Peeing in litter box, pooping elsewhere

Question
I have an around 11 year old female, indoor, unspayed, cat.  For the past year, she has been peeing inside her litter box, and pooping on the floor in the living room.  It started for no apparent reason.  We do have another cat, but it started before he was in the picture.  We set up a separate litter box for her, and for about 4 months, that worked.  Recently, it started again.  There have been absolutely no changes in our household.  We keep both litter boxes clean.  When she poops, we clean the area very good, but she still goes back.  Do you think this has something to do with her age?  What can I do?  This is an extreme problem.  Thank you!!!

Answer
Hi Tammy and thanks for asking about your older cat!

I have to say that we had a rag-doll cat that began to do this very thing!  Perplexed, we took "Deuce" to the Vet who suggested a stool softners... thinking it may be from hair balls hurting the cat too much to sit and do it in the litter box.  We tried that to no avail.  Then the Vet suggested we get the cat shaved (as Deuce was an indoor only cat with longer hair).  We did this and poor thing looked SO pitiful I regreted it but...  Worse, the cat STILL had the problem.  We moved shortly after and had a new vet which took a look and listened to our woes.  Finally!  After 1 quick x-ray we all understood on our cat what happened.  Our cat had jumped off a high spot in our house once and literally threw out a bone near the end of his spine (and tail) which was causing the problem only in his pushing part : -)  The vet massaged the calcium deposit that had built up and TA-DA - for the rest of his life we were all back to normal.

Sorry for the long story, but my point is you should take her to your vet for a very good, and thorough check up.  Something is going on inside and you may need to go through several steps to see what will help her feel better about pushing IN her box.

Also, one of the best products I've found for getting rid of old or new "smell" spots is called PetZyme.  I've never found anything else that can "eat" the bacteria that lingers in our carpets, or pad like this.  I found it at our local PetCo and think PetSmart may carry it too.

Good luck to you and your sweet babies and Thanks!

Debbie