Penny's arthritis and litter box height

Penny is 10 now and the arthritis is really kicking in. She used to be fine with our standard boxes but now she hesitates at the edge.

I wrote up the vet visit and history in this thread: Penny's vet visit results and arthritis management. Basically, the doc said it's degenerative and we need to make things easier for her.

What modifications actually help? We are looking at low entry boxes but not sure if that is enough.

yo @tigersdad i think the issue is the sides being too high. my cat duke is 3 so not arthritis but he hates jumping in deep boxes. for penny you gotta get something with low sides. like 2 inches max.

also check out this thread on Non-slip mats for litter boxes. if she is slipping when she steps in that makes it worse. a rubber mat inside the box helps a lot.

Oh my goodness, I am so sorry about Penny! That is so stressful for them when they can't get in comfortably.

I actually built a ramp for my boy Felix because he likes high places! You can see the instructions here: Building a ramp for litter box access. It might be overkill for a low box, but if you keep the high box, a ramp makes a huge difference. Felix loves it!!

Keep it simple. My barn cats are older and I use open trays on the floor. No sides at all. If she is having trouble with the entry, remove the entry entirely.

Also, look at Accessible litter boxes for senior cats. Beth B96 has good notes on which plastic types are easy to clean but not too slippery. Don't forget to keep the litter depth shallow so she doesn't have to dig too much.