Fleurp - a before and after

Because of Fleurp's annual springtime anemia, and my attempts to figure out what on earth is going on and - or at the very least - prevent it, I decided to groom the living daylights out of Fleurp the minute she started molting.  It can take weeks from the first sign of her losing her winter coat until her anemia shows up, so I wanted to prevent her from ingesting as much fur as I can - since this is really the only difference in her life.

First, the Before:

February 5th

Feb 9 - morning pre-furminator

February 9th post furminator

February 16th

So I had been doing my best to get as much excess fur off her as I could, but she is NOT a fan of the furminator nor any other grooming device I have. Each session would end her being upset at me at best and nipping at me was not a rare occasion. She won't 'bite' but she will leave a dent in the skin with her teeth. Fair enough. I'd hate it if someone grabbed me and forced me to put up with what she had to go through.

This year I wasn't going to be deterred. I was amazed how much fur I was able to take off her and yet she still had a ton that needed to come off, so I made an appointment with a local groomer to help. I would have shaved her myself but she hates the clippers even more than the furminator. She has had so much blood drawn every year to check her RBC that I can't blame her on that one either. I asked to watch and the groomer had me help. We used her muzzle on and off. He tried to direct me to hold her a certain way and I explained if we let her have a paw free that she would make us pay for it.

The groomer was going for beauty which takes longer. After a while, I told him to be more concerned with getting as much fur off as we could and don't worry about pretty.

As an end result, we have this as the After:

I am probably going to try to clean up her armpits and furminator her a couple more times to pull out anything else that is loose. Paws crossed this works.

Explaining "Day of Beauty"

I'm not quite sure I ever really explained what "Day of Beauty" is in my house and how it came to be called that.

Back when I had two cats my grooming for them was very minimal.  Tig went outside and took care of his claws on his own and he kept them sharp and lethal for climbing and hunting.  Em occasionally needed her claws trimmed because they would start to click on the floor, but that was about it.

Then as my clowder grew I would take the time every couple of weeks to trim claws that needed to be, but when the household hit eight cats it would be oh so time consuming not to mention confusing to not have a system about it.  I would forget who got trimmed and who didn't.  Things were over looked.  I felt horrible when I brought my cats in all their carriers in for a vet visit and the vet pointed out a wound I wasn't aware of..

Sadly "Day of Beauty" doesn't happen as regularly as I would like.  I would like it to happen weekly.  The Crew would like it to happen yearly.  We settle on about once a month.  If I could get it together I would schedule it, but alas I'm just not that organized (not to mention kittens usually have other ideas for my time.

I usually start with the claw and get those out of the way.. I prefer scissor clippers to guillotine type.  I've used bigger ones like this but I much prefer the smaller ones that look like scissors you might buy for a child to craft with.  They have that notch.  I bought them at the dollar store.  I've also found some more expensive ones at my local megamart.  I'm seriously considering seeing if I can buy a set or four like my vet uses.  They are a little longer and all steel.

Then I check their ears.  If need be I clean them out.  The outside of the ear gets wiped up with q-tips, my finger or a tissue.. if the debris is heavy I get out an ear cleaning solution.  I've currently got Epi-Otic as well as an enzyme based cleaner called Zymox.  Eli still has ear issues but not nearly as bad as he used to.  See his tear ducts are blocked due to several bad rounds with Calci and general URI and as a result his excess tears back up and drain into his ears. As a young cat they would cake up so bad it had to be painful.  Now at the ripe old age of 10 (OK 9 years 10 months) for the most part they are just a little dirty, but I like to keep up on it.  Hard since he so totally would be happy if I never look in his ears again.

I do my best to keep the loose fur at bay too.  I like grooming with a wide toothed comb like this one .  I recently got a fur-minator and I like how much fur it gets out, but my cats really do not enjoy the experience.  I try to limit using it to only those first few warm weeks/months when they shed out their winter fur.

Depending on the cat I will then brush teeth.  Some cats love the toothpaste and will sit there for it, some have decided that my fingers in the mouth is the last straw.    Which ever their "this is the last thing I will put up with mom!!" thing is, that is what goes last.  Some it is grooming, some it is the teeth.  There are lots of great videos on teeth brushing on YouTube.  You really shouldn't be intimidated to do it as it does have benefit to the cat.  It helped me realize that Jack had broken two of his teeth.  If I hadn't been in there looking around with my fingers I might never have noticed it until it caused a problem.

When all is finally done and the supplies are put away, the kitties get a treat and we have play time.

a good intentional once over to make sure there are no lumps or bumps or broken teeth or gooey ears or the such really does quite a bit of good in keeping your kitty as healthy over it's life time.


(full disclosure - this post was sponsored by mediarunsearch.co.uk and nutrecare.co.uk but the content is 100% my own.)