Cat stopped using litter tray

[dragonballz]

My male tabby turned 1 last week. 2 days ago he (maybe) had some diarrhoea which ended up getting caught in his long hair and was very disgusting all around. Managed to sink wash his bum and cut off all the dried poo etc. This happened twice.

Fast forward to this morning, kept him downstairs in case he had a dirty poo again to stop him trailing it around the house. Watched him on his cat cam, wake up, jump down from his tree bed and immediately crouch down for a poo next to the dining table and then weed. Didn't even attempt to go near his litter tray at all.

Does anyone have any advice?

Clean the area he's chosen to use really thoroughly. If there's any odour left, he'll carryon going there. My cat refuses to poo in her litter tray and I've given up trying to stop her, (its been years!). She also pees on the floor if her tray isn't in exactly the right spot. Put your cats litter tray on the spot that he's chosen to use and see if that helps. Have you tried using a different type of litter and tray? Maybe a low edged tray? It's all trial and error, I'm afraid.

Is he ill? I’d vet him because cats aren’t like this usually

Thanks. He was ill. A few hours after that he kept going to the litter tray and not doing anything. Then he had blood in his urine. Turned out he'd had a kind of spasm in his bladder, very thankful it wasn't a full on blockage. Sent away with meds rather than having to operate!

We changed to natusan and the cat seemed to prefer it and stopped going all over the floor.

Oh I’m glad it’s sorted. Poor boy was showing you something was wrong.

How is he now?.

On a whole concoction of tablets and meds but thankfully so much better!

Vet has said something may have freaked him out of stressed him out Re his litter tray. We've only ever had one so got him another litter tray for upstairs, a lot more feliway in the house and some more toys. Hopefully that should sort it.

Vet also said it's quite common in male neutered indoor cats and probably will happen again!