cat defecates everywhere

by Tiffany
(NJ)

My 12 year old male cat has never gone number 2 outside of his litter box until recently and the places he goes seems to be the places where he lays the most. He has covered the perimeter of the house (inside of course) pretty much as well as each of his pop-up pet houses/toys with out ever going in a spot where he already has and has been cleaned up. He was diagnosed with diabetes and has been on insulin for about 3 months now but this just started happening about a month ago. I have noticed that his hind legs seem very weak sometimes - he has always had a slight problem with walking funny with his hind legs. I?m not sure if he is just losing his bowels because of some health problem like forgetting where to go or losing control or if he just does not want to go in a litter box he has already gone in. I scoop the litter box twice a day and each time there is always some in there, but he never had a problem like this in the past 12 years where he wouldn?t go in a litter box that he already went in.

Answer by Kate
Hi well it is difficult to say for sure as yes it could have something to do with a weakness in his hind quarters but I would have thought that if this was the case that it would be more random and would leak from him whilst walking etc and not placed in deliberate spots.

My guess would be that it may be caused by a little anxiety. he may feel slightly unwell due to his recent diagnosis or the medicine may be making him feel a little odd. it may even be that recent changes have affected how he feels. Insecurity is a common cause of this behaviour.

it is form of scent marking which is used to help make the cat feel better about his environment and make him feel more secure. if the house smells strongly of him then everything must be Ok sort of scenario.

The behaviour is known as Middening and is used in many situations by a cat. I have a web page about the problem which also contains some information about how to try and help them overcome this need to scent.

here is the page

https://our-happy-cat.com/cat-poo.html

best wishes kate

---