My Cat Is Leaking!

My 14 month old male cat, Marley, has started leaking a clear, jelly like substance from his butt. It doesn't have any smell or colour and Marley doesn't seem to notice it. He's eating, drinking and playing as usual and not licking the area any more than he would normally.

I've noticed that he's lost a bit of weight recently so wormed him with Profender about a month ago. He's got a tiny bald patch at the back of his neck where I put the Profender, but he didn't have any reaction to it apart from that.

Has anyone else had this with their cat? Do you think he needs to see a vet?

He was a stray kitten that I took in when he was about five months old and it took about 8 weeks before he would allow us to handle him at all. He's very sweet and affectionate now, but the only time he has been to the vet was when I had him neutered at eight months old. He was terrified, bit me and the vet quite badly when I tried to take him out of the cat carrier and had to be restrained in a cat net.

If possible I'd like to spare Marley, and my poor, long suffering vet, from another experience like that.

Any idea what's causing this leaking and how I should deal with? 

You need to take your cat to the vet as soon as possible. I had the same problem with one of my sweet boys and I ended up having to have him put to sleep. What happened to him and I had never heard of it nor was I aware I was hurting my cat but I was feeding him cheap cat food and occasionally left over dog food. Neutered cats are prone to urinary tract blockages and the vet told me his poor diet caused crystals to form in his urinary tract therefore blocking it. The leakage was due to an adaptation he had made in order to urinate, because he was urinating in an abnormal way it led to infection, I took him to the vet and had hope for his survival. He was even on kitty pain meds, I was told to change his diet to a higher quality cat food and give him his prescribed medication although it was in vain. The entire episode lasted for about a month before he got too bad to live. If in fact that is what is happening to your cat getting it to the vet asap will greatly increase it's chances.

Oh no, that's terrible!

He actually gets quite good quality food, a mix of dry and canned, but I know he goes out and catches mice and things occasionally. Maybe that's causing problems.

I'll take him to the vet first thing in the morning.

Thanks for the warning.

Actually, it may be because of the dry food, if that is the problem. This is for reference: http://www.catinfo.org (the site is written by a vet). Mice are technically the perfect food for a cat, though they can get tapeworm from eating them.

Thanks for the advice.

I keep worming him regularly as he is such a good hunter, glad to hear the mice aren't THAT bad for him.

I've noticed he's been drinking a lot more that usual these days, he'll empty his water bowl during the night and I refill it at least twice a day. I thought that was because it's getting so hot.

It's definitely his butt that is leaking. There is a clear jelly oozing out of it and the opening seems bigger than usual. He doesn't seem to be in any pain, he's purring away to himself as usual. He's going to the vets for sure tomorrow though.  

Marley's symptoms had completely cleared up by this morning, he's not leaking any more and he's urinating as normal. (2~3 times a day, quite a lot each time) 

I decided not to take him to the vet. He gets so freaked out that I'd rather only take him if he seems sick. The whole thing as given me a scare though, so I've decided to try and encourage him to drink more. At the moment he has a sachet of wet cat food morning and evening (A very juicy one, it's more like soup) and dry food to snack on throughout the day. I think I'm going to get a Drinkwell water fountain for them all to use as well, most of my cats like to drink from a running tap so they'll probably love one of these.

I tried mixing tuna with water but it didn't go down too well. I got a can of tuna (the kind that's for people to eat.), added a cup of water, put it through a blender, gave them half and froze the other half into cubes. None of them would touch it. Even the outdoor cats, who will usually eat anything, looked at me like I was trying to poison them.

Was I supposed to use cat food tuna? I know cooking's not really my thing but I don't usually get such a total rejection as this.

Glad your cat is feeling better.

You may have put too much water in the tuna and your cats didn't like the consistency.  How cold was the tuna you gave them; some cats hate cold food. 

You can add water to any wet food, not just tuna.  A little fish is okay, but I wouldn't make it a regular component of your cats diet.  Fish contains some heavy minerals, that aren't good for cats.  

Thanks for the advice Ritz. I've let a couple of the ice cubes thaw and mixed one cube with each can of their canned food today. That went down a little better, I guess it was just too watery last time. I'm thinking of experimenting with blended chicken and water next.........