lazy cat

Question
my cat is 10 yrs old. she eats purina cat chow. i has recently started having accidents outside the litterbox. otherwise she uses the box under regular circumstances. should i be worried or is it just age.

Answer
Lindsey,

There are two general causes to litter box problems: Medical or Behavioral. At age 10, I would treat her as a geriatric cat.  Is she just pooping outside the box or doing both outside the box?  Is it right near the box or well away? How long has she been doing this?

In the medical case, it could be something as simple as intestinal parasites or impacted anal glands. A visit to the vet may be warranted to check her out.

In the case of behavioral, these are harder to nail down.  It may be that something has changed.  Is there a new addition to the household (2 legged or 4 legged)?  Did the brand or type of litter change?  You may have to do some detective work to discover the cause.

Here is a link to a series of excellent articles on feline litter box problems that might have further suggestions:

http://www.geocities.com/heartland/pointe/9352/litterboxhelp.html

Meanwhile, you will need to clean any mess with an enzyme based cleaner specifically for pet stains and pet odors, available from most pet supermarkets or farm stores.

You may also try getting some Cat Attract (also available from most pet supermarkets) to put in the litter to see if she will use the litter pan more often.

Best regards... Norm.