Solutions to dirty butt

shanynne

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Originally Posted by Jack31

Jack is my only dirty butt problem child and it happens rarely. Unfortunately right now, d/t meowmy went out of town and left him for four days with only the cat sitter coming--who he knows very well, but isn't his momma! So thus his belly has played a game with him and his butt is a mess. We too clip what we can with scissors or the electric trimmers. As a side note, if you have cats who will behave while scruffed but only have one set of hands, use a spring loaded clothes pin on their scruff and then you have two hands to clean with. Someone shared this trick with me and its been a life saver for when DH is at work at Jack gets a dirty butt, or I have to clip toenails without hubby's help.

Leslie
Doesn't this "pinch" their skin? Or is this spring loaded clothes pin different than a regular one? How do you "fix" it so it doesn't hurt ?
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Last night Stinkpot (is that name appropriate, or what?) came running into the living room kicking out with his back leg. He kept doing it, so I took a closer look at him to see what was up, and boy did he have a mess back there! I should have smelled him coming!!

Anyway, I immediately called hubby in for reinforcement, and he pulled on his rubber gloves, I held Stinkpot like a baby, and hubby wiped him down with a couple of damp paper towels. By the end, Stinkpot was trilling, like when he sits at the window and sees birds


(I just hope he didn't sit on anything before we cleaned him up!!)
 

shanynne

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Originally Posted by mrsgreenjeens

Last night Stinkpot (is that name appropriate, or what?) came running into the living room kicking out with his back leg. He kept doing it, so I took a closer look at him to see what was up, and boy did he have a mess back there! I should have smelled him coming!!

Anyway, I immediately called hubby in for reinforcement, and he pulled on his rubber gloves, I held Stinkpot like a baby, and hubby wiped him down with a couple of damp paper towels. By the end, Stinkpot was trilling, like when he sits at the window and sees birds


(I just hope he didn't sit on anything before we cleaned him up!!)
You know I sometimes think that they actually like it when we clean them up. Rascal certainly doesn't put up much of a struggle when I do and he always ends up purring!
 

kkh

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Originally Posted by Shanynne

If your kleenex is nice and wet it makes a difference. It quickly softens up any "crusties" and makes it easy to gently wipe them away.


Oh what a fun topic!
Well, not quite but similar in theory, her bottom(around the particular part) is hairless now.


I tried wiping it off this morning again but the "crusties" were really really tough. Lot tougher than I thought, it was almost formed a dread/knot like bits, and quite bigger, too. Again, she got extremely mad while I kept wiping. After few scratches on my arm, she ran & hid from me.


So...here it goes, the next attempt: had to use a scissor to snip off the dread. It was successful as I did it while she was half-sleep and not completely alert.

First time in 2+ weeks, Ku Ku finally has a clean-bottom, yaaay!
 

aqualoon

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Happy to have this thread here.  Excuse the necro bump as I don't feel another threads needs to be made.

I have a youngish guy at 6 months who has longer fur.  It's not so much he has a dirty butt but he has clingers.  Would you guys just take some scissors and trim the back area or whats the best way to handle this?
 

MoochNNoodles

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Happy to have this thread here.  Excuse the necro bump as I don't feel another threads needs to be made.

I have a youngish guy at 6 months who has longer fur.  It's not so much he has a dirty butt but he has clingers.  Would you guys just take some scissors and trim the back area or whats the best way to handle this?
I do believe thats what I've heard others mention doing. 


(And starting a new thread is usually encouraged; we've noticed questions get overlooked when they either come mid thread or at the end of a longer one. 
)
 

shisimocha

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I have an 8 year old long-haired female kitty who doesn't have a "will not" problem (stands for "will not come off"). Her problem is that she dribbles a drop or two of pee on her long fur and doesn't clean it because her big belly gets in the way. So dried pee is clumped up very close to her body and it smells bad. I sometimes use a baby wipe that has been rinsed in warm water and I wipe her gently with that, let it soak, then rinse the cloth again in warm water and repeat this step another two or three times. But it doesn't do a good job of getting the clumps off. Another thing I did was fill the bathtub with 3 inches of warm water. Then I put her into her carrier and lock the door, and lower the carrier into the tub and make her soak for 10-15 minutes. Then I drain the water from the tub, and put the same amount of water and rinse her.Yes, she cries a bit, because naturally, cats hate water. But she gets over it. She's not completely clump free, but it's a lot better. I don't know what else to do.
 

lamiatron

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i wipe my girl's bottom with a pet wipe. she hates the pet wipe, but lets me do it for the treats. shortly after she gets a wipe down, she starts to clean her own bum, as she doesn't like the wetness the wipe leaves behind. when she grooms herself afterwards, she gets two treats.

now she does this on her own, groom her bum. i don't have to follow her around with a pet wipe anymore..

i give her treats when ever i catch her doing it on her own. 

combo of pet wipes+positive reinforcement with treats have been good for me. its helped me a lot

I've also noticed, and i may be wrong here, but based on my own kitty, and other's that have posted about this particular issue on TCS, its usually the former strays or ferals that are not so "clean"
 

lamiatron

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Happy to have this thread here.  Excuse the necro bump as I don't feel another threads needs to be made.

I have a youngish guy at 6 months who has longer fur.  It's not so much he has a dirty butt but he has clingers.  Would you guys just take some scissors and trim the back area or whats the best way to handle this?
i do this to my kitty. although she is not a DLH as i suspect your kitty is..

she has a mix of short and medium fur. her fur towards the back of her body is longer. i give her a trim about once a month or so. it really helps, because it makes it a lot easier for her to groom heself.

in addition to the trim, i also use pet wipes to wipe her bum sometimes, which makes her groom herself immediately afterwards, and then she gets treats for grooming herself. 

over time she has learned to be a good, clean kitty. lol
 

blablablinky21

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My most effective solution aside from trimming the area (haven't tried it yet) is to use a flea comb to comb off the poop. It gets all the clumps and then I use her personal warm/wet washrag to give it a thorough cleaning. It works because the teeth of the flea comb are so fine. Probably going to try trimming soon though since the weekly cleaning is a pain. Intrigued by the butter idea..lol
 

faeleen

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I just trimmed my longhaired domestic kittens back end and use sensitive baby wipes to clean her up after she makes a potty. She's already started grooming herself more.
 

crazy4my2cats

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Hi y'all. I am not a new cat owner but have a new cat with a problem I have never encountered in all my years as a pussycat parent. I fell in love with Opal a few months ago. She is a big girl ( 20 pounds) and I adopted her from the local Petco store. Supposedly she was in a home that had too many cats. She is very sweet , loving and is already acclimated to my other cat after a few shorts weeks. She loves to sit on me and just purrs. The only problem that I have with her is that she  leaves skid marks on my carpet. After first adopting her, I was worried that she was constipated and may not be pooping enough. She also coughs a lot but dosent quite get her hairballs spit out.

The vet checked her out and everything was OK.  No worms, no obstructions etc. I'm pretty sure they did the anal glands back in June but will double check tomorrow..... I don't think she can groom her butt due to her large size but does groom her paws and belly.

My treatments so far:

1- daily brushing to keep the hairballs under control

2- daily dosing of Natural Laxatone

3- Daily  butt wipes with wet disposable wipes. She doesn't mind this.I do this in the evening when I get home from work but the damage is being done during the day when I am gone

4- Controlled feeding with FatCat weight control food to get her weight under control.

How often do these anal glands have to be expressed? Is this something I can learn to do myself? I am a pharmacist and have given previous pets iv subcutaneous fluids and not afraid to try this but want to make sure I don't hurt her...

I can isolate her in a separate "apartment" during the day but hate to do that. I am tired of cleaning skid marks off my beige carpet... Any other ideas you cat folks may have before I go back to the vet???

Thanks Y'all
 

amycat1

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My little girl has the same problem if she eats any salmon or fancy feast food with gravy.  Perhaps your girl is reacting to the food she eats.
 

tomanykats

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what if you have a cat that runs and hides from you.  I  have a fat cat that will not let me touch him his butt is full of crap. He has a brother the same size that is friendly and keeps himself clean.  What can i do to help him get clean. I might see if is can spray water at him.  
 

camillel

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I used to bring my cat to a groomer. Now that she has lost weight she takes care of her butt herself. She did like going to the groomer every 6 weeks. For her it was going to the  Spa lol. This is not a stray She was adopted from an older woman who couldn't care for her. My feral Sam Adams is the cleanest cat I know.
 
Last edited:

mollyblue

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i wipe my girl's bottom with a pet wipe. she hates the pet wipe, but lets me do it for the treats. shortly after she gets a wipe down, she starts to clean her own bum, as she doesn't like the wetness the wipe leaves behind. when she grooms herself afterwards, she gets two treats.

now she does this on her own, groom her bum. i don't have to follow her around with a pet wipe anymore..

i give her treats when ever i catch her doing it on her own.

combo of pet wipes+positive reinforcement with treats have been good for me. its helped me a lot

I've also noticed, and i may be wrong here, but based on my own kitty, and other's that have posted about this particular issue on TCS, its usually the former strays or ferals that are not so "clean"
Yeah, the dirty bottom in our family is the stray/feral.
 

shannonmari1

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LOL, I've never heard of this but it sure gave me a chuckle! My Tommy is a Maine Coon and has long hair and I have to keep it trimmed on his backside or yeah, he'll get stuff and litter stuck in his hair--don't blame him for not wanting to lick that off! LOL!! 

I've actually taken him into the shower with me and used a hand held shower head and believe it or not, seemed to really like it! Now, he sits outside of the shower when I take one! 
 

moonshine3

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Okay so the butter thing......totally using the spray butter. I am NOT touching Savvy's nasty butt lol. She is a fat girl but Mighty Girl is twice as big and lots cleaner. Infact, out of 4 ladies, Savvy is the only dirty one. I still blame her weight. Last check she was about 18 pounds. Mighty Girl is more like 25 pounds. Diet and exercise dont make any difference to their weight either. They are VERY active and eat just right the vet says. He still worries but said if i have done all he said and they are active not to worry too much.
 

bob 1978

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I have two Persians and just scrub his butt with cat shampoo and warm water when he needs it and towel dry him,  Sometimes the hair gets too long around his anus and collects feces - I've found a cordless trimmer like one might use for eyebrows, etc trims this hair very nicely and last for 3-4 weeks before it needs to be done again.  Takes only a very few minutes.
 

mathilda dock

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Hi, love your post, my long hair cat was sick with diarrhea and would not clean her butt! I was thinking of inventing a cat bidet :-) I am going to try your better butter butt washer idea. Thank you! 
 
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