Dirty Bottom!

So here we are with our 12-13 week old kittens. Anyways, one of the kittens has a very dirty bottom. It takes about half an hour just to clean his bottom and I know it hurts him and is very sore. Not only that but it is very hard and takes forever to remove the poo but it is stained to his tail and his legs and they are both stained yellow. At the time of writing this he keeps on trying to jump to me but I just don't want him on me and have to take him down. He is a VERY attention seeking cat and has a good nature and loves guests that come into our home. However a day after we clean his bottom it starts to get dirty again and we know how much cats hate water and baths so we try not to give him one, especially because it's very hard and time consuming, it hurts him and he always gets cold and we don't want him to get sick. With all the 10 cats I have never encountered this problem and it has only started happening two weeks ago. His sister had a dirty bottom but she cleaned it and is still clean and she continues to clean that area. However he will not lick himself and we want to be able to get him to start licking that area removing the poo, and we can't get the stain out of his back feet and his tail, but we know him licking himself will eventually get rid of the stains. So after this long post, I ask, how do we get him to clean that area himself. I love him and he always tries to come to us, but the furniture is just stained with poo and there is pieces of poo stuck to his bottom and I don't want him on me getting my clothes dirty, as much as I love him. I've read that putting butter on the are might do the trick, but I would like to use other methods, and if there isn't one I will result to putting butter on his bottom. One of the two kittens, or maybe both usually poo in the litter tray, but sometimes they'll poo next to it. We do usually have 2 or 3 litter trays put down and clean them regularly, so there is some reason for them doing so.

Thanks for your time reading this and I hope I get a solution.

I don't understand why his bum and legs are so dirty if he's got solid stools. Does he have diarrhea? What are you currently cleaning him with?

He did have diarrhoea but not anymore. When I clean him I literally give him a bath, I wear plastic gloves and remove it with my hand because it's too hard to use anything else. I tried using wet wipes but it wouldn't do anything. And what do you mean by 'solid stools'. I myself don't really understand why his legs are dirty but there are chunks of poo stuck in his hair on his tail and big chunks stuck to his bottom itself.

Sometimes it can be a problem if kittens were orphaned or abandoned, or taken from their mom too young  and did not learn from her about self grooming.  But it almost sounds like there might be some physical problem   It actually makes me wonder if this kitten might have some kind of nerve damage or something so that he doesn't always  quite have control of his bowels. and maybe also doesn't feel  that he is dirty?  

Or maybe he is having some digestive problem .        Cats can't really digest plants that well and some cats on food with a lot of plants can go between constipation and diarrhea. 

       I wonder if this would improve on a raw meat & bone diet.   that often makes the poop small,  rather dry ( but not like rock hard, it's more crumbly)  and almost odorless.  seems like it would be less likely to stick all over him like that.      If you do something like that it has to be a balanced diet though.  There is a vet who has some recipes she has used for years ,  on her site http://www.catinfo.org .  or you could ask in the Raw feeding part of the Nutrition section here.    There are also some commercial raw foods,  like I feed Natures Variety Instinct  raw venison.   

If he has big chunks stuck to his legs and tail with stains on his fur, this sounds like a health issue to me too, not a grooming issue. I would take him for a vet visit and consider a diet change.

I hope he's feeling better soon .

Well both of his parents are our cats and we've had him since day one. He's lost two siblings, one we think died of dehydration when he was 2 days old and one managed to get outside somehow when he was 10 weeks old and we haven't seen him since. We only feed our cats the best of food, we don't even feed them Whiskas or Felix, we feed them food recommended by the local vets, it's called 'Science Plan' and as you can imagine Scientist work on this product. About their mother, about one and a half weeks ago their mother got lost, and bare in mind that their mother is a much smaller cat compared to their father who is a regular cat; she's about the size of a 4-5 month old cat. Anyways she hasn't come back since and normally because of a very terrible experience with a fox we don't like leaving any of our cats out at night, especially daisy because of her size. If you want to find out the other experience you can check the 'New cats on the block' part of the forums. Anyways their mother (Daisy) got out this night and has never come back. But this was when they were 10-11 weeks old and wouldn't really of impacted them on their self grooming, especially because his sister does it fine.

Anyways, we don't feed him plants, his diet is a healthy diet but his father and his sister do share the same food so it is a bit random how much we feed him. We always top up on the Science Plan biscuits and feed all the cats about 4 packets of wet Science Plan food. When both of the kittens eat I try and separate them from their father to ensure that they eat a lot. I will take some pictures and compare to the two kittens for you.

Okay so the kitten with the dirty bottom I managed to get a picture of fine, but his sister with the clean bottom I couldn't, but that doesn't really matter. 

I still think the poor little guy needs a vet check. That's not normal at all. I think it's health related, not a grooming issue. I say this because my cats never look like that. Even straight out of the litter box before they clean themselves they never look like that. Please get him a check up asap.

Some people with longhair cats do get them a "sanitary clip"  where a groomer uses a clipper to cut short the fur around the rear and that might be a good idea to at least minimize the mess. 

If he gets a lot of poop stuck on him, it's no wonder he doesn't want to eat all that,   and I doubt it would really be good for him. 

Re the Science Plan biscuits,  check the ingredient list  ,  I think you will find it has ground maize ( what we in the U.S. call corn)  and some cats do have trouble digesting that.   

 I'm just saying I would at least consider the possibilty it could be partly related to diet or some physical problem ,  because it seems odd he would be always having so much poop stuck on his bottom and legs,  and leaving it around the house.    That dirty bottom does look like he may  be having diarrhea  some of the time.    

Sometimes one sibling can have some food intolerance that the other sibling doesn't have.     I had a cat who had  bowel problems when he ate food with grains.   it got worse as he got older.  

Another thing that can cause trouble is parasites.   You probably did de-worm them but it often needs to be repeated, sometimes more than twice.  and it could be he had a different  kind of parasite  that needed another kind of medicine. 

 I wish I could tell you some behavioral tip that would automatically work.  but I think I would want to rule out some physical problem. 

Yeah I'll call them first and ask them what they think. It's much worst than what it looks because the camera that I used is a bad quality one, I think like 5mp. But yeah it's a shame really because he's so loving and every time I walk into their room (We keep them in a big room because we don't want them to get outside because they are too young and one of their siblings got outside and never came back) he always runs to the door and greets me and follows me around the room and when I sit down he tries to jump on me. If you want to see a picture of him and his sister and his father though just check my avatar . I'm not sure if I mentioned this but it only started about 3 weeks ago.

Thanks Maewkaew, I did check the ingredients but I didn't find ground maize or corn in the wet food and neither in the biscuits but I did find regular maize. Anyways the kitten isn't a longhair cat and if it was to do with the hair the other kitten would be having the same problem, but then again maybe she licks herself. I would say they are a medium length hair cat because they aren't short but they aren't longhaired. But I did notice that when he sits, he sits a bit awkward and lifts his bottom of the ground slightly. We have had him de-wormed but my mum's on holiday and she's the one who knows how to give them their medicine, but she is coming back tomorrow. You can take a closer look at them to see if we should get his hair trimmed in  that area by looking at my avatar. Thanks for the advice.

  Oh,  I agree,  it definitely isn't just the hair.   And he does look like what people call  "medium hair' . but it's fluffier than some cats,  so    I was just thinking maybe clipping it shorter back there, like some people do for longhairs  / semi-longhairs,   might make it stick to the fur less.    

 Re  food,    It sounds like you have a different variety of the Science Plan than the one that I  looked at the ingredients .   but I don't think it matters if it's ground maize or some other form of maize.   Some cats just get a bad reaction to that or some other grains.    I had one who got diarrhea from it and it did make a big mess on him.    ( I have no idea if it could be a similar issue,  but in my cat's case,  it helped to transition him to a food that was grain- free and a different kind of meat that he had not had before -- in case it was also   a particular kind of meat he had an intolerance to.    I put him on a grain-free venison  wet food and it solved the problem.   

I do hope you get it sorted.     I'm sure it is very  unpleasant for both the kitten and the humans !    I really think I  would talk to your vet.   

 You could always try the butter thing,  but  if he has a LOT of poop on him , I don't think I would really want him eating that. 

A little update, I went to look at his bottom againe and part of the poo at the bottom of the bottom is like broken and I looked and there was all this brown gooey stuff. He's trying to come on me right now and I will call the vets.

Please get the poor guy to a vet ASAP, that doesn't look normal at all. My big guy has trouble getting to his bum for grooming so I have to occasionally get him with a Tushy Wipe, but I have never seen anything close to what's going on with your guy.

That's the thing it's actually worse than it looks, the camera quality is bad and it was hard to get a good shot.

Personally, I would stop giving them wet food. Sometimes, it can cause loose stools. Vet check is always a good idea too

 They are just lovely kittens.     and he sounds very sweet.    I'm glad you're going to telephone the vet.     I do think it would be a good idea to have a vet look at  this poor little guy.   This just really doesn't seem normal to be having this as an ongoing problem.   He must be having very loose stools either like explosive diarrhea or a very sticky texture,     or is just going around much of the time leaking a gooey mess.  

 I noticed that you wrote about how he is sitting oddly.    which may be from  feces stuck on his bottom pulling at his fur or burning his skin,  or just otherwise feeling uncomfortable.   But   I would want to rule out some actual structural abnormality with his pelvis or spine,  or a neurological problem.  

Hopefully it is NOT that,   or something wrong with the structure of his bowel .     I hope it might be a dietary issue and you end up solving it quickly.  

 I really do advise reading the main article on Dr. Pierson's site http://www.catinfo.org   .     But there's also a site made by a layperson whose cat had had bowel problems for several years; ever since he was a kitten,  until she solved it by a diet change .    Both of those sites have recipes on there.   I know the one on catnutrition.org has had nutritional analysis . 

My cat that I mentioned was not eating a homemade diet like on those sites,  it was commercial food from Nature's Variety Instinct.  first the canned,  then I started also feeding him their raw frozen food.   I don't know if you can get that where you are.     

 A "hygiene clip"/ "sanitary trim" -- clipping the fur around his bottom --  would of course not make so much difference as it would in a longhair cat.   I don't know if it is worth it or not  but when you are at the vet,  you could ask  if they think it's advisable to do that until you get this problem solved.   If so,  they should be able to do it for you.  

Try checking out www.felineconstipation.org  (It's a very comprehensive site about intestinal health and function--not just constipation). It explains the physiological workings of how poop is formed and expelled, and the factors that affect well-formed, segmented, healthy poop.  Might be some info there that triggers some ideas for you.  

All best.

I hope you were able to get your little guy to the vet. Please let us know how he's doing!

Yeah we took him to the vet and apparently he had some infection. The infection also caused him to loose a lot of weight. But he is getting better now. Thanks guys for all your help.