My cat is an old lady, and isn't so flexible any more, so she can't really reach the bottom part of her back to groom herself. The patch of fur between the middle of her back and the start of her tail is quite greasy and a bit tangled, but she won't really let me brush it, apart from one or at the most two strokes of the brush at a time. When I do this I get whole clumps of manky old hair coming out, which does seem to help. However, it still stays pretty greasy and rough feeling.

She will let me stroke her, so I was wondering if there's some kind of cat-safe wipe I could use on her, rather than a brush? Does anyone know of such a thing please?

Sprinkle some talc over and rub it in by stroking her, it will make it easier to brush out

Would talc be ok for a cat?

One of my cats used to have dandruff on the lower part of her back. I got some special shampoo from the vet and it got rid of the dandruff and brought the fur up nice and fluffy.
Just got the bottle out for you-its called Sebomild P- By Virbac.
For the management of generalized scaley and greasy skin conditions in dogs and cats. I think the bottle was about £10.00.

Thanks! I'm not sure she'd let me shampoo her back though to be honest - I may risk losing a limb! I might try it though.

I had a long haired cat who turned up on the doorstep emaciated with huge mats and greasy fur. The only thing he would tolerate was something similar to this.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soft-Protect...supplies_img_c
A glove is also available.

I had this problem with one of my cats when he was younger. I used a dry shampoo you can get for pets.

I was going to suggest one of those rubber gloves, I use one of those on my lurcher who has very thin skin so a brush is out of the question.
You could put one of those on your hand and just stroke the cats back.
Those rubber gloves work really well as they roll the fur out instead of pulling it so the process is quite gentle.

Thanks - I think I might try one. I think it does hurt her a bit when I brush, as it does seem to pull on her skin.

Try using a slicker brush.