Butt Scooting On Carpet?

My cat always have had this gross habit and I just realized it’s not something a cat should be doing very often. Is that true? Do any of your cats have this habit?

How can I get her to stop? At some point when she was much younger I did have the vet do the butt gland pressing thing. And then I forgot about it for a while because I got so use to normalizing the behavior. Does it mean she needs to have that gland pressing done frequently? Or is there something else that has to be checked? Is it her food? I’m just trying to figure out if there’s a better solution? I don’t think it’s worms since she’s been pretty free of that for a long time as an indoor cat and has pretty normal poops (When I catch her having soft poops which happens once in a while, I usually wipe her butt with a damp paper towel before she gets a chance to go to the carpets).

And do any of you have recommendations for keeping the carpets clean? I don’t think she’s leaves anything visible or smelly, but it still is unsanitary. Are there any pet safe product I could use to quickly just wipe the spot or something? Do most of you invest in a carpet cleaner (the ones that steam and stuff?)

Thanks in advance for any inputs!

An enzyme cleaner is specially made to remove biological waste (poo, pee) you can get them at any pet store. There are different brands to choose from and are safe for most fabrics and, of course, pets. I have personally used "Nature's Miracle" and it seemed to work good. Other's here have used different ones that they think worked better but I can't think of the name, hopefully they will see this thread and let you know which one it is.

When it comes to her butt scooting, you'll have to bring her to the vet to see what the problem is. If it is simply a case of full anal glands, the vet can show you how to express them yourself at home so you don't have to keep bringing her in.
You also mention, her soft poops. Soft poops can cause the anal glands to not express themselves as they don't have the pressure of firm (normal) poop to keep them clear when she goes. Something else to talk to your vet about is things you can do to keep her poop normal, she may have an allergy to something, have mild IBD, not eating the right food for her, might have hairball issues....there are so many things that can cause pooping issues.

Hope this helps!

Yes, impacted anal glands are usually the cause of this behavior, and it is unusual in cats but not unheard of. (It's much more common in dogs.) She probably needs to have them expressed by a vet. When the cat passes firmer stool the glands are expressed naturally in the litter box, so it is likely the stool is too soft. You can get a fecal test to make sure there aren't any lingering parasites, but probably it is just a dietary cause. Carbs make stool softer, so look into foods that are low carb. It might seem counter-intuitive, but wet food normally helps because it tends to be lower in carbs. You can also try adding a probiotic-that never hurts! If you feed raw, increasing the bone content will also help. (If you don't feed raw and want to start feeding the occasional raw bone that would also be great for dental health as well, but it takes a minute to get a cat to learn to eat raw when they haven't before.)