Cat Suddenly Stops Using Litter Box

A lot of my posts have been about dogs, so today, I want to talk about a couple of cat clients of mine. I won’t mention the owners’ last name for confidentiality purposes.

Kira lives, along with her “sister” Samantha, with their pet parents, Susan and Tony. Kira is a small, beautiful, friendly Manx.

Samantha is larger and gorgeous with long white hair and brown spots. We have taken care of the two of them several times. Their litter is kept in two boxes in an upstairs bathroom. They eat separately downstairs in the kitchen. All had been going well. When Susan called for a booking date in late October she mentioned that Kira had been having “accidents” in the living room, downstairs. She couldn’t understand it because Kira has always been so well behaved.

I suggested she have her vet check Kira to be sure there were no health issues. She came back with a clean bill of health. During the Thanksgiving visits, Kira, indeed, did indeed leave several “gifts” (both urine and excrement) in the living room.

Samantha usually makes herself scarce when we come in to feed them and clean the litter boxes. During these visits, she did not show her beautiful fluffy face, but we did not think too much of it. She usually hides under the bed in the master bedroom. Then, we realized that Samantha had not been coming downstairs to eat. We began taking her food and water upstairs for her.

It occurred to me then that “the girls” were having some kind of spat. I thought that Kira was not going upstairs and Samantha was not coming downstairs. They had gotten along for years, but for some reason seemed to be having a problem now. I mentioned this to Susan and Tony upon their return and suggested they leave a litter box downstairs for Kira for a few days to see if that helped the situation.

When we visited again in late December, Susan reported that placing the extra litter box downstairs seemed to work. Kira had not had any more accidents in the living room. And we saw no signs of wavering during that entire two-week visit.

I checked with Susan to get her permission to write this story and here is how she responded:

“Hi, Andee. I still use it.  They both seem to love it downstairs–especially Kira. I take it out and put it in the entry area of the living room when we go to bed and leave it out in the early am until after they are fed.  Kira will sometimes use it after she eats.  Once she uses it in the am I clean it and put it back in the garage.

She has had 2 “accidents” (only poop not urine) since I started using it in as per your suggestion back in late October.  My house doesn’t work to keep a downstairs one all the time but this is fine with us.

Thanks for the advice and yes write about it as it might help someone else.”