The kitty probably can't reach to groom his butt, even if he wanted to clean it. That's not a big medical problem. The butt-scooting boogie is due to full anal glands. Fat cats have trouble expressing them by themselves. This can be a problem- full anal glands are uncomfortable, and can become impacted and/or infected. You can have the vet or tech show you how to express the anal sacs, so you can show your son. Because you will not want to have to do this- it STINKS! And if just wiping his butt is unpleasant, squeezing the anal glands is so much worse. Better yet, have your son take the cat to the vet and learn how to do this.
The other thing is to talk to your son about the dangers of being an overweight cat. In addition to the annoyance of cleaning his butt and the anal gland problem, he is at risk for several conditions- diabetes, arthritis, cancer, hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver) if he for some reason becomes anorexic (like having a diabetic crisis). These are all very serious issues that could easily be prevented by putting him on a gradual weight reduction diet.
I think Nutro has a weight reduction diet, or measure his food and feed 10% less. You don't want him to lose too much weight too fast, as it causes the aforementioned hepatic lipidosis. But if he loses 1-2% of his current body weight a month, he will eventually be a good weight. And the poopy butt and anal gland problems will go away.

Also: Older cats tend to be slightly dehydrated, which could lead to hard stool and difficulty eliminated it. For my old cat, I added a few teaspoons of water to his food, and that made a difference.

Butt-scooting isn't always about full anal glands though...my cat was trying to dislodge a partially evacuated poop. You're right about having the vet express anal glands instead of doing it at home...one of my cats had to have his anal glands expressed, and this dark, foul-smelling goop literally flew across the room!

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions. I will make a vet appointment for next week to have anal glands, worms, & weight checked. I'll probably end up taking care of this cat for another six months. The cat has a huge body frame, but doesn't seem particularly overwieght. And he doesn't overeat.

As I re-read the packaging on the Nutro indoor formula, I noted that it said something about producing drier stools:
"Reduces Stool Wetness For Drier, Less Odiferous Stool." I suppose drier stools is a good thing for litter management, but maybe it's not so good for the cats themselves. Perhaps that is the problem.

I'll change his dry food back to the regular Nutro Complete Care. I use that brand and that formula because it really does keep the stool odor down. And, if the vet suggests it, I'll get the weight management formula. I'm also adding a spoonful of pumpkin to his three spoonfuls of canned cat food that I give him as a treat. That should help with any constipation problems, I hope.

Again, thanks for your advice. And if you come up with any more suggestions, please let me know what they are.

Only thing I might mention is about hair on his rear. If he has excess hair there and the stools are softer, it may be more apt to come in contact with the hair on the way to the litter pan. It will gradually build up each day and then you have a dried mess. But us extreme caution if you do any trimming yourself. I'm not good with clippers like the vet has so when my long hair needs a trim, I enlist the aid of someone to help hold him then I use a comb for a barrier between his skin and my scissors. I only cut hair that is sticking through the teeth of the comb. If you try to pull the hair with one hand and cut with the other, there is too much chance for skin to also be cut. This would be a bad area for an open sore to try to heal. While you are at the vet, why not have them give him a bald cut on his rump!

Our old kitty used to have this problem, we had to have his "area" shaved.

Shaun, How do you get the animated pics to post like that?

Dawn

My sweet old Cat Ebenezer (now in kitty heaven) used to chronically have this problem. I found the worst thing to do was try to wipe it away with a wet towel of any sort. It would just make a bigger stinkier mess.

I recommend having the cats butt clipped of fur and anytime there is clinging poop, just very carefully snip the dried clumps off (not close to the skin unless you have excellent eyesight and a steady cat and steady hand!)

When you take the cat to the vet, they will be able to clip the area for you.... mine always did for me. They just used clippers to shave the area around the rectum and since mine was a female, urethra opening. I took her every 3 months or so. My cat had a back injury, and could not bend properly to clean herself. She was SO much happier when we did this. You could clearly tell. She looked a bit funny, cause she had long hair.

Also, try to get the cat to drink more water. Getting one of the little kitty fountains helps - they are facinated with the running water, play in it, drink more. Mine liked to have "fresh cold water" also - so I would make a big production out of giving her cold water in a little bowl in the bathroom every time I went in there - when I washed my hands, I would fill her bowl. Definitely getting them to drink more helps. It's better for them too!

Some hair ball remedy will help move things through better, which helped my cat too.

Oh man, you guys are bringing back memories. My ex husband had a cat with anal glad problems that loved to sleep on my hair at night (I have long hair). I'd wake up in the morning with my hair smelling like cat @ss and me frantically trying to get the smell out before going to work.

We finally had to have the cat's glands removed, which was a huge relief for all.

Have his anal glands expressed and get him wheatgrass.

Ok, so my kitten (3 months old) seems to just enjoy scooting her butt after she poops. She especially scoots when she has poop stuck to her butt. Also, after I clean the poop off with kitty shampoo, she still scoots for quite awhile. I've had her anal sacs expressed 3 times in her short life span, but it never seems to help. Also, she has been de-wormed three times just to make sure that this scooting was not the result of worms. She has medium hair, and has no excuses to scoot. I'm confused and almost fed up. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Blue17, I'm sorry I can't give you any great advice. I'm the original poster and am just reporting back on my trip to the vet with my cat.

The vet checked him for worms & impacted anal glands. No problems there. He is a bit overweight, and she thought some weight loss might help him maneuver better & improve his grooming habits. I told her I had already started feeding him a weight management formula and that I was adding canned pumpkin to his food to help with constipation. The vet also shaved his butt area and suggested I have this done regularly at a grooming facility.

It's only been a few days, and so far, so good. We'll see. Thanks for all your advice & helpful hints.

Blue17, Try a little kitty diaper....

Had this problem with kitty, but even worse casey just loves cat poop. So kitty would come trotting through the living room with a big butt biscut dangling off, and casey right behind him like....hey I'll have that. I found that kitty was unable to properly crap in the cat pan and would basically sit down and crap on himself. He now lives outdoors and dosen't have this problem anymore.

My female cat scoots but she has short hair and no "sticking" problems. She's not fat and she can definitely reach her butt, because she does clean it often. When we first noticed her doing it a year or two ago, I took her to the vet in case it was caused by crystals in the urine etc. But our vet didn't find anything wrong. She seemed to not do it much at all after that....but now in the past month, she's been doing it a lot again. She scoots on the floor & rugs and leaves little poopy scoots that I have to scrub off. Is she just getting lazy? She'll be 10 next month. I worry about her and wonder if she should go to another vet.

jcal,
You gave me a good laugh that was greatly needed. "big butt biscut dangling off" too funny.
Donna

I have a large cat named Sam who cannot clean himself very well either. He also gets the poopy dangles, but luckily he doesn't scoot on the carpet. To help with the dangles, I just take him to PetSmart & get his butt shaved. It only costs like $10 or $15, but it saves me a lot of time & worry. ~Tina :)

I had a really good laugh at the descriptions of the cat poo problems.I am reading this because my 19 year old ,short haired cat poops hard pellets and occasionally walks out of his litter tray with..to quote.. a hard biscuit stuck in his butt, which can drop anywhere ..beware thinking it is a raisin ! I think getting some laxative will probably solve the problem. Someone suggested Olive oil , so I am going to try that first.

I have a solid black 10 month old long haired kitten that has this issue every couple of days. My worst experience was coming home from a 5 day trip and my husband telling me, Uh OH...we have a mess! She had poop stuck to her fine hair and had it EVERYWHERE! After an hour of bathing and brushing her out, I spent another 2 and the entire next day bleaching down the house. She has had a smaller issue this evening, stuck to her, but not on the floor. Another bath, wiping, and brushing. I had their mother (I have 4 total long haired) trimmed last week, and will have to take the two kittens in also. Aw...the joys of long haireds. I am a foster for a total of 7. The two long haireds were returned after only 8 days with their adopters, so they are mine now...will not put them through that again. I love all my babies...poopie butts and all!!!

I just recently adopted my first long-haired. Buster is awesome but we had this problem for the first time since I brought him home (2 weeks) I've had plenty of short haired cats before so this was a shock and almost traumatizing to me lol. I just stuck him in the sink with kitty shampoo (much to his dismay and efforts to escape) and bathed the poo out, then dried him (he did love the cuddling in the towel lol) and brushed him out (which he also loved but didn't stop him from being very peeved at me for the next 4 hours or so) I don't have any scissors or clippers to cut the poo away, but after talking to his previous owner she said hairball treatment and the proper food are the best ways aside from trimming his "area" to prevent this from happening.

My cat is a medium-haired (part Angora) and sometimes has poo stuck to his butt which makes him scoot. Usually I find that the problem is the poo that got out is attached to some still inside by strands of hair - but here's the kicker - it's not HIS hair, it's mine! I have long hair and for some reason he really loves to eat it when he finds strands on the floor. So two things that have worked well for us:
1) If you, the human, have long hair (below chin-length, really), vacuum your house often.
2) Try getting 'hairball formula' from your vet or a reputable pet store, and giving maintenance doses of about an inch/week or so. It's basically meat-flavored mineral oil - my cat loves it and in small regular doses it keeps things going smoothly.

Help my kitten that is 8 weeks old is a long haired Persian and when ever he goes to the bathroom aka litter box he ends up with poop stoking to the hair at his but it on his tail and we are only adopting him to see if everything goes ok and I want to keep him but if it continues it won't happen because my mom won't let me if it won't stop HELP ME PLEASE

Poop cat

At least your cat is trying to clean itself by scooting along the carpet or floor. I've been feeding and outside stray cat for a while even raise her kittens and rehomed them after she abandon them. Now she has such a horrible smell it's like literal death and she has old fecal matter stuck to her but like glue. It took us eight months to be able to pet her so it's not like we can give her a bath this stuff is so stuck on there I don't know what to do. I've grabbed her by the Scruff of the neck and use some wet washcloth only to get a very minimal amount off of her and it smells so bad that I just finished vomiting it was like an involuntary reaction. I really need to know if there's anything I can do we have tried powder just anything that I can do real quick that might resolve this issue. As I said she's a stray cat so she's usually outside but she doesn't even try to clean it. Now she tries to rub against our legs when we are outside and it is disgusting. I've gone from feeling sorry for her and wanting to help her to just feeding her and trying to avoid her. I really need some advice that will work

Hi. I have 5 month old Persian long hair. We usually give her tuna canned cat food. But we tried giving her the chicken cat food last month, and she had hard stool which was stuck to her butt and she used to scoot and those went on for 4 days straight. Yesterday we gave her just a bit of chicken again and she did the same thing as before. So is there any chance she's allergic to chicken?

Could totally be a chicken allergy, or not getting enough water (which can be helped by adding water to the food). I might consider switching the type of cat food though, since tuna is high in mercury and that can cause problems in cats. Turkey tends to cause allergies less than chicken, and if you gradually transition it should be fine. It tends to be hard for cats to manage abrupt diet changes

We have a large short-haired tom who insists on scooting after pooping. The vet has cleared him for worms etc. more than once. I have just decided he is the most fastidious kitty who realizes licking his butt is gross and tastes bad but wants a clean bottom. I bought a carpet steamer and call him our bougie cat😅