gave Helga a bath!

Helga is an abandoned Persian that was diagnosed with chronic renal failure. She will remain a Love Kuching foster cat while she receives her treatments for her illness funded by donations from the public.

Helga will be having visitors tonight! So we gave her a bath, complete with conditioner. She had been smelling funky, almost like a dog, so a bath was definitely timely. Her ear infection has cleared up so it is safe to bathe her and she will be also getting her Revolution spot-on treatment later.

After her shower, we blow-dried her, and cleaned her ears to remove any water that might get in, to prevent another re-occurrence of an ear infection. Blow-drying is quite important for a longhaired cat, because moisture gets trapped within the hard to reach areas like the belly and behind each leg, which will make the cat sick and the fur matted. When she was dry, we combed out her fur - with metal combs, two sizes to use depending on how matted the fur- teasing out any matted areas or clipping them away since we do not have a de-matting tool. We also cleaned her facial area - eyes and nose - with a moistened cotton pad.

Regular grooming for her will be daily brushing and combing to keep her fur nice and show-quality like. It would help if we had grooming powder - which helps absorb oils and makes it easier to comb through matted fur - but we don't. In a pinch I use a flea and tick powder instead. Baby powder would suffice since grooming powder is hard to find, but we don't have any in the house.

For longhaired cats, apart from metal combs and the occasional de-matting tool, it is recommended that a soft bristle brush be used for general grooming instead of a slicker brush. We don't have one yet, but we will get one for her soon. Her fur is not totally full grown yet as she had her fur clipped not too long ago, so she doesn't need the bristle brush now.