Bad fur day

[Heather Wallace]

Tatty is now nine yrs old. He is not a long haired cat but it is slightly longer than Max's coat. We brush him quite a lot but his fur always looks really cruffy. It also gets matted quite a lot.

I am thinking it is because of his age and it never used t be this bad, the shine has also gone form it. I feel sorry for him, also the thought of him getting old kills me as he has been with me since he was 6 weeks old.

[Heather Wallace]

Thanks spencer for you reply, he has quite a good diet although he has has some health problems in the past year.

As you can see he is quite a large cat so I think some time he finds it difficult to clean nearer his back/bottm part.:)

[yorkster]

Hi Heather. I don't remember, are your boys related? They look like they are. :)

Another cat I had (RB) had a dull looking coat too. I started feeding him this food called Avoderm. It is a bit pricey, but it helped. It has avacado in it that helps keep the coat in good condition and shiney.
I also feed it to my dog that I have now- it seems to agree with her digestive sytem well (had some problems with some of the others) :)

[wayne0214]

Heather, you might try giving him some Nutra-cal. It did wonders for Tiger. Although she is less than 1 year old , she had developed dietary problems early in life. When I took her in for spaying the vet read the write-up that was submitterd with her. She recommended Nutra-cal to help her recover from being weak when Tiger hasn't eaten in a few hours. Now, practically every morning she is running through the house and playing with all sorts of things that she finds on the floor, even playing with the kittens.:)

..........wayne

[Heather Wallace]

Originally posted by yorkster
[B]Hi Heather. I don't remember, are your boys related? They look like they are.

No they are not related at all. Tatty came tolive with me 9 yrs ago as a rescue cat, i was given him by someone in the street. Then two yrs later Max came along also a rescue cat fromt he cats protection league. It was just by chance that they look a like.

Thanks Wayne for your advice also. At the moment I am feeding them IAMS light plus tuna and some cat food. I actually received some info by post about natural cat health products, vitamins and the like for older cats.

[krazyaboutkatz]

You also might want to try a leave on conditioner. You can buy this in any pet store. I've been using this every week on my cats for quite a while now. It's become a part of their grooming process. I originally bought it because two of my cats have dry flaky skin. It seems to help this condition as well as keep their coats shiny and it smells good too.

[AmberLee]

A leave-in conditioner sounds good. Which brand do you find works best on your fur-kids?

[krazyaboutkatz]

In the past I've used a brand called Veterinarian's Best but I couldn't find it the last time so I bought one called Refresh Coat Conditioner and Tangle Remover. It's supposed to leave the coat shiny and tangle free and it has a money back guarantee. I bought it at Petco and it can be used on dogs too. I've just started using it so I'll have to see if it's as good as the previous one.