There may be plenty of confusion across the matter of shedding and de-shed companies. Understanding why cats shed and the way we as groomers will help cat homeowners management shedding will assist you in higher servicing your feline shoppers. Once we are capable of clarify shedding to shoppers and supply them a wide range of choices, it develops belief and respect inside the groomer-client relationship.

Why Cats Shed

First, there’s a misunderstanding about why cats shed. There are a number of motive, however the shedding that homeowners principally discover (and the explanation behind the notorious “lion-cut season”) is triggered by the variety of hours of daylight. Folks are inclined to blame the warmth for shedding as a result of the hotter temperatures are often tied to the rise of daylight hours. And since people are extra negatively affected by warmth than daylight, they make the correlation with the warmth as an alternative of the variety of daylight hours.

My enterprise will observe a spring and fall shedding season proper once we begin pondering it’s “all the time gentle” or “all the time darkish” outdoors. When this remark is famous, we detect our trash filling up with extra lifeless coat from our common shoppers. 4 weeks later is once we begin getting complaints of shedding, and 6 to eight weeks later is when the pelt removals begin coming in.

One more reason cats shed is stress. Have you ever ever completed a groom, confirmed the cat to the proprietor and some hours later gotten a grievance that the cat is shedding all over the place? That could be a stress response. It may be triggered by how the proprietor caught the cat to get it to you, the automotive experience, the precise grooming course of, the journey house or what occurs instantly after the cat arrives house.

Felines also can shed resulting from non-grooming-related stressors. When a household has a major schedule change, home friends, goes out of city, will get a brand new member of the family or pet, or there are different interruptions to the feline’s every day routine, shedding will be triggered. 

Shedding is a pure organic course of. Generally we neglect that cats are mammals and that every hair follicle on a mammal goes by way of a pure progress, resting and shedding stage. (Some think about a fourth transitional stage when referring to hair progress.) The fundamentals of hair progress would require upkeep to maintain the coat that’s dropped in the course of the shedding stage from accumulating in a method that annoys the household or is harmful to the feline. Because of the cyclical nature of the expansion cycle, there’ll by no means be a one-step resolution to unravel shedding.

Whereas medical points also can trigger shedding, it’s extra frequent that the rise or lower of the variety of hours of daylight or stressors within the house setting is the basis of the shedding that the household is observing. Households ought to be inspired to debate shedding issues with their veterinarian. 

Why Shedding Wants Addressed

Most households want to reside with a cat that has their shedding below management. Folks don’t respect cat fur on their garments, furnishings or ground. And whereas shedding is an annoyance for people, it could trigger medical emergencies for the cat.

When a cat removes lifeless coat by licking their physique, the coat is digested. Digested coat has three choices: First it may be regurgitated as a “hairball;” second, the ingested coat is handed by way of the digestive system and will likely be noticeable within the fecal matter; and the final consequence is for the coat to trigger an inside blockage. And this can lead to a medical emergency. If cats with full blockages resulting from ingesting coat shouldn’t have surgical procedure, they are going to die. Whereas the household can not see the blockage forming, this drawback will be costly and lethal.

Additionally needless to say if any of the lifeless coat is trapped within the residing coat, or if the entire lifeless coat from one shedding episode isn’t eliminated, points like matting and pelting have a tendency to start. That is the purpose the place skilled assist will likely be wanted.

The Groomer’s Position

As groomers, we now have a number of methods to assist these households. Whereas nothing will cease the pure strategy of dropping lifeless coat, there are alternatives to regulate shedding. 

The primary possibility is clearly a lion lower. Lion cuts are nice for households that need to wait over 10 weeks between skilled grooming appointments. A four-to-six week lion lower schedule appears to present peace of thoughts to the households which have had a number of blockages surgically eliminated. When performing a lion lower to forestall shedding, be sure that the household understands that even a cat with a lion lower will shed because of the pure progress cycle of the hair follicle. 

A often scheduled, full-coat groom may even handle the quantity of lifeless coat discovered across the house and that’s being ingested by the cat. Relying on the genetics of the cat, this might be as usually as each two weeks to so long as each ten weeks. Breeds and mixes with brief, dense, effective coats, like some short-hair exotics, may solely have the ability to go two weeks between grooms for optimum shed management. Different short-hair breeds or mixes with much less dense and courser coats may have the ability to make it ten weeks earlier than shedding turns into an issue. 

Generally there will be confusion on what is supposed by a “full-coat groom.” I’m referring to a comb-out adopted by a water bathtub with two full shampooings, then using a pressure dryer till the coat is totally dry, concluding with a full comb-out. That is the minimal that’s wanted to regulate shedding. 

In my enterprise, de-shed companies are on prime of the full-coat groom. My de-shed add-on is a suction de-shed service. I like to point out my shoppers the worth by taking an image of their cat and the pile of coat I comb out on one aspect and the pile of coat I vacuum off on the opposite. This promotes the de-shed add-on and encourages shoppers to request the service at each appointment. 

The subject of shedding will be very complicated for everybody. When you perceive the fundamentals, you will be higher ready to coach your shoppers and assist them make the only option for his or her household and the cat they love. ✂️