Well, poop! At wits end!

jmc wrote in
:

I'm running out of ideas. Meep's healthy again, or as healthy as she
can be, anyway, for a 14 year old cat. Since she's been on the
Tramodol, she's been using the litterbox properly to pee.

The new problem is that she's decided, most of the time, not to use
the box to poop. I cannot figure out why. There has been no change
to her litter in ages (I use Worlds Best). These are not accidents -
she poops just outside the box, on the floor. Fortunately she has a
bathroom all to herself.

So, thinking she had decided she needed a second litterbox, I put one
out for her, but had to put it next to her current one, because every
other box, she sits in but pees outside of, and I'm renting so we
can't have her doing that on the carpets.

So, she ignored her current box, sat in the other one to pee but peed
on the floor, then pooped in a only slightly out of the way spot on
the carpet about 5' away from her bathroom. NOT what I like to find
first thing Monday morning!

It's been cleaned up of course, and treated with an odor neutralizer.
I have also removed the second box. It is much easier to clean poop
off the bathroom tile floor than random places on carpet!

I've spoken to the vet about this but she has no answers. We know she
tends to be constipated and is on both Benefiber and Laculose. She
rarely has hairballs so it all comes out the other end. Her poops are
now normal in appearance, and sometimes a bit soft if I use too much
Laculose.

If it was the litter, wouldn't she pee outside of her current box?
She uses that one properly, when she wouldn't/doesn't with the other
style boxes I've tried.

I'm at wits end! None of the other bathrooms are big enough to put a
litter box in (she uses a huge multi-cat box), and I'm scared to put a
box out where there's carpet. No matter how big or tall a box is
used, it still has to have an opening that's low enough for my
arthritic cat to manage, and she'll pee out that opening if she's so
inclined.

I'm not even sure if this is protest at something (she really hates
getting the Tramadol twice daily, it's very, very bitter), or if she's
associated the litterbox with pain - and I'm not sure how to fix it if
she has made that sort of association.

Other than this one problem, her behavior is pretty normal.

Please, any help is appreciated!

jmc



I had that problem, sort of, with a previous cat. I ended up finding a
larger deeper litter pan, which helped a great deal. I also placed the
pan on a foil oven liner, which caught anything over the edge of the
pan. Sounds like an oven liner might help your problem.


--
"When you choose the lesser of two evils, always
remember that it is still an evil." - Max Lerner

Suddenly, without warning, KenK exclaimed (9/14/2010 1:55 PM):
wrote in
:

I'm running out of ideas. Meep's healthy again, or as healthy as she
can be, anyway, for a 14 year old cat. Since she's been on the
Tramodol, she's been using the litterbox properly to pee.

The new problem is that she's decided, most of the time, not to use
the box to poop. I cannot figure out why. There has been no change
to her litter in ages (I use Worlds Best). These are not accidents -
she poops just outside the box, on the floor. Fortunately she has a
bathroom all to herself.

So, thinking she had decided she needed a second litterbox, I put one
out for her, but had to put it next to her current one, because every
other box, she sits in but pees outside of, and I'm renting so we
can't have her doing that on the carpets.

So, she ignored her current box, sat in the other one to pee but peed
on the floor, then pooped in a only slightly out of the way spot on
the carpet about 5' away from her bathroom. NOT what I like to find
first thing Monday morning!

It's been cleaned up of course, and treated with an odor neutralizer.
I have also removed the second box. It is much easier to clean poop
off the bathroom tile floor than random places on carpet!

I've spoken to the vet about this but she has no answers. We know she
tends to be constipated and is on both Benefiber and Laculose. She
rarely has hairballs so it all comes out the other end. Her poops are
now normal in appearance, and sometimes a bit soft if I use too much
Laculose.

If it was the litter, wouldn't she pee outside of her current box?
She uses that one properly, when she wouldn't/doesn't with the other
style boxes I've tried.

I'm at wits end! None of the other bathrooms are big enough to put a
litter box in (she uses a huge multi-cat box), and I'm scared to put a
box out where there's carpet. No matter how big or tall a box is
used, it still has to have an opening that's low enough for my
arthritic cat to manage, and she'll pee out that opening if she's so
inclined.

I'm not even sure if this is protest at something (she really hates
getting the Tramadol twice daily, it's very, very bitter), or if she's
associated the litterbox with pain - and I'm not sure how to fix it if
she has made that sort of association.

Other than this one problem, her behavior is pretty normal.

Please, any help is appreciated!

jmc



I had that problem, sort of, with a previous cat. I ended up finding a
larger deeper litter pan, which helped a great deal. I also placed the
pan on a foil oven liner, which caught anything over the edge of the
pan. Sounds like an oven liner might help your problem.



Sadly, she's already got the largest, deepest litter pan I can find. I
could go to Home Depot or something and buy something truly gigantic,
but I really don't think that's the problem. She pees inside the box
fine, it's just stools I find outside it.

We've tried the mat under the litterbox - not an oven liner though,
they're too small for her box. I removed it 'cause it's a lot harder to
clean stool off of one of those "collect the litter" sort of pan mats
than it is off of the tile floor.

jmc

"jmc" wrote in message
...
Suddenly, without warning, KenK exclaimed (9/14/2010 1:55 PM):
wrote in
:

I'm running out of ideas. Meep's healthy again, or as healthy as she
can be, anyway, for a 14 year old cat. Since she's been on the
Tramodol, she's been using the litterbox properly to pee.

The new problem is that she's decided, most of the time, not to use
the box to poop. I cannot figure out why. There has been no change
to her litter in ages (I use Worlds Best). These are not accidents -
she poops just outside the box, on the floor. Fortunately she has a
bathroom all to herself.

So, thinking she had decided she needed a second litterbox, I put one
out for her, but had to put it next to her current one, because every
other box, she sits in but pees outside of, and I'm renting so we
can't have her doing that on the carpets.

So, she ignored her current box, sat in the other one to pee but peed
on the floor, then pooped in a only slightly out of the way spot on
the carpet about 5' away from her bathroom. NOT what I like to find
first thing Monday morning!

It's been cleaned up of course, and treated with an odor neutralizer.
I have also removed the second box. It is much easier to clean poop
off the bathroom tile floor than random places on carpet!

I've spoken to the vet about this but she has no answers. We know she
tends to be constipated and is on both Benefiber and Laculose. She
rarely has hairballs so it all comes out the other end. Her poops are
now normal in appearance, and sometimes a bit soft if I use too much
Laculose.

If it was the litter, wouldn't she pee outside of her current box?
She uses that one properly, when she wouldn't/doesn't with the other
style boxes I've tried.

I'm at wits end! None of the other bathrooms are big enough to put a
litter box in (she uses a huge multi-cat box), and I'm scared to put a
box out where there's carpet. No matter how big or tall a box is
used, it still has to have an opening that's low enough for my
arthritic cat to manage, and she'll pee out that opening if she's so
inclined.

I'm not even sure if this is protest at something (she really hates
getting the Tramadol twice daily, it's very, very bitter), or if she's
associated the litterbox with pain - and I'm not sure how to fix it if
she has made that sort of association.

Other than this one problem, her behavior is pretty normal.

Please, any help is appreciated!

jmc



I had that problem, sort of, with a previous cat. I ended up finding a
larger deeper litter pan, which helped a great deal. I also placed the
pan on a foil oven liner, which caught anything over the edge of the
pan. Sounds like an oven liner might help your problem.



Sadly, she's already got the largest, deepest litter pan I can find. I
could go to Home Depot or something and buy something truly gigantic, but
I really don't think that's the problem. She pees inside the box fine,
it's just stools I find outside it.

We've tried the mat under the litterbox - not an oven liner though,
they're too small for her box. I removed it 'cause it's a lot harder to
clean stool off of one of those "collect the litter" sort of pan mats than
it is off of the tile floor.

jmc

Auto parts stores have a large flat metal pan that is supposed to protect
your garage floor from oil drips.....I think it would work well for cat
drips too, but you would still have to clean up the mess.......