Grooming your pet is an essential part of an everyday care program.  Setting aside five minutes each day to run a comb through your pet’s coat will help maintain a healthy, shiny coat and significantly reduce the amount of hair loss in your home.  For cats, a metal comb is preferred for grooming, since it does a more thorough job and won’t slide over matts that may be developing.

Bathing:
Most cats do not need to be bathed since they are such clean animals.  However, some owners prefer to bathe their cat occasionally.  If you plan to bathe your cat, you should introduce the cat to the tub at a fairly young age, usually around twelve weeks of age.
Before bathing your pet, be prepared and have all your equipment ready before starting the bath.  You will need cotton balls, several towels, and a mild dog/cat shampoo.   If you plan to trim your pet’s nails, do this prior to the bath.  Put a small amount of cotton in each ear to prevent water from entering the canal.  Wet your pet with warm water, then lather the shampoo into the coat, avoiding any contact with the eyes.  Rinse thoroughly, then rinse again.  Towel dry your pet, then comb out thoroughly.  If your pet has long hair, you may want to use a cream rinse after the shampoo before blow drying. Always use the lowest heat settings on the dryer, and avoid directing the dryer at the eyes.  The last thing to do is to remove the cotton from the ears.

The choice of shampoo is important.  For most pets a mild, general grooming shampoo is adequate.  For specific skin or coat problems our staff can recommend an appropriate and perhaps medicated shampoo for your pet’s specific needs.

Nail Clipping
It is necessary on occasion to clip the nails of your pet.  The frequency will vary from pet to pet depending on rate of growth and on the wear of the nail.
The nails can safely be clipped if one avoids the quick of the nail.  In light-colored nails the quick can easily be identified as the pink core of the nail.   In darker nails the quick is hard to identify.  In these cases one can clip the narrowed end of the nail or the hollow portion as viewed from the underside of the nail.

Cat nails, may be brittle and tend to splinter. The use of very sharp clippers minimizes splintering. Cat nails also regrow very quickly, often within two weeks. As such, declawing may be a more appropriate response to minimize damage done in the home.