Bottom Maintenance

Kitten is about 4 weeks old now and the last few days has started to use the litter box for wetting. Still not 100% but it's only been a few days.

BM's aren't making it there yet and it's getting matted up around the bottom and underside of the tail. When he was littler and a damp rag didn't do the trick I'd run his backside under a small stream of water and wrap him up to dry and warm him and that pretty much took care of things. He's bigger now and really protesting this but I still need to do some clean up because he's got more output--he's got a clump matted up under there now. Any suggestions for cleaning up, including softening up/removing BM matted in the fur? Soap, wipes, etc?

Originally Posted by Pippen

Kitten is about 4 weeks old now and the last few days has started to use the litter box for wetting.

Still not 100% but it's only been a few days.

BM's aren't making it there yet and it's getting matted up around the bottom and underside of the tail. When he was littler and a damp rag didn't do the trick I'd run his backside under a small stream of water and wrap him up to dry and warm him and that pretty much took care of things. He's bigger now and really protesting this but I still need to do some clean up because he's got more output--he's got a clump matted up under there now. Any suggestions for cleaning up, including softening up/removing BM matted in the fur? Soap, wipes, etc?

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I use wetted paper towel..I try to be very careful with the bottom.

Katie

Another milestone.. Soon it will be poop

Thanks I did try the wet paper towel plus added some more warm water because it had really hardened up. I went after it carefully but he sure didn't like it. He's got long hair so I don't blame him.

The milestones are coming on fast now. He learned how to jump out of his basket this week and we were all just giggling when he figured out how to pounce. Look out world, here I come!

Get a pair of baby scissors that they use to cut babies' hair (they have rounded edges so they won't accidentally cut him if he moves too much). Then trim the hair around his butt so the poops won't get stuck in the fur and will have a better chance of falling to the litter.

My Fuzzbutt was named so because of the long fur he had in that area. I had to keep him reasonably trimmed his whole life Although as he got older he cleaned himself, it was never that great a job, so this helped a great deal.

I think I might do this before Skittles has her babies. She is like a furball..

Mom, I just posted a picture of Fuzzbutt (named for a reason LOL) in the fur babies show your tuxes. If you feel like looking, you'll see what a furball he was. I always had to trim his butt fur every so often or there would be a real mess.

He didn't appreciate it too much, but it's been my experience that approaching any male (cat or not) in that area with a pair of scissors could cause a negative reaction. LOL

But I never went too close to the skin. Just close enough and a big enough area that it made his life easier.

I think it would be a good idea to try with Skittles if she's a furball, it will be easier for her to clean herself and help the babies out most likely, and keep herself clean afterwards. Let me know how it goes.

That is cool I will check it out now. I have to search for everything becayse my laptop likes to cause eye trouble

Thanks for the trimming suggestion. I got him cleaned up once and it was really unhappy after that so I didn't do the trimming. Bad move...because within two days it was all matted up again with hard pieces and I had to cut it out and then wet his whole backside down to get him cleaned up and that made his first unhappy cleanup look like a picnic. I did get some baby wipes to do some upkeep and I still think I need to trim some more as he was clean when he went to bed last night and messy again in the morning. I think what is happening is that at least part of the time he's going in his sleep and not in the litter box when he pees. He hasn't had a wetting accident in 3 days so I know he's catching on. Should this BM part follow pretty naturally even though there's no mama cat around to lead the way?