Cat poo/pee outside the box?

A friend of mine who runs a rescue passed this story along to me, thought I'd post it here in case it could help someone else!

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By now everyone knows about UTI's and crystals causing a cat to go outside the box. Well, I've had a cat in foster care for four years (you'll see why no one wants to adopt her in a second - hang with me on this long post, though, because you might learn something new).

Fanny has NEVER pooped in the box. And quite often, she pees outside the box, which is the worst of it. Yes, she had crystals at one point. She has been on C/D for years for this and it still happens. She also has interstitial cystitis, which causes irritation in the bladder. This is aggravated by stress, and she happens to be a very cranky kitty. So we tried treating with psych drugs as well. She's never liked to be touched for more than a few pets and she doesn't like other cats. She even had to be sedated to be seen by a vet. To add insult to injury, this poor girl developed a limp from something going on in her elbow. I was at the point of crying, literally, because I thought this cat was miserable. She's been to several different vets.

FINALLY one vet put all this together and decided that she has IC AND Irritable Bowel (even though there's no diarrhea - she's actually constipated quite often). I had her in for a full work-up 2 or 3 weeks ago. He gave her some sort of anti-inflammatory injection.

Within an hour she was a completely different cat. All of a sudden she was vocal, she was asking for attention, she wanted to be held, and she wasn't as cranky with the other cats. Not only that, but SHE USED THE BOX TO POOP AND PEE. The vet told me to call him on the day that the injection wore off. It was pretty clear. I found poop under my wardrobe and when I walked into the kitchen for a cup of coffee, she was peeing in my sink. So I called. He decided to try something called Vet-A-Log for the inflammation in her bladder and the irritable bowel (it also works on her leg). So we immediately started this pill once a day (she used to be impossible to give a pill to, by the way). I have not had to clean up pee or poop out of the box since then!

So - even when there is no infection and you think you have the crystals under control, if you still have problems, you might want to consider that something else could be going on that is causing inflammation and irritation and talk to your vet about an anti-inflammatory. It has changed my life, and this cat's life.