Earth Clinic Mobile: Home Remedies for People and Pets

Matted Fur for Baby Oil

5 star (20)		77%
4 star (1)		4%
3 star (1)		4%
1 star (4)		15%

Jasmine (East Haddam, Connecticut) on 08/18/2010:
5 out of 5 stars

I could not believe that using baby oil would get rid of mats. My Norwegian Forest cat (long-haired) is over 16 and has stopped grooming herself and the mats have just multiplied. I did not want her to undergo any shaving which would mean being "put under" and wouldn't know if she could take it. I applied some virgin olive oil that I had in the house and put it on a couple of her mats. I couldn't believe my eyes today when I found one of the oily mats on the floor! Unbelievable! I figured if she licked herself, it would be good stuff for her! Thank you all so much. More tonite! .... A little at a time!

Joan (Dubuque, Iowa) on 07/18/2010:
5 out of 5 stars

Our poor 16 yr. Old longhaired cat had many areas of matted fur, as he doesn't groom himself as well as he used to do; also, he wasn't allowing us to brush his fur. Read comments about the baby oil, and he does let us put this on the mats, and I did soak them well! It's amazing how effective this is; we did reapply baby oil to several stubborn areas. It has been a week now and all but a few spots are mat free. The mats mostly fell off; I did have to clip a tiny bit at a very large one which was loose and hanging. I sprinkled a little corn starch on his fur to get rid of some oil, and brushed it very lightly in the areas which are mat free. Will do this to his legs and tummy once those mats are gone. The baby oil works like a charm and hasn't made him sick; he is now letting me brush him for brief periods. I think brushing was hurting him before.

Jill (West Long Branch, Nj) on 02/16/2010:
5 out of 5 stars

What I did because the cat was intolerant of me going anywhere near her Large Matted areas. They were right up to her skin. These are of course painful. I took the bottle and just squeezed a large amount right up against her skin where the matt was. They fell off within 24 hours. The ones that did not fall off, I just put more baby oil on them. Again, right up against the skin. I did not rub it in. I used a plentiful amount. It did no harm to her. 18 years old. She has the some again and I have the baby oil ready. Be patient and apply again heavily maybe. You might not be putting enough on. It works.

View Entire Thread

Pat Carlock (Tulsa, Ok.) on 03/18/2009:
5 out of 5 stars

We have an American Bob-Tail cat and they have very thick hair. She got matted hair all on both side, put baby oil on just the matts and worked into the hair, it works great, matts are gone and she is so happy!! Don't try to comb or brush then it does no good and is very painful to the cat. They will fall out or be gone in about a week , it is wonderful. Hope this is a help to someone.

Steve (Sedalia, Missouri) on 03/10/2009:
1 out of 5 stars

NAY

It did not work. We left the baby oil on our Persian cat's severely matted fur for over 48 hours, and it did nothing whatsoever to help the problem.

I am wondering if the people who said that it worked allowed their cats to groom themselves freely after the baby oil was applied? I'm asking this because on another website, it mentions that baby oil is scented mineral oil, and that mineral oil will block the intestines when consumed.

So, we put a cone on our cat to prevent her from grooming and thereby consuming the baby oil.

In other words, the baby oil by itself does nothing. It's more likely that it is the constant licking the cats do to try to clean the baby oil off of themselves that actually pulls the matted fur out over 24-48 hours.

How is the health of any of the cats whose owners used this remedy? Did they encounter any problems from their cats consuming the baby oil?

Prissy100 (Santa Barbara, California) on 10/14/2008:
5 out of 5 stars

I poured some Baby Oil first on just a couple of matted/tangled fur lumps. Yes indeedy, this definitely works. Within a few days they fell off. Thank you so much, my cat I'm sure feels better now laying down on his sides, it must've hurt. I have about 4-5 fur lumps left to do. I've been brushing him daily and this has helped too. I looked at other links for answers and there weren't any that mentioned anything about using Baby Oil.

Pam (Maybell, CO) on 08/16/2008:
5 out of 5 stars

Thank you for the advise on the Baby oil for the large matts on our cat. I applied it close to the skin and the small ones came off the next day, and the large matt came off in two days. I have tried everything in the last few months trying to get the matts out. I couldn't believe how easy it was and how fast it worked.

Jill (West Long Branch, New Jersey) on 08/11/2008:
5 out of 5 stars

I tried the BABY Oil this past weekend. It is truely amazing. The cat was very uncomfortable and I just squeezed the baby oil close to her skin soaking it with the baby oil. I did not touch or rub it in because it hurt her for me to touch her. The large matts fell off in 2 days. I gave it a second doze of baby oil on the second day. I usually shave her twice a year but I didn't get to it.

Joe (Burlington, USA) on 04/23/2008:
5 out of 5 stars

The idea of Baby Oil to rid my cat of matted fur worked great! Chyli, a jet black himmy, had numerous clumps hanging from him like saddle bags on a horse! This episode was the second of this. The first time this happened to him, we had our vet shave him. She could find no health reasons for the clumping, other than his age (16 years), and may not be as nimble when it comes to him cleaning himself due to his age. Not wanting to shave the poor guy again, I tried the baby oil and the mats fell off on their own. His fur grew back to its normal long silky texture quickly and he has not had any clumping in the last 8 months.

Linda (Long Island, NY) on 03/27/2008:
1 out of 5 stars

I tried this method on my cat, Blondie. Unfortunately, it was not effective, and we have quite an oily mess to clean up. I'll be bringing her to our vet so he can remove the mats. :( Had hoped to avoid shaving her -- you know how self-conscious our cats are about their appearance.

1.. 3

Return to Matted Fur