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- Jan 31, 2021
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Hello everyone!
About a year ago I adopted a neighborhood stray as my first cat. She is a fabulous black domestic longhair of about 12 years old who at her last annual checkup was perfectly healthy in every way - one of the assistants joked that she was practically still a kitten. Last week after using her litter box, as happens sometimes, she got some poop stuck in her fur - this was a particularly stubborn one, for whatever reason, resulting in A LOT of scooting on A LOT of carpet. I noticed later that evening that she was grooming her bottom a lot, as I suppose one would if they weren't feeling so fresh. Figured maybe I didn't get everything with the warm washcloth before she went into attack mode.
Then she just kept doing it - there was a significant uptick in how much she was grooming the area over the next couple of days. She finally held still long enough for me to look at it this evening and it's a little bit red and swollen.
Now, normally according to what I've seen online, overgrooming is accompanied by behavioral changes, diarrhea, etc and she has no other symptoms of anything being wrong, so I'm thinking she may have gotten rug burn from all her scooting and made it worse by grooming a little rash on herself. Every picture I've seen online of inflammed/impacted/etc cat anuses/glands is much more severe than what she's showing - it's usually bright white (she's a black cat) and is currently pink and a bit swollen at the very top, the rest looks completely normal (maybe a little "dirtier" than usual but this could just be black fur getting caught in it after she grooms it). She is eating and drinking normally, she is using the litter box at her normal frequency and her poop/pee doesn't look or smell any different than it always has. No constipation, no diarrhea, no complaining or straining using the litter box, she's not expressing any pain or discomfort, no changes in her behavior AT ALL other than the increased amount of grooming of her butt and even that seems to be decreasing in frequency. The swelling and redness at the top of the anus - almost right where it meets her tail - is concerning, but that appears to be her only other symptom. Her flea medication is current and though she is indoor/outdoor, her excursions outside are limited to napping on the porch or sitting in the grass or flower beds sniffing things, never out of sight.
The vet says to just keep an eye on it in case it gets worse or her behavior changes - it hasn't, fortunately, but I figured I would see if anyone here has dealt with something similar and for any other insight on what could be happening.
Has anyone dealt with something similar?
Thank you!
About a year ago I adopted a neighborhood stray as my first cat. She is a fabulous black domestic longhair of about 12 years old who at her last annual checkup was perfectly healthy in every way - one of the assistants joked that she was practically still a kitten. Last week after using her litter box, as happens sometimes, she got some poop stuck in her fur - this was a particularly stubborn one, for whatever reason, resulting in A LOT of scooting on A LOT of carpet. I noticed later that evening that she was grooming her bottom a lot, as I suppose one would if they weren't feeling so fresh. Figured maybe I didn't get everything with the warm washcloth before she went into attack mode.
Then she just kept doing it - there was a significant uptick in how much she was grooming the area over the next couple of days. She finally held still long enough for me to look at it this evening and it's a little bit red and swollen.
Now, normally according to what I've seen online, overgrooming is accompanied by behavioral changes, diarrhea, etc and she has no other symptoms of anything being wrong, so I'm thinking she may have gotten rug burn from all her scooting and made it worse by grooming a little rash on herself. Every picture I've seen online of inflammed/impacted/etc cat anuses/glands is much more severe than what she's showing - it's usually bright white (she's a black cat) and is currently pink and a bit swollen at the very top, the rest looks completely normal (maybe a little "dirtier" than usual but this could just be black fur getting caught in it after she grooms it). She is eating and drinking normally, she is using the litter box at her normal frequency and her poop/pee doesn't look or smell any different than it always has. No constipation, no diarrhea, no complaining or straining using the litter box, she's not expressing any pain or discomfort, no changes in her behavior AT ALL other than the increased amount of grooming of her butt and even that seems to be decreasing in frequency. The swelling and redness at the top of the anus - almost right where it meets her tail - is concerning, but that appears to be her only other symptom. Her flea medication is current and though she is indoor/outdoor, her excursions outside are limited to napping on the porch or sitting in the grass or flower beds sniffing things, never out of sight.
The vet says to just keep an eye on it in case it gets worse or her behavior changes - it hasn't, fortunately, but I figured I would see if anyone here has dealt with something similar and for any other insight on what could be happening.
Has anyone dealt with something similar?
Thank you!
