Pet grooming guide

Pet grooming care for your cat’s coat is very important as this aids in the removal of loose and discarded undercoat, prevents hairballs, improves circulation, prevents parasitic infestations, is a good bonding experience and promotes frequent health checks. Different breeds require varying types of grooming. Some need brushing and combing daily, others less often. Most cats spend a large part of their day grooming themselves.

Start getting your kitten used to being groomed from a very young age and slowly increase the amount of time you spend grooming your kitten until it is quite happy to allow you to brush it. Soon the kitten will love being groomed and will come to see it as part of its daily routine. If you approach grooming as a chore then so will your cat.

When you are grooming your cat don’t forget to check its ears, nose, mouth, eyes, nails and feet. It is also a perfect opportunity to check it over for any bumps and lumps. Check the skin by parting the hair, to see if your cat has any skin problems such as fleas or any red, sore or inflamed areas that may require treatment.

A cat’s hair can be short or long with different degrees of coat type within these two types. You will need to give the coats of long haired cats a lot of attention, brushing them at least once every day. Use a wide toothed comb to remove any dead hair. When you find a knot or matt in the fur, separate it with your fingers, gently and slowly from the root up. Try not to resort to scissors, but if you have to cut into the middle of the knot and try to loosen it again by hand. You may have to have a very matted cat shaved by a veterinary surgeon under general anaesthetic or sedation. If you decide that you would like a long haired cat then you need to be completely sure that you are willing to put in the time pet grooming it. Far too frequently these cats have to attend the vet’s because their coats are matted.

You won’t need to spend anything like as long pet grooming a short haired cats as the long haired varieties and you will probably only need to comb the cat thoroughly once a week. Use a short toothed comb or a rubber brush to remove the dead hairs. Some short haired cats have delicate coats and skin so be cautious when using combs and brushes that you are not damaging the cat in any way.

Loosen dead hairs by hand before you begin to use a brush or comb on your cat. Run your fingers through the fur in the opposite direction to the way to the hair grows. This stimulates the skin’s natural oils to give a nice, healthy shine to the fur. After doing this then you can use the pet grooming equipment best suited for your cat’s coat type.

It is really not necessary to bath a cat as, if it has been thoroughly and correctly groomed, the natural oils in the cats fur will always give it a shiny gleam. Bathing a cat will only make matts and knots worse, making the fur totally unmanageable.

If your cat has a specific skin complaint or is suffering with fleas that traditional remedies can’t clear the ensure that you use shampoo that is suitable for your cat’s skin. Use a specific cat shampoo bought from a pet store. These cat shampoos are easier to rinse out and make less lather. Make certain that you wet the coat completely before adding the shampoo.

When pet grooming, first secure your horse up and then pick out its hooves. After this you can begin your horse grooming at the poll region on the left side and slowly work back over the whole body. Repeat on the other side. Initially, use a rubber or plastic curry comb (depending on your horse’s coat type) to remove mud and scurf . Then use the body brush and curry comb. Always use a body brush on your horses mane and tail if it is fine or pulled.

A curry comb or grooming mitt.
The purpose of a curry comb is to break up clumps of mud and remove loose hair. It is made from rubber or plastic with short teeth on one side. It is the first of several brushes used when pet grooming a horse’s coat. Use a rubber curry comb on finer, clipped or summer coats, for removing mud, sweat or scurf. They are also good for massaging and removing hairs when losing winter coats. Use the massager sets in a similar way, the one with the spikes for very coarse long winter coats and the finer one for finer, clipped or summer coats. Use plastic curry combs on coarser and winter coats. Plastic curry combs are excellent for brushing off mud and can also be used on thick manes. Don’t use curry combs or massagers on legs or sensitive areas. Metal curry combs are for cleaning the body brush.

A body brush with fairly stiff bristles.
A body brush is wide and flat with a strap across the back and short vegetable fibres. Use this after the curry comb to shine and polish your horse’s coat. The body brush is the main pet grooming brush. It is generally used for cleaning the coat, removing scurf and dust, and for brushing out the mane and tail. The close-set hairs of the brush are designed to reach right through the coat to the skin beneath, lifting and removing dirt and creating a shine. Use brief, circular strokes over the body, finishing each stroke in the direction of the lay of the hair. Use this in conjunction with a metal curry comb – after several strokes of the body brush draw the brush across the teeth of the curry comb to remove the dirt. You could also use a rubber or plastic curry comb to keep your body brush clean.

A mane and tail comb.
Use a wide-toothed plastic or metal comb on horses with short, pulled manes. You can also use the mane comb to pull the mane. Use a dandy brush for long manes and tails. Particularly long manes and tails on show horses are often picked out by hand to avoid breakage of the hairs. Plastic combs cause less breakage than metal ones.

Grooming rag or towel, also called a Stable Rubber.
To give a final polish to a horse’s coat use linen, towelling or comparable type of cloth. You could also use it after a ride to help get rid of sweat.

A hoof pick.
Hoof picks are used by moving downwards from heel to the toe, dislodging anything that has caught on the point of the pick. Next clear the cleft of the frog. Check shoes for any wear or risen clenches. It saves time if you teach your horse to pick up his feet.

A clean sponge or soft cloth.
When brushing your horses head, put his headcollar around his neck but make sure that he is in a place that he can’t move around in very much. Use one hand to keep his head steady and gently brush the face with the other, avoiding eyes and going gently on sensitive areas. Pay plenty of attention to the ears, gullet and lower jaw. Finally gently sponge clean the eyes, and then the muzzle and nostrils. Keep a second sponge for the final phase of pet grooming, to clean round and under the horses dock.

How to clip your dog’s nails.

Nail clipping is a very important pet grooming routine that needs to be carried out a couple of times per month. If you don’t clip the nails then your dog could start to suffer from in-growing toenails and infection, which would then require expensive medical treatment.

A dog’s nails should be long enough to just about reach the ground but without making a clicking sound as they walk.
Start by purchasing some specialist dog nail clippers from a pet store. They will be able to give you good advice on what to look for and how to use them.

Trim a very small piece from the end of the nail and keep trimming until you can see the quick of the nail (this will be the pink bit on a dog with white nails but you will need to look more carefully on dogs with dark nails as the quick can be difficult to see). Once the quick has been seen then use a nail file to smooth the edges.

If you do accidentally cut the quick then be warned, it can bleed quite a lot. Use some cotton wool to stem the flow and then leave any clot that has formed.

Don’t forget the claw that is slightly up the back of the dog’s leg, though this will need trimming during pet grooming much less often as it doesn’t get worn down very much.

How to get rid of ticks.

Ticks are a severe irritation to animals as they cause redness, swelling and itching. It is very important to make tick removal a regular part of your pet grooming routine as, as well as the above mentioned problems, they also introduce harmful bacteria into your pet. When removing a tick it is very important that, as well as the body, the head is also removed.

There are a lot of myths surrounding the removal of ticks from animals, such as covering it in petroleum jelly to stop it breathing or holding a hot needle to it to make it withdraw its head. These methods are more likely to cause the tick to release more bacteria into the wound.

It is very important that, when removing the tick, you don’t squeeze the body at all as this will push the bacteria into your pet. For this reason you need to start with the appropriate pet grooming equipment for the job. Proper tick removers are a better option than tweezers which may squeeze the body if you are not very skilled!

The tick needs to be grasped right where its head is entering your pet (this way you won’t accidentally squeeze the body) and pulled straight out. Do not twist as you pull unless you are using a special tool that specifically tells you to twist.

The final part of this pet grooming process must be to check that the head is completely out and to then apply plenty of anti-septic lotion.

Just as Santa Clause does, when it comes to choosing the perfect garage storage cabinets, you want to have a list and be checking things off twice in order to make sure you are getting everything you need from the product. There are so many choices in terms of materials, features and cost that the process can be overwhelming when doing a cleanup of your garage space. Once you have narrowed down the type of material you want, whether it is wood, plastic, metal or some other type of substance, the next key elements are the features.

When it comes to finding the right type of garage cabinet, you have three choices when it comes to the bottom side. You can either go with a flat surface, with wheels, or with legs. Each of them has their own unique set of pros and cons to which option is better for you.

Wheels are typically frowned upon by garage storage experts because they create some issues in terms of movement and look. Even if you have a cabinet with locking wheels, there can still be some movement to the unit if it is bumped. Larger cabinets typically will need to be secured to the wall to remove the risk of them toppling over due to weight so in that case wheels are definitely not an option. The only scenario that you might have wheels on a cabinet is if it is used for tool storage and you need it to be mobile to work on projects around the garage or used for your car.

Having legs on the bottom of the cabinet reduces some of the space that can be used underneath for additional storage. If you do go with legs, you want to make sure that they are adjustable in case your garage floor is uneven. The ability to raise or lower the legs will ensure that you cabinet is even and less likely to tip over. It also helps to keep the cabinets neatly aligned so one is not sticking up higher than the rest of them.

Whatever choice you pick for your garage cabinets can work well for you, you just need to be aware of some of the potential problems before making your purchase. Just like with most products you buy, each choice comes with some negatives and positives.

Even though vets and the American Heartworm Society recommend that all pet owners use a heartworm preventative year round, many people do not.  The key reason is the high cost of using the most well known brands of heartworm pill or medicine.

But you do not need to be paying a lot for your dog’s heartworm medicine if you know where to find cheap heartworm pills.  There is a wide choice of different medications available to prevent the disease and all are guaranteed to be 100% effective if used correctly so you don’t need to use the big brand your veterinarian suggests.

The easiest way to save money on these pet medicines is to look for generic products such as Nuheart or Valuheart.  These  are based on Heartgard and use ivermectin to keep your pet free from the heartworm parasite.

Another option is to find discount supplies of popular products such as the Heartgard Plus Chewable tablets.  Online pet medicine outlets often stock these at exceptionally low prices, achieved by the sheer bulk of orders they process.

When using on-line pet medication suppliers you also get the chance to make savings by purchasing certain heartworm pills without needing a prescription.  This is done legally by purchasing from Canadian suppliers that are permitted to sell many of the most popular forms of heartworm prevention without the need for an RX.

Buying the largest pack sizes you can afford will also allow you to save money on your dog’s medication.  But whilst I would recommend buying twelve month supplies for example you do need to bear in mind the expiry date on any medications so can usually not buy much more than enough for a year or two.

Some people suggest buying medications designed for the largest dogs and then splitting the tablets to reduce the dose given to your pet.  I would never recommend this as firstly it would be very easy to overdose your pet and secondly you could give too little medication as the concentration of medicine may not be equal through the whole tablet.

There can hardly be a cat owner anywhere who has not dreamed of having their cat use the toilet.  While it is true that there are a great many innovative new cat litter boxes, these boxes still have to be changed to one degree or another.  Regardless of how often they are cleaned or changed, there will still be some odors attached to them.  However, a very new type of cat toilet has been developed that can actually free the cat owner from nearly every aspect of cat box care.

The CatGenie Self-Flushing Cat Box is a high tech litter box that sits on your toilet.  Knowing how important scratching after going to the bathroom is to cats, the makers of this cat box have filled the bowl with washable, permanent granules.  Hooked up to your cold water tap, this cat box will free you from the task of ever changing a cat litter box again, or handling cat waste products at all.

After your cat has used the CatGenie, the liquid waste is flushed away while any solids are removed and also turned to liquid for easy disposal.  A device called the GenieArm will then descend upon the bowl, swirl the granules around while they are being washed and disinfected, then withdraw.  Hot air is blown over the granules to dry them, and the toilet is ready for the next use by your cat.  A replaceable cartridge holding the cleaning solution and disinfectant will provide for at least 120 flushes.

This product is somewhat expensive, but a somewhat similar product, the CatSeat Cat Toilet Training Seat is another alternative that the frustrated cat owner might like to try.  This seat also fits over the toilet, but relies on the cat using the toilet in basically the same way that a human does.  The cat will need to be trained to use this seat, and it is suggested that this seat be placed over the regular litter box for a period of several weeks.  This will allow the cat to become accustomed to it.  After the cat has accepted the seat, it can be moved onto your toilet for the cat to use there.

Not every cat will be able to adapt to using either of these cat toilets, some cats are more confident or more intelligent than others.  A timid cat might never be able to adjust to using these seats, but for most cats and their owners, these seats provide a way to eliminate the cat litter boxes in your home and provide for a cleaner and more germ-free environment.