Serial Floor Pooper

[Black_Kat]

As the title suggests, I have a cat who is a serial floor pooper

Annie is a 3.5 yr old (approx) indoor only, spayed female. She adjusted well to life with my other cat, Sadie (5 yrs) after adopting her in the summer of 2017 and we had no health concerns with her for at least a year. At some point, something really upset her GI tract and she had a horrible bought of loose, mucousy stool. She would hunch over in front of the litter box and eventually poop on the floor in the same spot. I switched their food to the Hills Gastrointestinal Biome food and that seemed to help a little but the issue never fully resolved. She has been dewormed a few times since this issue started just to cover our bases. My old vet prescribed metronidazole to give twice daily for a week when these boughts occur.

I believe that initial flair up causes Annie to associate pooping in the litter box with pain, because now every poop is directly outside of the box, even when her stools are normal. She still enters the box to pee so I'm not convinced that she has an issue with the box itself, although I've tried various litters, cover on, cover off, mat in front, no mat in front, you name it. But that's why I'm here, hopefully someone else has some suggestions! I don't know if this situation calls for Feliway but I'm willing to try. Also note, I do have 2 litter boxes in my house, one on each floor. My cats have never had a problem sharing in the past. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I think she has an issue with the box...but ONLY for pooping. Cats are quite capable of that. The pain associated with the box only happened when she pooped. Have you cleaned the areas THOROUGHLY with a good enzymatic cleaner? If not, the scent is drawing her back there. Are the boxes still in their accustomed places? If so, try moving them to an entirely different area. And with two cats, three boxes is ideal. Other than that, until we can come up with the solution, I'd suggest trying putting puppy pads down around the litter boxes and save yourself some headaches with cleanup.

 

[susanm9006]

I would try a few things. First, setting a second litterbox right next to the first. If that doesn’t work, I would try laying out a puppy pad next to the litter box. If she will poop on that then let her continue to do that for a week or two and then move the puppy pad inside a second litterbox. If she use that then gradually start adding litter.

 

[Black_Kat]

I think she has an issue with the box...but ONLY for pooping. Cats are quite capable of that. The pain associated with the box only happened when she pooped. Have you cleaned the areas THOROUGHLY with a good enzymatic cleaner? If not, the scent is drawing her back there. Are the boxes still in their accustomed places? If so, try moving them to an entirely different area. And with two cats, three boxes is ideal. Other than that, until we can come up with the solution, I'd suggest trying putting puppy pads down around the litter boxes and save yourself some headaches with cleanup.

Thank you for the suggestions! I have thoroughly scrubbed both the box and the area surrounding it. This issue also started in my old apartment and is still persistent in my new house unfortunately. Thanks again!

 

[Black_Kat]

I would try a few things. First, setting a second litterbox right next to the first. If that doesn’t work, I would try laying out a puppy pad next to the litter box. If she will poop on that then let her continue to do that for a week or two and then move the puppy pad inside a second litterbox. If she use that then gradually start adding litter.

Sounds good, I will definitely give this a try. Thank you very much for the advice!

 

[Black_Kat]

UPDATE: it's been well over a month with no change. I'm starting to get discouraged. I, again, thoroughly scrubbed the floor where Annie has been pooping. I purchased two new, identical litter boxes and placed them side by side with fresh litter in both. I placed potty pads outside of each box. (I still have a box downstairs that rarely gets used by either one of my cats.) For about 3 weeks I let Annie continue with pooping on the floor, but now on the potty pads (hooray for easy clean up!) Maybe a week or so ago I emptied one box of litter and started putting a potty pad inside the box. Annie is using the box with the potty pad to pee in, but is still pooping on the floor. I dont even think she's using the litterbox next to it that's full of litter. WHYYYY??? Any further suggestions? Do I need to give it more time? I'm so frustrated.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I read through this entire thread, and get the sense that Annie's GI issues are still behind this. If that has been resolved, then sorry, I must have somehow read over that part. Has she had to take more Metro during this past month? It seems that is your vet's answer to her problem but that is attacking a symptom and not the cause. So, whatever is affecting her GI tract could still be bothering her enough to cause her not to want to use the litter box - potty pads or not.

It could still also be that she no longer wants to use the same box for peeing and pooping, and/or a box that another cat uses. But, she apparently prefers the potty pads over the litter, so she now uses that box for peeing - leaving her poops to continue being deposited outside of it. Have you tried taking her poop and placing it in the litter box where she pees? Is your other cat exclusively using the box with litter in it, or does s/he sometimes use the potty pad box as well?

Does Annie always use the same location to poop, or does it change? Are the potty pads placed over top of that area where she used to poop? It could be that she still can smell the scent underneath the pads, despite your efforts to thoroughly clean that area. If that were to be the case, you might place the litter box over that area and see if that helps any.

 

[Black_Kat]

Hi there! Thank you so much for taking time to respond. Currently Annie's GI issues have been resolved. She has not had a bought of abnormal stool or needed the metronidazole in some time, so only the bad behavior remains.

It seems like she prefers to use one particular litter box for urinating regardless if it has litter or a potty pad. But the issue of pooping outside the box still remains. I have 2 identical boxes placed side by side and she will poop outside of either one, but it seems as though she only uses the one up against the wall for urinating. My other cat seems to exclusively use the box adjacent that is full of litter. I believe Sadie is the only one who uses the box downstairs as well, I have never witnessed Annie using it. I have tried picking the poop up from the floor and putting it in the box with the potty pad. I have also tried picking the poop up and replacing the pad in the box with the one that she previously pooped on (if it is clean enough) just so the smell is on it.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I am glad that her issues have been resolved! The only other thing that I would know to suggest is trying a very low sided box - perhaps, even place a sizeable cardboard box lid with potty pads in it and see if she might 'convert' to using the box lid for pooping. Hopefully, you have the space to add this extra box, as opposed to replacing one of the others - at least long enough to see if the experiment would work. If it should work, you can replace the lid with a low sided litter box with pads in it. On the chance she would continue to use the low sided litter box, you could consider down the road trying the idea of adding a very small amount of litter over the pads to start with, eventually increasing the litter as time passes.