Cat trouble...

[MrsD08]

We have 2 cats, 1 was my cat when I was in college and she stayed with my mom when I moved out. When my mother passed away and we moved into my childhood home, she was the only cat that wanted to stay. When we were living in an apartment we got 1 cat who stayed with us. She is an indoor/outdoor cat, despite our trying to keep her indoors 24/7. Now that it's gotten colder and colder out, she's spending more time inside. Thing is, she prefers doing her business outside. We found when we first got her that if we leave clothes on the bathroom floor she uses them as her litter box. We also found out the hard way that if we leave the bathroom door open she uses the tub as her litter box. But, she hadn't had any potty trouble for a while until this week.

The other night I noticed her clawing at the carpet and I shooed her away. I didn't see any signs of pee or poop, so I walked away. But, tonight she was doing it again in the same spot. Once again I shooed her away and this time I felt the carpet, it was all wet! Ahh! I cleaned throughly with Nature's Miracle before it had time to set in.

But, how do we keep her from using the house as her litter box instead of her actual litter box? We clean the box daily. I've also read that some kitties are picky about their litter. So when we first got her, we tried a lot of different litters before settling on the one we use and we've never switched brands since then. (Plus both my husband and I have allergies so we needed something dust free.) I've never thought of seriously re-homing a pet, but she makes me so angry with this bathroom thing!

[treegardner]

How many litter boxes do you have? You should have at least 1 per cat.

[MrsD08]

Originally Posted by treegardner

How many litter boxes do you have? You should have at least 1 per cat.

We have 3 medium sized boxes! Our inside cat only uses 1 of them. So, she has her pick! When I was typing I was only thinking of "her box" instead of all of them...but they all are cleaned daily and changed 2X a week.

[lonegirl]

Is she peeing outside the box? She may have a UTI. A quick urinalyis can rule this out first.

Clean the areas well (no ammonia based cleaners). Put a box near the areas she has had the accident....and slowly move it towards a more desirable area.

[sunnysandiegan]

She is probably trying to tell you something. Our previous cat only peed outside the litter box when he had an UTI. The vet recommended Rescue Remedy (Bach Flower Essence found in health food stores) as a first course of action to reduce the pet's stress level. If that didn't do the trick (our cat was rather high-strung and exhibited undesirable behavior early on in his stress), then it was always an UTI for him.

In retrospect, we didn't know much about pet nutrition and were probably feeding him the worst possible combination of foods. He lived an average length of time for a cat, but he was high-strung and not the healthiest kitty.

I read up on cat nutrition once we were ready to have another pet. Our current kitten is SO MUCH healthier and far less high-strung. She eats a raw food diet. She peed on our bed twice when we were all learning how much to feed her in the beginning. We are pretty sure she was telling us to feed her more often. As soon as we started feeding her every time we ate anything (typically 5-6 times a day due to slightly different schedules for all but dinner), she stopped peeing anywhere except her litter box. I knew kittens needed to be fed more often than older cats, but it was a shock to realize she really was hungry as often as a baby.

Anyway, try to see her bathroom habits as a clue to a puzzle versus a personal attack. I know it is frustrating. Really, though, she doesn't have too many options for communicating with you.

[MrsD08]

We brought her to the vet yesterday afternoon to double check that nothing was wrong. As suspected, no UTI. And, she's already on a very good diet--they get fed 2X a day w/ Natural Balance Ultra Premium Food and they get 1/2 can each 2X a week of Natural Balance canned food.

When we moved the box to where she was peeing, she just found a different carpet place to pee on....

Any other thoughts?