Kitty Experts: Litter problems

[Lauren8211]

Ok, here's the deal.

I have a 14 year old diabetic cat. For nearly 2 years now, he's been peeing all over the house. Initially, I just figured that it was just the increased urine output that was causing him to go outside of the box. He was peeing so often, he didnt want to go all the way to the litter. It's only gotten worse, even though his diabetes is now regulated. We are at the vet 2-3x a month to make sure his blood sugar is being regulated properly.

He's peed on EVERYTHING. It's gotten to the point now where he's locked up in the kitchen with food, litter, and a little bed while we're not watching him. He is no more than 3 feet from the litter at any time in there, but he peed on his BED! I don't want to take the bed out because he's an older cat, possibly arthritic, and I don't want him sleeping on a cold hard kitchen floor.

We keep the litter clean. We have not changed litter, or moved, or added another cat recently.

I don't know what to do anymore. I'm thinking that the diabetes maybe taught him the habit of going outside of the litter, and we need to retrain? Thats why we tried a smaller area, but THATS not even working.

FYI, this is not a matter of if we dont fix this, we're getting rid of him. He's staying, I'm just trying to find a way to get him to use the litter again so he can access more of the house! I hate that he has to live out his senior years locked in a kitchen!

 

[Loves Vintage]

I have an older cat (he''s 20!!) who had a history of blockages in his urinary tract and eventually had the PU surgery. As a result of this medical issue, he has also had a history of urinating inappropriately. He now has both a litter box, which he will use at times, and piddle pads (used for dog training.) Often, he will use a piddle pad. If he had a nice soft towel, or cat bed, for example, available to him, no doubt, he would choose the soft towel or bed. Not sure why or how to correct, but the piddle pads have been helping a great deal.

They do sell litter box attractant, which may promote use of the box again. Good Luck!!

 

[Haven]

Oh Elle, I'm so sorry for your kitty.

My kitty Bootsie started peeing outside of the litter box when her hyperthyroidism started to get bad. Her favorite spot was right on top of my laundry baskets, ugh, it was awful.

Like you, we tried a ton of different things. We sprinkled that stuff in the litter that is supposed to attract them to it, we added more litter boxes, kept them all super clean, we picked up her up and put her *in* the litter box when we saw her getting ready to soil a basket of clean laundry.

None of it worked for us.

After making sure that there wasn't another medical issue that was causing her to go everywhere, as we had already had her hyperthyroidism under control, our vet recommended we buy a cage and keep her in it for a couple weeks to "retrain" her to use the litter box. The theory was that she won't go outside the box in the cage because there wasn't much room.

First we bought a cage you would use for a medium-sized dog, it was pretty big for my tiny 5 lb girl. It worked, she started using the box, so we let her back out of the cage after two or three weeks.

She starting peeing on my laundry again almost immediately.

SO, we put her back in the cage. Same thing--she was good in the cage, then peed on my laundry outside of it.

In the end we ended up buying one of those HUGE cages that pet stores use to house five or ten cats. It was really tall, so we bought the different levels for it, DH bought a big tube at Home Depot and cut it up and covered it with carpet to create those half rounds the kitties like to sleep in, and we suspended those all over the cage. (We got a lot of free carpet samples from a local carpet store, it was great.) We covered half the surfaces with carpet, bought her a brand new litter box (covered, because DH thought she'd like privacy since the cage was out in the open) and placed the cage right in the middle of the back room of the house so she was facing a huge windowed door on one side, and the rest of the house on the other.

We called it "Bootsie's Chalet."

She was pretty old by this time, 16 or 17, and she seemed to love it. She didn't cry or anything, and we took her out all the time when we were home and could keep an eye on her. She often walked back in herself to curl up on her favorite half round.

She did develop a habit of pooping on one of the non-carpeted shelves, so there was a mess to clean up most days, but otherwise she was a cleaner, happier little lady.

I think she lived in that chalet for more than two years in the end. It was a big struggle at first because I was scared that we were ruining her quality of life by putting her in the cage indefinitely, but our vet came over to observe her and said that she thought she was one happy kitty. I think she was, too.

I'll admit it was a huge pain to keep that cage clean. We used lint rollers on the carpet every day because she shed a lot more in her old age, and we sprayed down all the non-carpeted levels with cleaner every day. It's harder to clean a litter box that's inside a cage, but we managed. It was all worth it, in our opinion, because Bootsie was still enjoying a quality of life. But I bet it took about an hour a day to care for her space, and to give her the goopy meds that we smeared in her ears for her hyperthyroidism. And of course, we devoted a lot of cuddle time to her, too.

I know this isn't the solution that will work for everyone, but it worked for us. I bet we still have that monster cage, if you want it!

 

[Lauren8211]

Thanks for the input!

I really don''t want to cage him.

We thought about it, but we''re just not ready to try that yet. I was hoping there was a magical cure that I hadn''t heard of yet.

He''s HYSTERICALLY crying just being locked up in the kitchen. You know.. those big, loud, deep, sorrowful meows? Heartbreaking!

I''ll try litter attractant, and we''ll scrub out the boxes as well as possible and see if that helps.

 

[Haven]

It sounds like your little guy doesn''t take well to being confined, so the cage is probably not the best option for him.

Bootsie didn''t mind it at all. I''m not really sure she even knew she was in a cage at all. It was huge, though, in case anyone thinks I was cruel to my little girl.

 

[Lauren8211]

Date: 2/25/2010 2:16:39 PM
Author: Haven
It sounds like your little guy doesn''t take well to being confined, so the cage is probably not the best option for him.

Bootsie didn''t mind it at all. I''m not really sure she even knew she was in a cage at all. It was huge, though, in case anyone thinks I was cruel to my little girl.

He does hate it! Soooo much. He''s a very "I rule the house" cat. He goes around and opens cabinets and doors just because he doesnt like them closed.

I have a feeling this is just how its going to be for the rest of his life.

I do wonder if he''d like the cage a bit better since he''d be able to be in the same room as us, however.

 

[Aloros]

I always suggest Cat Attract litter - I think it works better than the separate litter attractants. They sell it at PetSmart, it''s no more expensive than other litters, each bag comes with coupons for more, and they have a money back guarantee.

It''s worth a try, anyways. So sorry about your kitty.