Last night my cat went into her litter box, pooped, cleaned up - all good. Then she came out and dragged her butt along the carpet! I have never seen her do this before. Can anyone shed some light on this behavior please! Many thanks.
Butt scooting like that can be cause by a number of thing:
Eating something a cat shouldn't, like human hair
Stools being softer or firmer than usual
Occasional cling on, if a cat has longer or fluffer fur back there
Worms
Anal glands not expressing properly, thus full
The best place to start is her litter box - how are her stools? Firm? Soft? Normal?
Any hair in them, cat or human? Anything else, like string?
Break the stools open, any sign of worms?
Now check her. Any poop left in the fur back there? Are there two little dark dots to either side of her anus?
Glad you checked. I think I know what part of your cat's problem is.
The dark spots are BAD. Those are the anal glands and should not be dark like that. That they are means they're full. This requires vet treatment as full anal glands a can become infected and even rupture. Your vet can show you how to express them at home if need be for future occurances. You and the vet need to thoroughly discuss the underlying cause of this, as normal stools should clear the anal glands and this is obviously not happening.
Again, not a behavior issue but a health one and something that needs vet care very soon.