Litter Box Issues

[Purple Sweater]

I have a 14 year old cat that refuses to use the litter box. I have tried changing litters, I scoop daily, I have changed places, I have added another one upstairs, etc. However, she will not use the litter box. She has been an indoor cat her whole life and I am at the point of putting her outside during the day. My carpet is ruined and she like to use piles of clothes or blankets as her litter box. HELP! I have two young children and I can't live with the smell and issues!!! What do I do???

Thank you in advance!

[Purple Sweater]

Ok, I didn't read the other thread first. OOOPS! Well, I will try the containment. How small though? Is a screened in back porch too big? Does it need to be the size of a bathroom? Do we let her out to love on and then place her back in the room? I want to get a handle on this. :)

[siamcat]

Ok, I didn't read the other thread first. OOOPS! Well, I will try the containment. How small though? Is a screened in back porch too big? Does it need to be the size of a bathroom? Do we let her out to love on and then place her back in the room? I want to get a handle on this. :)

The size shouldn't matter as long as there is no carpeting, sand, clothing available. We used our bathroom and took all the mats out. The cat was out when we could watch it and whenever it started to go somewhere else we picked it up and put it in the litterbox. At night and when we left it went into the bathroom. After a few weeks it worked.
Good luck.

[MyFoot76541]

Ha ha .. I should have read the other thread also!! LOL but nevertheless, here goes for what it's worth:

Cats are intrinsically clean. A cat who poops on your property is frequently expressing an issue with her life style. Since you have more than one cat doing this, I will assume it is not a medical problem. :)

here are some thoughts without knowing particulars

Last time I saw this happen was when my granddaughter was born. Her mom had two cats, one old one she had had forever and a young one who had somehow moved herself in. Well both were lovely cats, decorating the living room like any cat should. The baby was born, and both cats found packages of open baby diapers, the diaper table, the sink that had a baby bottle in it, the drawer with baby clothes to poop and pee in. I am convinced they had not been properly introduced to the baby while she was still in the hospital, and the new schedule, the crying, the nervousness of the mom all contributed to their discomfort and upset. Subsequently they were removed from the home and relocated.

Is there anything in your home that could cause them stress? Do your kids scream and run through the house disrespecting their peace and making them nervous? Is there a lot of coming and going, or overall stress?

While the bathroom idea is good as far as protecting the house from the unexpected poop, it still is not a life for cats in my book. While they are not necessarily social animals, they do like a settled life, they like balance and they like to be with people on their terms.

Sometimes it has to do with the quality of food the cats get. High quality food can reduce issues by controlling the bowel pattern more, reducing the frequency they have to eliminate.

[Purple Sweater]

Is there anything in your home that could cause them stress? Do your kids scream and run through the house disrespecting their peace and making them nervous? Is there a lot of coming and going, or overall stress?

This makes me laugh! I have two children...one is 5 and the other is 2. Eleanor is the only animal in the house. I couldn't handle anything else. However, she loves the 5 year old because he pets her and feeds her (it's his job now). She can't stand the 2 year old because she doesn't know how to pet the cat and gets really excited about the cat.

I have had Eleanor for 14 years...since college. I have tried to find her a new home...one that doesn't have the running around and screaming children. However, it did not go well and she was back in our home a week later. I love this cat, but this behavior is not sanitary for my home. I have had her checked out medically and she is perfectly healthy. I have given her the same food her whole life. We scoop her litter once, sometimes twice a day. It is perfectly clean. I am just at my wits end.

[VooDooBaby]

I don't know if this would help at all, but I had a cat once who kept going potty in the same two spots. I put little tiny bowls of his cat food in those two spots. between the two sofas, and the corner in the hallway). Once his main food dish went empty, I left it empty so he would eat the other two small containers of food. He never went potty in those spots again.

[FieryPrincess]

Have you changed your litter? The only time we ever had any trouble at all with our cats was right after they were declawed. They HATED the pellet litter and we had issues until we went back to the regular clumping litter.

Have you changed litters lately? Perhaps Eleanor doesn't care for the smell of the new litter. I agree with MyFoot, I think the cat is expressing a displeasure with something, but I can't help with what that is.