12.1 Why is it important to look after my cat’s skin and coat?

To keep a healthy skin and a shiny coat, it is important to regularly brush your cat. Brushing allows to remove dirt and pests that could be hiding in its hairs and to detect potential injuries. It also helps to discard dead hair, which allows the skin to breathe and stimulates blood flow, which boosts hair regrowth. Finally, regularly brushing your companion enables you to untangle the undercoat from the coat, and most of all to avoid knots. In certain cases, it unfortunately becomes necessary to cut its knots, or even to shave the coat.

The cat’s own washing makes baths to some extent unnecessary. They help eliminating dead hair, foreign matter and certain pests. However, in certain cases this is not enough, and you need to find an alternative to help with untangling, the washing of a greasy substance on the hair or a persisting smell, to soothe a sensitive skin, treat potential skin infections, or to eliminate certain fungi. Certain cats like water and, in that case, you can use an appropriate shampoo but this is not true of the majority of cats! There are alternatives such as dry shampoos and sprays available.

It is necessary to use a shampoo or skin treatment for cats or dogs. Shampoo for humans, even for babies, are not at all adapted to your cat’s skin.

It is important to accustom your cat to brushing from a very young age in order to make this a pleasant moment for him. It needs to be perceived as a moment of complicity between the two of you.