Poop stuck in bum fur

[plentytoes]

Hi, we have just recently taken in a 9 year old female. She is an Tuxedo/Oreo domestic long hair. she is a great little cat, no problems to really rant about. The one problem we do seem to have is she seems to get poops stuck in her fur, and then she either "drops" them on the floor or bed, or they stay on her, and she makes a stink "carrying" them around with her. We did get her a new larger cat box, and not sure this is helping. We are desperate, as she likes to spend time with us on our bed, and well, poo is poo! Her poo is also quite loose, soft versus the solid bricks previous cats we have had produce. We feed her a higher quality dry food, in the AM, then she gets a bit of canned food at night, with some dry stuff mixed in.

any comments would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks, from "Stepping in it too much"

 

[kissthisangel]

Hello and welcome to TCS.

Long haired cats can have a few problems with pooping in their trousers. There's a couple of things you can try to help alleviate the issue, you could trim the hair around her bottom  and the very base of her under tail so it isn't as long, you can do this carefully with a pair of scissors, most cats won't tolerate a buzz cut. If you're not comfortable doing that, you could take her to a reputable groomers and  ask them to show you how to. 

The other thing you could try is her diet, if she's on a wet diet, you could try mixing in (slowly) some dry food. This can help with the consistency and odor of deposits, but be sure that the water intake increases along side as cats are meant to get about 60-70 of their moisture from food.

Some other things to consider would be her litter habits (good shout with the larger litter box) does she go and then run away so fast she hasn't finished properly?

is she able to reach to clean the area sufficiently?

Have you spoken to a vet about the loose stools?

I used to have an ex who had a very special little short haired tuxedo boy named barty, he would do his stuff and then try to run away so fast his little legs looked like a cartoon. He had unfortunately suffered a huge car accident and was more like robo cat so I think he was in pain.

Kiss~

 

[eck1kaylie]

I had a half-persian growing up with the longest fur I've ever seen on a cat, and he used to get poo stuck on his bum all the time. Not fun. He'd sit on the floor and scoot around to get it off. 

I don't think my parents ever thought about trimming the hair back there, but that's a really good suggestion! We always just dampened a paper towel and got as much off as we could before he got mad. 

I think he eventually figured out on his own how to avoid it... He sorta hangs off the edge of the box now when he poos. xD

 

[donutte]

My Maple has the same problem. I finally decided to make an appointment at a groomer for her. She's too big for me to handle alone (she's 17 lbs). Her weight is part of why she can't keep herself clean, but I figure once I get her clean then I can keep her clean. Also getting her a hygiene cut down there for her, along with a bath.

She's going to absolutely LOVE me. I'll have to make sure to give her an extra treat that day.

 

[paiger8]

I think your bigger problem is her poop. You can do a sanitary shave, and wipe all you want, but this is going to keep happening.

A healthy cat's poop is firm, and hard. If her poo is soft and loose, it's a sign that something is up with her nutrition. What brands (and flavors) specifically are you feeding her? Has this been a problem ever since you got her? There may be something in her food that she's not digesting well.

Has she been wormed recently for all types of worms? Most wormer doses have to be repeated at least once, and do not cover all species of worms.