Elderly Cat Hygiene Issue

Hello, I have a very very old cat (18) who has very long fur, he is a nebelung. He has recently started having some fur issues (bad mats) and he every so often gets some feces stuck to some mats on his backside. He is rather fragile and it is not recommend by our vet to bathe him what so ever as he overexerts himself and stresses out rather terribly (I found this out the hard way trying to give him flea baths in his younger days) He also has a heart condition he takes medication for and should not be stressed out by any means.  I tried my best to clean the area and his tail but he was not happy at all about it and I am left rather frustrated and unable to assist him. I have read that cats will deal with this issue themselves but I doubt this is the case as he is so old and rarely cleans himself as it is anymore.

Any advice is very appreciated thank you.  

Oh dear. First, mats are not good - they pull on the skin. And feces stuck to his fur is unpleasant for both of you. Bathing won't help with mats.

Is he calm enough that you can cut the mats out? Slip a comb between the mat and his skin, then carefully cut the mat away on the side of the comb furthest from his skin.

And keep the fur around his hind end and tail close to his rectum trimmed short so feces don't get stuck.

If you don't want to attempt this, ask your vet for a cat specific groomer who will come to your house. I think it would definitely be worth it.

I sympathize, as I also have an 18 plus year old cat, short hair though. So far she's making it to the litter box just fine. But at this age they are getting fragile and we want to keep them happy and comfortable with as little stress as possible.

I have been keeping up on the trim around his body and yes he is very calm about it. Albeit he will not let me near his rear end when it is clean let alone right now. I thank you for the advice on the groomer I suppose that will be a last resort (I have tried to find groomers before but they all refuse upon hearing his age. I should ask the vet for some assistance in finding one indeed, although I am unsure if such a groomer will deal with the back-end whilst in such a state. I will try tackling the task again later once he and I both have a breather. I have just tried wiping his end with a soft cloth and some luke-warm water yet he is acting very moody about it and I do not want to persist too much. I have never left him in this state for more than 30 min or so when finding him with such a mess, I can usually get him to stay calm but I think this time he is in some pain due to the location of the mat this time around and is acting out against any attempt to assist him. I just do not want to have some sort of rash or infection spread and was looking for some guidance on the matter before giving my vet a call. I think he made the mess sometime last night as I found it this morning and it was rather dry and clumped to a large mat on the base of his tail. How long can I take my time attempting to clean him? I.e I might need to stress him out a little bit if I can't clean it otherwise  

Poor baby. I hope you find a way to clean him up. :nod: