I’m really not for cat bathing unless it is absolutely necessary. By absolutely necessary, I mean he has completely soiled himself, requires a medical bath, run into a skunk or gotten into something really, really horrible you don’t want spread around the house. Even then, I think twice. For the most part cats are little self-cleaning appliances; no muss, no fuss. I just think there is little reason to subject a cat or yourself to bathing stress.

Try unscented Kitty Wipes on your messy puss!

If one of my cats has gotten into something unsavory, the first thing I try to do is to get a paper towel or washcloth and wipe my cat off. If the job requires soap, I prepare three paper towels; one with a little soapy water, one with just water and one to dry; then I take him to the kitchen floor and get to work. Afterward, I just comb through his fur and it’s all good. It’s so much easier on both of us, and my cats seem to be less worried by the kitchen than the bathroom. Another thing you can try is Kitty Wipes or unscented baby wipes (your cat really doesn’t want to smell of perfume nor does he want to taste it during his own grooming session).

That said, I have a very old Siamese (18 years this Spring) who developed a bad patch of ringworm after I’d brought in stray kittens. The vet told me to do a medical soak for 10 minutes every day. I had a cow. This cat is old, she’s fragile, she’s going to have a breakdown and I’m going to end up in tears. So I decided to see what would happen if I sat in the bath with her. Misery loves company, you know? Well, it worked. In fact she leaned back and propped her elbow on my leg like she was kicking it in the hot tub with her soul mate and I came out completely unscathed. I’ve never seen anything like it.

I would also recommend not flea bathing or dipping. Flea bath is a neurotoxin and for me it’s exposure to too much poison that has too great a chance of being ingested and causing a bad reaction. (And yes, I have had this experience while dipping in the past…never again!) Much better solutions that are applied topically, like Advantage and Revolution, have been developed over the past years for killing fleas and ticks and even internal parasites. But go to the vet for topical flea and tick treatments, I really don’t recommend buying over-the-counter, they just don’t work.

A long while ago, I moved into a house that unknown to me had a hideous flea infestation. Within the first few hours of being there all of my pets were in agony and I had bites all over, too. So, I carted all the pets off to the vet expecting to have to do a massive flea dip and have professional exterminators out to the house. Instead the vet told me to try Advantage. At the time, I’d never heard of it, but its packaging stated that it would stops fleas from biting in three to five minutes, and start killing fleas withing an hour AND that within 12 hours of initial application, 98-100% of all existing fleas on pets would be dead. Honestly, this product worked exactly as it said and I didn’t even have to get an exterminator. I’ve used it ever since.

I’m in North Texas and we get horrible fleas and ticks, but a beginning of summer treatment and an end of summer treatment with Advantage takes care for the entire year. Simple and stress-free.