Toileting and Medical Problems

A cat may refuse to use its litter tray and toilet elsewhere for a variety of reasons, some minor, other potentially serious. The location of the tray or the texture of the litter may be at fault.

You may not be cleaning the tray often enough, or you may be cleaning it so fastidiously that you leave cleanser smells in it rather than natural ones. A cat may avoid a litter tray used by another household cat. Loss of litter training may also be a sign of medical problems.

Your cat may associate pain when defecating, for example from blocked anal sacs, with its litter tray, and continue to urinate in the box but defecate outside it. Similarly, pain on urinating may induce a cat to urinate elsewhere while continuing to defecate in the box.

Painful urinating is caused by crystal formation in the urine, a bladder or urethra infection (bacterial cystitis) or even emotion (interstitial cystitis). Affected cats often urinate in unusual locations such as sinks or bathtubs. Your veterinarian will need a urine sample to help determine the cause of the problem.

One of the little-recognized problems of living indoors is the tendency for a cat to become overweight. The reason is obvious: excess calories being eaten in the form of tasty food, without the chance of regular exercise to burn them off.

Indoor cats are liable to become slovenly, or even slothful, so watch weight and calories. There is a direct relationship between being underactive and overweight, and serious urinary tract conditions.