Age: 5
Sex/Neuter status: female/neutered
Breed: ragdoll
Body weight: 11 pounds (roughly)
History: other than a UTI about 8 months ago she's healthy. She was declawed as a kitten (we didn't ask for it, she came declawed).
Other: We have another cat who's slightly younger and has no issues but he is not declawed. We also got a puppy recently.
Duration: 4 years
The Issue: Our cat who was our first animal we got together has had an issue pooping outside of the litter box for nearly 4 years of her 5 year life. We aren't sure what started this issue but somewhere around the 1 year mark she decided to start pooping outside the litter box. At first it was just if she deemed it too dirty, so we understood and made more of an effort to clean it. As time progressed she pooped outside of it regardless of the litter cleanliness. She would periodically decide to use it again, seemingly randomly to us, and then stop again seemingly randomly. This was until about 2 years ago when she decided to just always poop out of the litter box regardless of other conditions. Again not sure what caused this, not much changed at that time. It gets worse when she's sick she will prefer to poop on soft places much to our dismay.
What we have tried:
Our suspicion: We think her pooping outside the litter box is directly related to her being declawed.. it's just we aren't sure what to do about it beyond what we have tried. To support this she never covers her poop, even if she does use the litter box.
Sex/Neuter status: female/neutered
Breed: ragdoll
Body weight: 11 pounds (roughly)
History: other than a UTI about 8 months ago she's healthy. She was declawed as a kitten (we didn't ask for it, she came declawed).
Other: We have another cat who's slightly younger and has no issues but he is not declawed. We also got a puppy recently.
Duration: 4 years
The Issue: Our cat who was our first animal we got together has had an issue pooping outside of the litter box for nearly 4 years of her 5 year life. We aren't sure what started this issue but somewhere around the 1 year mark she decided to start pooping outside the litter box. At first it was just if she deemed it too dirty, so we understood and made more of an effort to clean it. As time progressed she pooped outside of it regardless of the litter cleanliness. She would periodically decide to use it again, seemingly randomly to us, and then stop again seemingly randomly. This was until about 2 years ago when she decided to just always poop out of the litter box regardless of other conditions. Again not sure what caused this, not much changed at that time. It gets worse when she's sick she will prefer to poop on soft places much to our dismay.
What we have tried:
- Scented litter
- unscented litter
- closed litter boxes
- open litter boxes
- litter boxes in hidden areas
- litter boxes in closed areas
- more litter boxes
- clay litter
- pellet litter. This worked for a few days then she decided she didn't like it.
- litter scents, this also worked for a few days then she decided she didn't like it.
- tinfoil near the litter (she literally pooped on that one)
- showering her with love and affection (spending at least 2 hours a day petting her and loving her while not being angry with her at all)
- locking her in the bathroom with the litter box. I know this one sounds inhumane but we had the most success with it. After being locked in the bathroom for about a week she used it for nearly 3 months, when she stopped we put her in the bathroom again and she would then use it for 2 weeks, then 1 week, then not at all regardless of how long she was in the bathroom.
Our suspicion: We think her pooping outside the litter box is directly related to her being declawed.. it's just we aren't sure what to do about it beyond what we have tried. To support this she never covers her poop, even if she does use the litter box.