Does your cat clean themselves??

I have a female cat that is about a year old and she always has a dirty bum. I think that she may have been a runt of the litter and had a hard go of it as a kitten. She acts really strange sometimes and plays really funny (we are always cracking up about how different she is). Sometimes I think maybe she is brain damaged. Is that possible?? But why doesn't she clean herself like a normal cat. She walks around with a dirty brown spot all the time. I have to wipe her butt for her everyday. Anyone else have this problem??

Did do, yes. I believe that Oscar was also the runt of the litter, and wonder whether all his brain cells are intact! He falls over things, trips over things, instead of jumping he just kind of throws himself and hopes for the best. He's cross eyed, he has a soft palate AND a muffled heart beat. Does your kitty sound anything like this? If she's clumsy and not all there, for sure, get her checked out for other dysfunction. The vet reckons my little man is the result of inbreeding!! Anyway, I could be barking (or miaowing) up the wrong tree completely, but I just thought I'd give you a bit of background so you can see if there are any similarities

As for the bum issue, Oscar had a real issue. It wasn't 'wet' mucky, it was sort of dried on ( ). The first stage is to get your moggy wormed if you haven't already. Worms do not help matters in this sort of circumstance. Anyway, I took to wiping Oscar's bum for him daily, he HATED it, he got very upset with me. So you've already tried that. I also keep a spray bottle of clean water, and if he comes in with a dirty tush I spray his bum a little and he tends to get the hint and clean it up. Some people don't believe in that kind of thing, but I don't see much of an issue.

Another thing to try (which is advice I got from this here forum!) is to change your cat's diet. I switched to only dry for a few weeks, at the vets recommendation. I tried the Hills diet (which folk on here don't like), he did well on it. But then it ran out and I was broke so I had to get a normal supermarket biscuit, but he did just fine! Now I've gradually added a wet meal as well as his biscuit daily and his bum is fine 80% of the time. I think he got the hint. I'm in the UK so if he comes in and his bum's dirty I leave him out for a few more hours and he normally sorts it out in that time himself. I haven't needed to wipe him for weeks.

Hope this gives you a few ideas!

Thanks for the advice. No worms has fecal checked and extensive test for other possible parasites she did have coccidia when she was brought home which was resolved but has had loose stool since. She is purebreed sphynx with papers and out of very good lines, but the diet thing is an issue. I am working on sorting that out trying different high quality brands (very slowly). Hopefully we find one that suits her soon. Meanwhile, the jumping and hoping for the best and her spastics antics are definantly a sign of diminished brain cells I'm afraid.

I don't have this issue, I do have a Sphyx. The diet that works best for my Sphynx and others I know is Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul. I have tried others, always go back to this. Make sure you kitty gets lots of water in their diet, I soak the food before serving a little bit and also feed some of the canned. It helps to have two feedings daily and not to free feed, so you can know who is getting what. You can also add a small amount of canned pumpkin (the pure kind with no spices) to help firm up the stool. By small I mean like 1/4 TBS with each meal.

I remember you said you were breeding, I hope you aren't breeding that particular cat if you think she is maybe brain damaged.

My Oreo was a the runt kitten and she has fcks but she cleans herself with no problems. I had another cat that was always dirty and coco would clean her.

I had a kitten that I found when it was very very young. I think she was the runt of her litter since she was all alone and very sick.

She was very bad at keeping clean all together, but she couldn't clean behind her ears and didn't seem to know that they were dirty. She also used to step in her poop alot when she was very small and would walk around with a poo-foot..

To solve the ear problem I had to actually show her how to clean behind her ears myself. When she was cleaning her face I would take her paw and put it behind her ear the way a kitty does. Then I'd stick her paw in front of her mouth so she'd lick it, and repeat. Sometimes she was very cooperative and sometimes she got really mad at me. Anyways, I'd do it a few times and then I'd let her get back to her cleaning and watch her.. since she knew I was watching she'd try her very best to reach her paw behind her ear for me.. it was extremely cute. Eventually she got the hang of it and up until the time she died she was the cleanest shiniest cat around.

As for the poo-foot problem, we kept a close eye on her and every time after she'd use the litter box we'd check her feet and give her a good wipe and tell her that she couldn't walk around with feet covered in poo!

Otherwise I would take a damp wash cloth and clean her mangey bits (under her chin, behind her ears, etc) pretty often. It's supposed to be a similar feeling to being washed by a mommy cat and gives them the idea that they're supposed to keep clean.

I would continue to give your kitty a wipe as often as possible, maybe even with a damp wash cloth. If you see her taking a kitty bath try and coax her into cleaning her bottom.

Here is a photo of my kitty when she was very small and couldn't clean herself very well..