Expert: Dear Tabbi - 5/15/2009

Question
I have 3 cats, one female and two males, all fixed and healthy. My 9 yr old male has decided he doesn't need to use the litter box all the time. There's a litter box for each cat, always clean. For awhile he pooped just outside the litter box but now he's taken to pooping and peeing all over. I've caught him starting and have picked him up and put him in the litter box but then he refuses to go. I'm going a little bit crazy here, any help would be great. Thanks.

Answer
Tonja,

At 9 years old your cat is approximately 52 years old in human years and at that age things may start going wrong. He may have intestinal or kidney problems. When a cat starts eliminating places other than the litterbox it usually means that the cat has pain when he goes and he associates that pain with the litterbox and he goes elsewhere. You may want to give him a geriatric checkup with a vet that is familiar with geriatric cat care and conditions (not all vets are). He needs the function of his thyroid, kidneys, and liver checked, and also checked for arthritis (which makes it painful to get in and out of a litterbox).

Have you noticed him looking out a specific window? Sometimes his behavior can stem from seeing stray cats outside that stresses him because he can't get to them to defend his territory.

Also some neutered cats that have a strong male mentality, when they get older, react to females in heat in the neighborhood even though they are inside cats.

There are a number of reasons it could be for his behavior, and since I cannot put all the information into this reply, I am including some links to good articles about improper elimination. Please read them. They will have good information that you should find helpful in dealing with your male's behavior.
(copy and paste or type the whole links into your address bar)

http://cats.about.com/cs/behavioralissues/a/outsidebox_two.htm

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

http://www.apbc.org.uk/article10.htm

And also, being prepared and knowledgeable about older cats will make things easier for the cats and for you. For future reference I am including some very good links about elderly cats. (Copy and paste, or type, the whole links into your address bar):

http://www.sniksnak.com/resources/geriatric.html

http://www.messybeast.com/towards-end.htm

http://www.2ndchance.info/oldcat.htm

I hope this answer was helpful.

Tabbi