Cat pooping all over the house at night

Ok, Maple's gonna make me go looney very soon I think. She's taken up pooping all over the house at night. The last four nights it's been like this. This morning she was nice enough to have it all in one spot, although I did check. And then I had to take care of a few other things and walked by the spot where I'd picked up all the poops before - and there was one more there! GAH!

I think while we can't 100% rule out some urinary issues yet (hard to get urine from her), I'm pretty sure pooping outside the litter box has nothing to do with it.

I know the vet wanted to wait till Wednesday before going back on the Prozac but thinking I may not wait...

and people say Canadians are well mannered 

Zed Xyzed said:

and people say Canadians are well mannered 

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Thankfully I wake up before my mom does these days. She'd be threatening to ship her back to Canada otherwise.

The other day she pooped on the couch, right in front of me! Albeit she seemed a bit disturbed that night, darting here and there. So I didn't get mad at her. I'm trying not to get mad at her at all, but she is trying my patience with this one!

And just to cover these questions that may come up...

The one litter box she will use is cleaned 3x a day and has Cat Attract litter in it (which of course attracts ALL the cats, not just her). We have a total of four at the moment, which with five cats is not ideal, but we just don't have the room at this point for another one as all but one are fairly big.

She's also been having issues with peeing outside the box. She pees on a towel in my bedroom primarily. When I first put the big litter box in my room with Cat Attract, she used it for awhile, then started peeing on the pee pad outside the litter box. She went on Prozac for two days, saw blood in the pee. Vet took her off Prozac for the moment and gave her an antibiotic shot. She started using the litter box for a few days, then on Tuesday she stopped again, and was going on the towel yet again. Called vet on Thursday, wants to give it till two weeks after the shot (which will be next Wednesday) before putting her back on Prozac. And then that same day, the pooping all over the house started.

Her blood work is great. No urinalysis because she never has any when she's at the vet.

Are the boxes in a place that feels safe? Covered or uncovered? It sounds like she's got some kind of litter box aversion. Have you tried scooping the box she likes right before bed so its clean at night? Any possibility of locking her in one room to see if she'll use the box if she's confined to a small space? 

missmimz said:

Are the boxes in a place that feels safe? Covered or uncovered? It sounds like she's got some kind of litter box aversion. Have you tried scooping the box she likes right before bed so its clean at night? Any possibility of locking her in one room to see if she'll use the box if she's confined to a small space? 

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*sigh* She's had one for quite awhile, but she hasn't quite had this flavor of it before! For a long time she did everything on a towel in my room, because she REFUSED to come out after we got a dog. She hid so well we couldn't find her for the first four days - she's a 17 lbs cat! There was "evidence" of her in the form of waste in my room and me hearing the tag on her collar hitting the food bowl. It was loads of fun, let me tell you!

Anyway, fast forward to a few weeks ago. Finally got her to the vet, and we started trying to re-litter train her again. It's had very limited on-and-off success. She seems ok with the Cat Attract, and I occasionally see her in the litter box even! But then, these last four nights...

The litter box is in my bedroom (since that is where she spends the majority of the time). It's a 30-gallon bin that the Cat Whisperer at my vet helped to fashion into a litter box for her. Yes, the others use it too, hard to keep them from doing it. I have locked her in there for a few hours at a time and sometimes there is stuff in the litter box afterwards, sometimes not. She was locked in there earlier today and nothing was in there.

:frusty:

Edit: Oh, the box she uses (it's the only one she WILL use) is not covered. But it is quite high-sided, being a 30-gallon bin.

Donutte said:

*sigh* She's had one for quite awhile, but she hasn't quite had this flavor of it before! For a long time she did everything on a towel in my room, because she REFUSED to come out after we got a dog. She hid so well we couldn't find her for the first four days - she's a 17 lbs cat! There was "evidence" of her in the form of waste in my room and me hearing the tag on her collar hitting the food bowl. It was loads of fun, let me tell you!

Anyway, fast forward to a few weeks ago. Finally got her to the vet, and we started trying to re-litter train her again. It's had very limited on-and-off success. She seems ok with the Cat Attract, and I occasionally see her in the litter box even! But then, these last four nights...

The litter box is in my bedroom (since that is where she spends the majority of the time). It's a 30-gallon bin that the Cat Whisperer at my vet helped to fashion into a litter box for her. Yes, the others use it too, hard to keep them from doing it. I have locked her in there for a few hours at a time and sometimes there is stuff in the litter box afterwards, sometimes not. She was locked in there earlier today and nothing was in there.

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Wow. I think i saw in a different post you said you didn't have any success with feliway plug ins? They help two of my cats that don't get along. But I have to keep at least 3 plugged in at at time including 1 in our master bedroom where she spends the majority of her time. It sounds like she might really need to go back on prozac. I hope you sort it out, litter box issues are very frustrating. 

missmimz said:

Wow. I think i saw in a different post you said you didn't have any success with feliway plug ins? They help two of my cats that don't get along. But I have to keep at least 3 plugged in at at time including 1 in our master bedroom where she spends the majority of her time. It sounds like she might really need to go back on prozac. I hope you sort it out, litter box issues are very frustrating. 

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Yeah, the Feliway doesn't seem to help with her at all. I have one in my bedroom, and one in my bathroom (which is just outside by bedroom). Doesn't help at all with Maple. My vet really, really wants to be able to do a urinalysis before starting back on the Prozac, but that is next to impossible too since she never has any when she's there. And trying to use that Kit4Kat won't help unless I watch the litter box 24/7 (since I have five cats). Or lock her in the room for 24 hours. Not sure that would go over very well.

And seeing as this is affecting the pooping and not just the peeing, I think it's probably safe to say it's not just a urinary issue.at this point.

I think what makes this so particularly frustrating is we'll make a step forward and then two steps backwards.

oh no! that's no fun at all! ):

this may be a stress related issue. you mentioned that you have a dog, and that your kitty was frightened; and hid away for several days. do you think your dog, (or possibly something else entirely) .. may be stressing your cat out to the point where she doesn't feel safe to use the box?

you also said that the box has high walls. cats sometimes don't feel comfortable using something that "traps" them inside. could you possibly try a litter pan instead? .. you said that she used a towel to do her business on for a while. a flat towel doesn't have walls; which might be the reason why she felt comfortable using the restroom there, instead of the box.

Well, this morning, no poops. Anywhere. I think she may have moments of constipation and thinking she might today. Gah. Apparently the vet forgot to take out the "call-back" in their system to see how things were going on the fluoxetine, since he had her go off of it temporarily, as I got a call from the Cat Whisperer. I imagine how funny I must have sounded, trying to explain what was going on to the CW while at work. Learned a new meaning for the word "Klingon" :lol3: I'm sure my coworkers don't want to hear in full detail about my cat's lackluster litter habits after all. Anyway, told her everything that was going on, and I think she heard my frustration. She's gonna talk with the vet tomorrow and let him know what's going on and then will call me back tomorrow, and let me know if I should just go back on the Prozac with her or not. I'm leaning toward yes but like to give them at least that much time.

Anyway, an interesting thing I noticed. I was watching Penelopy, who had gone into one of the other litter boxes that does have a cover. It's actually a pretty tiny one someone gave me for the kittens, only she and Sara use it. Anyway, Oscar was waiting outside of it, waiting to pounce her the moment she came out. This has really happened quite often, and is part of the playing that goes on with the Triad (the boys and Penelopy). But obviously, Maple doesn't care for it, and I've seen her jump out of the litter box in the past when Oscar was waiting outside of it. Not sure if that has a role in this whole thing.

As far as feeling trapped, she can and has jumped over the high side (where the opening is not at). I was shocked at the fact this big 17 lb cat did that, but she did it. So I don't think she feels trapped. She knows she can get out.

I'm just so confused because she DID use it for awhile, then didn't. Then did again, then didn't. Then did again, then didn't. I don't get it.

Donutte said:

Well, this morning, no poops. Anywhere. I think she may have moments of constipation and thinking she might today. Gah. Apparently the vet forgot to take out the "call-back" in their system to see how things were going on the fluoxetine, since he had her go off of it temporarily, as I got a call from the Cat Whisperer. I imagine how funny I must have sounded, trying to explain what was going on to the CW while at work. Learned a new meaning for the word "Klingon"

I'm sure my coworkers don't want to hear in full detail about my cat's lackluster litter habits after all. Anyway, told her everything that was going on, and I think she heard my frustration. She's gonna talk with the vet tomorrow and let him know what's going on and then will call me back tomorrow, and let me know if I should just go back on the Prozac with her or not. I'm leaning toward yes but like to give them at least that much time.

Anyway, an interesting thing I noticed. I was watching Penelopy, who had gone into one of the other litter boxes that does have a cover. It's actually a pretty tiny one someone gave me for the kittens, only she and Sara use it. Anyway, Oscar was waiting outside of it, waiting to pounce her the moment she came out. This has really happened quite often, and is part of the playing that goes on with the Triad (the boys and Penelopy). But obviously, Maple doesn't care for it, and I've seen her jump out of the litter box in the past when Oscar was waiting outside of it. Not sure if that has a role in this whole thing.

As far as feeling trapped, she can and has jumped over the high side (where the opening is not at). I was shocked at the fact this big 17 lb cat did that, but she did it. So I don't think she feels trapped. She knows she can get out.

I'm just so confused because she DID use it for awhile, then didn't. Then did again, then didn't. Then did again, then didn't. I don't get it.

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It's good to hear that you'll be speaking with the "Cat Whisperer" soon! Hopefully they can give you some insight on what steps to take to solve this issue. I really do hope things go well, and Maple's litterbox problems are solved. Good luck to both of you!  

From experience, even though it is specifically poop and kitty is not peeing (that you know of) outside of the box, don't rule it out as urinary.  That was the first thing my cat started doing before his urinary tract infection eventually went severe.  And it was random pooping, not every day and there didn't seem to be any pattern to it at all that I could correlate with anything.  Just my two cents. Hope you can get some resolution!

Snuggies said:

From experience, even though it is specifically poop and kitty is not peeing (that you know of) outside of the box, don't rule it out as urinary.  That was the first thing my cat started doing before his urinary tract infection eventually went severe.  And it was random pooping, not every day and there didn't seem to be any pattern to it at all that I could correlate with anything.  Just my two cents. Hope you can get some resolution!

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Not completely ruling out urinary, as she just recently got treated for a UTI (two weeks ago tomorrow actually). And as the vet said, could be a number of other things, but trying to get her urine is very difficult. But with that said, she is a very skittish cat, and seems to get "spooked" (for lack of a better term) very easily.

This morning, she pooped on the towel. And peed on it. Ok, at least she's reining things in a bit.

I'm sorry - I know this is so frustrating!  We love our cats of course, but it's hard not to get angry/frustrated when you wake up & find poop everywhere!   I know the first step with any litterbox issues is to rule out any medical cause - which it sounds like you've done - and I agree with you, since there's actual poop and not just pee, I'm thinking it is not a urinary issue (would be different if she was just peeing everywhere, but still pooping normally).  

I'm thinking there must be a stress/behavioral issue.  If you haven't had luck with Feliway (it doesn't work on our guys either - I never tried the plug-ins in the house, because everyone gets along - I use the Feliway spray in their carrier before we cart them off to the vet, but they still get pissed anyway lol) - maybe take a look at this:

https://store.jacksongalaxy.com/sto...son-galaxy-spirit-essences-scaredy-cat-remedy

Apparently this product has really good reviews - so it may be a better natural alternative for Maple versus the Prozac - I'm thinking she's stressed/frightened (possibly irrationally so) so if she can calm her emotions down, I bet there would be a big improvement. Apparently that particular spirit essence can work wonders on skittish kitties who hide all the time!  Good luck whatever you choose - poor Maple....and you!!   

Poor Maple.  And you.  I remember reading Maple was a Canadian, but can't remember how long you've had her.   Just reading this thread though, I do wonder if it's stress/anxiety.  

One thing, since she uses the towel, can you at least get a small litter box to put on the towel and see it she will use it?

Good luck.  Hope you find a solution soon.

I heard back from the CW, gonna put her back on Prozac She is indeed Canadian! I've had her since she was three months old though, and she will be 14 a week from today. Will have to go into her oddities a bit more when I get home, need to prepare for a 1pm meeting. I mean those oddities in addition to the ones already mentioned.

So a little bit more background. Maple was always different in the fact that she was our "fat cat". But she was a happy fat cat! And while she kinda kept to herself quite a bit, she was more social with the cats that were around when she joined the family. She joined the family in June of 2002, and I think that made five cats for us at that point. We lost two of our cats over the next couple years. AJ died for reasons we'll never really know (he died in his sleep sprawled on the floor - his usual sleeping position). Thumber died from CKD. So by the time we moved in 2005, we had three kitties - Ali Cat, Lucky and Maple.

We moved out here, which was obviously stressful in itself (for us all). We took on two more cats the day after that my sister couldn't keep - so back up to five. After that move, she kinda became a bit more of a loner. For reasons we didn't know (and I was a bad parent that didn't think to take her to the vet for this), she would occasionally pee and poop in various spots in the house. It was never constant. That is, until July. And you know the rest of the story from there

I've tried putting a litter box in the spot where the towel is - no luck. Plus I need a bigger one because she's a big girl at 17 lbs.

I'll take a look at the Jackson Galaxy spray. I'm pretty much at the point I'm willing to try anything. She did get her Prozac today because I really want to see if it will work (and I'll happily pay for it if it does). Although, I hope to find somewhere I can get tablets cheaper. Tablets are SO much more expensive than capsules!

I wrote a long post in another thread about the saga of my Alabama's out-of-box pooping which is now a thing of the past.  You can read my long post (which is post #3) on the following thread:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/314829/my-cat-started-pooping-outside-the-litter-box#post_3945197

Long story short, I think if you could give her a room of her OWN at night, with a litter box that NO OTHER CAT USES (ever!), she would use the box and you would not have to be picking up poop.  The scaredy cat remedy might help (between the dog and Oscar, she can't relax and poop in the box) but I think it might work wonders if she just had her own bedroom, even if it's a bathroom, or even a large dog crate with a bed aand her OWN litter box in it, draped with a quilt to give her some privacy.