help needed!! naughty dirty cat!!

[princesmokey]

I'm at the of my tether with my 8 month old cat, he point plank refuses to go in the litter tray unless he wants to and 9/10 of times will just poo anywhere he wants, he will go outside if he's out there but makes no effort to indicate he wants to go outside! I don't know what else to try to stop him from doing this any advice would be much appriciated

 

[talkingpeanut]

What have you done to help correct this behavior?

Have you taken him to a vet to rule out medics issues?

 

[tulosai]

Hi! Can you first tell us what if anything you've tried so far to resolve the issue? 

In the meantime I recommend this article and the articles linked to within it as a good starting point for getting to the root of the issue: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-solve-litterbox-problems-in-cats-the-ultimate-guide

A few general tips until you're able to give us a better idea of what you've tried so far:

1.If you haven't already, a vet needs to be your first stop.  If the problem is medical, nothing will help without medical help.

2. If you only have one box, add at least one more but ideally 2. Many cats do not like to pee and poop in the same place.  If your cat is like this, he will never want to go in a box he's already peed in.

3. How often do you scoop? Whatever the answer is, try scooping more. If you scoop less than once a day, you really have to scoop more.

I will wait for more information from you before giving more detailed advice

 

[princesmokey]

I've done the obivious things like making sure litter tray is cleaned every day, ive removed things such as mats or put things where he's been if possible (after cleaning), ive moved him from where is been doing it to his litter tray. Next on this list is contacting the vet as I think there could be some underlying medical issue as he has a lot of diarrhoea too but I have to change his food often or refuse to eat if he has the same type all the time so that could also be a possibility.

 

[princesmokey]

I have another cat who is literally 2 weeks older than him and does go in the litter but more often than not let's me know he wants to go out

 

[talkingpeanut]

Each cat is different, fortunately and unfortunately. Do they get along well?

It sounds like he does need to go to the vet. Diarrhea is not normal.

 

[princesmokey]

Yeah they've been together since smokey was 10 weeks and prince was 8 weeks. Have always been fine with each other both have been neutered too. I've been putting the diarrhoea down to his bad eating habits my friend spilt some malteasers on the.floor last week and before I'd had chance to pick them up he'd eaten some he will literally eat anything,they've both been wormed recently aswell.

 

[tulosai]

Yes, a vet is an excellent idea.

Since you have two cats you really should have 3 boxes.  I would not be surprised if adding more boxes were to entirely fix the problem.  In addition to some cats not liking to pee and poop in the same place, many don't like to share boxes and some just won't. Your other cat being willing to do it unfortunately doesn't mean this cat is- all cats are individuals as was said above  With two cats and just one box, you also probably should be scooping at least twice a day not just once. If you add boxes scooping just once a day should no longer be an issue though.

Again, good luck!

 

[cattybehavior]

Most of my cats were feral kittens I found in or near my yard so here are some things that have worked for me:

1) First, the vet to make sure he's not pooping outside the box cause he's ill.

2) I used a dog kennel to litter train my kitties. Get a crate big enough for a litter box, food and some toys. Keep him there and he will start to poop in the liter box. He may not like the smell or feel of your litter. I use a dust-free variety called World's Best Litter. I think it's made from corn husks. It's nice because you can flush the clumps as he makes them.

3) Add a product called "Dr. Ellsie's Cat Attract" to the litter or just buy the Cat Attract litter. It some herbs in it that attract cats.

4) I've also occasionally separated cats during litter training, closing the one to be trained in a room with his/her own litterbox. Sometimes they will avoid the box if it has the other's scent. I usually don't have to do this for more than a day or two. 

5) The general rule is x + 1 boxes where x = the number of cats. So if you have 2 cats, 3 boxes are optimal. Some cats are quite finicky about the type of box if there are other cats in the house. They may feel more secure if they can see any naughty kitties or dogs sneaking up on them.

 

[cattybehavior]

I just had to put down my 17-year-old kitty after years of irritable bowel syndrome. We battled it with steroids for years. He threw up all the time, too. If the diarrhea is especially stinky and runny, he might have IBS.

 

[princesmokey]

It is very smelly and he poops a lot which also smell but it wasn't like that when he was younger, we did have more litter trays in the house but reduced it down to 1 as they were both only using the downstairs when and going outside. Would find the occasional one outside the box if it had got dirty while I'd been out at work but other than that there wasn't any issues until in the last 2 months and it's getting worse it started off he was either only doing it in the bathroom where a litter tray used to be or on the kitchen floor now it's like no warning just goes where he is. This is what does make me think it may be more on the medical side after reading up a little tonight

 

[princesmokey]

I have had cats all my life and I have never known anything like this, cats have always only had trays in the house when young and eventually all trays removed from the house and I've never known any issues with it I've always known cats to be very clean part from when they have become incontinent as they've become old. First things first vet will be receiving a phone call first thing in the morning and next plan of action is to dog back out the other trays and maybe test different litters in them see if he has any preferable. Thanks for the advice [emoji]128522[/emoji]

 

[cattybehavior]

I have had cats all my life and I have never known anything like this, cats have always only had trays in the house when young and eventually all trays removed from the house and I've never known any issues with it I've always known cats to be very clean part from when they have become incontinent as they've become old. First things first vet will be receiving a phone call first thing in the morning and next plan of action is to dog back out the other trays and maybe test different litters in them see if he has any preferable. Thanks for the advice [emoji]128522[/emoji]

I hope it helps. My IBS kitty at first just threw up all the time. After four or five years of that, he developed very runny diarrhea. In the end he had blood in his stool and was really sick. Steroids did help but it was a battle getting him to take them. If it is IBS, trying to treat it as soon as possible is good. Steroid shots worked much better than pills or liquid for us. It's much harder after it has been chronic for a long time.

Luke (the kitty) was 17 years old when we finally threw in the towel. He had really bad arthritis as well. Mostly he managed to poop in the litter box up until the last year when he started missing and finally just pooping wherever he happened to be.

 

[sneakyblonde]

Hi,

I had a friend that went through something similar - $550.00 in vet bills and Prednisone, etc., etc.

I CURED THAT CAT  - FIND CORN-FREE CANNED FOOD. I don't remember the brand I found, sorry.

I can not promise it will help your cat, but it is worth a try.

His poor cat was EMBARRASED!  She sprayed "POO" everywhere. After 24 hours of no corn, she was "CURED"!  I used only canned corn- free food first.

Then we found a dry food with no corn.  (He never even paid ME for the cat food!  The cat felt much better - He was a louse!)

I hope this helps.

The cat could NOT control her bowels.  Not a BAD CAT - A Sick cat!  Work on the food allergy angle, if not corn, maybe Wheat?  It is worth a try.

Cindy