Cat occasionally pooping outside his box

Hi all,

First time poster here. Over the past few months, my cat has occasionally (and randomly) gone poop under my bed (at least 3x over the past 2-3 months), and just this morning I woke up to find he pooped in my closet. I haven’t found any pee outside his box, so he must be going pee 100% in the box.

I’ve had him for almost a year now and this was never an issue until now. He is the only cat in my household. He was already diagnosed with IBD when I adopted him and was on an expensive prescription diet.

At first, I had his litter box in the bathroom. I noticed he went poop under my bed twice while I was actively using the bathroom, so I took that as he was frustrated he couldn’t go in private when he wanted. I tried moving his box into a small closet where he could access 24/7. Seemed to work well as he stopped pooping outside of his box for over a month until this morning when he did it again. I did more research and saw that a closet might feel too threatening for cats to use as it’s closed off and only offers one way in/out. I live in a small apartment so there aren’t many more options I have for his box placement. For now I’ve decided to try my walk in-closet (where he pooped this morning) where he can access 24/7 and has 2 entry and exit points.

Possible factors:
- I changed his litter recently from clay to corn as he was having breathing issues and sneezing a lot from the clay. I mixed the litters before fully switching.
- I’ve been tapering him off his prescription diet to Purina One Sensitive Stomach. I did this over a week and he absolutely looooves the kibble. His poop at first was loose but it firmed up after about a week of switching. His vet also said before that he could try to come off the prescription diet to see if his IBD was stress-related (from the shelter). I waited almost a year for him to acclimate to his new home to do this.
- I’ve recently become unemployed and spending A LOT of time at home whereas before I was not home for 9 hours a day, 5 days a week. He seems to be more standoffish with me and doesn’t seem as excited to interact with me since this change.
- he overall seems rather lethargic and lazy, he doesn’t like to engage in play at all with any toys I’ve tried. He will swat at a string toy for a few minutes and then disengage.

I genuinely don’t know what the vet would be able to tell me. He’s eating, drinking and pooping/peeing. Is this behavior indicative of something medically wrong? While I’m unemployed I can afford the vet but I am terrified of a massive bill right now. The timing couldn’t be worse…

TLDR; cat randomly poops outside his box, not every time. Pees inside the box. Seems disengaged with me after increasing presence with him.

Age: adult
Country: U.S.
Vet: accessible, haven’t contacted yet, can afford
Cat: 7 years old, male, neutered