Original title: How to Clean Your Dog’s Ears and Clip Your Cat’s Nails—Experts Weigh In (2025)
The internet is filled with questions like “How to clean your dog’s ears?” to “Do you really need to brush your pet’s teeth?” Thanks to the crowdsourcing nature of the web, there’s a bevy of instructional TikToks and fellow pet parents engaging in heated debates on everything from what your dog’s poop means to how to best clip your cat’s nails. With so much information to sift through, I decided to test some pet hygiene products on my cats, chat with experts like vets and groomers, and do a little investigating of my own to come up with WIRED’s guide on How to Clean Your Pet. (Spoiler: It’s not as obvious as it seems.) Signs That Cats or Dogs Need Grooming Visible mats of fur . These can cause skin infection and trap foreign material. Matted fur occurs most frequently behind ears, under legs, around the tail, and beneath the collar, so make sure you’re frequently checking those spots. (Long-haired dogs and cats like shih tzus or Persian cats might have to be professionally groomed ever