No Kitty, I Said *Think* Outside of the Box
This is a cat post, I need some help from the cat people here on Vox.
Last weekend Mr. Val and I watched in horror while the cat stood on a batch of our cds and just peed away. We spent the next two hours cleaning cds, cases, drying inserts and being pretty angry. It's not the first time she's attacked our cd collection, a couple of years ago she did it much worse and it was obvious that it was in retaliation for food or litter, I figured it out at the time.
So now our music is completely inaccessible to her (or us for that matter). Problem solved, right? Wrong.
When I went to change her litter last night I noticed that she had been using one corner of the bathroom just for peeing. I thought the litter had seemed exceptionally easy this week. Before I went to bed, I checked the corner again and - PEE! This morning I went downstairs and found the corner dry...until I was on my way back upstairs and I caught her in the act. There she was, just standing on the floor peeing away (and in very cat-like fashion, she tried to cover it up with the tile flooring).
What the hell? I finally nailed down her diet, so she's eating well without vomiting (which was a problem for years), we did only switch to this litter a couple of months ago, but she took to it right away and seems to like it (and was peeing in it until last week).
Should I move the litter box from poo corner to pee corner? The litter box has been there for 9 years, I would think moving it would be a bad idea. Should I just get some shit litter and put it in a second tray in pee corner?
Oh, and another note, she WAS toilet trained when we got her. We thought it was cool so we left up the lid for her. But when I later caught her also DRINKING out of the terlet we started closing the lid. Maybe letting her at the toilet again might not be a bad idea?
Halp!! I have no idea what to do. She seems so normal, healthy and playful as usual, I can't figure out what's going on here.
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Oh dear, sounds like trouble to me. I suggest you consult the vet. Hope everything turns out fine.
(Off-topic ... love the title of your post.)
I should probably take her to the vet anyway. We haven't been in a few years (she's an indoor cat so there hasn't been much of a need) so she's probably could use a check up anyway. But I'd really hate to spend $80 for the vet to tell me to just change my litter brand.
Oh and Arbed, I don't clean the litter daily (except for back when her food wasn't agreeing with her - yuck!), but I have been keeping up pretty well on her box lately (I'll scoop it every couple of days and do a major cleaning once a week)...maybe I should let it get all full and gross, maybe then she'd use it.
In the end I decided to leave the toilet lid up today and see what happens. She's always been particular about poopin' on one end of the box and peeing at the other end, so maybe she's trying to separate them even more. If that's the case, the toilet thing should work.
Does she meet/see/smell foreign cats? A new cat neighbor can also stress a cat... even if they just smell each other. - or human visitors she doesn't like?
I'd put a small tray with some litter in the corner she uses now to break the habit.
Look at the insides of her legs and around her bum if she's lost hair there or has sores. We had some litter that, when peed on, turned caustic and burnt away the hairs on these rather sensitive parts of the body... I can't remember what the compound was now but the vet knew what it was... and I don't know if our cat was allergic or it really just was nasty stuff. Changing the litter sorted that problem out.
Oh, and she LOATHES other cats, children and groups of people. We learned that right away and have never had another pet or child in the house. When we have had a group of friends over, we usually isolate her so she doesn't stress out over it.
I will check her legs tonight too. I will probably break down and call the vet. It's so traumatic to take her, so that's why I try to only go as a last resort.
Thanks for the advice Drude!!
Edgar does the pee at one end poop at the other, too. I find that amusing for some reason. As far as I know, he's only pooped outside the box twice, and to be honest, I think it's just because his ass end was hanging outside the box, not that he did it on purpose. But the peeing pisses me off (ha) and I've never known exactly why he's done it. I constantly think I'm smelling cat pee on everything because I'm so paranoid.
I'm the same about the vet. One of these days I've got to break down and bring him in though, because he's getting up there in years and really should have a check-up (they recommend every six months after a certain age! I don't think so, Mrs. Vet).
Here's an another idea, in addition to that - get another litter box. TWO litter boxes you say? Yes. It worked for my bff Brenda. I know it sounds crazy but I've seen it work wonders for people.
We have "stink outside the box" issues,lol. I have found tootsie rolls in some very odd places. We have multiple boxes and rotate the changes so they almost always have a squeeky clean on somewhere.
We have second story shitters,lol. They go to rooms we don't frequent, pry the door open and turd on the sweater pile, Christmas decorations, or other equally disposable items. They must not like winter. We also have had the hanging "chad" on the side of the littler box where the ass end hangs out.
We had "pillow pisser" before and that was new kitty resentment. Our bigger problem is "Zagnut" eating by Tater and then big kisses for daddy Myke.
I'm agreeing with everyone who suggested a UTI --- that's what caused most of my cats' peeing problems over the years. And the cats who had UTIs never actually LOOKED like they were in pain, they were just spending huge amounts of time in the pee-ing position --- mostly inside the litter box, but lots of times OUTSIDE the litter box, like they had to pee so urgently that they didn't have the time to make it to the litterbox. And lots of the time, they'd actually pee outside the box --- but other times, they'd just be crouching there, looking like they were trying to go, but couldn't.
I think you should take your furry kid to the vets to rule out anything physical before you start trying to figure out anything else.
I have no suggestions, since Sweetie is doing the same thing right now -- totally out of character. Ever since Mom died, and I moved some furniture, AND since the outside neighborhood cats have been "flirting" with him at night through the windows, he's been spraying all over the door to the bathroom where his VERY clean pan is, and on the end of the sofa I moved AND in Mom's old room, on the closet door. He's young and healthy and still uses his pan, mostly, but at night, when the critters outside come around, he HOWLS and sprays. I'm pretty sure he's stressed and just marking his territory, since he's such a wild cat. But ooooooooooooooooo it's not a good thing!!!
BTW -- he is very fussy about where in his pan he puts the solids and liquids. One end is solid and the other end is liquid, and if I don't take something out RIGHT AWAY and he has to use the pan he complains to me until I move it out. He's very fussy and wild, too.
i didn't read anyone else's comments, so if i'm repeating something...whatever.
i suggest getting more litter boxes. linda just got 2 kittens, and bought 3 litter boxes. she "heard" that you should always have one extra box, just in case.
(i'm also pissed. vana's cat pissed in my new ds bowling bag case. how? i dunno. grrrr.)
"terlet." haha. loves.
That freaking sucks. That cat is nuts.
Maybe he just really loves da terlet.
Hopefully your vet will give you something a bit more useful to work with!