Pooping outside of litterbox?

[Grace]

I seem to recall hearing at one point - if a cat poops outside the box, it is behavioral; if it pees outside, it is medical.

Twice I have had cats that pooped outside the box, and both times it was a behavior problem - not medical.

[catnapper]

I'd really investigate what might have upset him. Be careful, as we all know, the slightest thing could have set him off..... the sound of a new alarm clock, the existence of a new area rug, etc.

Allen will go outside the box on several occasions. 1) whenever we have a change in the family, like my son going back to college or returning home on breaks. 2) when he considers the litter level too low or not clean enough 3) when he feels "trapped" by the other cats.

I can't control #1 - my son has to come and go
I can control #2 but occasionally I lapse and then slap myself when he does it, because I know better
and #3: I have two boxes next to each other (uncovered) so that he can escape easily and use whichever box he happens to feel safer in at that moment.

Oh, and I swear by Cat Attract litter

[krazyaboutkatz]

Starr used to poop outside of the box and at first I thought it was a behavioral problem due to stress. I later found out that it really was a medical problem. He began having severe diarrhea and he just couldn't make it to the box in time.

After I had some peeing issues as well, I added 3 more boxes and I also bought some cat attract litter and added this on top of the old litter. It's been working out great. Now I don't have to use the cat attract but I'm still using the feliway plugins. I don't know if these will help a cat that poops outside of the box though. I now have 6 uncovered boxes and only 2 covered boxes. Most of my cats now prefer the uncovered boxes. I hope that something will work for Oskar and hopefully it's not a medical problem.

[Killearn Kitties]

My mum's cat started doing this when he was diagnosed with diabetis. I have no idea whether it was directly related to his mounting health problems, or he was just trying to tell her he wasn't happy, or what the story was. So I'm afraid I don't have any helpful advice.

[Catlady711]

I seem to recall hearing at one point - if a cat poops outside the box, it is behavioral; if it pees outside, it is medical.

Not true.

There are several medical issues that can cause pooping outside the box, including a very nasty problem called Megacolon. My Jack has this problem and requires pumpkin in his food, regular cat laxitive, and another laxitive daily called Enulose, as well as occasional enemas. Jack blames his litterbox for the pain when he poops so he tends to find other places when he starts having a bad flare up.

We just admitted a cat to the hospital today that has a mild form of Megacolon and is severely constipated now and had been pooping outside the box prior to being totally constipated. We gave it 4 enemas today alone.

[jazzcat]

Ripley started doing that back in May. He would always wait to go out in the garage on the floor about a foot away from his two litter boxes. After a couple of weeks of that it turned to diarrhea. I spoke to the vet and she suggested a food change to Pro Plan for Sensitive Stomachs and almost immedaitely the diarrhea ended and he went back to going in the boxes. It's been that way for over two months now. For Ripley it was definitely a matter of him telling me his was sick.

[Sevaede]

Thanks for starting this thread!

Our visitor cat has been here for a few weeks now. He has started pooping outside of the litter box over the past couple of days. He only seems to be doing it once per day. The poops are pretty solid with a little bit of... "extra liquid".

It's all been in my dining area (which is being used to just store stuff that I've gathered and have no place to put or no use for).

The first couple of times it was on a trash bag that has a blanket in it. I didn't find the poop for a couple of days (I never smelled anything, it had to have happened some time while we've been out.). I picked it all up and disposed of it. This was 2-3 days ago. Just now, I found a poop inside a box of recipes, letters, cards, etc.

I am just hoping to find a way to curb this behaviour quickly. What I've done so far is crated him, cleaned the litter box TOTALLY, and went back to clay litter. What I plan to do is isolate him in the bathroom (where the litterbox stays), there was one more thing but I forgot what it was.

Any suggestions would be immensely appreciated!