Elderly cat with matting around a sensitive area.

I have a 15 year Persian male cat with super thick long fur. He's put on a few pounds regardless of how careful I've been to feed him only the amount the vet recommended. I just can't get him to exercise at all. Well his weight has made him unable to clean the area around his butt and under his tail. I spent last night cutting the matting away bit by bit along with some other stuff we won't talk about that was caught in the matting. I put him in the bathtub and washed the area well with shampoo...sorry I didn't have anything else on hand and I wanted to get it clean before the area got infected. I guess I'll have to clean and check it everyday now which is fine I'm thinking that getting the area shaved and keeping it shaved will be best. Opinions requested? The poor guy was traumatized last night but afterwords looked like he felt better. I hadn't realized the problem had gotten so bad till I noticed a bad smell on him. Is there anything I could use to clean the area that wouldn't involve getting him all wet every time. His coat takes forever to dry and the vet said it wasn't good to give him a bath too much cats due the natural oils in skin being lost. I don't want it to develop into a bigger problem like a bad infection or skin issues. Also is there a good dry food I could give him that would be lower calorie and still filling for him. Right now he's on Purina One for Sensitive Systems he has IBD so I always have to change his diet very slowly. Otherwise he's pretty healthy just a bit over weight. Would a big cat tree help do you thing...I mean encourage him to get a little more movement in his routine?

A cat tree might help him be a little more active. You can also try splitting up his food into several small bowls and putting them in different places--that way he has to "hunt" to get his full amount of food. There are also commercially made treat balls that might work, depending on the size of the kibble. To help keep his bottom clean, you might ask the vet if they could trim the hair around his butt (my vet sometimes refers to it as a sanitary trim). If he's getting litter in that area, changing the litter might help too. Dr. Elsey's makes litter for long hair cats and senior cats. Both are crystal-type litters that don't clump, so they don't get stuck to the cat's fur. I know my old cat tends to step in the wet clay or other clumping litters, and then it gets stuck on his foot.

Good luck!

I had a long haired cat. Used to trim around his behind weekly, helped a ton.

If your cat is gaining weight on the amount of food the vet recommends he should be eating less. The proper amount of food is one that will help him maintain a good weight. If he's gaining he's eating too much. If he's not very active he doesn't need much food. Most recommendations of how much to feed your pet calls for too much.
Using treat balls is also a good idea if he eats dry food. You can also do other things to make him work for it. If you get a cat tree, which I think is a great idea, you can feed him high up a little at a time so that he has to keep climbing. You can make a game of it.

I have two long haired cats too and they too get messy sometimes. When that happens I just take a good pair of scissors and cut the messy fur off. If your cat gets messy and matted often I'd just keep his fur short. Groomers do that all the time.

I have two young sibling Persians 2 1/2 years old. They can clean that area but I have to keep the fur trimmed around there butts or I always have a messy bum to clean on them. Actually I gave the females bum fur a trim tonight. Its much easier to keep that area clean if the fur is kept short.

If he is having problems with weight issues and IBD, I would not have him on dry food since it can be quite hard on a cat's system, especially if they are not 100% healthy. Also, you will not be able to find a lower calorie food that will help as they tend to have the opposite effect, you just need to feed less food and better quality.

As for the mean time, yes there is such a thing called a 'potty patch' where they shave down all the fur on their butt so it can't get tangled up.

A cat tree + Da Bird should help.

Originally Posted by Minka

If he is having problems with weight issues and IBD, I would not have him on dry food since it can be quite hard on a cat's system, especially if they are not 100% healthy. Also, you will not be able to find a lower calorie food that will help as they tend to have the opposite effect, you just need to feed less food and better quality.

As for the mean time, yes there is such a thing called a 'potty patch' where they shave down all the fur on their butt so it can't get tangled up.

A cat tree + Da Bird should help.

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Well the problem is the younger cat I have eats the same food he does. Feeding them apart doesn't work they get confused and won't eat so I have to feed them the same thing and the vet said not to put the younger one on an all wet food diet. My older cat was eating all science diet wet food before I adopted her. After he tried her dry food he wouldn't touch the wet food. I've always had to rotate his diet every so often because he's a pill and will get board and just stop eating unless I change to another food. He's been eating Purina One and Fancy Feast. Fancy Feast was all he would touch after he got till. I might try switching him back to science diet he might accept it again since it's been a long time and just slowly reduce the amount of dry food and increase the amount of wet food. Cats can be so picky I tell you.

Originally Posted by luvzmykatz

Well the problem is the younger cat I have eats the same food he does. Feeding them apart doesn't work they get confused and won't eat so I have to feed them the same thing and the vet said not to put the younger one on an all wet food diet. My older cat was eating all science diet wet food before I adopted her. After he tried her dry food he wouldn't touch the wet food. I've always had to rotate his diet every so often because he's a pill and will get board and just stop eating unless I change to another food. He's been eating Purina One and Fancy Feast. Fancy Feast was all he would touch after he got till. I might try switching him back to science diet he might accept it again since it's been a long time and just slowly reduce the amount of dry food and increase the amount of wet food. Cats can be so picky I tell you.

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Why can't your younger cat have wet food? Is he/she sick in some way???

And yea, dry food is addictive, and even cats who used to love wet will stop eating it once they've have a taste of dry. So sad...