Sooooo...over the past few months, our seven year-old cat Gryffin has been occasionally pooping just outside the litter box. Every once in awhile, he'll also pee outside the box, but mostly this is a pooping issue.
I realize that I should have taken him to the vet to check for parasites other another medical issue as soon as this behavior started, but with our other cat's health problems recently, I'm afraid that I just didn't take him. That was a mistake on my part, and I regret it.
I'm going to make an appointment tomorrow morning to get him checked out; however, I'm almost certain that this isn't so-much of a medical issues, but rather a "I'm not getting my way, so there" issue. He'll poop sometimes if he doesn't get to go outside to play, or more commonly, in my view, when he doesn't get his dry food bowl filled-up.
(As an aside, Gryffin needs to lose some weight, so he's only allowed 1/4 C dry food in the morning, and 1/4 C in the evening, with wet food available during the meantime. He's not going hungry by any means! But, once he stops eating the dry food, I take away any that's left.)
This brings me to the second issue. He has food available, but not always the food that he wants. Every time one of us gets up, especially in the evening, he'll run past us to the kitchen, and stand there sort of "shaking" his tail/butt very nervously, something he's always done ever since we've had him (he was previously a friend's cat, who had to give him up because of his job). I'm beginning to think he's becoming neurotic about food, and may be contributing to his pooping problem.
My partner is starting to get a little frustrated, and truth be told, so am I. Don't misunderstand; I would never take him to a shelter or give him up, because I just never would. I'm just not sure how to proceed at this point, and I would appreciate any suggestions or advice anyone has. Once we've been to the vet, I'll post an update.
As always, thank you all for your help--I really appreciate it!
I realize that I should have taken him to the vet to check for parasites other another medical issue as soon as this behavior started, but with our other cat's health problems recently, I'm afraid that I just didn't take him. That was a mistake on my part, and I regret it.
I'm going to make an appointment tomorrow morning to get him checked out; however, I'm almost certain that this isn't so-much of a medical issues, but rather a "I'm not getting my way, so there" issue. He'll poop sometimes if he doesn't get to go outside to play, or more commonly, in my view, when he doesn't get his dry food bowl filled-up.
(As an aside, Gryffin needs to lose some weight, so he's only allowed 1/4 C dry food in the morning, and 1/4 C in the evening, with wet food available during the meantime. He's not going hungry by any means! But, once he stops eating the dry food, I take away any that's left.)
This brings me to the second issue. He has food available, but not always the food that he wants. Every time one of us gets up, especially in the evening, he'll run past us to the kitchen, and stand there sort of "shaking" his tail/butt very nervously, something he's always done ever since we've had him (he was previously a friend's cat, who had to give him up because of his job). I'm beginning to think he's becoming neurotic about food, and may be contributing to his pooping problem.
My partner is starting to get a little frustrated, and truth be told, so am I. Don't misunderstand; I would never take him to a shelter or give him up, because I just never would. I'm just not sure how to proceed at this point, and I would appreciate any suggestions or advice anyone has. Once we've been to the vet, I'll post an update.
As always, thank you all for your help--I really appreciate it!
