My cat won't clean himself any more.

by sarah
(Kc, mo)

My cat is 9 yrs old. He recently had a horrible UTI and we had to have his bladder drained due to stones in his urethra.

Anyways, that was a month ago and now he's fine. Problem is, he nearly never cleans himself anymore. After using the litter box he comes up stairs and smells horrible. his paws are unbearably smelly.
What's wrong? I cant steam my carpets everyday.

Reply from Kate
Cats are by nature very clean animals and so it is unusual for a cat not to groom or clean up after the toilet.

There is usually several reasons for this non cleaning behavior. Being over weight and so not able to reach certain areas to clean. Having a condition like arthritis where by it is painful to clean or generally feeling unwell or depressed.

Due to his recent illness which sound very nasty ir could be that he still feels under the weather or is still feeling depressed about it all. Yes I know this sounds odd for a cat but i have seen this before.

i assume that your vet has advised you to dry and make your cat drink more water on a daily basis to help prevent this UTI happening again. I had a cat who had repeated UTI's but simply would not drink. In the end I changed her food to all dry and this made her thirsty and she drank. NO more UTI;s ever. Of course it is important that if you do move over to dry food only that it is a good quality one.

You could also try putting some cream or butter on your cats paws to try and get him to start to groom again. watch him when he does, does he appear to have difficulty in any way?

If this continues then if it were me i would take him back to the vets to make sure that there were no other signs of illness which could be causing him not to want to groom. As i say it is very unusual for a cat not to clean themselves.

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-urinary-problems.html

best wishes kate

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