Grooming repairs are required or necessary if your cat is suffering or becomes unpleasant to live with. No different than your car, or your health, if you don’t plan on regular maintenance, you are exponentially increasing the odds of an unplanned expensive repair bill.
For a cat owner, grooming repairs can include or uncover mat and pelt removal, imbedded nails, fecal removal, excessive shedding, parasites, dandruff, hair ball prevention, and ear and eye infections. When a serious problem is revealed, there can be another level of repairs required from your veterinary.
You can see how quickly a lack of maintenance can add up to very expensive repairs.
All of these repairs are easily preventable by regular maintenance visits. Figuring out the best maintenance schedule for a healthy cat depends on coat type, age, cat lifestyle, and your athome grooming routine.
In other words, there is a difference in service maintenance for a city driver vs. a highway driver, a fat cat vs. a fit cat, a new car vs. an older car, a young cat vs. an elderly cat, and so on.
If you have a cat in its prime or younger, fit and active, shorthaired, and you are willing and able to do regular athome combing, your cat may only need professional grooming once a season to help keep shedding under control and to wash away built up impurities and dander.
Once a season bathing is a bare minimum of any pet that shares your living space, just from a hygienic point of view. Does the shedding drive you crazy? Does your cat like to share its smelly bottom with you? Do those gross flakes fall off all over your house? Do mats just “suddenly” appear? Then your cat needs more regular maintenance.
If you have a cat that is older, longhaired, overweight, with medical issues or depressed, and you are unable to do regular combing, your cat may need a maintenance schedule of professional grooming every four weeks just to keep your cat from being a health hazard.
Don’t begrudge me that our repair costs are going up. Why? Should a client who comes in for regular cat maintenance pay the same as a person who comes in once and a while with a repair job?
Repairs take longer (more time in the bath to get clean, more drying time, more combing time, more dematting or shaving), they are gross, and the cats (understandably) less cooperative. Time and effort = money.
For a certain percentage of clients, suggested regular maintenance falls on deaf ears. They assume a one time visit fixes everything. They are unwilling to realize cats, hair, skin, health, and environment are not static and constantly change. How to make them take notice of a chronic, but preventable problem? Hit them in the pocketbook. An unfortunate truth.
So to my regular clients, rejoice, as you are appreciated (and your cats appreciate you)!
To new clients, welcome, and let me get you on the right path after your first, and only* kitty repair job.
To my intermittent clients, you will be charged appropriately for your ongoing cat repairs.