Thursday 22 January 2009

Gizmo Is Nekkid

My cats. My loves. The ones I would do anything for. Gizmo. My tabby girl. By furriest of all girls. Alas, in this particular summer Gizmo's fur has been causing her some issues. She sheds throughout the whole year, and has a very thick coat. I have long suspected she had a double coat. When you brush her, you get amazing amounts of fur out but there is still always more to come! She normally gets the odd furball in summer, but this year has been particularly bad... especially regarding what happens at the other end... too much fur. I am currently working on a paper doing a retrospective study of foreign body obstructions in cats, and furballs form quite a number of these. I have no desire for Gizmo to end up in my study and under the surgeon's knife. As such, I made the hard decision to... CLIP HER! Eeeep!

It was not a choice I made lightly. I love her fur. Even if it does end up everywhere. I love it. It is such a part of her. And now I was taking her to work with me to have it all removed. Well, except for her head, her tail and her booties. Of course.

I took Gizmo in to see her aunty Shelley (a nurse at work) to do the clip. I had Siti, another vet, anaesthetise her. I don't work on my cats. What follows below is the outcome...

FROM THIS:





TO THIS:





NEKKID!! Considering she is considered a shorthaired cat, she had an amazingly thick double coat. It took a while for the clippers to get through it all! And it all fell away and went in the bin. *sniffles*

Shelley did an excellent job, but Gizmo and I are both still getting used to it. I'm going to get a brush called a Furminator, which has a reputation as the best brush for getting rid of fur and under coat, for when it starts growing back in.

She's still perfect though :)

9 comments:

  1. Awwwwwww! Poor nekkid Gizmo!
    At first I thought the before shot was the 'after'~ she looked quite short haired to start with!
    Bless her! How does she feel about her new 'lion cut'?
    One of my Birmans, The Grey, is a master hairballer ~ a true professional (our other boy makes a bit more of a song and dance about it!). Not only does he ingest a lot of fur from grooming, but if I don't hoover everday he goes around eating any bits of fur off the carpets!(I despair at him). I worry about The Grey needing to have furball blockages surgically removed!
    We have a Furminator too~ when I first saw the demo video I thought they were shaving the cats and dogs! When I brush my boys with it it looks like I've sheared a sheep!
    Gizmo is still perfect >:oD

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  2. i used to have a persian that we cut like that because otherwise he had constant HUGE hairballs...they scared me to death, i always thought he was going to choke!

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  3. Oh poor sweet Gizmo podlet! Provide her with many snorgles from me!! I should look into the Furminator for Squeak - she's got ridiculously thick fur these days. I hope Gizmo settles into her new look!

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  4. Sorry I haven't been commenting! School holidays=kids=100+ posts to catch up on! Awww poor nude Gizmo!

    I totally understand though. Toby has long fur and Charlotte short, and she's always had a fur problem, but this year has just been a nightmare. She had to have a flushing out because she had such a bad furball a few months ago, and we have cat fur tumbleweeds that literally roll up the hallway when you open the front door and the breeze catches them. I never thought to have her clipped though! Maybe I'll try that brush you said was good. At the moment I brush and brush and brush and brush, but there's always more there!

    He still looks gorgeous though!

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  5. Aww, Gizmo looks cute! I'm sure having that haircut will keep her much cooler! Maya has a long hair and has been bringing up liquid/hairballs more often lately too.

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  6. Poor pudding. Can't help but giggle at the disconcerted look on her face though.

    I've given you a blog award :)

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  7. Thanks for the honorable mention Susan, and I still think she looks positively smashing with no hair. She actually was one of the best clip jobs I have done in a few weeks! She does not look too impressed in the photos though, but that must be bad lighting or something cause I know she thanked me before she left work that night! LOL

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  8. Awww. R-rated kitty!! Check out those fashionable booties!

    Poor kitty, but you did what was best for her and hopefully she will get used to it soon!

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  9. River - ROFLMAO... R rated kitty... Tee hee!

    Her stripes are already growing back in, and it hasn't even been a week yet! At this rate she'll be needing to visit Shelley again by the end of the month! She's so active now though, she's almost like a different Gizmo!

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