cat with dingleberries..please help!!

Hello, I have a nice, 11lb, shorthair, black cat with a dingleberry problem. The berries are not stuck in her fur, but pasted on her anus. She has been expressed by a vet once (he claimed that was why she was having this problem) and although nasty stuff came out, this didn't help her dingleberry issue. She doesn't scoot or anything like that. She just has dingleberries stuck on her butt and doesn't seem to care about it. I have tried to clean her butt myself, but only ended up getting me and my kitty hurt (the dingleberries were so pasted on that she bled when I removed them).

If anyone has any advice on why this is occuring and/or what to do about this please help!!!

Thank you,
Sehrita

I would start by trimming the fur around her anus to remove the dried on poop. You might try adding a teaspoon of plain canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix) to her diet to loosen up her stools.

Stephanie

she is a shorthair, so their is actually no problem with the hair surrounding her anus. The feces is actually dried up on the skin of her anus--the area that there is no hair.

I would start to look at her diet. Sounds like there is something about the consistency of her poo that is causing this to happen. A spoonful of canned pumpkin mixed into wet food might help this.

What is she eating?
How old is she? I would think most cats would clean this themselves before it dried on and hurt them, but if she is very young or old that might compromise her ability to keep herself clean.

My Fang has the same thing. I used to give him a gentle wipe (well maybe not that gentle) when he left the box, and that upset him so much he started charging out of the box so I coudn't catch him.

So I stopped that, maybe do that once in a while, after he leaves the box. Not often,

What I do now is at no particular time I will hold him on my lap, belly out, and with the other hand and toilet paper, try to feel for the crusty substance and GENTLY rub it off. I can ususally get it, and sometimes I can get a look if he doesn't start squirming. Now, I don't really have to see, I can feel it, and I do not do it everyday.

I have resigned myself that he is going to be walking around with a little clump every once in a while. Since it isn't falling off, I am feeling a little bit better about it.

You have to stop being so ANAL about it
You both will be better off. that is what I learned.

Oh, another thing I used to do, but no longer, is hold a damp warm cloth against the butt, while he is on my lap to soften it up and then wipe it off.
He didn't like that either though, so a few times a week I knock off what I can.