What does my veterinarian need to know about my cat's behavior?

We want to know if things are normal—if the cat's behavior, schedule, and everything are all the same, there are no changes. If the cat is coming in for a problem, we want to know what has changed and if any environmental changes have occurred, such as changes in the litter, diet, people moving in or out of the house, or other animals coming into the house. Many of those changes can cause behavior problems in cats.

Well, what's your cat doing? That's gonna be the first question. Let us embark on a journey here in which the litter box issue is the behavior because that's the primary one that I have to deal with. Litter box behavior can be essentially reduced to does it occur in nature? So, unscented cat litter is key. An uncovered cat litter box is key. A clean litter box is key. And I can refer all of those things to nature for you in this way. Scented cat litter or scented sand boxes or scented dirt doesn't occur in nature. Cats don't go into caves to go to the bathroom because who wants to use a Johnny on the spot for the rest of their lives? And who wants to keep going back to the same filthy rancid place over and over and over again? So, if your cat is doing inappropriate urination or defecation, chances are you're missing one of those three factors.

When we're evaluating the behavior, we want to know what frequency of that behavior is occurring, what situation or context that behavior is occurring in, the time of day that it may occur, because your schedule and all may influence those things, and many other factors. So it's really important for us when we see the problem behavior to really investigate things such as where they're expressing this behavior, how often they're expressing the behavior, what the situation that is occurring during that time, and also if you have tried to change the behavior, what kind of responses have you seen? Those will all be very helpful in evaluating your cat's behavior.