Have you ever tried to give a cat a bath?

Question

I did last nite..not an easy thing to do..our cat has long hair and his waste got stuck to him..he smelled gross and he didnt like one bit...is there an easier way...other than getting some else to do for me...

Answer 1

I bathe my cat about every 2 weeks. She doesn't like it but she comes and goes through the doggy door so she needs it. I run the water before I bring her in because she doesn't like the sound. I have someone hold her in the tub and then I use a big cup and pour water on her until she's wet. After we scrub her I use the cup again. Next, I have my friend hold her up and I squeexe the excess water off of her by running my hands down her tail and paws. I wrap her up in a towel and rub her. She actually likes that part. Just stay calm and talk in a soothing voice to you cat. It will help her stay calm.

Answer 2

They do sell "cat bags", which are basically mesh bags that allow the cat's head to poke out while the rest of the body is pretty much incapacitated. The water and shampoo runs through the mesh, so you won't have that problem. However, being a groomer for 10 years, I've seen a lot of different methods and the one I like the best is what I call the Suds Bucket. You fill a large bucket with soapy water. Scruff the cat, and slowly lower it into the bucket (not past his neck, though, we don't want to drown the poor thing!). Hold onto the scruff with one hand and start to lather the cat with the other. Once that's done, remove them from the bucket (still keep him scruffed), and start to rinse him off with warm water. Use a slow, quiet stream of water so the noise doesn't scare him. Hold the nozzle of the water hose (which you hopefully have set up for this task!) as close the the skin as possible and rinse thoroughly. If you don't have a good nozzled hose for this, have another clean bucket full of warm water on-hand, and scoop out water to slowly pour over the cat with a measuring cup (or something similar) until rinsed. Afterwards, towel dry your cat as best as you can, then let him air dry the rest of the way. If he's long-haired, be sure to brush him out with a pin brush and/or steel comb before AND after the bath or his coat may mat up.
Good luck!

Answer 3

Cats usually bathe themselves, they do not need to be washed on a regular basis like a dog, and as you found out...they don't like baths very much either. In your case, if the cat has long hair that tends to get "waste" stuck to it..you might consider keeping the fur at his rear end shaved short to avoid his problem in the future. The vet can easily do this.

Answer 4

The exact same thing happened to me. Don't worry. Just try to wet the area the waste got stuck too and get as much off as you can. Then take sharp scissors and try to cut the hair off the area the waste gets stuck to alot. Trust me,It works. Good Luck!

Answer 5

I did when I was a child, the cat scratched the s**t out of me! I think if you HAVE to bathe a cat (meaning if the cat is just so extremely dirty that simply licking himself will not help) I think you should sponge bathe him, it's pretty traumatizing for a cat to be given a bath.

Answer 6

You can get special wipes especially for cats for the exact reason that cats are extremly hard to bath. Another thing you could do is if you try these wipes, try grooming him to get any bits of waste off that the wipes may have missed.

Answer 7

Yep, I've done it before. First time by myself was with seven week old kittens we rescued from outside that had fleas (it was actually pretty easy, little kitten teeth and little kitten claws really don't hurt), second was with said much OLDER kittens (cats now) who decided to play in a paint can. Fortunately my cats sort of LIKE water, so it's not the complete disaster it could be. First item of advice -- make it at least a two person job; one to hold the cat still and keep it from clawing or biting, another to do the actual shampooing and washing. To help protect your hands from angry cat, wear gloves, but I actually just let my kitties chew on my fingers -- taking it out on me seems to make them feel better and keeps them still, so who am I to argue? Second, use warm water, not too hot, not too cold -- it sucks for them as it is, might as well make it as comfortable as possible! When you're done, wrap them in a towel and again try to keep them still, using the towel. This is a good time for comforting, petting with another towel to dry them off, feeding with treats, etc. I don't recommend using a hair dryer because it usually freaks them out (does mine) unless maybe you have a quiet one. Brush 'em out too, this helps calm them (if they like being brushed, that is, if not, you might want to wait until the cat starts to forgive you before you attack them with that semi-trauma :D ).

But usually, you shouldn't need to give a cat a bath. When the waste thing happens on our longhaired cat, we can usually get it off by holding her down and still and getting it off with a wet paper towel and a comb -- disgusting, but effective. If you get the majority of it off, the cat should get the rest. To try to prevent the whole thing from happening though, you can trim the fur back there so it is less likely for anything to get stuck, and finally, if you use clumping cat litter, that sometimes makes it worse, so keep that in mind if it's a continuing issue, you might want to change cat litter... if the cat doesn't freak out about that too, they're awfully picky...

Best of luck with that. You shouldn't need to bathe your cat too often, if ever again; regular brushing is usually the best substitute for a bath and usually all a cat really needs. I've never heard of these wipes other answerers have mentioned, but I'd give them a shot! If nothing else works, you might just want to call a groomer and save yourself some pain. :D

Answer 8

There is a type of wet wipe for cats and dogs you can use. Can't recall what the brand name is right now. We've used them before on one of our cats who has 'bowel issues'. Much, MUCH better to bathe a cat with those than having to go to the ER to get that blood transfusion!

Answer 9

I had a cat with ringworm and had to bathe him every day and leave the suds on for 15 minutes. boy was that a pain! you can buy stuff at WalMart that cleans an animal without using water.

Answer 10

ask the vet am sure there is a shampoo that you just rub on the cat because cats hate water and the vets are the best people to ask has they deal with many animals good luck with fairy freind