Pooping near the box

[Ella Spell]

We adopted Hester last June when she was about 8 weeks old. She's now almost ten months.
She was our last and youngest of five cats, arriving just three days after Macbeth.

During the summer she peed in the bathtub quite a lot, and occasionally pooped in there too. The vet checkd her for UTI and she did a course of antibiotics. As far as I know the UTI is gone. I mentioned the poop and took a sample to the vet but he just looked at it visually rather than doing an exam, and said it looked normal. He felt that she was only pooping for behavioural reasons even though we have five cat boxes and they're cleaned at least once a day each, but sometimes more.

Since then she's stopped having pee issues, but she poops on the floor near a litter box about 4-5 times a week. Sometimes it's a tile floor and sometimes it's a wood floor. When I catch her in the act I notice she scratches the floor first as if it's litter.

It's actually easy to pick it up with a tissue because it's quite firm and doesn't leave a mess. I can flush it instead of having to scoop from the box, but I don't want this to become a habit and the vet doesn't seem interested in doing anything about it.

Ideas?

 

[Lennybells]

Have you tried wiping the floor with a wipe to make sure there is no smell? Maybe instead of the toilet, you can pop one of the turds in the litter box so she’d smell it there? Just some ideas…

 

[di and bob]

There is SOMETHING she deosn't like about the box or the litter. Since she is peeing in a box, I woudl bet she wants to poop in another box. Get some different litters and put them in SOME of the boxes and see if she likes any of them. You never know.........

 

[Kieka]

I'd also take a hard look at the boxes themselves. Maybe try one with a lower side, one with a higher side and a larger box than the existing to see if the box itself is something she doesn't feel comfortable pooping in.

 

[Ella Spell]

Thanks everyone!

I forgot to mention that I do wipe the floor, using an unscented enzyme cleaner for pets. I've also tried vinegar with baking soda, peroxide, and pet-safe disinfectants. It doesn't seem to make a difference and at one point I thought it might be making it worse, but I don't notice that anymore.

One of them on the wood floor is quite a long box with low sides. The one on the tile floor is the type with higher sides and a lid with an entrance hole. She does go in there to pee so I don't think that's the issue. In another room we have the same long one like the wood floor, but with paper pellets inside. I don't know if she uses that one at all. I've never seen her use it but maybe she does. I should set up a camera. I even have one in my bedroom because sometimes some of the cats sleep with me. She's never had an accident in my bedroom. I don't know why.

I have to be careful about what litter I use because my dog will occasionally dumpster-dive for snacks. Ewwww. He's allergic to corn so I can't use the corn pellets or anything like wood chips.

 

[danteshuman]

The two box thing is real! My boy poops in one box and pees in the other box.

 

[Ella Spell]

That's really clever how you've used a closet and the lid dividers.

I've always wanted to try having two boxes right next to each other.
I'll have to figure out how / where to do that.

It would make scooping a lot faster too!

 

[danteshuman]

That's really clever how you've used a closet and the lid dividers……

The lid dividers are there because he likes to climb from one box, over the side to another box and steps in wet litter as he does it.

 

[Alldara]

Can you use a closet with a cat door to keep your dog out of the litters?

How many boxes do you have per cat? The general idea is one per cat plus 1.

What litter are you using?

Sometimes the box or litter can be fine to the cat for the short urine trips but not for a longer poo trip. So I won't rule out a box or litter issues just because pee is making it inside.

Some cats do not like to poo in a place where another cat or they themselves have peed. My friend had good luck with an electronic box to solve this issue with her cat.


It is good to have litters in different spaces as some cats in Multicat households can have issues if they are just next to one another. This is not always the case, but since your cat is having some box issues, it can be an issue. I have in the past has two beside one another and one in a different area which went well...

 

[Ella Spell]

No, unfortunately we don't have any spare closets. I thought about putting a box in the middle of a big wire dog kennel or something but that would take up a whole room.

I have five boxes for five cats. I know I should have six but the oldest cat toilets outside and very seldom ever uses a box. I don't think I've seen him use a box in years.

We use Tidy Cats unscented for four boxes and paper pellet things in another. I looked into Cat Attract by Dr Elsey but it seems to have a scent (I can't do scent) and it's apparently very dusty. I can't have five boxes of high-dust in my house.

Electronic boxes are close to $1000. I don't know how people can afford those and they also look huge. I don't know where I could even put one.

I'm going to fiddle with a few changes this week, without buying anything new. I'm a bit anxious because cats don't like change either, but the pooping has started to be a bit more frequent even since I started the thread.

I suppose my last resort might be a vet visit, but he didn't seem concerned about it when I mentioned it before.