Cat always has a shitty bum - how to stop this?!

[NeededANameChangeAnyway]

Its minging. She smells of shit constantly and generally has small lumps hanging around her bum area or caught in the fur. She is fluffy but not outrageously so - fur round her back end is maybe 1.5cm. She spends ages licking the top of her tail as if she is bothered by the poop but rarely does her bum. She is a rescue cat of around a year old (we got her and her brother when they were a few months old, she had already been adopted and returned for some reason) and has always been like this - I thought it would improve as she got older but it hasn't. I'm just after chasing her round the house to catch a lump of shit with toilet roll what can I do?? The male cat has no problems with this, just her. Help!!

I'd say a visit to the vet is a must.

We had a similar problem with one of our rescue cats and took ages for it to resolve, vet thought she had picked up a parasite which was affecting her digestion (loose stools and she wasn't growing as she should). We had 2 months of various courses of worming and antibiotics, nothing was fully effective as without full screening he wasn't able to tell us what parasite it was and was trying to narrow done the list to test for....

A couple of things that we tried you tried a probiotic like prokolin to help with good bacteria in the gut? And changing food. Felix is not great as its cheap and poor quality, but it's one up from whiskas (which ours were on when we rescued them - we call it crack got cats as they were almost addicted to it!). After trial and error with various wet foods (sensitive, wheat/gluten free etc) we switched to a raw food (natural instincts). As both cats were young the took to it well (but the transition can be hard for some cats, and some won't take it at all). We've not had a loose stool since we switched (3 months ago) and the vet is amazed with her transition. We also always have applaws available - they were never dry food fans, but love this too. Applaws is more expensive per bag than iams and equivalent, but lasts us about a month (two cats). Poos are less frequent, don't smell and good and firm from day 2.

I would take her to the vet - it doesn't sound normal to me. Also Felix is only 4% meat so it's no good at all. I have one cat that will only eat dry food which I find awkward. The other only likes wet. I would try feeding a better food with more meat content. Natures Menu country hunter is very good and also for a cat who will only eat chunks in gravy Science Hills pouches are certainly better than Felix. My kitten loves all the wet foods you can get from Zooplus, like Grau and Animonda Carny.

Just a thought, but perhaps her anal glands need emptying?

Definitely vet to check faecal sample for parasites and look at glands. If all ok then Royal Canin do a sensitive wet food and a gastrointestinal wet food, both of which mine wolf down. Mine get sensitive guts and now I can't even tell when they've been to the litter tray unless I look in it.

We've got a cat who had bum tidiness issues but it was because she was overweight and it was physically challenging to get her face found there to sort it out! Went from grazing on dry food that just got topped up to meal times with wet and dry mixed and she's lost weight and grooms effectively now.

BogBastard had this issue and benefited from the 'trouser area' trim. Also, while you would not believe there is a market for such items, Pets at Home sell 'tushiewipes' for cats. Once I got past the whole notion of buying wet wipes for the CAT, they did work better than standard wet wipes at detaching the offending stuff from his arse.

Like Admarks we found pro kolin really good - you can get it from the vet or online without prescription. She needed half a sachet a day for about 6 months (she wouldn't eat it so had to mix with water and syringe it), which we then reduced down and now only give if she has a runny poo - which is very occasionally now (once every 6 months, was 5x daily). She uses a litter tray so it is easier to monitor. She is also on a grain free diet - James Wellbeloved and Butcher's classic. Have tried other dry foods but JW is the favourite. She can now have the occasional dreamie without affecting her but a binge when she discovers the whole packet left out will affect her. She still isn't keen on self care and is sometimes smelly but fortunately her brother seems happy to help her with grooming that area .