Any Tips For Grooming Senior Kitties?

[molly92]

Hello all!

My resident cat, Delilah, is 7 years old, but a few days ago I also adopted a senior kitty, Wendy, who is 15!

She's a tiny little thing with a whole host of health issues that I haven't dealt with before, so it's going to be a learning experience for me. We have a vet visit on Tuesday so I'll hopefully get lots of answers then, but she definitely does have arthritis and mobility issues. I'm working on making everything more accessible for a senior kitty: more rugs, raised bowls, low entry litter box, steps, etc. What I'm curious about now is the best way to brush her.

She wasn't really brushed in her foster home, but I've discovered that she loves being brushed with soft bristle brush I have made for people. That's working well, except sometimes if she's standing I'll touch the brush to her fur on her back half, without even applying any pressure, and she shudders and her back legs collapse. Has anyone developed good techniques for grooming an arthritic cat?

She is on cosequin and I'm going to see what else the vet recommends. She can actually still reach most places herself to groom, it's mainly her back knees that have trouble. She is medium haired though and I do think she'd benefit from being brushed regularly. I guess I just want to hear from experienced senior kitty owners if there's anything I should be careful about that I haven't had to deal with in younger cats.

I'm so glad to have her though! She's clearly been through a lot in her life but she's such a good cat!

 

[weebeasties]

Oh she looks so sweet!
I don't have any advice about her grooming, just wanted to say a big Thank You for giving this lovely little lady a forever home! She is indeed a lucky girl that you came into her life.
Hope everything goes well at her vet visit.

 

[duckpond]

She is a beautiful girl, so glad you are giving her a loving home! Does she sit in your lap without discomfort? If so that might help? Not an older cat, but one of mine loves to lay on the bed with me and get brushed. laying on the bed he doesn't stand up much, just rolls around so i can get all the spots he wants.

 

[susanm9006]

I would try to brush her while she is laying down. If she likes tummy rubs this a great way to get her fully stretched out. If you can get her on one side one day and the other the next day you wouldn’t need to move her.

And thank you for adopting a senior.

 

[molly92]

Thank you all! She's doing a bit better now that she's getting used to things and eating well. I think we'll figure out a strategy that she likes, I just might have to try a couple things. A senior kitty is a perfect fit for me! I'll gladly leave the crazy kittens to other cat owners.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! Definitely brushing is a very good thing! She is so lucky to have you!!
My Big Guy gets mats in his hair/fur that hurt if I don't see/feel them and accidentally drag the brush over them, pulling the skin.
Keep an eye on the little armpit area, the belly, inside back legs, and if her hips are a bit bony, on either side of the spine back towards the tail.
He won't stand (for it) so I've always had to brush him while he's lying down

 

[Furballsmom]

I should add, I use bunt end scissors to cut those mats out so he's more comfortable

 

[lavishsqualor]

What a beautiful cat she is! I agree with the consensus: brushing on the bed is best. My two cats, who just turned three, love being furminated on the bed. I give them a cursory going over with a slicker brush every day, right after they get get their teeth brushed, but once a week they get furminated and they love it. Once Atticus sees the Furminator come out he jumps up on the bed, lies down and stretches his paws over his head in preparation. A Furminator might be a little much for Wendy but brushing her on the bed with a regular brush will help take the stress off her joints while you work on her.

What a great and wonderful person you are to take her in. Thank you!

 

[weebeasties]

I don't know if you have any pet steps or not, but Wendy might appreciate them. We got them for my angel kitty, Shady, when he developed arthritis and (once he figured out what they were for) he used them all the time to get up on the furniture more easily.
EDIT Sorry, just reread your original post and saw you already have the pet steps. Apologies

 

[epona]

Oh my goodness, what a gorgeous little cat!

I think it's fairly normal that when you start to brush them without warning and if they haven't seen you do it, they kind of go a bit floppy - all of my boys do that. I don't know whether it is some residual instinctive response to something coming up behind them or something...

If she's affectionate, I'd get her into a nice cuddle and then start to add brushing into the cuddle - she's so lovely, I hope she likes cuddles as much as you must like to cuddle her!

My boys like a rubber zoom groom, but 2 of them are ultra-shorthairs and 1 is shorthair - not sure that type of grooming item is suitable for a fluffy girl like yours, it just removes loose hair and can't do tangles. Probably completely unsuitable - for a cat with that length fur I guess a brush with bristles and a comb to deal with tangles would be better. That is if she enjoys being brushed, if not your main aim should be to comb out tangles.

 

[Furballsmom]

Oh, and one other thought, if you live in an area where the air is dry/low humidity, be sure and have a damp paper towel that you can wipe over her fur to cut down on static electricity buildup, so that the brush doesn't cause a spark against her skin.

 

[FakeGourmet]

Your cat is adorable. My late arthritic cat was brushed up front. I used a regular people comb to gently comb the back to prevent mats. Also, encourage her to lay down on a pillow rather than your lap when you are grooming her. Helps keep her in place.

 

[1 bruce 1]

15 year old cat with health issues finds a loving home.
So cool!!! I'm so happy for you both =) She doesn't look 15 at all, and what a sweet face!!

Does she have any clumps or matting or tangles? Scissors can be good to snip up here and there but cat skin is VERY easy to cut, so if matting becomes an issue at some point a small set of clippers might be a good investment; much safer if the matting is close to the skin.
Does she self groom and is her coat clean feeling (dirty or greasy hair is hard to keep combed, but if she's still self grooming the coat shouldn't be bad.)

 

[molly92]

Thank you! I've only found one little mat so far. Apparently when the humane society picked her up months ago she had bad reaction to fleas, so her coat has been recovering since then, so it's not too thick.

She does groom herself still, but I suspect that might be painful and she doesn't do it as thoroughly as maybe she would like. My vet talked about Adequan injections for the arthritis so I'm hopeful that will help her feel better. In the meantime she isn't the tidiest in the litter box because she's not too steady on her feet so I'm cleaning her up with some grooming wipes occasionally. Her coat's a little bit greasy but not too bad-the vet also suspects she's hyperthyroid so that could be part of that.

I did get a close look at her nails the other day, and they were thick and growing close to the pad. I'm assuming that's because she doesn't really scratch, but it's a hyperthyroid symptom sometimes as well. She wasn't happy about it, but I decided to go in and trim all of them down in one session. I'm going to give her a few more days before I take another close look at her feet, but hopefully she got a little bit of relief from that.

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[FakeGourmet]

I've had a lot of senior kitties with delicate skin, but only two with fluffy fur. If your kitty has mats, my brother found using an ordinary fork to break them up gently was a first step. I used a very small pet wire brush to break them up and two ordinary human combs to comb them out. You insert one comb close to the skin and use the other comb to gently tease and pull out the matt. It's a similar process for the years when girls used to ratt their hair and then need to take it out. Inserting one comb next to the skin prevents pulling on the intact fur and skin.

Right now, I groom my cats with that human comb daily. It appears to be more effective to remove loose fur, yet doesn't hurt them. We just went through a hair ball incident that was pretty close to requiring veterinarian intervention, so do keep that in mind.

 

[Furballsmom]

Inserting one comb next to the skin prevents pulling on the intact fur and skin.

What an absolutely GRAND idea!!