Poo everywhere again

[Squirrelsquirrel]

9yr old house cat generally uses her litter tray ok. She's getting more pernickety about how clean it has to be which is fair enough. She occassionally misses which seems to be accidental. We replace the whole tray at least once a day, more if necessary. We scoop poo quickly. We let her do her scratching and burrying thing before we clean up. Basically we try to keep it clean for her.

Meds have meant she poos more and it's very soft and stinks. She's been on them before but they are long term now and she's been on them a few weeks.

Every night for the past week or so, she has smeared poo all over the floor, even though we make sure her litter is clean before bed. It's like it's got stuck and she's rubbed her bum over the floor trying to get it out. as I say it's very soft though so that's not the case. It's definately smeared, not scratched or walked though.

During the day she's fine. She's using her litter, pooing happily, no signs of constipation, excessive licking or discomfort. She's eating and drinking normally. No changes to her environment. She seems fine in herself and playing and fussing normally.

She doesn't do it during the day when we're out so I don't think she's protesting about lack of attention during the night or anything.

She has free range of the house at night and generally ends up sleeping on me. Last night I woke up with her trying to lie down on my head!

I'm just so fed up of cleaning up smeared squidgy poo every morning. I'm also concerned that she has left over poo on her when she's finished smearing the floor and is getting it else-where such as on my head.

Any ideas?

Sorry it's long but I've tried to include everything.

I’d ring the vet - the meds may need changing or dose altering.

We have a similar problem atm - long story so I won’t bore you, but I definitely understand the constant poo issue being very annoying and draining.

Oh that is difficult to deal with.
We had a similar problem last year with our cat. He is a roamer, constantly missing. He picked up a really nasty bug which gave him constant diarrhoea for 5 weeks. It was awful. 7 or 8 complete litter changes every day nearly drove me to breaking point. I felt so sorry for him but it took it's toll.
£600 later after every test imaginable at the vets, it just got better on it's own. It is so stressful. Good luck

@frazzledbutcalm she's been on and off the same meds for years without issues. They've never caused this to happen and I don't think it's them. The only side effects we see is more poo which is really soft but still formed iyswim, and absolutely stinks!

We've tried a couple of other meds at various times but they have caused her serious issues like seizures and constant vomitting or aren't suitable for long term use.

I hope you get sorted soon.

@Clarich007 poor thing and poor you. It seems the more you spend at the vets, the quicker it resolves by itself!

Luckily it's not diarrhoea and we can just scoop up the poo most of the time rather than having change it all everytime.

I don't think it's a bug because she only does at night. I'm thinking it is a behavioural thing?

I very much doubt a behaviour thing.

Our kitten is 9 months old, similar to @Clarich007 he’s had £1400 of tests and we’re not much further forward. He’s had diarrhoea (ranging from water to gloop) for 6 weeks now. He’s always been on a very good hypoallergenic food, the vet thinks he’s suddenly developed an intolerance to it

Sometimes things can change for no apparent reason. Maybe the condition he takes the meds for has changed/progressed?

Back to the vets

It's not diarrhoea and the smearing literally only happens at night.

The rest of the time she's absolutely fine with normal toilet habits.

If it was a bug or something physically wrong with her, wouldn't it be the same regardless of the time of day/night?

My little boy is not the same all the time. He can have days of no smearing, days where there’s some on the floor, sometimes he’s stood in it while trying to cover it and there’s then paw prints on the floor, sometimes he scoots along the floor as though his bum is itchy. It’s not the same all the time.

Also, maybe through the day it’s not a problem because you’re there to remove it quickly, whereas at night she’s trying to do it herself and it may be just too much for her now - either pain wise, mobility wise or just the consistency of the poo or what may be on her bottom?

Is she long hair or maybe just lots of hair around her bum ?
Before cat ownership , I'd never think I would be taking a pair of nail scissors to cut hair from a cats bumhole but I do !

Do you have two litter trays? She might need another since her poo slave is sleeping and not cleaning. Worth trying since trays aren't that expensive. Otherwise ask your vet.