Odd Bathroom Behaviour

[Seamus57]

My late wife and I have rescued over 50 stray and abandoned cats finding homes for all of them in the last few years. We have kept 4 of them as home pets. 3 females and one male. They're all neutered/spayed and up on all shots and Vet visits. They've been together over 5 years, they all get along, are very affectionate and all have different playful personalities. I have 4 litter boxes in the basement easily accessible to them and they're cleaned daily. A few years back, the male, Max, got into some string and almost died. He had half of his intestines removed in surgery, appears full recovered and now eats 2-3 small meals a day.

Since then he will not use the litter box but goes on the concrete floor adjacent to the box. I've tried changing litter brands, keeping him separate (clean box theory) from the other cats, even talking to him about this, ~ no improvement. My house is kept very clean and there is absolutely no smell until this happens. Naturally, the smell alerts me requiring instant cleaning and disinfecting. If I'm out for a bit and this happens the house smells requiring instant cleaning/airing and spraying.

I'm at my wits end how to change this.
Any advice would be appreciated
Thank you

[Crewella]

It's just a thought, but is it possible that he experienced pain in the litter boxes when he had his string issues and now associates the litter boxes with that pain? It might be worth trying something that appears very different from a litter box, like a puppy pad in a very shallow tray, or even just on a sheet of plastic, to see if he'll use that instead? If you can tempt him to use that, then maybe you could gradually reintroduce a deeper tray.

[Baggypants]

Perhaps some soil from the garden or from a bag of compost in the litter tray might help?

We had a similiar problem with my childhood cat (Muffin RIP) - he was attacked by a dog and after he recovered he would always mess on a rug - never the tray. THis was over 20 years ago and we didn't know any better back then (I was only a child) and we put it down to him being stubborn but when I think about it today I realise he was doing it for a reason. I wish I'd known this back then as we always told him off about it.

Try not to get upset with him about it but lots of encouragement and try to see if from his angle

[Nigel]

One of my two does this as well, although only for pooping. She is happy to urinate in the tray, but for some reason, she will almost always poop in the bath. Very occasionally I've caught her in the bath, and have put her in the tray, which she then uses (reluctantly).

I've tried a number of things - sadly, none were successful but they might be worth trying if you haven't done so already?

I put a clean litter tray in the bath in the spot she uses, but she just went next to it.
I then put two trays next to each other, but she managed to go in the small gap between them!
I've tried various types of litter - no difference.
I put a bowl of food in the bath, in the hope that she wouldn't go to the toilet near food - but you guessed it, she just went at the other end of the bath.
I've put a few drops of citrus oil in the area she uses, no joy.

I think Crewella is right, in that there was probably something that happened when she was using a tray to make her associate it with discomfort, although I got her from a rescue centre at 4 months old, and don't know her history so can't be sure if this is the case or not.

What happens if you put something in the area he uses to prevent him from going there? They are creatures of habit, so even if he has forgotten the reason for not using the tray, he may just be so used to going on the floor it's natural behaviour.

Another suggestion is to lay down some tin foil on the floor - a lot of cats don't like the sensation of walking on it, so will avoid it.