My cat pooped himself

First off, I've never had an issue with my cat pooping on the floor before, I don't think he did it on purpose. I found the poop relatively close to his food bowl and it looks runny and has some undigested cat food in it, it looks completely unintentional to me. My cat has also had previous issues with gastrointestinal distress, but it has been fine for a couple months now since I put him on a special vet food. I have been feeding him wet food every night since my vet told me he should be doing so, that's the only thing that has changed. Other then the poop I just discovered, he's been acting completely normal. It's weird though because my other cat puked about a week ago, I took him to the vet, and he was fine. Now this. I'm not really sure if it's an issue or not, but I am concerned. Any suggestions?

are you sure it's poop and not vomit/regurgitation?

detmut said:

are you sure it's poop and not vomit/regurgitation?

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It smelled like poop. I thought it was puke at first too

One time, and one time only, my cat threw up very similar to what you are describing, and it smelled exactly like poop.  If I hadn't witnessed her throwing it up, I would have SWORN it was poop.  It never happened again, or I would have taken her to the Vet, as vomiting poop is indicative of problems.

In your case, since you don't KNOW exactly which it is, I would keep an eye on him to see how he presents.  Is he acting normal?  Is there poop in the litterbox (enough for both cats?)  Have there been any more instances of vomiting OR diarrhea or anything odd? Is he eating alright?   This really sounds like vomit since there is what appears to be undigested food in it , 

 

Wow that's strange. Maybe it was vomit then. Yeah but everything else is fine, that's why I haven't taken him to the vet yet either. I'm keeping an eye on him for sure but nothing seems out of the ordinary. There have been strange things before with both my cats which is why I'm so quick to panic, and I take them to the vet regularly because of this. One was just in about a week ago and and other probably about two weeks ago and she gave them both a clean bill of health, so I'm probably just being paranoid, but I like to be on top of these kinds of things. Thanks for the advice

It's actually pretty easy to mistake something hacked up for poop.  I've seen a number of very well formed hairballs that short of very close inspection one might have thought  that they came from the other end.

I've never been one to judge it by the smell, so I can't really say if that is significant or not.  But I think in most cases it would be unusual for undigested food to get through to the other side.  It is with far from complete knowledge, but I suspect it came out the front.  

You don't know for sure though, and regardless of which end you do want to keep an eye on things.  Something like this in otherwise healthy cat, I always figure one time with no other symptoms might be just a fluke: eating funny or too fast or ingested an insect or who knows what.  But along with other weird behavior or additional instances of this, then it would be worth checking out.  I never want to truly dismiss such things, but if he's acting completely normal and it doesn't recur, it is not likely something to be especially concerned about.