Automatic Litterbox Central

My cat (male, neutered, 3yrs old) will use a litterbox to urinate, but he also uses the corners of rooms, along walls, my couch, etc. I use Natural's Miracle Urine Destroyer and it gets rid of the smell and stain with no problem, but that isn't the solution. I have used the ScoopFree...worked for about 3 weeks and then nada, so I returned it based on their guarantee. I have tried Liter Maid, still a no go. I used the round automated one for a long time (forgot the name, but it isn't made any more), and still he would sometimes use it and sometimes not. I am now using the Omega, you know the one you manually role on it side and it filters. I have tried different brands of litter, changed his food (expensive stuff vet recommended), even moved the litter box to the area of the room he urinates the most in, and still he will go right there on the floor next to the box. The vet says there is nothing physically wrong with him, he has been tested and given meds just in case....still no go. He started out litterbox trained but as the got older (3 yrs now) he just goes where it is convenient. The vet even told me to confine him in the bathroom for 3 days each time I catch him urinating, well after about a day and a half, I give up because of his screaming and let him out. I don't want to buy another $150 box if he will use it for a few days and then right back to the carpet. I even put that cheap plastic running down that, the one with the little "nubs" on one side to keep it from siding, but I can't line my floors with that. He won't urinate on it, but he will go to the carpet right at the edge of the plastic. I even used Cat Attract litter AND Cat Attract additive, and nothing. I tried spraying that Felaway around and that didn't work either, neither does that "stay off" type stuff.

At the moment, it seems I may have to give him up and that just kills me, but I don't know what else to do.

We have a feral that we took in and she is now a loving cat, but we had the same problem. She would poo or pee wherever.. on the couch, on the floor, on the dining room table. At first it was just the floor in front of the litter box in the bathroom for about two years.. but for the last year it has gotten progressively worse to where she is doing as I said above.

We took her in for testing and they said they think it is a combination of her just not comprehending and IC. We started giving her a half a cup of low sodium chicken broth with her food every meal and quarantined her in a tiled shower stall with a litter box, food and water. I tried giving her a towel to sleep on and she would just pee on it and lay on it. I cleaned her box three times a day and more if needed, gave her fresh water every time I went in there to play with her (so like 6 times a day) and gave her food and broth 2 times a day. We kept her in there for about two months to lower her stress and try to get her to realize she should use the box only. We let her out and she seemed to be doing fine, then next day she peed on the couch so right back in she went. We kept her in there about 2 weeks more and then put out 2 more litter boxes in some of her old favorite places to go. They look like hell in the middle of the living room and in the corner of the dinning room, but she has only had about 3 accidents in the last month and a half of being out which is GREAT and they were in front of the box with the lid and each time there was pee right inside so I think she didn't want to have to step in the pee to get in and decided the floor was better. She has access to 3 litter boxes all the time and another when we feed her away from all our other cats.

I know it sucks to lock them up and it just kills you to hear them crying, but it is much better then having to take them to the pound or give them to someone who might end up doing the same when the problem doesn't go away. My husband was at the end of his rope, but I wouldn't let him find her a home because I knew they would probably dump her and the pound puts animals with bathroom problems to sleep normally as unadoptable.

I hope any of this might help you, but I know exactly how horrible it is to deal with it. I did it for about 3 years and it was pretty much all day every day anywhere in the house she took a fancy. It is now a totally different way to live not having to deal with that all the time. Goodluck!

Dawn

I agree with Dawn -- A new style litter box is likely not the solution... Your solution is providing your cat with an environment where he relearns that the litter box is the only acceptable place he is to pee. Litter Box Bootcamp maybe the only solution AND that means that YOU have to change, not just the cat. You need to use the tough/soft love approach. The toughness comes from being very clear that the cat is NOT to pee outside the litter box and confining the cat until he learns that there is one place only to pee and that's the litter box. Let him cry. It's not going to hurt him. A shelter will and dying before his time... Now if he could vote, what would he vote for?

Confine him for a week so he can relearn the litterbox habit. While he is confined, use some very strong cat urine cleaner around the house. Use it multiple times in all the places where he's peed. I usually use Nature's Miracle but I turned to an Arm and Hammer product once when I had a cat defecating in the corner and that finally worked. (I hated the product's smell but it went away...) After the week, let him out, watch him, and if you need to confine him during the times he usually pees to assure that he goes in the litter box then do so. When he goes, let him out again. The softness comes from providing him with a confined but loving environment to learn in (i.e. he gets his toy, bed, food, water, scratching post, and litter box complete with some enticing litter such as Cat Attract, some cat nip, and your kind and gentle visits) but he doesn't get out on his own, again, until he stops peeing around the house! End of story. Be tough, be strong. Don't give in. Whose in charge of this house anyway -- you or the cat! (OK, I know I am overdoing it, here, but I have the same problem -- being a little bit too soft with the cats and they take over! I am usually not soft about the litter box, however...)

My cat(s) showed some confused behaviors (crying, sniffing around in odd places) prior to going outside the litter box so I also started PAYING ATTENTION to what the cats were doing when they seemed unhappy and I led them to the litter box and encouraged them to use it at times they were behaving strangely. That helped a lot. I also threw a fit when I found that they had screwed up and used something other than the litter box for elimination. (This fit was not acting. I was pissed -- no pun intended) and they usually knew why. My fit showed them that their elimination behavior was NOT acceptable. And if I caught them in the act, I took them to the litter box in the laundry room and confined them until they used it (Last weekend, I just went through this with a new kitten and my older cat in rebellion against the new kitten... so this is very recent experience talking....)

Be strong. Be tough. Give him an opportunity to relearn the litter box habit.

And if you really do your job as a cat slave to reteach him the litter box habit (i.e., you are consistent with him and do not give in) and he fails (not you), you might find him a good home as a barn cat... An outdoor kitty in a safe environment... Perhaps you know someone or your vet could help you place him.

Best wishes and please let us know how it goes...

Thank you both for your replies. I had already shut him up in the bathroom yesterday after I wrote my post and today I went and got a plastic sweater box (those low wide ones you put under a bed) and filled it with litter. He immediately peed in it. While I was getting the bathroom cleaned up, he got out and I chased him through the living room and he ran back to the bathroom and jumped right in the new box and tried to hide UNDER the litter. I am hoping he doesn't see that as a new litterbox/play area. The sweater box was the vets idea because the vet seemed to think that maybe the confinement of the litter box (even uncovered ones) was the issue. So the idea is to give him a large area to pee in and then progressively make it smaller.

Good luck! Sounds like you and the vet have a good plan. I think I might make it through my first weekend with no complete bed changes due to the new cat mapping out his territory (on my bed)! Hurray! Hope you and the cat are making progress.

Please let us know how it is going along the way. The journey may suck, but hopefully you will both have a happy end to the journey.

Dawn

I hope that you have found the solution to your problem, but just in case, my suggestion is to find a holistic vet that will provide you with a homeopathic called Arsenicum that can help cats with IC. The doseage is crucial. My vet recommends this and finds it has great results. 1/2 cc twice a day for two days and then the same again in one month. 30c should do it (the concentration). Health food stores also carry this.
Allways good to get the vets guidance on this, but I don't believe there is any traditional medical treatment for IC in cats, so a traditional vet will probably not be familiar with it's usage.
Good Luck.

Thanks for the info. I will have to try to find a holistic vet around here. We kind of live in the boonies and there are no health food stores within an hours drive. I have IC myself, so I understand my poor kitties problem a tiny bit (although it is caused and manifest differently in cats then humans it seems). She is doing very well with the chicken broth on her food twice a day and I have started feeding her in a closed off room so she doesn't have the stress of eating with the other cats and so far I have seen no more evidence of an IC problem with her. Also the increased number of litter boxes along with the previous changes has completely cured her inappropriate potty habits for about the last month or so now. She has become a delight and my husband is amazed.

Dawn

Congratulations on your success!

I recently got a third cat and thought he was such an angel till a few weeks ago when we discovered that he was peeing on the bathroom rug. I replaced the rug with tin foil and that worked for a few days. He then peed on some clothes that my hyusband left on the bedroom floor (right in front of us). We now have a big peice of tin foil on the bedroom floor. I hope this is the end of (It might be just the begining). I have three cats and one scoopfree. I think he probaly has an issue with going in a dirty litter box. I may have to get another box, I guess that's cheaper than potentialy replacing clothes and bedspreads. I'm keeping the info in this message handy.

can you please tell me what IC is? Kitty number three is still peeing around the house. He does it right in front of me! help!

IC is Interstitial Cystitis. It is a disease of the bladder and basically is when the lining of the bladder is burned or eatten away. This results in the urine causing pain to the lining of the bladder and often to other areas of the stomach or back and an intense need to urinate which is not relieved by urinating. In animals it commonly results in blood in the urine, frequent urination, and inappropriate urination. Stress can increase this as well as not drinking enough fluid. This disease is becoming more common in human women all the time and now has been identified in cats. They believe in humans it is mostly an allergic reaction to food or drink which unless you can figure out what is causing it and stop ingesting it there is no cure. They treat it with Elmiron which helps you grow back the lining of your bladder, but unless you can figure out what is causing it, you are just always trying to grow back your lining while it is being eatten away. In cats they have no treatment I have been informed of and they don't know exactly what causes it but say that stress and low water consumption increase the symptoms. We give our kitty low sodium chicken broth with her meals and since we started, there has been ZERO blood in her urine and she is using the litterbox much more reliably. She started having some mistakes again recently, but I figured out it is when the box is not clean... With six cats, this does happen pretty quickly even with multiple boxes out. Hope that is the info. you were looking for, let me know if you need more.

Dawn

Yes thanks so much for the info. I'l go line to get more information.

He dosn't seem to be in pain, he just dosn't seem to want to wait. Last time it happend I was cleaning the litter box. He stopped by then went into the bathroom and peed on the toilet lid rug cover. he gets busted becuase he spends allot of time trying to cover up his deed - peeling the toilet lid cover off the toilet. I got a manual box out of the garage so we now have two boxes and he did not have any accidents this weekend, at least none that I have discovered. He was origianally thought to be ferrel so maybe this is just a bad habit from his wild kitty days.

Trouble is now all the cats like the old manual box better and no one is using the scoopfree anymore. i don't want to get another scoopfree - I spending too much money on cat litter as it is.