Long haired cat - Matts!

[FluffyPersian]

We got our lovely Persian cat 2 months ago when he was 8 months old. We wipe his eyes daily and groom him daily to ensure his coat stays in good condition.

HOWEVER in the last 2 weeks, he’s started really badly matting on his stomach and by his arm pits and even upping the grooming to twice a day, we’ll stroke him and find a massive matt in his coat!

He’s an indoor cat, so doesn’t go out and get covered in crap and we’ve got a ‘ferminator’ brush, which should get to his undercoat properly. So far we’ve been doing a combination of trying to separate them with our fingers if they’re not too bad, cutting them out if they’re bad and using a ‘dematting’ brush (which looks like a scary implement with hooks!).

He’s very soft and lies on his back and wiggles his legs in the air, so we can get to his stomach every day, however I just CAN’T seem to stop the matts!

If you’ve got a long haired cat, have you experienced the same? Is there anything else I could possibly do to stay on top of the matts or is it that time of the year? I can’t remember my old Persian getting such bad matts so this is a new one for me!

BogBastard is a long thick haired Siberian. We've never had such a one before and he gets EPIC mats. Afraid we only got it sorted by booking him into a specialist cat groomer, from where he came back with about half as much coat as he started with after all the dead hair had been combed out

He hasn't matted up so badly since so we wondered whether part of the issue was him shedding his thick winter coat. The groomer recommended a comb rather than a brush so maybe try that? BogBastard is the soppiest thing on earth but grooming isn't super successful as about 30 seconds in he starts to eat the brush

We have a rescue cat with long hair, almost cotton wool like in places, I really didn't realise what we were taking on at the time.

She also goes outside and regularly comes in with half the garden attached to her in some way. Oh and loves rolling round in gravel on the driveway. Grrr.

She also hates being groomed and regularly gets small matts. When she gets them we put a comb underneath and then snip them off with scissors.

Just recently she got bigger matts underneath her armpits and we couldn't safely get them so took her to the vet to do. They combed her through properly and shaved a couple of small bits. It was £18 very well spent.

Both this vet and a previous vet nurse recommended a comb rather than brush for her, which we are trying to get her used to but It is a very slow process.

Of course her short haired brother is fine with grooming and happily tolerates a furninator. But doesn't often need it typically.