Advice, please: Cat hygiene question

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jantamrac@att.net - 22 Dec 2003 05:15 GMT

Greetings, all;

One of our cats is a ~2 year old neutered male DLH who is in all but
one respect a splendid kitty.

The quibble: he doesn't always clean himself after using the litter
box. Talking about a bit of mess around his anus, not about
'hitch-hikers' or 'klingons'.

We check him regularly and often find it necessary to help him with
his hygiene.

Is there anything we can do to encourage him to keep himself cleaner?

TIA for suggestions!

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Sherry - 22 Dec 2003 05:32 GMT

>The quibble: he doesn't always clean himself after using the litter
>box. Talking about a bit of mess around his anus, not about
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
>Is there anything we can do to encourage him to keep himself cleaner?

Geez, I don't know if there's anything you can do to get him to improve his
personal hygiene. BUT, I had an old, overweight cat once with the same problem.
We had to keep the fur trimmed around his butt (the vet would do it for us
every couple of months). It helped a lot, and baby wipes are also handy.

Sherry

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Alan Sandoval - 22 Dec 2003 09:04 GMT

> >The quibble: he doesn't always clean himself after using the litter
> >box. Talking about a bit of mess around his anus, not about
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> Sherry

My ex had a Persian who was absolutely a fop. Beautiful guy who took
extreme care of every aspect of grooming, but he still dragged artifacts out
of the litter box. Not his fault at all, just the nature of his luxurious
coat. Careful trimming around the postierier will help, but don't expect
total success in this.

I once had an old English Sheepdog and the joke was they rolled around in
everything they could find because they didn't have pockets to bring it home
in. Same with long-hair cats, though the cats don't intend to do it.

Any long hair animal will bring on, uh, messy issues. Not that they aren't
grooming themselves, at least with cats, simply that it's just the way it
is.

Keep the handy wipes at hand, what you have going on isn't unusual at all,
just something you have signed on to deal with, even if you didn't know that
at the start.

/)_

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jantamrac@att.net - 25 Dec 2003 22:20 GMT

Our normal procedure is to check him and, if necessary, I hold him
while my wife uses warm toilet paper to clean him.

We have the vet give him a 'sanitary trim' anytime we visit, but that
helps only with hitchikers.

He's a big cat, but according to our vet, not overweight and he does
seem to clean himself sometimes. Maybe he just doesn't care. That,
or he's lazy. ;o)

Ironically, our other cat *is* a Persian and he keeps himself very
clean. Our previous cat was a Himilayan and was clean until the day
he died.

Thanks for the responses!

> > >The quibble: he doesn't always clean himself after using the litter
> > >box. Talking about a bit of mess around his anus, not about
[quoted text clipped - 37 lines]
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-=petr0lb0mb=-???? - 22 Dec 2003 12:43 GMT

*Snip*

> and baby wipes are also handy.

The vet also recommended this to my wife. So she bought Aloe Vera coated
baby wipes.
I know that the plant Aloe Vera is poisonous to cats. But, I'm not sure
about the Aloe Vera Extract.
My wife wiped down our cat's entire coat with these. The next day
(yesterday), I noticed that our cat was under the weather.
So, does anyone know if AloeVera Extract is poisonous? Not that I intend on
using it on our cat again but I want to know if I should look for specific
symptoms.

Sorry to hijack the topic but I'm trying to find an answer and
simultaneously save others from the same (possible) mistake (if Aloe Vera
Wipes ARE infact the problem).

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PawsForThought - 23 Dec 2003 02:37 GMT

>From: "-=petr0lb0mb=-²°°²" neg@tive.com

>So, does anyone know if AloeVera Extract is poisonous?

Not in and of itself. However, some of the aloe vera products have a
preservative in them that can be toxic to cats. Actually there was an
interesting study about aloe vera and treatment of feline leukemia:

http://www.aloevera-usa.com/felinelv.htm

Lauren
________
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kaeli - 22 Dec 2003 16:38 GMT

> The quibble: he doesn't always clean himself after using the litter
> box. Talking about a bit of mess around his anus, not about
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> TIA for suggestions!

Is he overweight?
Overweight cats can have problems cleaning themselves.

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