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| Saturday, August 06, 2005 | |
Have you ever had this happen? You’re a happy cat owner, your kitty is using the box just fine, but one day…you come home and find a giant urine spot in the living room…the bathroom…heaven forbid – on your bed!
What happened? What went wrong? It isn’t normal for a cat to use her litter box faithfully, then one day decide it’s no longer right for her. There’s always a reason why a cat stops using the litter box.
Always.
If this happens to you, don’t panic! The earlier you realize kitty isn’t using her box, the earlier you can stop this problem cold. By careful investigation, you can figure out what’s going on, and how to get kitty to use her litter box again.
Let’s examine 5 common causes that could affect kitty, and the solutions for each.
Medical condition:
Your kitty suddenly stops using the litter box because she’s developed a medical condition. It is most likely crystals in her urine, which form in the bladder, and make urination extremely painful. Kitty associates the urination pain with her litter box, so she continually tries to find a spot in the house that isn’t painful – to her!
The solution – get kitty to the vet as quickly as possible. A course of medication can clear the crystal problem in the short term. A permanent solution is to change your cat’s diet to canned food. Be sure to consult with your vet on large-scale diet changes for your cat.
New house or residence:
You moved to another location. It’s fine by you…but kitty is stressed out by the move. A week or two after moving in and unpacking boxes, you start finding “accidents” in the new digs.
To solve this problem, you will need to confine your cat to one room, and retrain her to use the litter box. She’s most likely stressed out by the new house or apartment. Set up a room with her food, water, litter box, and toys. Shrink her new world down to a manageable size, and start over with litter training. As she demonstrates her willingness to use the litter box again, bring her out, under supervision, and watch her. After a week or so, your cat should be better acclimated to the new residence, and use her litter box again.
Change to a different cat litter brand:
Cats can be fussy creatures. You change to a different brand of litter because it’s cheaper, it hides the smell better, or it’s simply more available. Kitty tells you she hates her new litter by the most obvious method – she stops using it!
Switch back to the old brand you were using. Assuming kitty liked that, the problem should be solved. If not, try Cat Attract brand litter. It has a unique blend of herbs and clay, and it really does solve the problem for about 98% of the feline population that has a litter box complex.
You change the litter box location:
You decided it’s time to move kitty’s box down to the laundry room from the dining room. Kitty is not pleased, so she continues her habit of using the dining room – minus the litter box!
One solution is to find a new location that’s acceptable to both of you. Barring that, you may well have to give in to kitty’s wishes, and put the darn box back where she likes it. It’s certainly cheaper than fighting the battle of cleaning up the urine stains and odor.
I feel your pain on this; my darn cat Scout loves the exercise room as a prime litter box location. I really, really hate it when I’m on the elliptical machine, and Scout has to answer a call of nature that lingers long after she’s vacated the box. Such is life!
A person comes to live with you and kitty:
If you subscribe to the saying, “Love me, love my cat,” it can be challenging for a new partner if she/he wasn’t a cat person. Discomfort, anger, and resentment can manifest in bad kitty behavior outside the litter box. Your significant other moves in (or you make the move), and the next thing you know, there are presents around the residence you’d rather not have.
You can solve this problem by ensuring that your cat and the other loved one give each a chance to get used to one another. This may entail confining your cat for periods of time, or getting your partner accustomed to cat behavior (climbing on the lap, meowing, sharing the couch, chair, or bed) over a period of time. The worst thing that can happen is for your partner to tease or abuse kitty. This could trigger an inappropriate elimination response.
Anytime your kitty stops using her box for no apparent reason is cause for immediate investigation. If you stop and think about any changes that have occurred in the immediate past, address those first. If you haven’t made any changes, the culprit is most likely a medical condition that can easily be diagnosed and cured by your local kitty vet.
Comments
Hello. I have had the same four cats, together, for almost a decade. We have lived in this house for three years. Same littler feline pine, same huge box (one) 24X18X38, same water supply ( two fountains), same Rx food, basically the same life. We are home and play with the cats a few hours at night. The four cats are all inside cats. They are all adopted from Paws when they were at the end of their circuit and were to be euthanized.
I have three boys, and one girl.
Arioch the cat in question is one of the two alpha males.
Yes, I have two alphas. One that has friends, Arioch has two friends, Bell Female, and life companion Moccy. Wumpscut the other male is a loner and does not snuggle, but is older and has his own space.
We, my husband and I, travel two weeks, several times of the year. I have had two pet sitters, both we have used for travel in previous years.
This year after returning from a trip, my large male tabby of 17 lean pounds had retrained himself to pee in several places.
One is under my desk on the wooden floor. (it will have to be cut out and replaced)
One was along side of the human toilet and the other is right across from his cat box, along the line of the metro 1940's titled floor, and the bath tub seal.
We have been home for one month now, and the urine is daily and I can not seem to conquer it. I have spent far more time at home and with this cat then ever before in all the years I have owned him. I have been except to work.
I have a very old house, and the house does not have the same room and door structure as more modern houses.
I can, and did close off my office to the cats. I can not figure out how to retrain this cat when he is peeing near the litter box, in the room I need the litter box to be in.
We have done the following.
Before the trip I added Good Cat to the drinking water as recommend by my vet.
I also added a Feliway Electric Diffuser, and we sprayed the corners of the rooms, and any right angle with the pump. We did this because my cats seemed tenser than normal prior to my trip, and I did not want there to be issues when I was away. We were traveling out of country and not out of state, and I did not want extra issues, so I tried extra precautions.
Taken all the cats to the vet. I did this first actually. They all had UTI screens and then the vet grew the urine cultures for bacteria. (no issues)
I tried a second cat box in the same area. With a hard clay clumping litter.
They all peed and defecated in the second box, which was directly over the place of the issue, but Arioch just peed right outside the second box.
After two weeks of switching around boxes, with no mind to the other cats, we took the second box away, as there was no change. Just a larger mess.
I realize cats are super sensitive to litter and boxes.
I was able to scoop every other day, and dump weekly for years. I had weeks where the dumping of the litter was every 5 days, not seven but for the most part I have had the same pattern in for years.
We have taken time to clean the box, (which I did weekly prior, with soap and hot water). Because it is pine not clay, after dumping the whole box, I could take the box to the tub, wash it, and dump it into the toilet, so cleaning it was a snap, so it actually got done.
In January I noticed the plastic of the box held a smell, and the whole box was replaced. Same large rubbermaid modified container, same dimensions.
We left on our trip in May, so I do not believe it was the new box.
I have always taken time to clean the box, (which I did weekly prior, with soap and hot water). Because it is pine not clay, after dumping the whole box, I could take the box to the tub, wash it, and dump it into the toilet, so cleaning it was a snap, so it actually got done. Since returning in hopes of making this area nicer and more appealing for them, I have scooped more than once a day. I have totally changed the litter every three days. It does not seem to matter. Arioch has peed on the floor, across from the box the same day.
The urine has now loosened the tiles, broken the seal and has seeped into the substrate.
I am really upset. The house was built in the 1930 and this can not continue.
I have contacted several different cat websites, and seen two vets. I am to the point that I need to resolve this in a weeks time or give my cat away.
I had a long heart to heart with my husband, who is kind and reasonable, I cried like a broken hearted teen on Sunday. As a result, my husband installed a video monitor the size of a tennis ball, high up on the bathroom wall. It clearly shows Arioch walking to the tub and urinating on the tiles.
I am writing because you seem to have answers to questions, and being out of time, I want to make sure that I ask the right things.
Sincerely, Katylin
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I have three boys, and one girl.
Arioch the cat in question is one of the two alpha males.
Yes, I have two alphas. One that has friends, Arioch has two friends, Bell Female, and life companion Moccy. Wumpscut the other male is a loner and does not snuggle, but is older and has his own space.
We, my husband and I, travel two weeks, several times of the year. I have had two pet sitters, both we have used for travel in previous years.
This year after returning from a trip, my large male tabby of 17 lean pounds had retrained himself to pee in several places.
One is under my desk on the wooden floor. (it will have to be cut out and replaced)
One was along side of the human toilet and the other is right across from his cat box, along the line of the metro 1940's titled floor, and the bath tub seal.
We have been home for one month now, and the urine is daily and I can not seem to conquer it. I have spent far more time at home and with this cat then ever before in all the years I have owned him. I have been except to work.
I have a very old house, and the house does not have the same room and door structure as more modern houses.
I can, and did close off my office to the cats. I can not figure out how to retrain this cat when he is peeing near the litter box, in the room I need the litter box to be in.
We have done the following.
Before the trip I added Good Cat to the drinking water as recommend by my vet.
I also added a Feliway Electric Diffuser, and we sprayed the corners of the rooms, and any right angle with the pump. We did this because my cats seemed tenser than normal prior to my trip, and I did not want there to be issues when I was away. We were traveling out of country and not out of state, and I did not want extra issues, so I tried extra precautions.
Taken all the cats to the vet. I did this first actually. They all had UTI screens and then the vet grew the urine cultures for bacteria. (no issues)
I tried a second cat box in the same area. With a hard clay clumping litter.
They all peed and defecated in the second box, which was directly over the place of the issue, but Arioch just peed right outside the second box.
After two weeks of switching around boxes, with no mind to the other cats, we took the second box away, as there was no change. Just a larger mess.
I realize cats are super sensitive to litter and boxes.
I was able to scoop every other day, and dump weekly for years. I had weeks where the dumping of the litter was every 5 days, not seven but for the most part I have had the same pattern in for years.
We have taken time to clean the box, (which I did weekly prior, with soap and hot water). Because it is pine not clay, after dumping the whole box, I could take the box to the tub, wash it, and dump it into the toilet, so cleaning it was a snap, so it actually got done.
In January I noticed the plastic of the box held a smell, and the whole box was replaced. Same large rubbermaid modified container, same dimensions.
We left on our trip in May, so I do not believe it was the new box.
I have always taken time to clean the box, (which I did weekly prior, with soap and hot water). Because it is pine not clay, after dumping the whole box, I could take the box to the tub, wash it, and dump it into the toilet, so cleaning it was a snap, so it actually got done. Since returning in hopes of making this area nicer and more appealing for them, I have scooped more than once a day. I have totally changed the litter every three days. It does not seem to matter. Arioch has peed on the floor, across from the box the same day.
The urine has now loosened the tiles, broken the seal and has seeped into the substrate.
I am really upset. The house was built in the 1930 and this can not continue.
I have contacted several different cat websites, and seen two vets. I am to the point that I need to resolve this in a weeks time or give my cat away.
I had a long heart to heart with my husband, who is kind and reasonable, I cried like a broken hearted teen on Sunday. As a result, my husband installed a video monitor the size of a tennis ball, high up on the bathroom wall. It clearly shows Arioch walking to the tub and urinating on the tiles.
I am writing because you seem to have answers to questions, and being out of time, I want to make sure that I ask the right things.
Sincerely, Katylin