AIBU not to shower my cat?

[Eltonjohnssyrup]

Met with friend and FOF yesterday. Conversation turned to pets. Both have bog standard short haired domestic cats.

Both of them said that every couple of months they shower their cats. Someone holds it and they spray it with the shower. They are both adamant that this is perfectly normal and cats will tolerate it.

I've always been under the impression that cats are entirely self cleaning and this is not necessary and possibly a bit cruel. They insist not to do it is manky.

AIBU or are they? (I have tried very hard not to make any Mrs Slocombe type jokes).

The only time I showered my cat was when she got black oil stuck in her coat and I didn't want her to get sick from trying to clean herself. It was every bit the ordeal you would imagine! She hated it, poor thing.

Self cleaning unless they are hairless.

I’ve only had one cat who I had to bath. A Tom cat had sprayed him vom.

But he was really odd - he loved it. He used to sit out in the rain. I used to bathe his regularly as he didn’t get the hang of self cleaning. I really miss him.

The others. Just no. I already have enough scars and scratches.

I'd never volunteer to wash or shower or bathe a cat unless absolutely necessary.
I've had to wash one of my cats quite regularly. He now sort of tolerates it with an aggrieved air. But it's only when he's had an accident, he is of an overly nervous disposition and has a tendency to sh*t himself when scared.

His sister on the other hand, is small, fat and with a personality that makes washing her a no go. I tried once when she was a kitten and had got into some manure (it was a bad experience).

When my long haired cat gets a squishy poo stuck to his fur, we have to snip it off. Then he goes bottom first into a tub of water. No injuries usually, I think he understands that we need to take extraordinary measures occasionally. Then I blow dry his wet fur, which he adores, vain creature :)

But cats certainly don't need baths usually.

I've only even bathed a cat who had a skin condition.
We also had a very elderly cat who needed some help keeping clean but that was a flannel job.

Our cat also gets engine oil on him. Best removal way is to rub butter into the oil and then blot with kitchen roll. Honest it works!

I've asked the cat if she'd like a shower. She didn't look impressed. I think I'll leave it. I like all my limbs where they currently are.

Yanbu

I only ever showered my cat once in his 12years of life when he fell in a neighbour's algae filled pond. He didnt come near me for hours!!!

I have one self-cleaning cat. The second cat, however, is very capable of cleaning his arse and a small patch on one side - these he does repeatedly - but that's it. The rest is cleaned by the first cat, but when cat2 comes in smelling of fox shit even cat1 gives up and that's when cat2 gets a wash from me.

I used to bath our first cat, and I regret it. It didn't know it wasn't necessary and she hated it. All that trauma for nothing really. Unless a cat has rolled/fallen in something and they must be bathed, or it's vets orders, they are best left to do their own grooming.

I tried, he clawed up my bare arms, clawed over my shoulders and clawed down my back. He weighs 5kg and has claws like knives.

I have three cats...

My princess would kill me if I so much as tried to get her even slightly wet.

Gentle boy probably wouldn't mind, but I've never done it as it's unnecessary.

Rough tough boy sometimes has to be spot cleaned (he's an adventurer, so oil, grease, chemicals, paint, cat poo, blood, vomit... Bleurgh). Sometimes he'll actively seek me out for help! The worst I've ever reluctantly done is bath half of him. It was 100% necessary, but traumatic for both of us. He didn't speak to me for days!

In summary: I feel cats are self-cleaning. I actually think bathing them (unless absolutely necessary) is cruel. Plus it's sure to damage owner/cat relationships!

I had one cat who had a skin condition, we used to bathe him.

He was the most docile, gentle cat ever, but still nearly slit my throat in his panic to get out one time........

I would hate to have to bathe a larger, less docile cat.

Only other times I've washed cats is if they've had injuries or some kind of diarrheal incident. None of those times have ever been fun for me or the animal. Nor have I had friends who wash their cats.

If I tried to shower my cats I know who would come off worse. Cats clean themselves all the time. The only time I've had to wash a cat was when my little one had an access and it burst, puss and blood all down her. It's was horrific she was climbing up my dh trying to get away, I was nearly throwing up cause of the smell of death coming from her. I never want to go near her with water again, my dh looked like he'd being mauled and she wouldn't come near us for weeks.

Abcess not access

We have 6 cats and haven't ever bathed any of them until recently when one knocked over a bottle of perfume oil and most of it landed on the cat asleep on the dressing table underneath. Because it was oil I daren't take any risks and used baby shampoo all over his fur and had to get DH to hold him down. It was an unmitigated disaster, there are gouges in the sides of my bath from his giant claws, DH was bitten to the point of needing a tetanus and the cat hasn't spoken to me in a fortnight.

If cats were meant to shower God wouldn't have given them bendy backs and spiky tongues to clean themselves with.

Dogs, on the other hand, are dirty skiprats and ours smells like a toilet this week after discovering she loves the taste of cat shite from the litter tray. Dogs should be showered daily. Sometimes hourly.

I had to bathe the rear end of my long haired cat once; he still remembers it! I have asked him if he would like a shower today, and he narrowed his eyes in an unaffectionate manner and tested my internal organs for later.

We bath our Siberian once a year, as her hair goes really mental just before she moults and invariably gets poo stuck in her tail and chaps.
It's a 2 person job and she shouts at us for days afterwards.

I did bath my cat a few times. She was a rescue, came to me at six weeks and was absolutely riddled with fleas. She never seemed to mind but we switched to flea drops as soon as she was big enough.

Cats generally don't need to be bathed, exceptions being if they have a skin condition that requires medicated shampoo; if they've had a really catastrophic (no pun intended) poo/vomit/bleeding incident that can't just be spot washed; or if they've come into contact with something toxic and/or impossible to remove from their fur. We generally recommend that owners of long haired cats get them used to having regular 'hygiene trims' around the back end to avoid poo sticking issues. Makes life more pleasant for cat and owner.

I once had a feline patient come in who was covered, and I mean covered, in tar. Owner had no idea how, they must have been resurfacing a road nearby or something. Luckily the cat managed to get himself home as by the time they got him to us it had set and he could barely move; we had to knock him out, shave him back to the skin where we could and then the rest had to be removed by repeatedly bathing him over the course of the next few days. Fortunately he was a very stoic cat and coped well with the baths and with the buster collar he had to wear to stop him licking himself until it was all off.

There are always exceptions though; a colleague has a Turkish Van who is absolutely obsessed with water. She miaows to get into the shower, tries to lie in the sink under a running tap, and will sit in the bath and in a paddling pool in the summer for hours.

My sister has a cat like that. He's a ragdoll cross and try to get in the bath with you.

No because I value the skin on my arms. And my eyesight. And my face.

Its simply cruel to shower or bath a cat, your friends are idiots.

We had a longhaired cat who wasn't ours for a long while, (badly neglected, owners eventually moved and left him behind at which point he became officially ours) and we showered him occasionally when he had something unidentified but manky on him.

His brother, who their owners took with them when they moved, we showered once because he was absolutely filthy and unable to clean himself when he had cat flu.

We found a very pretty but elderly little tortoiseshell cat with multiple health problems. We showered her once because her fur was full of flea dirt and it was causing to much irritation for her to tolerate being combed or brushed.

And that's it for bathing cats, personally I like my arms being in one piece.

Our big, lovely, silly sod of a black tom cat we have now has been known to get in the shower with me, and has even paddled in the bath, but he's not too bright and it's his own choice.

We do involuntary showers with our daft Maine Coon. He dips both paws over the side of the bath and sticks his face in the spray to drink it. And dries off on our bed if we are not quick enough to close the door!

Otherwise, hell no. It would have to be a creosote coating or similar to push me to bath any cat.