Animal Control in our suburb refers to stray cats as either Feral (wild and unapproachable), or Community Cats (tame, and generally fed by various neighbors). In reality, a Community Cat will hang around whoever feeds them the most, and that being me, we decided 6 months ago to take a particular very gentle friendly female to the city animal shelter to get her spayed. There was no charge. However, ever since then, she's exhibited odd behavior. It seems she has a much more frequent urge to poop than is normal (I've owned cats and dogs most of my life) and the efforts are rarely successful. She never attempts to cover it up, as there's nothing to cover. Then she always drags her bottom thru the grass. She eats normally, and is of normal weight, and this has been going on for 6 months. The daily routine is when I drive home each evening, she emerges from the hedges and immediately attempts to poop, holds position for quite some time, then drags her butt, then comes to greet me. I might go out later after dinner, and there she comes, from under the parked car, to once again, try to poop. My theory, is that the city botched the operation, and somehow it has left her with this constant urge. She obviously is successful at some point during the day, as she's normal weight and never in distress. Ideas?

 

You need to bring her in to a veterinarian. No way can we diagnose this type of behavior, especially if it's prolonged.

 

What about parasites or worms? Just thinking out loud, I'm not qualified to diagnose, but at least bringing in a stool sample would be easy enough and may show something.

 

Well she's a stray, so she's bound to be wormy, I'll pay closer attention to her efforts, maybe I'll see the worms. But I've had our indoor cats get worms on occasion, and they never exhibited this constant urge to poop. And, as mentioned, this behavior only started happening after she was spayed.

 

I don't think you should wait to bring her in. It's not going get any better by waiting. Somethings wrong, you need to take care of it. Maybe she needs her anal glands drained.

 

Rstripe,

Norm201 is right, there are too many variables to even guess at any sort of diagnosis.

I definitely would take her in ASAP as there could be any number of things wrong, parasites being the mildest of possibilities...

I thank you for caring enough for your "Community Cat" to be concerned and wanting to make sure she's well taken care of despite her not being specifically yours.

Please keep us posted.

 

Thanks guys, I'll see what I can do.

 

As some of you know, my daughter is a veterinarian (Cornell class of 2005). She is not a big fan of today's graduates. She claims they are not giving the student hands on experience. Many have never done a spade or a neuter operation. It may be the students or the school. And just not Cornell. According to her most of the new vets (male and female alike) just don't seem to have the basic knowledge one would expect from a medical school. Experience comes with on the job training, but she and her class mates came out of school with basic abilities to spade and neuter on the spot.
In fact her very first job interview without even a sit down introduction, she was given a gown by the boss and told to neuter his cat. She was as scared as can be, but her school training kicked and she was done in a half hour. It took a week before she heard from him. She called and asked if the cat died. He laughed and said no, it was not his cat, it was stray, and he had already decided to hire her that very day. He apologized for not say something and not getting back to her sooner, because he gotten so busy. She turned out to be his best doctor in the whole practice. That job ended when he retired and she now works for another practice and has become one of then more valuable doctors. She plans on opening her own practice in the not to distant future. But I'm bragging.
The point being, if you don't trust in you vet or feel satisfied with results, find another vet. In fact my daughter encourages her clients to seek others if they are not pleased with her work. Hasn't happened yet.
Just as side note, she does holistic medicine (certified) and acupuncture medicine. The results and stories are amazing. Even she can't believe some of the results.