# Trimming fur without electric clippers



## Woodsman (Jan 9, 2007)

Is there an easy way to trim a long haired cats fur without electric clippers? 

I want to try to keep my cat cooler in the summer. Last time the vet broke out the clippers it got pretty ugly. My cat turned from the sweetest kitty you could ever meet, into a vet tech shredding machine. 


thanks
Vrian


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

I wouldn't even attempt it myself. 8O 

Can your vet recommend a groomer that's good with "difficult" cats?


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

I do not think there would be any way to do it that wouldn't look like a hatchet-job. 
Ask the vet for a short acting tranquilizer? 
They used one on a feral cat who had collapsed on my back patio but was getting very agitated/aggressive and would not allow an exam until he was imobilized by the tranq. After he was tranque'd, they brought me a comb/brush and I was able to groom him and remove the knots from his coat.


I have a pair of hand-held horse clippers, you squeeze the two handles together and it moves the teeth/blades opposite of each other. I used them to hand-clip my horse's bridle path and muzzle whiskers. They did not work on fine kitty-hair.

*I would NOT recommend using scissors because it is *very* easy to pull the skin up into the cutting path of the scissors.
_When I clip Shasta, I do use scissors to just remove the long, whispy lengths of fur and I go back over it with clippers. My clippers will not clip through her fur until I had already removed most of the length. I don't know why...it shouldn't matter how long/short the fur is, the blades are still clipping near the skin. I think if I had 'better' clippers I wouldn't have that problem.
Luckily, Shasta is fine with the clippers. I close her into our tiny bathroom and I use a clothes pin on her scruff so I can use one hand on the clippers and the other to smooth her skin and ruffle-up her fur before the blades. The clothes pin acts like me scruffing her and she will just crouch in one spot and 'talk' to me with short meows until we finish._

Scissors:








This is about as smooth as scissors would allow:








After cleaning it up with the clippers:


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## Leazie (Apr 14, 2007)

If your kitty has a lot of hair you could try using thinning shears to get most of the bulk. I think it is safer to use and works well on the thick coat of my cocker spaniel. I have not used it on my cats.


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## Woodsman (Jan 9, 2007)

I would even attempt scissors because she is so squirmy. Her hair is super fine too, so they would have to be really sharp scissors.

I guess I can try to desensitize her. She loves treats, so I’ll try to get a some clippers and build some positive association.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

You know...you may not need to clip her at all.

I know you said you wanted to help her keep cool, but an animal's coat actually *does* that. Their fur prevents the sun from shining directly on their body, which would raise their internal temperature. _If you notice all of the blood vessels in a cat's ears, I think that blood flow helps to keept their ears cool when the sun is shining on them because they don't have fur to 'shade' the skin of their ears._ 
My cats are housecats and we have AC, linoleum, hardwood floors and tile areas for them to lay on cool surfaces if they wish. We also sometimes have box fans blowing, but I've never seen one of our cats lay in front of a fan, though they sometimes like to lay _behind_ the fan. 
If I felt a need to help them keep cool, I think I would prefer to shave their bellies so their bodies would still be protected from the sun but the shorter hair on their bellies would allow for closer contact with cooler surfaces.

I do not clip my long-hair cats to keep them cool. I clip them only when *I*  have not kept up with brushing and grooming and their fur has developed tangles and knots I cannot comb out. That has largely stopped being a problem since I purchased a curved razor-rake * to comb through the tangles. The inner side of the curved comb-tooth is sharpened to a razor sharpness and cuts through the mat as I comb. If I encounter a very stubborn knot I cannot comb out, I locate it on their body and remember it, then I keep an eye on the cat whenever I find it sleeping. If they are sleeping in such a manner that the mat is accessible, a quick snip with the scissors removes it. The next brushing session smooths the cut fur and blends it into the coat and it doesn't look bad at all.

* I am trying to find a link for the comb/razor I have. It was given to me and does not have a brand name stamped on it. It is white/off-white plastic, with a rubber grippy handle in gray and has about 4-5 curved metal teeth that look like wide claws. The inner curve is the razor edge.

Scroll to the very bottom of the page. The green one is similar to mine.
http://www.pet-shop.net/html/ccomb1.html
*Found it! It's called a "matbreaker"!*
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... 32.2767075


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