# Long haired cat= poop in hair on tail



## P (Aug 3, 2008)

Is this a normal thing for long haired cats? I've been having this issue frequently with Vader for about the last 4 months, ever since her coat really started growing in and getting long and fluffy. Before it would happen once in a while, but not frequently; now it happens at least twice a week, and the prospect of clipping down her "featherduster" tail is looking not only more appealing, but more likely each time. I've considered that this may have something to do with her tail carriage, when she was a kitten, she had issues with constipation, and often held her tail down and curled, even when she was pooping, but she seems to have grown out of the constipation issues (she's 9 1/2 mo old now), and uses her tail normally while running and playing. It's gotten to where I no longer bother to comb it out and/or scrub up the whole tail (she hates both, and fighting with her to get her tail combed out will only make it harder to comb the rest of her), I usually just get the scissors and cut all offending poop and poop covered hair.... I was hoping that in doing so, I'd eliminate the problem areas, but it's not working, and before long, I'm going to have a hairy cat with a bald tail! She eats canned food mostly, I give them a handful of dry a couple times a week, but it's primarily my other cat that eats that, I've only seen her pick at it here and there. 

It's not like she's all raggedy and unkempt, I brush her at least a couple times a week, bathe her monthly or every other month, and usually clip her butt and trim her up then, trying to get all spots likely to catch poop. The worst is when I come home from work to find she's been cruising around my room all day with poop dangling from her tail 8O


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## BarkingPup (May 16, 2009)

For long haired cats it's perfectly normal. Skooma's had both solid and runny poo stuck to her fur (lemmee tell ya, I'd take solid over runny ANY day). She needs her vaccinations first but eventually she's going in to have a butt cut. If you're not showing yer cat I would suggest the same. The groomer essentially shaves the area around the butt so there's no chance of poo getting caught... I don't know if they do the tail too but I would definitely ask if they could. If the poo's only getting caught on the underside of her tail, you could just clip that part down; then she'd still be fluffy.

It seems kinda odd that it happens so frequently, tho. Skooma's had it twice since the bloody diarrhea/worms fiasco but that's it. Usually she cleans it right off. Maybe someone else can come along and shed some light?


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

A "potty patch" definitely helps, and when she was younger, the underside of Cleo's tail was trimmed once. Just the first 2-3 inches. It grows back, and hopefully by then, Vader will be a little better. Cleo is so much better now with her bathroom habits and keeping herself clean.

All of my cats get dingleberries sometimes, they can't help it, they can't use toilet paper like those Charmin bears.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

You can definitely get a potty patch shaved, but I'd be concerned about why she's getting it on her tail so often. Holly has the fuzziest butt in the world and she only gets dingleberries when her poop is soft which only happens once a month or so. If your cat's poop is normal, this shouldn't be happening...


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## Heather102180 (Nov 19, 2003)

Fozzy used to have a couple accidents with it getting stuck in his fur. One time it was pretty bad so I had to take him to get it all shaved out and I loved the results! Such easy maintenance for him and me! He got another potty patch a year later. I love the way he smells after the bath they give him too. So, I think a potty patch is great! It will probably be a bi-annual thing for Fozzy from now on.


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## P (Aug 3, 2008)

I've kept her butt and first couple inches of her tail clipped short since she was just a kitten (I work p/t for a groomer, so I've seen the result of long butt hair and poop clingons, gross! I swore when I decided to keep her that she was going to be well maintained, lol), it's not usually getting stuck in that part, but almost near the tip of her tail, on the underside of the tail. A couple weeks ago, she had a bunch of poop stuck in the tail, and I scissored up the bottom fringe and sides pretty short, as well as the tip of the tail, leaving it pretty short everywhere but the top. That worked for about a week, and I was proud of myself for having solved the issue, but now we're back to the same old problem, and the hair hasn't really grown out much (in fact, I had to scissor it more to even it up a few days later, it had big chunks chopped out where she was coming around on me and biting me as I clipped :lol: ). I don't know what's changed to result in poop accumulation again. 

Poop in the box is pretty normal looking, not runny, and I know she's parasite free. She's always had rather poor litter skills, she always uses the box, but frequently fails to cover. 

The more I think about it, the more I suspect she's not getting her tail up out of the way sometimes but curling it up like when she was a kitten. I don't really know what to do about that though, esp. since the problem is intermittent in nature, and the tail works pretty well outside of the litter box.


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## BarkingPup (May 16, 2009)

You could just shave the entire tail and wait until she's older and has more litter box experience... or resign yourself to a rat-kitty existence devoid of poopy tails... 

Anyone else have suggestions?


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

Maybe the box is too small and she doesn't like her tail touching it when she poops. Maybe try a storage tote....


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## P (Aug 3, 2008)

She's pretty small still, probably about 6-7 lbs, and the box seems roomy enough for her, so hopefully that's not the issue. 

She pushed me over the edge the other day and received the world's worst tail hair cut ever as a result! I came up and was watching TV on my bed, and she came up and was rolling all around on my blankets, then came up and was rubbing around on my head..... I smelled poop :? Picked her up in speedy fashion and was appalled to find several clumps of it just hanging out there. Initially I was going to scissor it out, but she wasn't cooperative, and I decided I didn't want to deal with it again anytime soon, so I clipped (shaved, if you will), the underside and sides of the tail, just leaving a little stripe of longer hair on top, lol. It looks pretty funny, since her tail curls around sometimes, the hair sticks out like spikes :lol: No poop in the tail since, so hopefully this'll fix the problem. If not, I'll get rid of the stripe too, but I felt bad clipping everything off.


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