Josie has been pooping in the living room

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eccentricfuzzyme

eccentricfuzzyme

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My cat Josie has been pooping on the carpet in the living room several times. She still uses the litter box for pee, and to poop in some of the time. Is this something other diabetic cats do? Or is there something else wrong? It only started after she was diagnosed. And the poops are really stinky.
 
is her litter box clean when she does it? or is she doing it because the litter box isn't clean enough for her? i've only had that happen if i let the box get dirty. punkin wants it cleaned after every use, pretty much.

if it's not a clean litter box issue, i'm not sure what else to suggest. you've gotta get the spots really clean where she's gone so she doesn't smell it. i did see some stuff in petco recently that you sprayed that was a "don't go here" smell. i don't know anything about it, so can't say that it works or not.
 
Bailey did this when she had a UTI. She peed normally in the litterbox but would poop in inappropriate places (I know that seems weird!). Just a thought, you might want to get a urinalysis.
 
I have heard of cats who will pee in the litter box but seldom poop in the box.
It has nothing at all to with the box being clean or the cat would not even pee in the box.
I know of one who was like that and it may have started with dx.

My cat Shadoe almost always would pee out of the box and that was the reason I took her to the vet and she was dx with diabetes. It did not matter if the box was brand new and full of fresh litter, she still peed in front of the box.
I had tried just about everything but recently I decided to put a step in front of the box and it worked.
It seems that maybe her belly was rubbing on the edge of the box.
Now, she will have an accident only when her numbers go very high or very low.

I would check with the vet if you have not made any changes recently; Josie's trying to tell you something.
 
Nothing has changed, nothing is different on the few days she has pooped outside it, no different food or level of cleanliness. I always keep it as clean as I can, and it has never bothered her up til now. And she still uses it for all her peeing and 95% of her pooping.
Around the time of diagnoses she had a UTI, but the vet put her on antibiotics and it cleared up. Back then she peed a few times in front of the box, which is why I knew she had a UTI in the first place. But she never pooped in the wrong place back then.
 
She could be trying to tell you something. Maybe she's constipated and it hurts to go. Sometimes adding a little water to their canned food can help that. I don't know how old she is but seniors whether human or furry have a harder time drawing fluids into their colon so adding more water can help.

I'd get some enzyme cleaner, we use Zero Odor, but there are many brands and types, get the scent out of the carpet and if you can, add a second litter box next to her first one. Some cats prefer one box for pee and one for poop. She may find the addition of the second box attractive and may use it immediately.

If this doesn't change soon I would call your vet and let them know.
 
I had another thought - is the box lidded? If it is, is it big enough?

I had to remove the lid on the XL boxes I had because Oliver is pretty huge and there were a few times when he got out of the box, the lid came with him, stuck around his not so tiny midsection.

He loves the no lid as he can move around now.

If Josie is a bit constipated, the box may be a bit too constricting.
 
It is an average to large sized box (the biggest that will fit in the only spot available in the bathroom) and it has no lid.
I dont know if she is constipated. She has gone at least twice in the last few days, and it has been copious, fairly soft and stinky.
 
oh well .... just thought I'd mention it.

I CAN relate to smell though! Shadoe's 'deposits' stink something fierce and she eats the same foods as Oliver.
I wonder if you can stalk Josie and see what's going on when she goes in the box or not.
 
i am not home often enough for that.

the very first time she did it, in september i think, it was when i was in the shower, so she didnt have access to her litter box, so i wondered if it was just too sudden/urgent and she couldnt hold it. and she didnt do it again for months, so who knows.
then she has done it 2 or maybe 3 other times total. and the poops are always really stinky.
 
When my seniors start to get constipated it's very hard small deposits, so soft does not seem like a constipation issue. No food changes and the litter, you've used the same litter, haven't switched to a perfume type or something with a different texture?

If it's on rare occasions she's doing this I'd try to log that, you have a SS noted in your signature so put this information in the comments section. Note the food she ate that day, if the box was dirtier than usual, try to see if there is a pattern. Maybe a higher or lower BG than usual, but I would still let your vet know, just in case.
 
I noticed in another post elsewhere on the board your kitty has had some chronic vomiting?
I understand you also feed dry, Since there is really no water in dry food, and cats dont often drink enough on their own, it makes me wonder if she is a little dehydrated (little water intake + vomiting= dehydration)
Add the pooping outside of box and I would suspect there could be some constipation issues going on.

It might be worth calling your vet about this.

LONG before Latte's FD I took her to the vet for the same exact reasons ( vomiting, constipation...going outside box, on dry food diet). Unfortunately we took some wrong steps in diagnosis and tx, leading to more serious issues. For her, they felt it was arthritis and she was having difficulty passing the poop. That is why we tried metacam, which caused kidney failure in her. We also tried a stool softener and had to switch her to wet food so she would get more water. Many years later Latte was diagnosed with IBD/GI lymphoma. I suspect this was really the issue we were dealing with in the beginning, no so much the arthritis. My understanding is that cat's who eat a dry food diet are more prone to IBD, among other diseases. She was 100% dry for 14yrs. The last 4yrs of her life was about 50/50. I was never able to do a complete switch, even with the FD issue due to her lack of appetite. She had to eat something.

I hope this did not sound like a dry food rant. I certainly did not mean it to be. I know you are pretty set, due to your circumstances, not to make the change to wet. BUT, it very well could explain some of the concerns you are expressing from the erratic BG's, vomiting, defecating outside box, etc. I really do think a vet visit would be a good thing so you can address any health issue.

One other thought....do you have any kitty drinking fountains? SOME cats love those. I never had success with Latte...she was scared of them. It may encourage Josie to drink more. If it does not work out, you can return it. No harm, no foul (is that the saying??? :lol: )

I wish you luck and hope things start turning around for the two of you.
 
josie hasnt had any vomitting issue for months, since before she was diagnosed, and they said it was because she had been straining to pass big poops, that it ended up making her puke.
she is on dry food, but she eats it wet, mashed up with water and her pills, and she drinks plenty of water as well, she is at the water dish several times a day, just when I am home to see her. I dont think not getting enough water is an issue for her. Her and her brother Rusty both love to drink water, anywhere they can get it, always have. The sink, the toilet, your glass.
her litter and food never changes, it is always the same.
I cant afford to take her back to the vet again if thye are just going to do and say the same exact thing they always do in these cases- want bloodwork and a sample, test them, they come back fine, and i am out 400$ i dont have.
 
Oh, OK! I guess I had you Josie confused with another kitty who was vomiting. Sorry about that! ohmygod_smile

My Latte would vomit after trying to poop sometimes, too. :(

I don't know what kind of relationship you have with your vet, but if they have already acknowledged that she is straining to go sometimes, maybe you could just call them and ask for some ideas to help with the issue. They may recommend something like pumpkin, miralax, or lactulose to help soften the stools. Any of them are relatively inexpensive. You would not even have to go in to the vet for a visit. :mrgreen: Tell them it would be less stressful for Josie to get ideas over the phone.

Aside from what Ive suggested, and others I really don't know. I wish I could be more helpful to you and Josie.

Wishing you both well!
 
well my josie was vomitting, several times, months ago, but i dont know if i was on here then or not. i think it was before diagnoses, so i dont think so.
anyways, her poops now, at last the ones outside the box, arent hard, they are soft, so i dont think straining is the problem. maybe the problem is urgency. can that happen with poop the way it can with urine? she doesnt feel it coming til its too late? maybe it has to do with her hind leg neuropathy.
 
eccentricfuzzyme said:
maybe the problem is urgency. can that happen with poop the way it can with urine? she doesnt feel it coming til its too late? maybe it has to do with her hind leg neuropathy.
Click to expand...

That is a good question. I do not know the answer.

Latte used to go to her box step in with her front legs and urinate out of the box. Most of the time she could get the poop in, but sometimes not. No matter how low I made the box, she would still do this. She was a high pee-r too. So it was quiet the challenge to make it easy/comfy for her + non destructive to my living space. Her arthritis and other back issues played a key role in this. I suppose if it is difficult for Josie to get IN the box, she probably prefers to do it elsewhere. The neuropathy could make it challenging, I suppose. I have not had to deal with neuropathy, so Im not sure.

In case you are interested, here is an entire website dedicated to feline constipation! Who would of thunk?!?!?!
http://www.felineconstipation.org/introduction.html
 
How old is the food? Sometimes, the fats/oils in dry foods may become rancid.

Or the dry food may have been contaminated with something during processing.
 
not sure how old the bag is, i would have to check for a manufacturing date, but it was opened within a week. each bag only lasts 2 weeks.
 
anytime the poop is more loose or liquid it smells worse. it's also harder for them to hold it.

my civvie, anya, has something like irritable bowel and she has chronic problems with diarrhea. the vet said if a kitten develops diarrhea young and it's untreated that sometimes you can't ever get it under control. i've found with her there are a couple of foods she can eat without diarrhea and i stick to those. she eats fancy feast chicken or beef and occasionally one of the fish ones. the turkey and giblets blow her out, if i give her any of punkin's high carb canned foods, that also causes diarrhea.

what you're describing sounds to me like it could be an urgency issue - like she can't quite hold it til she can make it to her box, perhaps combined with an upset gut, which would be harder to make it to the box.

are you always feeding her exactly the same foods and meds, or do you ever change any of it? this might be a detective issue - trying to find things that don't upset her tummy.

punkin had a few episodes of peeing in another room and i finally put another box in there. haven't had any accidents since then.
 
the foods and meds are always the exact same (except dose changes in insulin).
i used to give her occasional treats, but dont anymore. she may rarely steal a tiny bit of one from her brother, but as far as i can remember they dont line up.
if it happens again i will do as suggested here and document what day, what had happened, whatever, to see if there is a pattern. it has only happened a few times total, and only twice recently, so i cant really tell.

do most diabetic cats have softer poops than non diabetic cats?
 
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