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What to do about cat dandruff?
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Posted by cnvh (My Page) on Wed, Apr 26, 06 at 23:17
| We have a short-haired black cat; her fur is extremely dense, however, and as she is a bit on the overweight side, she cannot (or will not) groom herself effectively all over. Hence, even though she is short-haired, she tends to get small matts in hard-to-reach places (like on the top of her back). Also, her skin/coat are somewhat oily, so she always looks a bit on the grungy side. Hubby and I go over her with a grooming brush occasionally, but generally not for lengthy periods-- usually until she gets bored with it and no longer stands still.
Anyway, before her annual vet checkup last month, I really went at her with a a grooming vengeance-- I gave her a bath (with cat shampoo), and after she was good and dry, I gave her a brushing the likes of which she never had before. I probably got a basketball-sized wad of hair off of her, by the time all was said and done-- like I said, she has a REALLY dense undercoat, which I thinned out pretty thoroughly.
The vet was pleased; he said I did a great job grooming her. She passed her checkup with flying colors, no problems found.
She's not a cat who enjoys excessive petting, so hubby and I usually just give her a stroke every now and then when she comes within reach, but yesterday, I was able to get in a good petting... and when I ran my fingers backward through her coat (I wanted to see how much of the undercoat had come back), I notised she has a SERIOUS dandruff problem-- I have never seen an animal so flaky, and quite frankly, it's pretty disgusting!
It doesn't seem to bother her; I never see her itching, and her behavior is the same that it's always been. But this dandruff is freaking me out!
What, if anything, can be done? Is there a shampoo I could use? Would grooming her more often HELP the problem, or make it worse? (I suspect the groom-a-thon I did prior to the vet visit triggered it, because I've had her for 6 years and NEVER saw it this bad before-- but I've never groomed her that intensely before, either.)
I've never seen anything like this... if it appeared to bother her, I'd have her to the vet in a heartbeat, but she isn't acting even a tiny bit unusual. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| Not grooming herself, overweight, oily hair, dandruff - don't care what the vet said - these are all signs of many internal problems in cats. I would have blood work done and then decide if everything still looks ok. If the lab work looks ok, maybe it is time to switch foods. |
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| She does groom herself, there are just spots she can't reach very well. And she goes to the vet annually, has been seen by three different vets since I've had her-- aside from the new onslaught of dandruff, her oiliness has always been an issue, and none of the vets has commented that it might be indicative of a problem. I'm suspecting that I overgroomed her, but I don't know if this is even possible. She's obviously not in any pain or discomfort, as there are ZERO behavior changes other than this eruption of dandruff, so I'm not inclined to spend a fortune in lab work at this point, if there are other options. |
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| It could be that her skin got a bit dry after the bath, after being used to being so oily then having those oils stripped away. Or it could be that the shampoo didn't rinse all the way out of the undercoat. Sometimes that happens with cats and dogs that have a real fine downy layer underneath. How you can tell if it is unrinsed shampoo, is...well...brace yourself....give the areas a good sniff LOL. You might want to get the area a bit wet first too and see if it lathers. Your cat will not like this one bit LOLOLOL. Other than giving your cat another good rinsing, you can comb the flakes out with a fine toothed comb (they are called flea combs here and they are plastic), which will also take out a lot of that undercoat as well. 
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RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| Haha... well the good thing about bathing her is, she's so rotund that she can't struggle as well as our other cat. I was able to hold her down on the floor of the tub with one hand and scrub away with the other. I hate to have to put her through that again, but if it has to be done, it has to be done. I will try brushing her again and give it a few days (after the dreaded sniff test, of course)... |
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| sunflower oil. It has linoic acid which is something that's good for cats. I've been using Natural Choice indoor for a couple of months now on my formerly flakey calico and this is the best she has looked and felt in her whole five years. Sometimes I put a bit of sunflower oil on her wet food. The sales rep said it would take about six months to see an improvement but I see it already. Let us know. |
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| Victoria, that is very interesting about the sunflower oil. Where would one get some? And is it meant mainly to go directly on the coat, or always in the food? I gave her a brushing last night, and it seemed to help with the big flakes, but there's still a lot of small stuff-- I probably just broke up what was already there, haha... Thanks everyone for your advice! |
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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You can get sunflower seed oil in health food stores and even at some grocery stores. Here is a link that explains why it helps.
http://www.thepetcenter.com/gen/fa.html Good luck! |
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| I just recently gave my cat a fierce brushing and literally got rid of a cat's worth of undercoat that was previously littering my house, but now he can a bad case of flakey skin, which he has never had before. Reading this post, I am thinking that it is from the intense brushing. I am wondering if your cat went back to normal a couple of days later. The cat doesn't seem bothered at all - he is his normal happy fatty self. |
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| Our Max had dandruff, it just showed more after brushing, that's all. Sunflower oil worked for him. Simba wasn't drinking enough water and had dry stools; sunflower oil worked for him too. We add half a teaspoon of the oil to their food every other day, and Max's dandruff hasn't reappeared, even after brushing. Pranjal |
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| Cat dandruff is a headache to me. I used many ways to cure it, and finally I got here and other web sites. Thanks for answers and the users. I am happy now I get cat dandruff fixed. This site is really helpful. User shared their valuable info. BTW, another web site I read helped me a lot too, so today I'll share here with you guys just like you did for me: http://catdandruff.blogspot.com What worked for me is to groom my cat regularly and add fish oil to her food, as suggested in the web site (a cat dandruff blog) above. |
Here is a link that might be useful: An Informative Cat Dandruff Web Site
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| Sorry, re-post the resource. That is the specific web page that helped my cat to get rid of cat dandruff. (see below web page link) Strange thing is, I can not post this page link into "Name of the link". The gardenweb web site here says: "invalid URL". Don't know why, so I post it here. But the web site is the same. I just list the specific page in that site that helped my cat dndruff:
http://catdandruff.blogspot.com/2007/10/cat-dandruff-what-that-is-really.html |
Here is a link that might be useful: Cat Dandruff
RE: What to do about cat dandruff? -re-post, sorry
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| Hey, I found out why, I put url in the name field. Re-do it with that specific page on cat dandruff... Sorry for the confusion. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Cat Dandruff
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| You can use people dandruff shampoo, per a vet I took my cat to years ago. |
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| Ask your vet about a product called DermCaps. |
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| severe dandruff on any critter usually means fur mites. Ivomec is in order imho. |
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| I think the advice on the immediate issue is good, but it sounds like the cat should be put on a diet? That would help the problem long term. I have two big cats (big boned) that were both put on diets this year. One lost 1.5 lbs and looks great - he is now at his ideal weight just under 16 lbs (he is a Maine Coon). The other lost about 2 lbs and also looks so much better (he started at 18.5 lbs). I took them off the prescription dry low calorie junk they were eating, and put them on high protein can food (Wellness in their case). They lost weight eating 6 oz of canned food a day - I verified calories with the vet before doing the diet. The smaller cat is now eating a little more than that as he continued to loose weight after hitting his desired weight. But they are so much healthier now. |
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?2
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| To go along with my above post, I'm including this link. Please scroll down to read about Molly's story. My cats were not as bad as Molly, and I'm not saying yours is either, but not being able to clean themselves properly is one of the signs of an overweight cat. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Molly's store
RE: What to do about cat dandruff?
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| I agree you 100%. I have a friend. His cat used to have serious dandruff problem. After he took care of the cleaning of his cat, the problem was resolved. And now he has a happier cat. Yes, clean your cat properly and regularly is the key! |
Here is a link that might be useful: Cat Dandruff
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