Calling all Maine Coon owners

[SarahBeth9394]

I have a beautiful Maine Coon cat. He is a real sweetheart. But as you know he gets hair mats on his chest in between his front legs. I brush him a couple times a week. I have used a comb and scissors to cut some of it away. But he hates when I do that and I can only do it for about 3 minutes at a time before he has had enough. My hubby wants to buzz him where the mats are. I'm not sure I want to do that and the only way to do it would be to tranquilize him. He would flip out at the buzzers.

So what do yall do to help with the mats?

 

[texasgirl]

Other than brushing daily there is not really any other way to control the matting. Just try brushing him daily instead of a few days a week.
FWIW an experienced cat groomer or the vets office could probably handle him well enough to give him a belly shave without sedation. You might be surprised.

 

[dkluzier]

Maybe you could try some children's hair detangler or conditioner to soften it up before combing out.

 

[TriciaHowe]

My maine coon is a pain to brush and I end up having to cut out any mats. She gets them on her hind end area too if we don't keep it trimmed. Then she gets poop dangles

Guess who gets to clean it.

 

[katrinag]

When we had our Maine Coon I took her to get her tummy shaved. She would let you brush her but not her tummy. It was the best $15 I ever spent.
If you have a good vet they can give you something to calm her down in order to deal with the mats.

 

[Dorothy1324]

I just spend a couple of minutes (that is all my guy will allow) and brush and cut out the mats i do this a couple of times a week.

 

[StupidBird]

My experience with trying to condition out the mats before combing only seemed to make it worse. "felted" as in made the fur into felt. Maybe I did something wrong. Several times a day I had to work on a mat in the fur before I'd get one gone. Seemed to be more a problem the older the cat got.

 

[insiderart]

We got our a "lion cut" each summer. But he was a love, I could even do it myself. But at the vet they will sedate him to do it.

 

[redhen]

I hear ya! I have a hard time keeping up with my persians coat also. Sometimes she lets me cut and clip them out and sometimes i have to hold her down and just do it...usually when she starts to struggle alot i just leave her alone for a day..then go at it again. If i were you i'd just get her shaved down in the bad spots...and then it will be easier to keep them up after that. My mother gets hers shaved in a lions cut..its adorable! MAybe try that? good luck.

 

[pixie12]

We tried many times clipping our poor girl with scissors and that made her really mad, she scratched us a lot - even though she felt better after. Well, one day she had a little accident and there was muck and mats on her backside - she really didn't like for us to get near that area with the scissors - who can blame her?? Anyway, I filled the bathtub w/ about 3 inches of warm water, and placed her in there. She cried a lot, but for whatever reason, did not try to jump out or scratch. She was, for whatever reason, afraid to bring her paws out of the water. I cleaned and clipped her in no time flat!! She looked weird, like a sculpture, because the cut was uneven but she felt great!