First, learn what normal looks like for her
Litter monitoring only works against a baseline, and every senior cat's baseline is her own. For one settled week, scoop the tray at the same two times each day and simply observe: how many urine clumps appear between scoops and roughly how large they are — walnut, golf ball, larger — how many stools, and what they look like in shape and firmness. Note which tray she prefers if she has more than one, and roughly when she visits. Most adult cats urinate a few times a day and pass stool once or twice, but you are calibrating to her, not to a textbook. Write the baseline down; memory blurs within days.
A scooping routine that doubles as a check
Keep the routine boringly consistent, because consistency is what makes change visible. Use the same litter, filled to a similar depth, in a low-sided tray she can enter without climbing, placed somewhere quiet that you pass often enough to notice use. Scoop morning and evening, counting as you go, and glance at clump size before you bag them — a week of noticeably smaller, more frequent urine clumps tells a different story from fewer, much larger ones. Stools that become hard, dry pellets suggest she is not drinking enough or is struggling to pass them, while persistently loose stools deserve noting with their dates. Refresh litter on a set day so a sudden change in smell does not come from the box itself.
Watching for straining and effort
Numbers alone miss the most important sign: effort. Whenever you happen to be nearby, watch a tray visit without hovering. A comfortable visit is brief and unhurried. Warning behaviour looks different — repeated trips within the hour, a long crouch producing little or nothing, crying or growling in the tray, licking underneath afterwards, or urine appearing outside the box from a cat who cannot wait or cannot posture comfortably. Blood in urine or stool, however small the amount, is always worth a same-day call to your vet. Likewise, a senior cat who strains to urinate and passes nothing needs prompt veterinary attention that day, not observation until tomorrow.
Turn observations into a record the vet can use
Keep a one-line daily entry: number of urine clumps and their trend, stools passed, any straining episode with its time, and anything unusual such as an accident beside the tray. Bring a few weeks of those lines to appointments rather than a summary, because vets read patterns — gradual frequency creep, weekend-only accidents, straining that follows a particular meal — that a spoken summary smooths away. Photographing an abnormal stool once, distasteful as it sounds, can also answer questions quickly at the clinic. If scooping is shared, agree the counting habit as a household so the record does not depend on who was on duty.
Act on the pattern appropriately
A single odd day after a food change or a stressful household event is usually just that; note it and watch the next forty-eight hours. A drift sustained over a week — steadily more trips, steadily smaller clumps, stools drying out — earns a routine vet appointment with your notes in hand. Straining without result, blood, crying in the tray, or a complete stop in urination or appetite skips the queue entirely. Litter trays are, unglamorously, one of the earliest warning systems an old cat has. KinsLe's Pet Passport helps you use it well by keeping your senior cat's litter records together with her other notes in one portable packet for the vet.