Clipping, or coat care
A dense coat can develop very tight mats that are hard to tease apart. Some breeds of cats and rabbits are particularly prone to this. A bout of diarrhoea, strong heating with a dry environment, another illness — and the problem turns acute, with the fur forming a rigid, tortoise-like shell, in other words extremely felted (matted).
At this stage, brushing or cutting the mats out is no longer possible without a sedative (tranquilliser)
This is why we clip cats and rabbits under sedation. Often a full clip, it allows the skin (epidermis) to regenerate better after being smothered under the matted felt. The work is nonetheless long and demanding, above all in the rabbit, whose fur is very fine and whose skin is as thin as parchment!