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
It takes 2 minutes of anyone’s time at the most to groom a cat. Ragdolls enjoy human attention; hence, no wrestling would be needed. My “rag” Billy is always ready to drop on the floor for some brushing…he lives for it. And it’s a great bonding time for us…rags are such a delight, how could you not yield to his ask of brushing?
I loved your comment Elle and Billy is awesome. He is a Wow cat. As for grooming, I completely agree. It is fun and pleasurable for both human and cat so why not do it all the time.
Dear Albert, sorry for your loss *
I have four Maine Coons who need constant care and attention as each one is different from the other. One’s coat is an entirely different texture than the others and thinner. She has skin allergies.Her name is Calliope. A speckled color all over.
My calico colored Maine ZOE is tiny under all her fur , and around 10 yrs old as are her sisters.She needs a little help now under the front/chest area and a small grooming on her pantaloons*
The runt is a copy of her large mother in miniature. so far she is healthy and doesn’t require anything extra to help her groom.Her name is C.C.Meo.
Theo is our 11 1/2 yr. old Mama cat, who has several issues due to a botched spaying and genetic traits from one parent.
I have found that these cats need to be checked almost daily so mats don’t form, in case if infections, etc.
Note: After the Long haired cats reach a certain age [ in my experience around 9 years; take caution when shaving as they tend to not always regrow a full coat as they become older.
We lost a Beautiful Silver-n-Black male around 6 yrs ago, because he was not properly shaved and cleaned during his neuter operation. No followup appointment was given either ?. We miss our sweet and powerfully majestic ‘Zebediah’ ,and we lost him due partly to improper grooming and veterinary neglect.
Eva_
Has it been considered that the cats lack of attention to it’s own coat was from being mistreated and unhappy.
After Kitten was floxed I did a lot of mindless reading. It will not surprise me if stress is eventually listed as the number one cause of disease in cats. With cats it seems to suppress the immune system to an extent that is not seen in other animals or even humans.