Strange Situation w/ Bridget---Enlarged Labia Tissue?

libby74

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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.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Never encountered this issue, but I'm guessing it's a problem because she's too...err..."large" to clean herself?  Could be that lots of cats actually have this but it's not an issue because they can clean themselves properly? 
(just taking a wild stab here
) Poor girl, this must be uncomfortable for her...I would think it would be itchy.  Yikes...I'm just imagining. 

Anyway, it seems like getting rid of those folds would do the trick, but I can see how if it's not harming her health you might want to wait, in lieu of your other medical bills at the moment.

Maybe you could set up some sort of "kitty bidet" for her.  Would that be something to see
 
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libby74

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The vet did say part of the problem might be because of her size; honestly, I was surprised she only weighed 17 1/2 pounds, I would have bet she was over 20 #.  He showed me how to clean her really well; I was horrified by the amount of nastiness he managed to remove from between those 2 folds!  It's just a matter of getting her to co-operate without losing an arm (me, not Bridget
).  The more I think about those folds, the more I think they resembled hemorrhoids---except they're on either side of her vagina.  The vet tried to express her anal glands while he was back there, and they were actually in really good shape.  These tissue folks look soft and squishy enough to express, too, but they're actually pretty firm.

I know this is something we'll take care of surgically when we can see some light at the end of DH's medical expenses tunnel; I just wish thee was something I could do for her in the meantime.

A kitty bidet?!
 
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orientalslave

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17 1/2 pounds sounds massive.  Very few cats should weigh that much, and even fewer of them are females who tend to be smaller than males.  I think she needs a serious attempt to reduce her weight.  If you Google for 'cat condition scoring' you will find some helpful diagrams to help you assess how overweight she is.  It strikes me a diet is a far better option than surgery.
 
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