Off to the vet!

Poor old Jupiter is off to the vet in a couple of hours. He doesn't seem to be in major distress so I doubt this is very serious, but being a meowmy who loves her kitty, I want to check this out.

To put it bluntly - his butt stinks!!! Based on what I've read on various threads on this site, I think his anal glands may be impacted. His poops & pees are normal, as are all other activities. He's not scooting around on his butt at all, but I did notice he's not cleaning his rear as well as he used to. And his butt stinks to high heaven with that nasty smell. So send good vibes for Jupiter, and we'll see what the vet says soon.

~GeorgesPal }:X)

I am curious as to how you found out his butt stinks? I do find cats that need their glads expressed but it is usually found by their anus puckered and sometimes the scooting but I've never found it by smell.  Here's hoping he's OK and I look forward to hearing your report.

Well we are back home now, and all is well again. To make a short story long, Jupiter's anal glands just needed to be expressed, and quite badly apparently! The vet said they were very full, and if we hadn't brought in Jupiter when we did, we would probably see him start to scoot on his bum since he hadn't been doing that already.

He was not very happy having the procedure done though! (who would be, I guess? LOL) I have never heard Jupiter make such a fuss in all his young life. But they got him all fixed up, and recommended I get a bit more fibre into his diet to help his poops out more, to prevent this issue in the future.

Honestly, I just noticed that he was really stinky, and it was not a smell like I had ever smelled from a cat before, so I thought something was up. He likes to hop up on my lap and lift up his tail sometimes, and I got this big waft in my face and said "EWWWW"

Thanks for reading!

Now here's another question on this topic: he's spending a lot of time cleaning himself since we've got back from the vet, which seems like a normal thing to do, since it looks like they had to wash his fur a bit and it's still a little wet.

But, I did just catch him scooting his butt a tad on the carpet for the first time. Is this typical after having this procedure done? This is our first time so I just don't know what to expect. Perhaps his bum is just feeling sensitive after he had that done, and he's just trying to rub it to make it feel better?

Thoughts anyone? Thanks!

Didn't know how to edit my previous post, so I'll just reply here to add more. He's not doing the butt scoot anymore, just seems to be licking himself a lot. He's had his evening meal and is now conked out asleep, so maybe some resting time will help. The vet also recommended to up Jupiter's fibre intake to help avoid this problem in the future, so we got some and I laced his wet food with it tonight!   He gobbled it up like nothing was different at all, so that is good. We'll see how that helps once it gets worked through his system.

I'll see what he's doing with the licking tomorrow morning and assess from that point on.

~GeorgesPal

Hi There,glad Jupiter survived his vet visit and he is now too tired to do the butt scooting, justwondering when he was last wormed? that could be why he is dragging his butt alongor maybe it is just simply that he has been squeezed and the area is all feeling a littleitchy and sore, good luck hope all goes well with your little man!

Hi there, thanks for your reply. I believe he was wormed when we adopted him, as they did a full vet exam and did a lot of good things for him before he came into our care. (We haven't had him for a full year yet, so this has been done within this year.) I only saw him drag his butt twice, and only briefly, so I think it was the fact that he was a bit itchy and sore.

This morning he seems a lot better, his bum is back to a normal colour (it was a bit red and irritated yesterday - probably a reason for the excessive licking). He is also back to all his normal tricks, and is not licking it like a madman anymore. Started adding the extra fibre to his diet last night but no evidence of that yet in the litterbox - probably takes a little while for it to work through.

Thanks, and will keep you posted!

GeorgesPal

Yeah he was probably licking it cause it was irritated, kind of what we humans do when a cut is healing.

Ritz has to have her anal glands expressed about twice a year, somewhat to the vet's surprise.  (Apparently it is unusual for cats to need their glands expressed; tell that to Ritz!)

Stools can't be too firm or too soft--or the anal glands won't express themselves.  What kind of fiber are you giving Jupiter?

Ritz' are somewhat narrow; I fed raw.

Our vet actually recommended sprinkling a tiny bit of Metamucil into his nightly wet food, believe it or not. I was concerned about the orange flavouring in it though, so I bought a different brand with no colouring or flavour in it. He just gobbles up his food like normal without even noticing! The vet also said if that didn't work, we could try mixing in some raw pumpkin.

We haven't been home this week much at his nightly food time (10pm - we have a programmable food dish that spins at set times per day to feed him), so he's just been getting his dry food then with no additions because I didn't think he'd eat kibble covered in powder, and I don't like leaving out the wet food for extended periods of time. So basically we haven't had a steady week of this new routine yet, so it's not really working because we haven't been able to be consistent with it. I think we have a less busy week this week, so we should be around to let him have wet food every night, and then we'll see how it works.

Jupiter however is feeling back to normal and is up to all his usual tricks - he is currently meowing out the window because he sees another cat across the yard   He actually keeps meowing, then comes over to me and meows, then goes back to the window to meow....repeat, repeat, repeat.....I think he's trying to show me the cat outside!   

..............I went over and looked at the cat with him and talked to him about the cat, and that seemed to satisfy him  LOL crazy cat!

Hi there, just wondering how Jupiter is now. Hope his little backside is back to normaland he has forgiven you for taking him to the vet!

Thanks for your reply! He's doing just great now, and yes I think he has forgiven me for taking him to the vet 

As an update to my last post, I've switched from adding generic "Metamucil" to adding plain pumpkin into his diet - we'll see how that goes. He certainly enjoys the taste of it though!