Smelly Cat

[manikm]

I've had cats in my house since I was young and adopted my own after I moved out. The pound estimated he was about 4 months old and had been in their custody for about a month when i got him. He's now, going off their age, around 11 months.

I recently noticed he doesn't groom himself like the other, family, cats would. He's long hair so I overlooked it for a while, but upon closer watching, he only acts like he knows he should be grooming himself, and not like he knows how to. He'll clean parts of his tail and his arms/legs/paws, but very seldom.

Most of our cats have been babies when we got them, and always had an older, adopted parent-like cat that would take care of them until they caught on, but our 'daddy' cat passed recently, so I can't try and put him in that environment to learn.

I've been 'showering' him with little pet-wet wipes, but i'm worried eventually its not going to be enough and he'll start matting and be in pain, I just had to clean some 'mess' from his underside that had gotten stuck, and he was clearly in pain from that being stuck.

Any ideas how to handle this, either a way to teach him, or a care regime?

 

[red top rescue]

The best thing you can do is bathe him periodically with a good feline shampoo.  Then comb him on a regular basis.  If he has a problem on his rear end, you can get him what is known as a "sanitary clip" which removes the hair just around the anal opening so he will not get dingleberries.  A good diet helps also, ad you ca learn a lot about that in the Nutrition forums.

Most longhair cats do need to be groomed on a regular basis.  their tonguesjust cannot reach the base of each and every hair even if they do try.  They oly mat when their hairs get dirty enough to stick together (natural oils).  Some people clip their longhaired cats for summer also.

If you want to lear more about grooming longhairs, there are many videos on YouTube, and/or you can watch a groomer or have your vet tech teach you.  Don't expect your loghaired boy to handle it all himself.   You will need a metal comb with fairly wide round teeth to reach all the way to the skin and that will keep him free of mats once he is clean.  Do some research and see which action works best for you and choose it.  You will keep your boy healthy, happy and beautiful by doin this.