'Scooting' and blocked anal glands.

[CheeseAndOnionIceCream]

Anyone else had experience of their cat having this? My female,neutered,7 year old cat has been 'scooting' frequently over the last 48 hours. She's also in and and out of the litter tray numerous times,but not doing anything! (I know it's not because she CAN'T go.as there has been both wee and poo in the tray in the last 24 hours). She just sits there ,like she's having a wee for about a minute,leaves the tray,but there's nothing there. Her backside area doesn't smell too great,either. (not envy).
Do I need to take her to the vet to sort this put? Or can I (with help,obviously) do it myself? My Dd said that a friend of hers cat gets this occassionall,and she 'sorts it out herself',with someone helping her by holding the cat.
My cat seems perfectly happy in all other respects,eating well,demanding attention,playing etc.

Not anal glands - more likely a cystitis. You need to take her to the vets if she is straining to urinate and unable to go. Less likely in a female but could be an obstruction and this shouldn't be left.

Has she been wormed? That can also cause scooting

Didn't see she has urinated- still this is likely to be a UTI rather than anal glands, if thete is a smell it suggests infection. I'd see a vet sooner rather than later.

Yes, if she's struggling in the tray, the vet for sure.

Our 15 year old housecat is now prone to feline cysitis; when she has an attack she's so miserable. Athough she can poo its the weeing or not weeing thats the real issue.

Better to see a vet sooner than later: our elderly cat had (unknown to us) blocked anal glands. She stopped eating, so stopped pooing, but because she is so very old (18 at the time, nearly 20 now) we took her to the vet and they thought it was something like cancer and ran lots of tests. Saw three different vets and not one of them spotted the blocked glands. Eventually one of them ruptured- blood and pus everywhere (all over our bed, where she likes to sleep in the daytime) and the poor thing was left looking like she had a second bum hole! If it is blocked glands, the vet can manually empty them before they explode. If it's something else, like a urine infection etc, the vet will also pick it up so no loss in taking the cat there anyway.

Ok,vets it is! Thanks everyone for the advice.

Update:- went to vet's yesterday evening. Turns out she DOES have a urinary tract infection,so thank you to the posters who suggested this. Was given a 5 day course of antibiotics (what fun I have had getting them down her!) and some pain relief (in liquid form,thankfully,so easier to administer). After just 2 doses,she already seems a lot better. Only been in her litter tray twice today,instead of 50 times! The vet cleaned her bum up,so thankfully she smells a lot better too!