Thread: How do you deal with mats?

What a shame about your boy's lovely coat. :(
But the Furmaster is a different gadget. You are right about the Furminator... it only removes excess hair but doesn't deal with mats.

Originally Posted by Antonia

What a shame about your boy's lovely coat. :(
But the Furmaster is a different gadget. You are right about the Furminator... it only removes excess hair but doesn't deal with mats.

Ahh...

Thanks.

Is this it?

Perfect Care Furmaster

I have used very sharp hairdresser's scissors on matts cos you can slide them into the matt and cut away from the skin but be very, very careful. In an ideal world I would never miss grooming my cats but it happened! In the moulting season I usually groom at least twice a week, funnily enough the ones with the shorter coats seem to get the worse under 'arm' matts. You can buy handy sized combs from pets at home that are meant for guinea pigs... these are exactly the right size for getting into adult cats hard to reach places. And they are great for kittens too.

Originally Posted by claudel

Is this it?

Perfect Care Furmaster

Yep. I just ordered one... it ought to arrive tomorrow. Am very curious about how it will work with Monty. He's the only one with mats. The girls never ever seem to get them. Even little Minnie, who has glorious long fur on her belly, hind legs and tail... but not a mat to be found.

We have 5 different combs, 3 brushes, 2 different types of Furminators(not much liked by our cats) and newly purchased electric cat grooming shaver. Our kitties get brushed daily by my husband, and sometimes 2-4 times a day. Because of Anastasia's thick coat and his omition of underarms areas she developed mats in those areas and in the inguinal folds. Here is what works for my kittie:
1) The most tolerated by my cat solution so far was old way of taking sweet time and going millimeter by millimiter with blunt small scissors and comb.
2) The newest addition to this method is the use of straight hemostat in the areas that can not be teased out. I clip the hemostat at the base of the thick mat before cutting the mat, then cut the hair above the hemostat. This instrument prevents accidental cuts of the skin.
3) Another method that I found by Googling is to make multiple vertical cuts from the base first, and then either cut or tease out those sections.

Thank you guys for sharing your experience. Claudel, the pile of fur looks as impressive as your cat's tolerance. I wish my kitties liked Furminator as much as I do, but they don't enjoy it as much as brushes.

Thanks for the hemostat tip... had to google to find out what it is, but it looks like a good method for mats that are close to the skin.

HOORAY!!!
I FOUND THE SOLUTION. My husband bought Remington 7-in-1 Complete Grooming System for $17 at Target, and we tried it on our Anastasia. Unlike Pet hair shavers this one is more quiet, less threatening to my sensitive cat, does not make nicks and allows to remove mats much quicker than by scissors.

This is the address of the website:

remington_grooming_system : Target Search Results

It does not have a cord but works from charger. I isolate the mat with comb first, grab it with fingers, and then with cutting blade up move the groomer horizontally, about 3-4 mm at a time until the entire mat is shaved off.
I tested this device on my husband first (it has attachemets for nose , ears and neck)
So, today my husband and my cat got perfect grooming session. I then used it on my bikini line,
and was happy with the results.

Yup, we use my husband's cordless beard trimmers on our old moggy's lumps. It worked really well for our Persian as well (RIP). Our 2 babes haven't had any lumps yet, fingers crossed!