Our question this week was:

Dr. Jon – I am cat sitting a Turkish angora for a friend who is out of the country for a month. This cat has long hair and I woke up today to see that he has soiled himself and it all got stuck on the hair of his rear-end and will not even let me get near that area to clean try to clean him. What should I do?

Amir Dajani


Answer

Hi – thanks for your email Amir. You wrote that a cat you are watching has feces stuck on its rear end and doesn't want you to get near him. Well, it doesn't sound like you have a lot of choices.

The best thing to do is to clean him up. You can try to wrap him gently in a towel (so he can hide his face) and expose his back end. You can try combing or bushing the feces out, doing a "fanny bath" and gently washing his back end or cutting the hair if you have some grooming shears. I would not use scissors as it can be easy to accidentally cut the skin.

If you can't do the above, you can take him to a groomer or your vets office and have them help you. Sometimes the most difficult part of this process is being able to restrain the cat. This can be very difficult to do when you are at home, especially if you are trying to do it by yourself.

Best of luck!


Dr. Jon




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