Lion Cut: Is It Really A Good Idea

Hi! I have 2 longhaired cats, Deedee who is Balinese and Ruby who is Siberian. Deedee is just fine, her fur does not mat, although it is scraggly and scruffy even (or especially) when she's freshly brushed. Ruby, however, tends to mat horribly. She has downy-soft fur, and there is LOTS of it. It tangles and clumps up every day. I am always going over her with a greyhound comb and embroidery scissors, cutting out the mats. If I don't do this four to seven times a week, it's bad news...they must be quite uncomfortable, because her mood suffers when there are several big ones. She isn't overweight (according to the vet--he showed me how you can easily feel her bones although, due to the fur, she looks like a soccer ball on feet), but she is still quite big, about 11lbs and growing.

In the summer, the mats are worse. She also gets so hot, panting with her tongue out and heavy breaths while lying still for hours. This coming summer, she will be nearly two years old and much larger than she was last summer. I know it's only January, but I am dreading it. I am thinking about getting her a lion cut, but I have a couple of problems with this. First, there are no good cat groomers around here, so it would have to be done by my vet under general anesthesia. Second, I have heard that the fur that grows back is of worse quality than the original coat. Last, I am afraid it won't even help her. I have heard that the fur acts as a kind of heat regulator.

But if the lion cut will be okay and not detrimental somehow, I might even just go ahead and get it done right away, even though in my opinion it would look pretty dumb. I just can't believe these mats...how long does the lion cut take to grow out? Do you think it's a good idea? Thank you!

Hi!

What GORGEOUS cats!!

I feel your pain, at least to a degree although your situation sounds worse.

My boy is a Turkish angora mix (my avatar) and although his black back and side fur doesn't mat, he has VERY cottony belly fur. When it gets to be a certain length, all I have to do is look at it wrong and it mats.

I didn't ever do a lion cut with him, but I did at one point have a vet clinic where they didn't put him under. They were very familiar with him and just had one person hold him and the other ran the clippers and trimmed his undersides from his inner hind legs to his chest bib.

However, things changed there, and I'm with a vet now who, no matter what I say about it, won't trim him without putting him under. ()

So, I bought a Wahl clippers and tried trimming him on my own with a certain amount of success (but I have found that mostly I'm able to keep up with a regular regimen of scissor trimming, I have a pair of child-safe blunt end ones), so you could possibly try that.

Something else I found that seems to be helping is the addition of Fancy Feast salmon or tuna filets. I tried adding human supplement fish oil and probiotics but those didn't make any difference at all.

I don't remember exactly but his fur took probably 4 months to grow back? It was a while, since the clippers left his fur pretty darn short - oh, and that super short fur is absolutely the softest thing imaginable. It's amazing, and seriously, it's almost worth doing it just for that.

Anyway, in his case, his fur grew back exactly the same.

My thinking would be why don't you try a professional cut once - because it might help her in the heat since in her case, the fur doesn't seem to be helping. Or you could have them do just the belly fur, or you could buy clippers and do it yourself.

Also, when the heat hits, try putting out bowls of water with ice cubes

Hi
Your kitties are adorable!
I am a long hair lover also and with some cats I think the lion cut is the best way to keep them comfy.
Some cats are just tougher to keep matt free, sometimes because of fur and sometimes because of temperament!
We have a long hair that will not let us brush him below his waist so he does get his back end shaved . Not a lion cut and he does have to be sedated for almost everything but he is so much happier with a smooth rear end !
We also had a Himalayan with the cottony fur that matted easily and I think he got the lion cut a couple times when for whatever reasons we had gotten behind in his grooming. He was very cooperative at the groomers but also really seemed to enjoy his haircut!
We have 2 more long hairs not quite a year old and will just see how it goes with them but the fur grows back as normal so don't be concerned about that.
If you are not to particular about how it looks you can always just get the bad spots shaved.
Enjoy your pretty kitties!

auntie said:

I am always going over her with a greyhound comb
In the summer, the mats are worse.

Click to expand...

I feel your pain. Almost all of the cats we have shared our home with over the years have been long haired including three Persians. Not one of them ever liked to be groomed. We rescued all of them as adults, with the exception of one of the Persians, and they probably never saw a comb or brush before. However, I love the Greyhound Stainless Steel comb. It does help but just as you said, the mats are awful to deal with in the summer months.

A good professional groomer is worth their weight in gold. We are very fortunate that our feline specialty vet has a groomer come to her office twice a month. It has been a lifesaver for us. I'm sorry you do not have any good cat groomers in your area. Could you ask your vet what their recommendation would be besides general anesthesia? If it were me and I had to choose between the cat being anesthetized or a lion cut I would opt for the lion cut. I try to avoid anesthesia unless it's a surgical or life threatening procedure. That's just my personal opinion. You know your cat best and have to decide what would be the least stressful for her. Best of luck, please keep us updated on your progress.

Thanks so much for your feedback! I'm glad to know that lion cuts can be effective, and that it doesn't ruin their coat permanently. I feel so sorry for her with these mats. What a pity that she has this problem...it must be so uncomfortable. I called the one place nearby that will actually groom a cat, but they said they don't do lion cuts. I guess it will have to be the vet. I am unhappy about the anesthesia in part because I think it means I will have to reintroduce her to our other cat, who is her best friend, but don't cats forget each other if one goes under anesthesia? If I have to reintroduce them, is that like as though I never had two cats and they are total strangers?

The only good thing is that since she's a colorpoint cat, she'll be darker when the fur grows back in. That will be pretty. If I do it at the end of January, I will do it again in late May, which will hopefully get her through the summer. I'll send you a picture...but I expect she'll look pretty foolish. Poor Ruby.

I did it to this guy once. He kept beating up my dog, so my boyfriend and I were up doing tequila shots one night and I gave him a lion cut. When I gave him back to my ex, he was so mad at me. I told him "it'll grow back and he looks fabulous you know this is an $80 value at the groomer, right?"

This photo is at least 5 years after he got the lion cut. His coat didn't have any issues. Ashley is a foofy boy, but he doesn't like goggies. It's so stupid because Lila was only 11 lbs, and Tommy's little sister.

Forest Cat, my Persian rescue, gets a lion cut every spring. I do groom him but he won't let me near his back legs or belly so he's always very matted there. His coat always grows back to the same length within a year, then it's time for another trim.

Our vet does it. Forest gets a very light anesthetic, not enough to knock him out completely as you would for an operation. Just enough to make him easy to handle so he doesn't struggle and risk getting nicked by the clippers.

It's definitely worth it. We get very cold winters and hot, humid summers so he would be uncomfortable without a trim.

Here's the before and after shots. I think he looks gorgeous with his lion cut.

I Forest. He's gorgeous no matter what.

I'm a fan of the lion cut. It's a real life saver for long haired cats especially when it's hot out. I TRIED to get the girls lion cuts not long after I got them. It was an epic fail but after the fact the story is funny. The reason I took them to begin with was because I kept having to do what I call "tushie baths". Sometimes at 1 AM. Not fun. I have to bathe them in the stall shower because they are so badly behaved. I thought that if the hair on their undercarriages was short, that would eliminate that problem.

I took them to the ONE groomer around here that takes cats. No one else does. Petco? No. Petsmart? No? Mobile groomers? Nope. Even our vet doesn't. They will cut a cat's hair for surgery and that's it.

So we get there early on a Saturday morning. The place is on the other side of town so I decided to stay there just in case. Wise move. You need to know that both Lilith and Sophie are traditional Persians but I think that they were bred to be on the small side. I took them in and into the back they went. About 20-25 minutes later I get a phone call (I am in my truck in their parking lot). It's not going well. They cannot bathe either of them. I tell them to skip the baths because they didn't need it. They say OK and I go back to waiting. They knew I was outside. Some more time goes by and the groomer comes out. He said that they were able to brush Sophie with a dry shampoo, trim her nails and give her a sanitary shave. The lion cut? HAHAHAHAHA!! They said it's NOT happening for either of them. I said OK. As long as the SS was done, I'm fine with that. He said OK and went back in. More time elapses and he's back. This time it's about Lilith. Bath? NO WAY. Brushing with dry shampoo? NOPE. Nail trimming? NO. Sanitary shave? He** No. He wanted to give her back to me the same way she came in because she was SO bad. I begged him to do the sanitary shave. He agreed. About 15 minutes later, he came back out. He said the SS was done and they could both go home. I mention to him that I had bathed them myself. He looks shocked and asks me HOW? I told him that using the bathtub was an epic fail so I used the stall shower and it worked out. He was quite impressed.

I go in to pay. I found out then that it took THREE grown men to give Lily her SS. She was about 4.5 pounds at the time. A 4.5 pound cat took down 3 grown men. Was she traumatized by this? Heck no. She was proud of herself. She had a very self satisfied look on her face. I took them home and gave them some lunch. She ate then went and took a nap on my bed. Sophie was fine too. I was asked to NEVER bring them back. We got 86'ed from the ONE groomer anywhere near me that takes cats. I have been grooming them myself ever since. I guess I should add that I added a generous tip for the groomer when I paid. I felt bad for the guy.

Long haired cats at the very least need the sanitary shave. You don't want "tushie hitchhikers". They are no fun. Neither are 1 AM tushie baths in the stall shower.

Kat0121 said:

it took THREE grown men to give Lily her SS. She was about 4.5 pounds at the time.

Click to expand...

She's totally baddass! I bet she was proud of herself, the little spitfire.

Norachan said:

She's totally baddass! I bet she was proud of herself, the little spitfire.

Click to expand...

If anyone was traumatized it was the groomer.

Years ago I had a long haired bad natured Siamese who refused grooming and as a result was prone to matting as well as butt rash and chafing. It finally resulted in a vet visit to having her shaved to clean her up and after seeing how much she seemed to enjoy not having all that fur, it became an annual event. The only negative was that it was expensive because she needed to be sedated which required bloodwork beforehand.

I used to have a boy named Simon. He looked like a Balinese/Maine Coon mix, huge boy, delicate in all the details, (crossed, so very very crossed...) crystal blue eyes, points over a grey tabby pattern, massive snowshoe paws. LONG fur.

When we got him, his upper legs, all four of them, were fully matted to his body. We took him to a local groomer who took cats, they did a rough trim and mat removal, flea dipped him, then shaved him to the skin for most of his body, with a fine velvet fuzz where they could get away with it. No sedation needed.

Possibly because of the mats, he never did let us brush him, he was fine being petted, but the second a brush came out....nope. We took him in regularly for trims instead. We didn't do the lion cut though. We went for something that I can't find a proper name for, but I'd call it the shorthair cut. They'd trim his fur lion-cut short on the belly, and taper it to a bit longer (about half the length of usual shorthair fur) on the top and sides of his body. Legs would be uniformly short, no pom-poms. They also shortened his ruff to about the usual length of a short hair cat's fur, and tapered that to the rest. One time he was fidgety, so they didn't do his tail, leaving the tail long and plumey save for a sanitary strip shaved for the first quarter/third of the underside, and I loved that look and his tail usually didn't mat, so I had that made standard on future cuts. End result was what looked like a short hair cat with a very velvet/fleece texture with a long, plumed tail. They called it "short all over, tapered edges" if that helps?

Far as I can tell, he didn't mind this at all, and when his fur got too long for him, he'd start sprawling and panting in a really dramatic way around us, or grooming his ruff, getting it stuck to his tongue since it was too long to get off again without his paws, going up to us, and meowing pitifully. He didn't LIKE car rides, but he seemed to calm down once we got on the freeway and he realized we were going to the groomer, not the vet. His fur would grow back just fine, no change in texture or length. I say go for it!

I am an idiot and thought I would spare my Butchie a vet trip, give him his Gabapetin and work on some matts and clumps with help from my husband today.
Husband and I are bloody, Butchie has a long way to go and does not really even look like a cat anymore
Uhh