightly sedated for once and shave off the mat and there after diligently brush her everyday.
Otherwise with her not so eager mood, nothing could be done to ease her irritations.
You're absolutely right, I just worry so much about even lightly sedating her. Cats are so sensitive, and after my Athena passed away two weeks ago, AT THE VET, I have been petrified of stressing my cats out to that point again; the point of no return. I just wish she would cooperate so we could help her. That's all we want to do.
 
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coniferously

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Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about Athena. Hope there is a better way to dematt Charlotte.
Thank you :( and I hope so too! Her mats are not even down to the skin, she just has some clumps on her back and a lot of dander. I know a quick brush and trim would fix her up. It would take maybe ten minutes to do. She just is such a sensitive cat and high-strung. Hopefully we can just do it little by little, I don't know though.
 
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tabbytom

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Thank you :( and I hope so too! Her mats are not even down to the skin, she just has some clumps on her back and a lot of dander. I know a quick brush and trim would fix her up. It would take maybe ten minutes to do. She just is such a sensitive cat and high-strung. Hopefully we can just do it little by little, I don't know though.
Try doing it but by bit. Don't stress her out. Otherwise it'll stress her more if she has to go to the groomers or vet to do it.
 
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coniferously

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Try doing it but by bit. Don't stress her out. Otherwise it'll stress her more if she has to go to the groomers or vet to do it.
Yeah, I'll try again soon. I just don't want to upset her. She seems okay now. Hasn't been bothered like she was the day we tried ridding her on the clumpy mats. I'll just attempt brushing her little by little and see how she reacts to it. That's all I really can do.

 

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As for the biting, have you tried a muzzle? they do make them for cats too. That's what I had to resort to when I brush one of my cats, Mystic (who is a long hair), she cries just seeing the comb when she has a bad mat and gets very nasty when you hit a snag in her fur. I did bring her to the vet once to get shaved, she had decided a pine tree was a good place to play
... no getting pine sap out of her fur without shaving. They had to sedate her, she may act all nice, but as soon as you touch a mat all bets are off and she is a furry mass of teeth and claws. 

Also there are fur detangling sprays you can try, just make sure it's a cat safe one. I bought one years ago for my mainecoon, I can't remember what it was called though, but it did helped. I sprayed it lightly on him and let it soak in a bit, and played with him to distract him while it soaked into his fur. Then after a few minutes I took the brush out and worked on the mats. It took sometime though, but got it all out over several days.

She is adorable though, she looks a lot like one of my tuxedo cats Tux, same little white mustache.
 
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