poo bum :D

[bitofcheese]

any suggestions as to what those of you with long haired cats do when there is poo on the hair surrounding their botty hole? mine has some poo there and can't imagine how she would get it off purely by liking. btw she isn't the type to take kindly to my wiping plus it is dry and hard.....i could snip it off, done that before

*licking

Thankfully it doesn't happen very often with our long-hair but we have found snipping works best. In fact once dry it's really the only option.

ah thank you jammie, i have given alot of thought to it and really couldn't come up with anything. i snipped once (although she doesn't often stay still for long, i have to get dd to distract her...) but now you have said that it makes me feel better as i thought snipping might be a little odd. she has so much hair in that area i have actually never seen her bottom so i have to be careful, i do worry about sudden movement though when i am cutting...

Ours is the same - a complete fluff ball. I did try baby wipes once when it was wet but that was really ineffective. You'll probably find you won't need to get too close to the skin so unlikely to hurt her. I held our boy still while my husband snipped. He did look a bit odd for a while but better than poo!!

my cat is a bit feisty, sod bit me this morning for no reason although i think she might have been playing but she isn't the sort i could keep still or hold for long plus she doesn't like being touched anywhere near her bottom.....best time i think is perhaps when i have put some newly opened tuna chunks down..

My long haired cat is 16 years old and has arthritis (she's on medication for this) and no longer lets us groom her as it hurts her. She also doesn't groom herself so ends up with matted hair and poo stuck to her bum.

Once a year she goes to the vets and they do a Lion cut on her (shaved all over, although not bald), but with hair left around head, feet and tail (like a lion). This solves the problem, she's happy, we've just bought her a cosier, warmer bed for the winter. The vets are more than happy to do this, and it costs around £40 I think. We get it done in the summer so the hair's grown a bit by winter.

I should say, she does look beyond ridiculous when she's freshly shaven, but she doesn't realise . The vets don't need to sedate our cat as she's quite happy being trimmed, but they could sedate if necessary.

i can't imagine them shaving around her bottom..it isn't very noticable, i have to lift her tail and still can't easily see it (poo) plus she doesn't smell (of poo, she doesn't smell though...). i'll try the tuna idea if it gets really bad but thanks for the vet tip off

*I meant she does smell......kind of used to it, varies day to day but subtle i guess

It doesn't sound like she is going to let you pop her in a bucket and give her a wash ... I used to do that with my elderly long-haired cat when we still had her. She didn't like it, but would tolerate it.

Some dog groomers will groom cats too, so that's another option.