Nobody warns you about this part of pet parenting: you will spend a surprising amount of time looking at poop. Good news, it is one of the best daily clues you get about how your pet is doing. Here is what you are looking at, and when it is worth a call to your vet.
Vets describe firmness on a scale from 1 (very hard) to 7 (watery). Most healthy pets sit at 2 or 3. In a University of Bristol study of pet cats, about half of all samples scored a 2, and only one in ten was loose.
Hard little pellets that crumble, and often a struggle to pass.
For a cat, straining in the litter box with nothing coming out is different: that is a vet straight away. Read more
Holds its shape and comes up clean off the grass. This is the one you are hoping for.
Holds together but leaves a faint mark where it sat. Still perfectly normal.
Moist, sags when you pick it up, and leaves some behind. If it is a one-off, just watch the next few.
Moist heaps that only just keep a shape.
Sooner if there is pain, blood, a bad smell or straining. Read more
Has some texture but spreads out where it lands.
Sooner if there is pain, blood, a bad smell or straining. Read more
Liquid, with no texture at all.
If there is blood in it, go straight away. Read more
These matter more than firmness. Any one of them changes the advice, even on a perfectly formed poop.
Thick, sticky and black, like tar. Not to be confused with dark brown.
Blood in loose or watery poop is urgent. A streak of red on an otherwise firm poop is less so, but your vet should still hear about it.
A shiny, jelly-like coating. It can come with an irritated large intestine.
Thin wriggly strands, or small white bits that look like grains of rice. Very treatable once your vet knows.
String, plastic, fabric, bits of a toy. What came out is fine; the worry is what might still be inside.
If they also seem to have belly pain, are vomiting or have stopped eating, that can mean a blockage: go straight away. Read more
Cats keep their business private, so the litter box is where you notice things.
Send Boop a photo of the poop in the app and it tells you roughly where it sits on the scale, points out any warning signs, and gives you the same advice as this page. Tap Log it and Boop keeps track, so it can spot a pattern you might miss, like loose poop that has gone on for more than a day.
Two honest caveats. A photo is not a sample: lighting and angle change how things look. And scoring is a little subjective even for professionals. When Ohio State University tested this scale, vets did not always give the same poop the same number, and owners agreed with vets less often still. So Boop says "about a 3" and leads with words, not a precise number.
Boop is not a vet, and this page is not a diagnosis. You know your pet best. If they seem really unwell, whatever the poop looks like, call your vet.
The advice on this page, and in the app, follows these veterinary and university sources. We link to them rather than copy them, so you can read them in full.