Litter box problems

koosh ball

My cat is rather ... special. She is an only cat and indoor only. She is a devon rex kitty with some past health issues like herpes in her eye, anxiety, urine crystals and a very touchy belly. We can tell if she's getting ill because she really slows down and gets pretty lethargic.

She started having poop accidents a few days ago which we didn't think too much of because it happens about once a month. Then it happened again.. and again and then today we found pee. She has only peed outside her box maybe 5 times in the 6 years I have had her. 

I am starting to wonder if she has some anxiety issues toward her box and I am wondering what my next steps should be. Here are some of the options I am considering. 1. kitty prozac which we have already 2. a new litter box by the places she keeps going potty 3. ignore the situation and since she did poop in the box tonight 4. combo of 1 and 2.

She saw the vet a month ago and will probably be going there in a week for boarding (plus dental and blood work). I am not against taking her to the vet but she is *not* acting sick like she normally has in the past. She is active, running around, playing and never misses a meal.

Thoughts?

ndolehan

I wouldn't ignore it.

When she goes into the vet in a week, maybe her prozac dose needs to be adjusted and they can give her a "once over" to make sure everything is 100%

The litter box in accident areas is a good idea for now - until a cause is known. 

I would still keep and eye out, you never know - this could be a "new" sign of her getting sick...

koosh ball

Yeah, I shouldn't have said ignore. There is no way I could ignore it. I freak out when there is a hint of possible illness. She's getting older so I am not sure how I am going to handle old cat age.

KatelynS07

I'm sorry to hear she's having problems. What are you feeding her?

 

I would move her vet visit up, and have them check her for a UTI.

I would also look in our FAQs in the green banner of the pets board and read through litter box resources. 

koosh ball

Hm, I didn't really consider litter box smell since we have a cat genie. We might need to look into that more.

breaness

Is it possible that she's turned off by the automatic litter box now?

ndolehan

breaness:

Is it possible that she's turned off by the automatic litter box now?

Oh yes - this is a possibility - if it suddenly made a loud noise or something while she was using it - totally could have freaked kitty out. 

Could you try a "regular" box for a few days?

Kaiene

Have you recently changed litter? Could there be something else stressing her out? If she has another accident, I'd suggest getting her in sooner rather than later just to rule out a UTI. FWIW, when S had a UTI, her only symptom initially was peeing outside the box. Then she became lethargic, and had already begun to get dehydrated.

koosh ball

Easy fix.... for kitty at least. It looks like the littler box wasn't behaving correctly. It wasn't pumping the water out and essentially clogged. My husband spent a large amount of time cleaning out baked cat poop out of the internals of the box. He also found two cat toys. I am sure she thought it was funny to put it in there.