Car is openly refusing to use litter box and has been getting worse. Please help.

[jetgirl43]

I'm so terribly sorry for the long post. I don't know what to do anymore. I am exhausted. I have two cats that are brothers; Fortune and Sailor. I have had them for three years and they were both completely litter trained. In December, Fortune pooped under the Christmas tree without us noticing right away (it was a large Christmas tree and the poop was in the far back corner). Since then, it has gotten worse and worse. At first, it continued in that specific corner, so we added their cat tree and favorite chair to the corner. It stopped happening as much, and then we went away for three days and came home to a huge amount of poop in the same corner, even with all of the stuff we put there. We completely rearranged the house, and the pooping didn't stop, it only moved to a different part of the house. The last few days have been the worst. He is continually pooping on the carpet, nowhere near the litter box and we finally locked him in the bathroom with the litter box and he intentionally pooped three to five feet away from it.

A few things to add:

- Every one of these poops are soft. Not complete liquid, but soft enough that I brought a sample to my vet (they said that there was no parasites in it). Only two or three have not been extremely soft.
- We didn't have this problem until after the Christmas tree incident.
- It mainly happens when we are gone, or he will intentionally wait until right after someone leaves, however he has officially done it right in front of us twice.
- He has fleas that we have been actively working to get rid of.
- Our other cat (aside from also having some fleas), has been acting completely normal and has been normal stools.
- I had a baby in May, and I feel that has added to his stress.
- We have cut him out from the baby's room since it has gotten worse which I believe has also gotten him stressed.

I don't know what to do at this point. We have tried different cat litters, different boxes, different spots, rearranging the house, giving him more attention, feeding him different portions (a little less assuming it was making him sick to have too much), changed foods, putting his poops back into the box to try and help him understand where they should go, feeding him probiotics, NOTHING has stopped this, it has only progressively gotten worse. I am going to take him back to the vet tomorrow because I am scared he is sick, but the only other thing I can think of doing is getting a bigger cat tree and maybe making some more shelves for him to climb on because he's possibly getting bigger and isn't feeling comfortable or something.

Please help with any advice, suggestions, or similar stories with recommendations.

 

[Ms. Freya]

Yikes! It sounds like this could definitely be caused by changes and stress, but I'm glad you're taking him to the vet to rule out any health issues.

A few things, just from my own experience - have you tried Cat Attract litter? It's a bit on the expensive side, but I;ve found it generally does help bring them back to the box. Does he share a box with your other cat? Some cats, particularly around times of change, don't like to share boxes so if you haven't, you could try adding a few extras around the house. Also, when he goes outside the box, do you clean everything with an enzyme cleaner? This is usually more important with peeing outside the box, but if he can smell where he's been going, that might be encouraging him to keep going in those spots - and cats have a MUCH better sense of smell than we do.

Sort of an odd thing, but does he go outside at all? I ask because this seems to have started with the Christmas tree. If he smelled another cat on your tree (I'm presuming it was a live tree) or is seeing another cat outside, this could be in reaction to another cat outside who he feels threatened by.

Just a few ideas. You may have done so already, but you can also check out some of our articles on litterbox problems. They have tons of great suggestions and you may find something in there that works for him:
[article="32366"]How To Solve Litterbox Problems In Cats The Ultimate Guide  [/article][article="33457"]The Litterbox What Every Cat Owner Needs To Know  [/article]

 

[jetgirl43]

Thank you so much for your response!!

I have not tried that cat litter, but I am absolutely willing to try anything at this point. I will go look for some today. The cats did share a litter box at one point, but around January (when we noticed a second incident) we decided to get them two boxes in separate rooms. I think Fortune could also be stressed because Sailor is choosing to use both and not just one. I might add a third box to our house to spread out more for them. We do use a great enzyme cleaner, however he seems to just choose different spots or go back to where some were previously, so it hasn't been deterring him any.
As for the Christmas tree, it was actually a fake one, so I assumed that it was more of a "hidden spot" than a marking from another cat.
Thank you so much for posting your suggestions and the links. I am going to go through them right now. You are awesome!

 

[greenpuppyz]

Does your cats liter box have a top Or is your liter box in a space like a cabinet,under a table,ect if so then ur cat may feel trapped and refuse to use the liter box.i would recommend puting the litter box in an open space.