Litter box issues - about to have a baby and desperate!
We are completely at our wits end with our cat, Crush. I adopted him back in 2018 so we don’t know exactly how old he is, but speculate he’s around 9. Ever since about 3-4 years ago, he’s started occasionally pooping outside his box, in random but inconvenient spots, like in my husbands shoes in his closet, our bath mat, our dog’s bed. He’s even pooped on our bed before. He usually does his damage when we take our dog on a walk, never in front of us. We’ve just lived with it and tried little changes like different litter, litter box locations, more or bigger boxes etc. but nothing ever worked.
Fast forward to this year, we just moved into a new house which is a new build AND we are welcoming our first baby in just 2 weeks. He has gotten so much worse in the last few weeks and at this point is pooping every day (or every other day) and now peeing downstairs every week or so. He sometimes pees in his litter box, but very rarely will he poop. He always chooses a soft spot to poop like our bath mats, carpets, dog beds. So we put little bath mats around his box area upstairs in the guest bedroom which worked for a little while (even though still not ideal) but in the last few weeks he has gotten so much worse. Not only is our brand new house getting destroyed, I just can’t live with the fact that I’m about to welcome a baby and still dealing with these poop and pee surprises that completely make me want to lose my mind.
Yes, we have been to the vet about 5 times now. His culture came back as nothing bacterial so they ruled out UTI. We have him on a prescription GI cat food. Now we are starting him on cat Prozac.
I am losing my mind!!! 38 weeks pregnant I cant deal with it anymore. And I know postpartum it will make me spiral even more. I just know he is going to target the baby stuff like his play mats and blankets. My mental health cannot take it at this point and we are desperate. I’m trying to be optimistic that the Prozac will help, but being 2 weeks away (if not earlier) from labor I just can’t not think about it and would do or pay anything to fix this issue. I love this cat so much but these issues are making me resent him and feel so guilty for having the thoughts I’m having.
Has anyone had any similar experience with behavioral cat litter box issues? Any other advice to pair the Prozac? I think he is acting out worse because he knows this baby is coming. Any words of comfort or reassurance that this can be the solution is greatly appreciated 🙏