Shedding cats and ice cream

Dear Fisher,

I’ll get straight to my issue. I am so sick of hearing, “Chuck you are shedding so much!” That’s always followed by the “I thought short hair cats would shed less than long hair cats, and you shed twice as much as Angel.”

Well there you have it. We have a Chuck and an Angel. So who do you suppose the sweet one who never gets into trouble is? Angel is my long-haired housemate who joined us a few years ago. Somehow her shedding isn’t as abundant as mine. I don’t think I can do anything about my shedding, but if you have any answers, I’d sure love to hear them. Thanks!

Chuck

Dear Chuck,

The age-old question of who sheds the most – long-hair cats or short-hair cats has never been resolved. We are all so individual and there are several factors involved in the why and how much a cat will shed. For example, as you grow older, you naturally tend to shed more. As cats age, their skin becomes drier and sometimes even scaly. Your fur may not be as shiny and may even tend to fall out in bunches. Baldness may become more prominent, especially on your belly. Your humans can make a quick check of your skin. If any of these symptoms seem extreme, you must seek the advice of your veterinarian. It could be normal aging, but there could be an underlying problem.

Your humans are likely not mad at you and knew that shedding fur is normal for any cat when they invited you into their home. Change comes to all living beings as they age – even them. As you grow old together, they may be getting a little more irritable and you may be getting a little more prone to sloughing off dead fur. Also with age comes diminished eye sight. For you, not so bad, but for your humans who do not readily see the extra amounts of cat hair floating around, finding a few pieces in their half-eaten bowl of ice cream could lead to a scolding.

There are no procedures to totally eliminate shedding, but there are some simple routines that can help. You need to keep grooming daily in order to help your situation. If you have slacked off, you need to get back on schedule. Your humans, of course, can lend a hand so you will all live happily every after. Here are some tips:

• Do not give you too many baths. Good news for you! You could become more anxious every time you hear a faucet drip, hence more hair falling out.
• Do not feed cats table scraps. Bad news for you. Eating table scraps can push the limits of a cat’s digestive system which can lead to unhealthy skin – and more shedding.
• Brush your pets regularly (learn more about brushes and combs from
Healthy Pets.)

I would like to leave this thought for both you and your humans: Shedding is a result of your having dead hair in you furry coat. It needs to either fall out in the ice cream bowl or all over the chair, or combed out with much civility. You of course can remove the dead hair with your very spiky tongue, but that leads us to another issue. It is called hairballs. We can discuss that at a later time. Not before my lunch.

Your friend,

Fisher

published in tbt Tampa Bay Out There weekend edition