Dirty Britches

Embarrassing as it may be to our dignified Birmans....nearly every one experiences a time in their lives when things just didn't 'go' as expected ;(

Although I am writing this in a somewhat (at least I hope...) humorous tone - of course, as your cats caring owner, you are going to make sure that this isn't a medical problem that needs veterinary attention - diarrhea can be a symptom of serious illness or infection and can become life threatening if it is not resolved.

But in the meantime.....here are some tips to tidy up those britches:

DON'T follow your first instinct to grab tissue/paper towel and try to wipe it off - this will make it MUCH, MUCH more difficult to remove.

The 'Dry Clean' Method

1.  Assess the damage - surface 'cling ons' vs soaked/matted/dried to the skin.   Unfortunately, the latter usually means at the very least the 'bum bath' discussed at the end of this article.  Even when this is the case the 'dry method' described below before a bath will lessen the trauma.

2.  Casually confine the cat to a bathroom or other easily cleaned room before she figures out what you are up to.  Almost nothing is worse than chasing a poopy bum through the house leaving a trail in your wake. Upsetting for you and stressful for your Birman, who is already mortified about being 'dirty'. 

3.  Gather your steel comb; tissue or paper towels; dry powder shampoo (corn starch or baby powder will do in a pinch if you haven't purchased the dry shampoo in advance of this situation); a towel and, if they are available....an extra set of hands.  If you have a stash of plastic gloves from hair colouring or painting...this would also be an excellent occasion to use them.

4.  Place the towel on a counter, or if you are young and flexible on the floor of your bathroom.   Place the Birman on the towel.  Now this is where those extra hands can come in handy, because by now your loving Birman will suspect that you may be planning some sort of torture to just top off her embarassing experience....and might decide that she doesn't want to assist you on this mission.  If you are alone, gently grasp her around the waist and slightly lift her rear legs off the towel.  If you have a partner assisting you, then you can try one person holding her on her back on the towel while you do the work.

5.  Quickly douse the nasty bits with as much powder as you can get on them before she insists that you let her go.  The goal is to clump and dry out the 'bits' before they can get permanently mashed into more fur or possibly pasted right down to the skin.

6.  Put on your disposable gloves if you have them. (Now you will be happy you rinsed and kept those plastic hair colouring gloves...just in case....). Take the steel comb and run the coarse side through the powdery/poopy mess. Clean the comb out as needed with the paper towel/tissue.  WARNING - do not try to wipe the bits out of the fur with the tissue...it will force it deeper into the fur making the mess worse.  

7.  Repeat the powder/comb out as many times as necessary.  When the worst of it is out, switch to the finer side of the comb with the powder to remove the last remaining traces.

The above  dry comb out method can usually get all but the worst of these types of accidents cleaned up.  There will be a slight lingering odour (unless you used dry shampoo) until your princess is able to do her own tidy up.  This method is the least stressful on the cat, and can be repeated if necessary.

If there was 'collateral damage' to the feet - i.e. not only did your darling make a nasty, but she stepped in it also.  You will need to either use a very wet, warm washcloth or paper towel to wipe these down.  In a worse case scenario, wash the feet one at a time under running water.  In the show hall, this is one of the many uses for the baby wipes tucked in your show bag.

The 'Bum Bath'

So.....you have looked over the situation and determined that this is a worst case scenario....soaked to the skin or found after it has dried in a nasty, smelly mat.

There is no avoiding a bath now....but, especially for Birmans who are not particularly fond or cooperative about bath time, you may be able to just wash the lower portion of the cat. If at all possible, use the dry method above to remove as much of the mess before heading to the water.

I have found that this can be best dealt with by running the bathtub faucet at a comfortable temperature and while holding the cat (one hand on the scruf and one supporting her weight) on their back and literally allowing the rapid flow of water to stream the debris off.   This is another one of those times that an extra set of hands is very helpful, otherwise you will need to be creative and take turns between rinsing and shampooing with one hand, all the while holding onto the cat with the other.  While one person holds the cat, the other can rapidly squirt shampoo on the the rear soiled area and quickly massage out the bits (yes...again....grateful for those saved plastic gloves...) under the running water. 

Rinse well, wrap her in a nice big towel to blot her coat and tell her that you love her and won't tell anyone about 'the incident'. 

It goes without saying that there is usually some bleaching (Javex/Clorox etc) of the bathroom surfaces after these little adventures....and yet another use for those little plastic gloves.