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Clipping Your Cats Nails For Proper Cat Grooming

BrightCare Veterinary Group

Being a cat owner is a wonderful experience; they give lots of love and are wonderful companions. In reality, in ancient civilizations like the Egyptians over 5000 years ago, cats were the Pharaon pet because they were considered magical creatures.

Cats brought good luck to the people who housed them. Many wealthy Egyptians of the age used to honor cats with treasures, while others dressed them with jewels and give them feasts fit for a king.

Today cats don’t have these magnificent considerations, or do they? In any case, one thing is clear, having a cat is sometimes a synonym for getting back home from work and finding your furniture ripped thanks to destructive clawing.

Therefore, you must take appropriate care of your meowing pet and make a schedule to trim the nails every fourteen days. You can also take your cat to get trimmed at the groomer, but doing so often is costly, so we don’t recommend it.

Here we bring you some advice for safely and happily getting rid of those destructive overgrown nails and having a healthy cat while enjoying sitting on a well-kept sofa with your pet.

Recommendations to Safely Clip Nails

You might want to follow several recommendations in order, or you might just feel confident nail trimming and skipping some of them. Whether you feel confident enough or not, here we include a shortlist of things to do to start trimming your cat’s nails.

Get the Appropriate Tools For the Job

The first thing you must do is get the appropriate tools to do the job smoothly. When the claws are long and curly, you can use clippers for cats, a scissor clipper, you can also use a human nail clipper or a guillotine clipper.

Get Your Feline Friend Acquainted With the Clippers

You can spend some time showing your cat the clippers and making them feel them by gently passing them through its hair as if you were petting your cat, making her feel tickled.

You can do this for a week before doing the hard work. Your cat will get accustomed to the clippers, and everything should be just fine.

Preparing Yourself And Your Cat

The first thing you need to do is get to a calm place. Maybe, you want to drink a glass of wine and listen to some soft music while you feed your cat pet. Once she is finished and maybe not alert, get her on your lap and start caressing her.

Get Acquainted With The Quicks

Once you are both relaxed, you can softly take her paws and observe your cat’s quicks one by one. If you are a newbie and don’t know what they are, they are the pink color that goes in the center of clear nails; just avoid cutting the quick; we will revise this shortly.

Start Clipping

Now that you identified the quicks, start clipping a nail at a time. When clipping, try not to do so more than 1/16th of an inch, stop, and have ready her favorite treats. You both will get familiarized with the process as you continue.

Make a Nails Trimming Schedule

Practice makes the master. After trimming your cat’s nails a couple of times, you can fix a schedule for every two weeks. Your cat will be happy to find this relaxing time that you can share together, and she is delighted with the treats.

Take A Rest

But also, at times, trimming a cat’s nails might become an extenuating process. Being a pet parent is sometimes hard, especially if your cat has some behavioral issues, And you have trouble getting her to act as you want. Cats sometimes have a difficult personality. If you feel your cat is tired and anxious, stop and find another moment to continue.

What is a Cat’s Quick?

The quick is the connective part or tissue that is full of nerves and blood vessels.

Why Is It Important To Avoid Clipping the Quick?

This is why learning how to cut your furry friend’s nails is so important. Clipping the quick is painful, she might bleed, and you might get your cat resentful towards you.

What Should I Do if I Cut the Quick by Accident?

You can get some styptic powder ready before each session, and if an accident occurs, you will be ready to dab some product on your cat’s paw and claw.

However, if you are not ready, don’t rush; just keep calm and slowly get the styptic powder and gently pour it over the affected claw to reduce the bleeding. You can call us at Brightcare Animal Emergency, and we will prepare everything to receive you and your cat.

At Brightcare Animal Emergency Veterinary Care, we serve Ladera Ranch With Emergency Care for your Cat

Whether you clip your cat’s nails reaching the quick and you get desperate, or your little cat suffers from a neurological anomaly and requires intervention, you can count on the specialists at Brightcare Animal Emergency to soothe the trauma or to save your kitten’s life. Our emergency area is open 24 hours a day.