Inappropriate Elimination by My Cat

askOur question this week was:

I have a 12-year-old cat who has always been an indoor outdoor girl. As of the past year she has been stooling outside the litter box almost exclusively. This behavior is so uncharacteristic of her I am perplexed. Her health is good, there have been no changes in her household nor have I changed food or litter brand. I have experimented with other litters to ascertain if that might be the problem…no luck. Any thoughts?

thanks,

Debra

Answer

Hi – thanks for your email Debra. Sorry to hear about that. Cats can stop using the litterbox for both behavioral or medical reasons. Some common reasons that Dr. Nicholas Dodman, a wonderful behaviorist wrote for us, about common reasons that cats avoid the litter box which include: