Old cats not using litterbox

Question
Dear Karen,
I'm hoping you may be able to help me with the problems I have with my two housecats.
I have two Domestic shorthair kitties, one is a 12 year old male (Buster) and the other cat is a 9 year old female named (Chocky) they are both of course fixed and all.

The problem I've been having for many weeks now is Buster is just not using the litterbox much at all anymore. I have to clean up after him everyday, both poop and pee. What he does is he goes just a couple feet away from the litterbox itself. It could be on barefloor or on the hallway mat. He acts like he doesn't know how to use the litterbox anymore. I don't think Chocky does this as much unless she does it when nobody is around. I definitely know buster does it because we catch him in the act all the time. Remember, Buster has done this for weeks upon weeks.

Now we clean the litterbox every morning and sprinkle a new layer of kitty litter over the old also. When we clean the litterbox out there is hardly anything in it to scoop out...I'm guessing cause they might be just doing it all in the floor (gross!)

But what I'm just hoping to find out is why are they not using the litterbox? They'll go right in front of it or a few feet away. This has becoming a very big problem that we don't know if we can deal with too much longer.

Have you ever dealt with this before? Is it due to the cats being so old? Are they forgetting how to use the litterbox?

Thank you so much for helping!
I can't wait to hear from you,
Beatrice~

Answer
Hi Beatrice,

I get lots of litterbox questions. I should be able to help you. Cat's don't just stop using the litterbox for no reason. Sometimes, as cats get older, they develop arthritis just like us. You can try a quick and easy fix and see if this works. Get a very low step litterbox and go to a soft cedar or wheat type of litter. Clean the area he has been using with an enzyme type cleaner to remove all odors. If he does have arthritis it's hard for him, to climb into the box. The soft litter is easy for him to dig in. Try this and let me know what happens. If this doesn't work I'll give you some other ideas to try. Chocky should also start using the box again once you get the odors eliminated. Good luck.

Ciao, Karen