Clinical Massage

Massage technique for cats –

Start by lightly stroking your cat from the neck to the base of their tail by using an open and relaxed hand. This technique is also known as effleurage and it helps your cat get in a relaxed mood, warm-up the muscles and stimulate blood circulation. You may notice twitching in their muscles, this is tension and will improve when its released.

Once you feel the back muscles have eased up, move onto your cat’s shoulders. Using your thumbs, rotate your fingertips clockwise or counter-clockwise to make slow circles around the shoulder blades.

Apply the same technique for the face massage, but using very light strokes. The little circular motions can also be applied to the forehead and cheeks. Pay attention to their energy and reaction as not all cats enjoy this treatment.

After the face, pass your hand over their head and, without pressing too hard, massage the space behind the ears and their chin. Cats’ ears are very sensitive as they contain lots of nerve endings. Use your thumbs from the base to the tips.

Activate and stimulate the muscles

Once you notice your cat is purring and stretching, you can start a deeper massage. This part of your cat massage involves squeezing, rolling, and kneading. They’re all important techniques but always monitor their comfort levels before continuing, the aim is to compress and release.

This technique is called petrissage and it involves opening and shutting the palm of your hand while pressing lightly with your fingers along your cat’s spine. The aim is to feel the tissue’s underlying structure, but without pinching it. It is essential to go slow to be able to detect and loosen knots in your cat’s muscles.

The petrissage massage is especially useful to cats that don’t like to move around too much. The benefit of this type of cat massage is that the reflexes in the muscles are mechanically stimulated which helps increase muscle tone for cats that prefer a slower life style.

If your cat is relaxed you can now try to improve their joint mobility. Gently introduce some flexing of the toes, legs and knees, moving them gently to their full range of motion to loosen everything up and increase bloodflow to those areas.

Tapping

Finally, tapotement is a light percussion-type movement that helps increase blood circulation. Use soft taps from each hand alternatively while keeping an eye on your cat’s reaction. Rather than relaxing, this cat massage technique is used for stimulating your cat’s muscles, so make sure your cat tolerates it before continuing.