Cat pees in box but diarrhea outside...PLZ HELP!

Please help me. It's been 3 years already. My cat is 11 years old, and the last couple of years he has had diarrhea. He will pee in the box but he will just poop anywhere, literally anywhere. The vet said he might have IBD or a food allergy, but does not know how to treat him. He's been on ALL food diets that I know but still has diarrhea. I really don't know what to do and I'm at my wits end. Any help would be so awesome...thanks :-)

I think you need to take him to a feline specialist at an AAHA accredited hospital and get to the root of his problem.  He probably is doing the diarrhea outside the box to TELL you he has a problem, how else would he tell you?  Diagnoses are only worthwhile if they lead to a treatment, or knowing there is no treatment.  In this case there are a lot of very organized way to get to the root of the problem.  You would start with listing what diets he has been on since this problem began -- dry food?  wet food?  then list the ingredients and see what is in each one.  There are bound to be some ingredients common to each food.  From there, you start eliminating them if you are trying to discover a food allergy.  As for IBD, there is treatment for that too.  Search our forums here for discussions about each and you may find out things that will help you by reading various threads.  There has certainly been a lot of discussion of both food allergies and IBD, as well s suggestions for diets, in the past.  type "IBD" or "food allergies" or "chronic diarrhea" into the search bar above (right underneath the top brown bar) and go explore what others have already discovered dealing with these things.  And good luck -- don't give up!  Remember, when he has nothing to tell you about his poop situation, he will probably start putting it in the box instead of in plain sight.

This sounds very stressful for both you and your cat and I am sorry you all are having to deal with this. Welcome to the Cat Site, even though it is not under the best of circumstances.

First of all, have you tried putting in an extra litter box? Some cats prefer to poop in one box and pee in another. Regardless of where he is going, you will need to get to the root of the problem to fix it. Once the cause of the diarrhea is treated, he may go right back to using his box properly. Cats are really good at hiding pain and illness and often times eliminating in inappropriate places is the only signal they give us that somethng is wrong.

IBD and allergies are both fairly common issues, so I think it is strange that your vet doesn't know how to treat them. I would definitely seek a second opinion from a different vet. A cats-only vet would be ideal, as they would likely have more expertise in diagnosing this kind of issue.

Also, there are many, many threads here on the site discussing both issues and treatments. I would suggest using the in-site search bar and looking through the topics on food allergies and IBD/IBS. There may be something in there you have not tried, diet-wise, and there is lots of info people have brought home from their vets. I've not dealt with either issue directly in my own cats, but see them discussed here a lot. Hopefully someone with that experience will be along to offer some advice for you.

We must have been typing at the same time, lol!

Here is a link to a place you can look up the AAHA accredited vet hospitals in your area.  See of one has a feline specialist on staff.  Vets have to know a lot of things about a lot of animals, but just like with doctors, if you find a specialist, they know more about your particular area of need.  It is worth the effort to find them.

https://www.aaha.org/pet_owner/about_aaha/hospital_search/default.aspx