Cleaning a yucky kitty's bum

Hi all!

I'm new foster mom to a pregnant cat that is convalescing after being hit by a car.  She is long-haired, generally fairly sweet natured with me, (though NOT with my other cats) and pretty fastidious about keeping her paws and face clean.  The trouble is, she's not keeping her behind clean at all.  I need to wash it.  I suspect, based on her front-end grooming habits, that the pregnancy or the injuries from the car accident may be to blame.  (Broken jaw, broken clavicle, ulcerated eye, etc.).  Anyway, She's not been super patient with me trying to clean her up.  She hasn't bitten or clawed, but I haven't pressed the issue either.  She squirms and growls and gets stressed, and I back off before too much is achieved.  So she's wandering around my house with a poopy butt, which is not sanitary, classy, or aromatically satisfactory.  Right now my next plan is to wrap her in a towel and give her back end a full-on shampoo job.  (And maybe a trim to prevent this when her babies come.)  But this isn't my area of expertise, so any advice from more experienced cat people would be much, much appreciated.  I don't mind making her mad (too much) but I don't like the idea of aggravating her injuries or escalating her fear at being pregnant and in a strange environment with strange people.  I'm new to long-hairs, so would appreciate any suggestions at all.

Firstly, have you got someone around who can help?  A couple of someones even?  It's at least a two-person job, cleaning and clipping a fluffy bottom.  

I would get in there with a warm, wet cloth to try to get rid of the majority of poo.  Then, depending on how that went, I'd have helpers pin her down then trim the area.  However, considering she is pregnant, I would take advice from a vet as to how to proceed, as it may be that she shouldn't be tackled at all.  

You could try filling a plant spray with warm(ish, not too hot but not cold so that it causes her a nasty shock) water and a soapy substance like, hibiscrub, to squirt at her bum on the mist setting, then rub it round with a damp cloth.  Then, squirt it again with clean warm water.  I've never tried this approach but it just came to mind.  

You can also buy waterless foaming pet "shampoo" that you massage in then towel off.  

I can see why you'd be concerned as to how to go about this.  But, if she's not self-cleaning, she really needs seeing to before labour and kittens.

Good luck, and keep us posted   

Thank you very much for your help!  I got my husband to help.  We wrapped her up in a towel and I was able to comb a lot of it out, then shampoo'ed the rest.  Hopefully she'll keep tidier.  Didn't get her trimmed.  That process took nearly 10 minutes as it was, and didn't want to traumatize her further today.  She has a vet appointment on Wednesday, so will ask vet about trimming her while he has her. 

The vet trimmed my cat, Dudley's, fluffy bum & breeches when I was last there for a check-up, they clipped his claws too.  I'm sure your vet would be more than happy to do a little bit of hair-dressing and maybe a manicure too!