Matted Fur Remedies

This was a big mistake to try this. I have an old cat with an oily back leg. I ended up cutting mats out.

Hi, had a badly matted cat, and tried the baby oil, I ended up with a greasy cat and made everything so much worse. it never loosened up the mat and I believe just attracted more dirt. Unfortunately this cat passed away (from old age hence the lack of grooming on her part), right before her appt with the groomer. the groomer wouldn't shave her in the winter, we tried to explain the problem but she insisited we had to wait. That's why we tried the baby oil.

I have another cat with a small but very hard sticky matt on her back by her tail. I will be trying the cornstarch, I have a wide tooth comb and deshedder..if it gets worse, it will be a trip to a knowledgable groomer.

NAY

It did not work. We left the baby oil on our Persian cat's severely matted fur for over 48 hours, and it did nothing whatsoever to help the problem.

I am wondering if the people who said that it worked allowed their cats to groom themselves freely after the baby oil was applied? I'm asking this because on another website, it mentions that baby oil is scented mineral oil, and that mineral oil will block the intestines when consumed.

So, we put a cone on our cat to prevent her from grooming and thereby consuming the baby oil.

In other words, the baby oil by itself does nothing. It's more likely that it is the constant licking the cats do to try to clean the baby oil off of themselves that actually pulls the matted fur out over 24-48 hours.

How is the health of any of the cats whose owners used this remedy? Did they encounter any problems from their cats consuming the baby oil?

I tried this method on my cat, Blondie. Unfortunately, it was not effective, and we have quite an oily mess to clean up. I'll be bringing her to our vet so he can remove the mats. :( Had hoped to avoid shaving her -- you know how self-conscious our cats are about their appearance.