We just had our 5 year old Torbie Bridget to the vet; allergies were making her miserable, so the little lady (17.6 lbs) was given an injection. Bridget has always had a problem with smelling awful, to the point that I attempt to clean her rear-end every few days with a wet-wipe. I asked the vet to look at her butt and he said, "well, that's pretty unusual". I don't have the best vision in the world, and I can't really look at her rear while I'm trying to hold her still to clean her. With the vet and the tech holding her, I was able to get a clear view of her bottom while the vet explained the problem.
Bridget has an extra fold of tissue on either side of her vagina, looking almost like a human labia. The folds are a good inch long and probably 1/2 an inch wide. The vet said that when she uses the litter box, some of the waste is getting trapped between those folds of tissue. It stays moist, it smells, and it becomes a breeding ground for yeast. He gave me a bottle of ear cleaning solution to clean her bottom, told me that would be gentle but would do the trick as far as cleaning her. He told me the alternative to me trying to clean her constantly would be surgery to remove/tighten the excess tissue. The surgery would cost around $350, not as bad as I thought it would be, but since we're paying DH's chemo bills right now the surgery will have to wait.
Now the big questions: has anyone else experienced anything like this? Were you able to keep you kitty's bottom relatively clean? (Bridget runs when you look at her; cleaning her is a major challenge) Did you go ahead with the surgery and did it solve the problem? Any advice on how to handle this would be very appreciated.
Bridget has an extra fold of tissue on either side of her vagina, looking almost like a human labia. The folds are a good inch long and probably 1/2 an inch wide. The vet said that when she uses the litter box, some of the waste is getting trapped between those folds of tissue. It stays moist, it smells, and it becomes a breeding ground for yeast. He gave me a bottle of ear cleaning solution to clean her bottom, told me that would be gentle but would do the trick as far as cleaning her. He told me the alternative to me trying to clean her constantly would be surgery to remove/tighten the excess tissue. The surgery would cost around $350, not as bad as I thought it would be, but since we're paying DH's chemo bills right now the surgery will have to wait.
Now the big questions: has anyone else experienced anything like this? Were you able to keep you kitty's bottom relatively clean? (Bridget runs when you look at her; cleaning her is a major challenge) Did you go ahead with the surgery and did it solve the problem? Any advice on how to handle this would be very appreciated.