my nearly 9 year old cat has started pooing/weeing in our bathroom. Why???

[2T2T]

and what should i do? He has access to a cat flap (always has done) and the bathroom door is not shut at night with him in it. He has free run of house day and night. He is usually such a dignified cat!

[pinkytheshrinky]

My old dear and departed cat did this and turned out she had a urine infection... I think maybe she was just trying to draw attention to it?

Maybe you have pissed him off and it is a dirty protest???

[Beamur]

I don't have the answer, but I'm curious to see if anyone does.
A friend of mine had a mature cat that did this occasionally, but it escalated when she had kids - the cat started pooing in the bedrooms too and she thought it was because of the baby.
Has anything happened to unsettle your cat?

[2T2T]

pinky - don't think I have pissed him off but he is a miserable old bugger! Beamur - not had any changes recently. Certainly nothing the cat would know about anyway . Hope I get some advice soon - he doesn't half whiff!!!

[CallMeSusan]

Could there be a new neighbourhood cat bullying him if he goes out? Is he going out at all? If he is going out and then coming back in to wee in the bathroom then that is strange, but I don't know what to suggest! You'll have to get a litter tray though if he has stopped going out altogether. My old cat occasionally wees on the bathroom floor or even in the bath. I think in his case it's because I don't have a cat flap and if my other cat has even been anywhere near the litter tray he refuses to use it. They are mysterious creatures!

[gymbunnynot]

One of our cats started to do this when her kidneys started to fail, she was 9 too. Vets, quick. If you catch it quickly enough it will be ok.

[larakitten]

Our cat does this, she has idiopathic cystitis and even insured, she's costing me a bloody fortune.......She also did it when she had cholangiohepatitis which is a liver and bile duct problem.

Vets quickly, I would say, just to be on the safe side.

[2T2T]

oh no! I hope he is not ill . He is so clean usually, always has been. it is wee and poo though. Could it still be a kidney or cystitis problem? I wil take him to vest tomorrow for sure. His poo isn't runny or anything just in the wrong place! I think he has been sick too, on teh back door mat. it could jsut be that he has carted his cat food out of the bowl (he sometiems does that) I cannot tell. He's not 9 until august so still a middle aged moggy really. I hope he's not ill

[2T2T]

gymbummynot - was your cat OK? Even with kidney failure?

[gymbunnynot]

Sadly, no, it had gone too far, which still breaks my heart. Hoever it did mean that I knew the signs when it started with her brother and he is doing really well.

[CroissantNeuf]

Our elderly cat occasionally poos or wees on the bath mat in the bathroom.

No idea why she does it and there was nothing that had changed that I could identify before it happened for the first time.

Initially, because it was only one particular mat, I thought it was because she didn't like it or because it was one with long tufty looped bits so was a bit like grass.

She has a litter tray as well as she rarely goes out.

Touch wood, its not happened for a while but I have trained the DC to hang up the mat when they get out of the bath or shower.

[2T2T]

Ta for responses. He didn;t do it last night. I kept the bathroomdoor shut tight so he couldn't get in and he didn't do it anywhere else either (not that I have found so far anyway!) Maybe it was jut a one off. He certainly seems fine in himself so am hoping it was just a blip.

[gymbunnynot]

Thats good news 2T2T