Not really sure where to put this... its a bad behavior I guess!

Weve just finished our garden and opened it up to the Dog. She is loving it... mainly because our neighbors have 6 cats!

The cats are poo-ing everywhere! Its horrendous! It stinks the house out on a hot day! :(

The problem is the dog is eating it! The cats are in really poor condition, most as skinny as rakes, flaking skin and losing fur (Ill let you imagine why... *rolls eyes*), their poo is HUGE - probably because they are fed on ASDAs own brand cat food.

She doesnt touch her own poo or other dogs poo. Just the cat poo! These cats arnt wormed or treated for fleas (I am regularly checking my dog for worms and treat for fleas for fear she will catch what ever these cats have!). The houses around us all have dogs so they must think mine is the easiest litter box.

How can I stop her? I thought that after a couple of weeks the cats would just be too scared to come into the garden after they realize the dog now has full run of it - but they havnt! They poo in there at night and when I pop out and leave the dog in the house. The dog goes out and eats it then spreads it around the house and her breath and saliva is constantly stinking of it! Im having to wash her face every 5 minutes just to keep the smell away :( I cant keep supervising her in the garden and calling her away from it, she wouldnt get much zoomy time in the garden otherwise.

Has anyone else had this problem? I cant use any of the cat scaring products because the dog has to use the garden too - unless there is a cat but not dog deterrent? But fear that she is going to catch something nasty from them.

Cats digestion seems to be quite poor, or the food they are fed goes through them, so for most dogs cat poo is canine caviar, or from litterboxes, kittie crunchies.

All you can really do is keep your dogs well wormed and treated for fleas when needed, and supervise.  We get Fox poo in our garden too.

My garden is segregated into dog and non dog areas and you guessed it the non dog area is cat heaven.  I think the cats enjoy winding the dogs up.

We have just taken over the left hand boundary and are totally re-fencing it, and thought it might be nice to allow the dogs in the rest of the garden, but under supervision, but knowing how keen they are on cat poo when visiting a friends garden with cats, don't think I will.

How annoying! The cats shouldn't even be out to start with of course. If they are in such bad condition, maybe it's time to report the owners to the RSPCA? The only other thing you can really do is stand vigil and squirt the cats with water when you see them enter the garden (or even flea spray!! That's something cats hate!), and hope that eventually they will all be put off.

>How annoying! The cats shouldn't even be out to start with of course.

?Cats are allowed to run free? I do feel sorry for cats who arent allowed out as it must affect their quality of life. After all they arent walked like dogs are so very little stimulation. I imagine very much the equivalent of rabbits stuck in hutches all day. Very sad

It's perfectly possible and very responsible to fence a garden so that your cats can't jump out. That way they have the freedom to be outside and yet don't cause a nuisance or risk becoming roadkill.

We had the same problem,  but with a tiny garden 15' sq,  we just patio'd it.   There are borders,  but they are planted.   And there are fewer cats now too.  But at the time it was all we could do.

These days,  we might have tried a Water Sprinkler Motion Sensor

Looks just the ticket!

Depending on how involved you want to get, you could put milk out for them.

When I was a child, our neighbour's cat would always mess in my father's veg patch. We started putting out a saucer of diluted milk and soon the cat stopped messing and would on occasion come and help my dad dig instead. I don't know a lot about cats but many think of places where they get food as 2nd or 3rd homes and tend not to mess there.

Poo is poo no matter who produced it, be it cat, dog, horse, rabbit, guinea pig and god forbid even human, a dog will eat it or at least over the years my varied bunch have all had a nibble.

My current cat suffers with hyperthyroidism and so produces regular small twiglets that my dogs find delightful if they can get anywhere near her litter box for the cat crunchie as Brainless calls them, or if they catch her in the garden they're on the result like hawks.

I just keep well up to date with worming and also watch the cat like a hawk myself to try and get there first.

Not nice but only natural I believe.

Worse than the dogs eating it,  we found it was almost impossible to find all of it and pick it up.

Makes for interesting missiles when strimming a small plot

Nothing worse than being hit in the ear by flying cat poo!    :-(

I do feel sorry for cats who arent allowed out as it must affect their quality of life. After all they arent walked like dogs are so very little stimulation.

Yes poor cats, no chance to get run over or be attacked by dogs or catch FIV from other cats, or anything similar.... PROPER cat owners either cat proof the entire garden or build a safe outdoor run. Just like proper dog owners walk their dogs rather than just allow them out to roam free on their own -which many still do.

It seems to be the overall consensus that there isn't really anything you can do to keep them away! Haha! I can tell they have horrendous digestion, they poo in my front garden too (not fenced for the dog) - and its often riddled with maggots by the time I go to pick it up because the food hasn't stopped on its way through!

I think we are on the same page regarding cats Goldmali, they are in such poor condition! They have a dog too - but its ridiculously over weight which is so sad to see in a cocker type that would otherwise be a barrel of fun! Maybe Im just being too nice?

The fact that cats can run free, do what they like and even in court of law cant really be responsible for anything really grinds my gears. I used to have a show cat and she was kept indoors and loved it. I would beg to differ that they should really be allowed out doors. Like you say they can become roadkill, taken by anyone, poisoned... the lot!

Jeangenie I wish they would put up a fence, but as they cant afford cat wormer and decent food a fence is probably pushing it. Which leaves me to wonder - should they have cats at all? I think we'll just have to put a massive fence up between us and cat garden... the owners like to throw their rubbish over too :(

The sad thing is I used to be a massive cat lover! But these are really putting me off. Im going to be garden supervising with a water spray in hand now!

Go out, collect it all in a bucket and dump it on their doorstep. Do that a few times and they might do something about it!.

I have a confession to make !
I have owned cats in the past and my, then, next door neighbour had a cat which caused no problems. Then they got 2 kittens and I suddenly found stinking cat poo all over my front lawn and in the flower bed. I tried putting orange peel down with no luck.
The final straw came when, on the way out to the car on the school run, my youngest stood in poo on the lawn then got in the car without realising.
I was so mad that I shovelled all the cat poo up and chucked it on their front lawn close to their front door.
I am not sure how long after it was but their house went up for sale and they took their stinking cats with them.
Result !

I literally WANT to do this! But Im a wimp :P Recently my mum helped with the garden - she is so gutsy, she just picked up all the bush cuttings they had chucked into our garden and threw them back. I clearly didn't inherit her guts ;)

I pick it up in my poo bags and want to just lob it over the wall. But guess Id have to do it out of poo bags. I feel you pain re the car... This is what gets me the most, I can walk in my own dogs poo and its small hard and crumbles with no smell: WIN! But if I walk in cat poo it comes all over the house with me :(

I used to fling cat poo back into my neighbours garden - not an ounce of guilt about it!. They didn't have children so I wasn't putting them at risk. It was my cousin who had so much she collected it all in a bucket and dumped it on her neighbours doorstep. She had two young children at the time but her own garden was becoming a no go area for them.

My cat poo's in my neighbours garden, my neighbours cats poo in my garden, we share cat poo.

My cat is 17yrs, she has always been an in at night out in the day girl depending on the weather as have all of my previous 8 cats.
If I should ever get anymore they will be the same.