Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hi,

I'm sure this has been asked many times before but I can't find another post that matches my exact situation. We got a new kitten when she was about 10 weeks old. She's now 18 weeks old. She's always used the litter tray with no issues and pooed about twice a day. About 2 weeks ago she started having hard poo which was getting stuck in her bottom. She was clearly in pain/distressed so I took her to the vet. I haven't changed her food/moved the litter tray or had any other change in circumstances and the litter is changed regularly. She has a mixture of Feringa dry and wet food from Zooplus. The vet gave her a brief check over, an enema and some laxative. She also sent me home with some laxative to put in kitten's food until her poo returned to normal. I gave her the laxative for around a week and stopped when her poo was softer for a few days.

Onto the current problem... she's now pooing 1-2 times a day and although her poo is softer, she's pooing outside the litter tray about 50% of the time. It's also coming out in 2/3 pieces. I can't see hair/blood or anything weird in it. I haven't been able to catch her pooing as it's usually overnight but otherwise she eats, plays and drinks from her fountain fine.

What is going on?? Thanks for anyone who is able to help!

My thought would be that it is an association issue, she has learnt to associate the litter tray with pain, and while she knows she should go there, she is reluctant to as she thinks it will hurt her.

There are a couple of things I can suggest to try. The first is a new litter box in a different area, possibly with a different litter in it, I know they say not to change the litter suddenly, but if you can find another one she will use then that might be enough to break the association.

The other one is pureed pumpkin added to her food. it has to be pure pumpkin, either homemade, or a bought one that has no additives, sweeteners etc added to it and add a small amount of that to her wet food, you can even find some cat foods that include pumpkin, I know Applaws do a chicken and pumpkin one, but unfortunately Applaws aren't a complete cat food, but it would be worth it occasionally if you can't get pure pumpkin to supplement her normal food.

Others will hopefully be on with other ideas and possibly other supplements that might help her.