Two-year-old Ragdoll cat had never been brushed which destroyed her coat
Misty, a two-year-old Ragdoll cat, had never been brushed in her life – meaning vets at Blue Cross animal hospital in London spent more than an hour clipping her fur which weighed 200 grams.
Ragdoll cats are purebred and a desirable cat (for most). Sadly this cat owner, about which we have no details, never brushed her Ragdoll called Misty. Misty had become homeless. I am not sure if she was abandoned. It looks like that.
The interesting aspect of this story is that the coat was “destroyed” because it had never been brushed by the owner. Misty’s coat became a health hazard to her as opposed to being a health benefit.
That means that Ragdoll cats and any other long haired cats are incapable of looking after their own coat. If that is true it means that the coat of the Ragdoll and other long haired breeds have been created too long and have become unmanageable by the cat without assistance from humans. Does that mean we can blame cat breeders for this strange state of affairs?
It took veterinary assistants two hours to shear Misty’s coat off – a bit like sheep-shearing. The coat came off in one piece. It was solid as it was so tightly matted.
A worrying aspect of this story is that the Blue Cross Animal Hospital in London say that they receive quite a lot of long haired cats who have not been groomed enough resulting in unmanageable matts.
Either cat owners are unaware that long haired cats need regular (I’d say daily) grooming by humans or they are lazy and don’t want to bother to do it. Then the coat becomes so bad that it has to be shaved off under anesthetic (which carries a risk to the cat’s health, incidentally).
There is no doubt in my mind that long haired cats need to be grooming daily. If it is done daily maintaining the coat in good condition is easy as only five minutes of grooming is required. Light matts can be groomed out but even that can be tricky to do without hurting the cat.
When a cat’s coat is this badly matted the skin suffers too. Misty’s skin was very dry and sore. She is receiving pain killers.
It will take 4-6 months for the coat to grow back. When adopting a long haired cat the adopter needs to factor in grooming time in addition to the usual tasks in properly looking after her/his cat.
Misty is being rehomed.
Source: Homeless London cat Misty’s coat was so matted vet had to shave her fur off | Daily Mail Online