Pooping Outside Litter Box

[three cats]

I'm posting this here as from reading other threads it's been suggested that this could be due to a medical issue. My boy has been pooping outside the litter box, generally about once a week, usually on a fleece throw on our new leather couch which is also his favorite daytime place to sleep. Sometimes it will be on the floor in an out of the way place. I don't think it's related to the litter box itself as there are 3 large boxes in 2 locations, all are meticulously scooped 2X per day, the box downstairs that I know gets used more often is sometimes scooped 3X per day. I've tried using a litter box deodorant or not, that doesn't seem to make any difference. He also sometimes will lay in front of a water dish w/the dish between his front paws, and either just stare at the water or drink. Just this past week I've found 1 or 2 places where someone (there are 3 cats in the house) has gotten sick w/just a little bit of watery vomit. (no hairballs or food). Any idea what kind of medical issue could cause the occasional avoidance of pooping in the litter box? There has never been any pee accidents, just poop, and only sometimes.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi - when's the last time your furbaby has been in to see a vet? I don't have experience with this kind of thing, but even if he's been in recently, if I were you I would absolutely call and talk with them. I'm not a vet but the combined issues of missing the box, possibly being the vomiter (the other two cats are behaving normally as far as you can tell, I assume?) and the laying with the water bowl concerns me.

 

[mservant]

It does sound worrying and it is good that you are noticing things and checking them out. Is someone always around and your cat regularly observed or do they spend quite a bit of time on their own? Observation of before and after can be very useful. I do think checking out with a vet is a good idea but the more information you have the more likely they will be able to come up with answers for you.

I have had two different experiences of cats pooping outside the box - one long term and always around the vicinity the box was in and it turned out she had a chronically inflamed bladder and we figured she associated the litter with being in pain so only used it to unrinate in. The other experience was with a young cat who had been fine but then all of a sudden wed start to come in from work and find poop in different areas of the house - on the stairs, on the living room carpet etc. Then after a couple of weeks trying to figure out what was going on we saw the cat walking round and round in circles and his eyes darting from side to side and head shaking. We rushed him to the vet and they diagnosed epileptic seizures.

 

[three cats]

Thanks for your replies, I finally convinced my husband that the cat needed to go to the vet. He looked healthy from the physical exam, although we did bloodwork anyway just to rule out anything else. Glad we did that as it showed that my boy does indeed have kidney disease, so we've started him on a med called Semintra. We're not going to go to the special kidney food diet yet as there are 2 other healthy cats in the house, so we'll see if he improves w/just the med. Plus the dry and canned food I'm feeding everyone now is all grain-free and the best I can get (from my local pet store).

 

[Furballsmom]

Oh my goodness, good for you! Sending TONS of good thoughts your way

 

[mservant]

Aww, hugs for your cat, I bet he's been feeling miserable. At least now he's on medication he should start to feel much better, and his overall health should stay better too. He is lucky that you are observant and thought to check out reasons why he might have been behaving as he did.

That once he feels better the tray behaviour settles down and he is happy to poop there again. If he still seems to think it's not a nice place to go other than for pee in case he feels pain then you could try putting down paper or puppy training pads in the areas he has been choosing. He might like the option of being able to stay clean without going in the trays. (My cat was pretty good at using puppy pads once I finally figured out what was going on).