Hello, brave soul.
As a former owner of a male Siamese who went into a sooty chimney in
search of a pigeon, and the bearer of scars from the same Siamese, I
understand your trepidation. I found this set of instructions on
Robin's FYI site at: <
http://www.robinsfyi.com/animals/cats/bathtime.htm >. I'm sure Robin
won't mind the verbatim quoting; but I encourage you to visit the
website for even more cautionary wisdom on the bathing of cats.
Before proceeding, Robin wisely encourages two possible alternatives:
a.) not bathing the cat at all.
b.) take the cat to a professional groomer.
If these alternatives simply won't work, Robin recommends the
following:
“If at all possible have a second person helping. (4 hands are better
than 2)
Trim claws before bathing. (just in case, he becomes upset)
Go to the pet shop and buy Kitty shampoo if possible. (baby shampoo is
for babies, kitty shampoo is for kitties)
Grab some big thick towels, a couple of wash cloths, couple of cotton
balls, and some mineral oil
Remove all breakables from bath room. (I'll let you figure out the
reason for this.)
Decide if you are going to use the tub or sink. This may depend on the
size of your cat, and the size of the sink. Some people use the
kitchen sink, but I don't suggest it too many dangers, and he might
try to escape.
If you are using the tub, placing an old window screen in the bottom
tilting up toward the back will help. Your cat wont be standing in
soapy water, he will less likely to slip, and if he decides to escape
he will go up the screen instead of your arm and shoulder.
Give kitty a good brushing, to remove loose hair.
Turn on the telephone answering machine, or take phone off hook.
Place a couple of drops of mineral oil into each eye. This will cut
down on irritation.
Place cotton balls in his ears, this will keep soapy water out of his
ears.
Gently place him in the sink or tub.
Turn on water slowly, keeping an eye on the temperature.
Do not spray or pour water over head, use a wash cloth.
After kitty has washed, and rinsed well.
Scoop him up in a towel, with only his head poking out.
Gently dry, him. If towel becomes too wet, grab the spare one.
You may wish to leave him in the warm bath room, until he is
completely dry. So people use a blow dryer, but I don't recommend it.
Many cats become hostel[sic] to it, also you must be careful not to
burn him.
Grab a cup of coffee, and pat your self on the back.
Let kitty out, and give lots of love."
There are "waterless" cat shampoos and wipes out there on the market.
I don't have any experience with them, but I suspect if the cat is
dirty enough that you're considering a full-fledged bath, the
waterless option may not be effective enough.
Robin's advice notwithstanding, my own experience in bathing a cat led
me to swear off EVER trying it again. The next time the cat got into
a mess, I put him on my balcony with a litter box and plenty of food
and water, and he eventually cleaned himself up enough to come in.
By the way, there are plenty of jokes going around on the Web about
bathing cats. I won't go there in Google Answers, but you'll find
most of them just by replicating my search in Google for this
question:
://www.google.com/search?q=cat+bath&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
I wish you great success! |
