Matts form in your cats fur when the downy undercoat gets tangled and forms knots instead of shedding out cleanly. While you may see lots of hair that is shedding out this time of year, it’s the hair you don’t see that can really cause all the trouble.
For both long and short haired cats, we recommend using a poodle comb (see getting to the bottom of preventing fur matts blog) first to get all the way down to the skin and loosen up undercoat that can be starting to tangle. Then we recommend using a flexible double sided slicker brush. This brush will remove the loosened undercoat that needs to be released. This step has the added bonus of helping to redistribute the oils on your cats skin and throughout their fur. This will keep your cats skin and fur supple and helps break the dandruff cycle that can start under tangled undercoat and matts, and helps your cat look and feel better.
Finally, if you have a long haired cat, you can use a de-shedding tool (there are many different styles on the market, but we use a Warren London deshedding brush) to thin out the top coat and finish pulling out the fine undercoat strands that have been loosened up in the previous steps.
A word of caution, the deshedding tools are very hard and unforgiving, so while you want to get all the way down to the skin with the comb and the flexible slicker brush, you need to use a lighter touch with the deshedding tools or they can be very uncomfortable for your cat.
Other tips we want to share for matt prevention are to avoid getting long haired cats wet unless you can FULLY comb out their fur while it is still wet and again a couple of times when it is dry. If your cat won’t let you comb out their fur, giving them a bath or using detangling sprays are a really bad idea!
If you need instruction on accomplishing a good brush-out, now is the time to let us show you the best ways to help your cat maintain their fur and also assess whether giving them a bath would be helpful or discuss alternatives that might be better for your individual cat’s situation.
In any case, whether you do it yourself or ask us to assist, now is the time to get a comb and flexible slicker brush and start using it to help your cat have lower risk of hairballs and matts and maintain a healthy coat no matter what kind of fur they have!
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