Alfie is pooping in the dirty towels?

[lawguy]

I noticed this a few weeks ago once, but thought maybe it was vomit.

Today though, I found a large amount of diarrhea in my towels.  He just got a couple vaccines 2 days ago, could it be that?

Is it that the towels are soft and relatively clean and dry?  Why not the litter box?

Vet said he was fine 2 days ago. He seems fine.... if I didn't find poop in my towels I wouldn't have any reason for concern.

The fact that he's done it before though makes me think this is a behavior that will repeat.

I can't leave any more towels on the ground obviously.  He also has pooped in my underwear.

He seems to prefer my laundry to his litterbox.  Is this a health problem, or a behavioral issue.

Will he grow out of it?

I'm starting to realize that loose stools are somewhat standard with him.  He's also gassy.  Vet said to try a new food.  Was hesitant because I'd have to switch both Ally and Alfie to that new food.

Not really sure what to do right now.

 

[momofmany]

It is more rare to find a cat pooping out of the litter box rather than peeing out of the litter box. When it's happened in my household, there has always been a physical reason for it rather than a behavioral issue. The physical issue could be something as simple as the food didn't agree with them, or in the case of my Stumpy, he had an auto-immune disease and was in pain from it. A normal vet exam would not have uncovered it, and he wasn't showing any outward sign of his illness (cats do a very good job at hiding their pain).

When I've had cats with bad gas, the first thing I do is try a new food to see if it clears up. It always does. If you are looking for advice, I would first try to transition them to another food. If he is having gas, he may not be feeling very good and is acting out because of it. Look closely at the ingredients in what they are eating now and just don't replace one with another of the same ingredients.

Why towels or clothing on the floor? Mine have always had a tendency to pee on these types of things when things are not right with them (either illness or stress). Some people have a theory that when a cat pees on a soft surface, it is stress related and when they pee on a hard surface, its physical in nature. But physical ailments can cause stress (and vica versa), so I'm reluctant to rule out either factor based on the surface.

 

[lawguy]

It is more rare to find a cat pooping out of the litter box rather than peeing out of the litter box. When it's happened in my household, there has always been a physical reason for it rather than a behavioral issue. The physical issue could be something as simple as the food didn't agree with them, or in the case of my Stumpy, he had an auto-immune disease and was in pain from it. A normal vet exam would not have uncovered it, and he wasn't showing any outward sign of his illness (cats do a very good job at hiding their pain).
When I've had cats with bad gas, the first thing I do is try a new food to see if it clears up. It always does. If you are looking for advice, I would first try to transition them to another food. If he is having gas, he may not be feeling very good and is acting out because of it. Look closely at the ingredients in what they are eating now and just don't replace one with another of the same ingredients.

Ok, so - I can try a new food, but I don't know what to try.  I've been using Wellness brand food, canned and the Kitten Dry and Indoor Health Dry (separate feeders, although I've noticed that Ally all of a sudden wants to eat kitten food - which I'm ok with since she could stand to put on a little bit of weight), and Alfie's been eating the Indoor Health Adult dry (not so happy with, but I want him to eat - so he can grow - so I'm not going to make an issue of it).

I don't really know enough about the ingredients to know what ingredients could be responsible - any help on this would be appreciated.  I'm happy to try another food, although I'm sure Ally won't be thrilled about that.  She's a very picky eater.

As far as stress - I'm sure if that was the cause, the vaccines a couple days ago were the cause.  Going back though to the other incident(s), I can't think of what could have triggered it.  He seems so laid back and happy.  I can't remember if maybe Revolution was right about the time of the last incident.  I'll have to analyze this further.

One thing that I wonder about - is that yesterday he found Ollie's last collar.  Ollie slipped it one day, and I couldn't find it (I seriously looked everywhere, I don't know where he found it, I was sure it was gone).  Maybe finding this "other cat's" collar and the scent on it stressed him?  Although, I'm sure Ollie's scent is still all over the apartment even though when I moved Alfie and Ally back in, I cleaned the whole place as well as I could to minimize it.

As far as towels and clothes on the floor - the story behind that has a lot to do with Ollie.  I used to have a dirty laundry hamper.  Ollie decided that it was a bed though.  Then he started chewing on my clothes, and literally eating my clothes.  So, I moved the hamper into the bedroom (which typically the cat's aren't allowed into - although I'm working on cat-proofing it so that this can change).  The towels though, stay in the bathroom after I use them, and I lay them on the ground so that I don't walk on the cold linoleum floor.  Also, it helps me avoid walking on loose granules of cat litter that may have been splashed out of the litter box.Usually I go about 2 days before I have to do a load of towels, so the towels stay on the ground, and then I clean them fold them and put them away.

Ally loves the towels on the ground.  She waits for me to put them down and takes a nap on them.  I think it has something to do with them smelling like me after I use them.  It's kind of gross, but it makes her happy.  Alfie has done this too.

I'll have to make sure there aren't any more towels left on the floor so that Alfie doesn't develop a bad habit, and I'll switch foods.

Some help with food rec's would be great.  Alfie will be back at the vet in about 3 weeks for his final shots.  At that time I'll be sure to discuss this further with her if the food change hasn't helped things at all.

I want to install IP cameras in my apt so that I can check on Ally and Alfie during the day.  Maybe seeing what happens while I'm away will shed some light on any possible sources of stress.