Always missing the litter tray

[Juanbablo]

We have a 14 year old cat who is in good health. However, he nearly always misses the litter tray and wees on the floor next to it these days. He doesn't go out very much anymore so is using the litter tray much more than he used to. It is cleaned and refilled very promptly after use. And he is trying to use it but missing. Is it because he's getting older? Does he hate me? He eats and drinks well and is still active and able.

Is he in the tray and weeing outside it cos of bad aim or actually squatting and weeing next to the tray?

My dcat is similar age. He occasionally sits in the tray but manages to wee/poop out of the tray. I say occasionally but it’s at least 3 times a week. I’ve assumed he can’t gauge the tray as well as he used to

I have an old cat 20, that does this, I bought a high sided corner litter tray and this solved the problem.

If he's sitting in the tray and weeing outside the tray, these high sided trays are fab (you can remove the lid and flaps if needed) as there are no joins or seams to get mucky:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Top-Entry-Cat-Litter-Box-Kitten-Litter-Tray-Easy-Clean-Cats-Loo-Enclosed-Hooded-/313176391626?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

We need more info on exactly what he is doing when he misses. Is he inside the tray but not entirely? Does he not bother trying to get in the tray? What sort of tray is it? Big? High? covered?

It's a shallow tray, standard size. There is some wee in the tray and some outside of the tray. I haven't ever seen him do it though so can't say for sure what he's doing. A high sided tray sounds like a good option.

At his age he might be a bit arthritic which makes it harder for him to get in an optimum weeing pose. Worth asking the vet and trying pain relief if it is.

I have put my normal "standard" tray inside a large gardening tray that is used to put pots in and then filled with water. If I did not do this, my kitchen floor would be covered in cat litter all the time. It works well.

You can get waterproof mats to go under the litter trays.

A seamless high sided tray is a lot less faff than extra trays and mats!

I've ordered a higher sided tray. I don't know about arthritic, he scales the tree opposite our house in 0.5 seconds flat and lives on top of our tall fridge which he doesn't have problems getting on or off. Maybe he is arthritic, but he seems ok to me. Thank you everyone for the help and advice!

You could always put puppy training pads next to the tray. But I would try with a higher sided tray first. Or maybe a ginormous covered tray (without the flap).

Puppy pads is a great idea. I have some in the cupboard hanging around from when we got our dog. Knew there was a reason I had hung onto them for so long!!

Our cat is 17 but has been missing the tray forever. We bought the biggest tray we could find recently as we thought she was having trouble getting into position due to her age but she still favours the corner of it.