Why does my cat mess on the rug in front of the litter box?

[PayItForward]

Originally posted by Breezy Top Cat
Pif, I really appreciate your advise and never thought of a problem w/ the declaw surgery itself. I have owned two other cats that were declawed and never had a problem with them. I have also owned a Siamese and two siamese mix cats before and love their voices, but this cat literally SCREAMS like he has a tail pinched in the door or like something is killing him.

Oliver might have pinched nerves or crippling pain in his feet. Please get his feet x-rayed to rule this potential (and I would say very likely) problem out.

The money isn't a problem BUT sinking another $100 into this problem cat is, if he doesn't get better.

See my above advice, he is not a problem…he has problems there is a difference.

If the declaw was the problem, wouldn't he just poo in his box and not cover it, instead of pooing in his box and covering it and also pooing on the rug outside the box and trying to bury it and smearing it everywhere? The vet suggested that I dump all litter every day. I haven't tried that because he will use it when it is dirty but picked/scooped out. Ocassionally he will poo on the rug even if I just cleaned out the boxes. I just don't understand why he has started this. He was declawed at 4 mos because he was tearing a hole in my rug and holes in the screens and I was afraid he was going to get out. I love him being declawed because now he can safely run free in the house during the day while we are gone. I have also heard that cats can bite after being declawed but he LUCKILY hasn't developed that habit. I would say he developed his bad litter habits at 5 or 6 mos of age.

Typically time scale for litter problems to occur after declawing, he is upset and he is showing you that. Oh by the way kittens can be very naughty but once they reach a year of age they stop doing damage and clawing things etc, but as kittens claws are taken off at 6 months old cat owners like yourself never get to find this out for yourself.

When you get your next cat please consider try post training and soft claws and by a year of age your cat will be well behaved with no need for declawing…no more poo on the floor either.

He also runs a lot thru the house and we have mostly hard wood floors and you can hear his feet thumping as he runs. I would think if his feet were sore that he wouldn't do that and would act like they are sore.

He has no choice but to walk and if he is in pain he will run so he can reach his destination quicker so he can get off his painful feet. Cats hide their pain very well, as in the wild any sign of weakness would shorten their life. The thumping happens as declawed cats have to walk on different parts of the foot than a healthy clawed cat would.

I really think it is a behavior issue, but am desperately trying to find out the cause and the solution. Thanks for your advise and I welcome more if you come up with other suggestions.

I am currently training to be a cat behaviourist and the golden rule is never see a cat until ALL physical problems have been looked into by a vet. No professional cat behaviourist will give any advice unless your cat got a clear bill of health from one vets and in some cases insist that a second opinion is seeked before behavioural options are looked at.

The main reason for this is that as cats are so good at hiding pain even if they are close to death, hence a cat which has not had a vet check could die whilst a behaviourist is trying to help him.

I am giving you valuable and free advice…take your poor crippled cat to the vets and get him checked out, you need to find out if he is spending every day in pain or not.

If you love this cat take him to a vet straight away, don’t let him suffer any longer than he needs to.

If you get a clear x-ray and his claws are not growing back within his foot and there are no bone splinters causing infections in his foot tissue and no nerves are pinched or damaged....…then you can come back for advice saying it is behavioural.

I doubt it is behavioural from the facts you have posted but if it is…then we’ll look into other possibilities after a full vet exam including paw x-rays.