Ugh. Before I start, I'd like to warn everyone that this post is long, and contains graphic information about litter box issues.
With that said, here we go. When Chesty came to us, we added a litterbox in our bedroom--not ideal, but we don't have a lot of room. He just looooves to dig and scratch noisily, especially at night (or so it seems). He even scratches the sides of the covered box (in other words, where there's no litter). This has been annoying when we're trying to sleep at night, but I thought it was just a normal thing that we'd have to ignore.
Well, Ziv adopted this behavior (he had never done this with the same vigor), so now we have twice the noise at night. He even come out of the box and tries to dig on the mat we have in front of it--he looks like he's trying to kick the mat into the box. Recently, there were some socks on the floor by the box, and he ended up kicking those into the box (eeew!).
Well, this morning Ziv had diarrhea. (Yes, I know I have to check on that--he's on two medications now, Zithromycin and Lysine, so I've put in a call to the vet to see if those can cause diarrhea.) He did his whole vigorous scratching thing in the box, then on the mat, then he turned around and put his head and front paws in the box and started digging that way--kicking stuff *out* of the box. Yes, it happened--diarrhea went everywhere, on the carpet, on the clothes hamper next to the box (I realize now how stupid that arrangement was).
So, you can imagine how disgusting this is. It also makes me wonder if this vigorous digging is not a normal behavior, but a sign of something else. If it's normal, I'm thinking about getting a different box--one of those large corner ones, to give them more room, or perhaps the top-entry style. I'm just worried that the top-entry style might cause the cats not to use the box.
Does anyone have any advice or experience with this sort of thing? Is this a normal behavior for cats that needs to be remedied with a different litter box, or is this a sign of some underlying health problem? (For reference, all three cats were dewormed in March and I changed their dry food from Nutro Max to Nutro Natural Balance recently--but that was over a week ago.)
ETA: I clean the boxes once per day, and this particular box was cleaned last night.
With that said, here we go. When Chesty came to us, we added a litterbox in our bedroom--not ideal, but we don't have a lot of room. He just looooves to dig and scratch noisily, especially at night (or so it seems). He even scratches the sides of the covered box (in other words, where there's no litter). This has been annoying when we're trying to sleep at night, but I thought it was just a normal thing that we'd have to ignore.
Well, Ziv adopted this behavior (he had never done this with the same vigor), so now we have twice the noise at night. He even come out of the box and tries to dig on the mat we have in front of it--he looks like he's trying to kick the mat into the box. Recently, there were some socks on the floor by the box, and he ended up kicking those into the box (eeew!).
Well, this morning Ziv had diarrhea. (Yes, I know I have to check on that--he's on two medications now, Zithromycin and Lysine, so I've put in a call to the vet to see if those can cause diarrhea.) He did his whole vigorous scratching thing in the box, then on the mat, then he turned around and put his head and front paws in the box and started digging that way--kicking stuff *out* of the box. Yes, it happened--diarrhea went everywhere, on the carpet, on the clothes hamper next to the box (I realize now how stupid that arrangement was).
So, you can imagine how disgusting this is. It also makes me wonder if this vigorous digging is not a normal behavior, but a sign of something else. If it's normal, I'm thinking about getting a different box--one of those large corner ones, to give them more room, or perhaps the top-entry style. I'm just worried that the top-entry style might cause the cats not to use the box.
Does anyone have any advice or experience with this sort of thing? Is this a normal behavior for cats that needs to be remedied with a different litter box, or is this a sign of some underlying health problem? (For reference, all three cats were dewormed in March and I changed their dry food from Nutro Max to Nutro Natural Balance recently--but that was over a week ago.)
ETA: I clean the boxes once per day, and this particular box was cleaned last night.