When do good kitties go bad? When all of a sudden they decide to use the dining room carpet as a litter box.
Nestle is over 10 years old. She has always been a very clean kitty and always used her boxes (I have two for her in the basement). Then one day she just stopped. We had not changed a thing. The boxes were nice and clean with the same brand of litter we had been buying for years. Nothing had changed in our house. There were no big construction projects and we had not moved the boxes.
I thought she must be sick so I bundled her up and took her to the vet.
The vet examined Nestle and confirmed that she appeared healthy. She took a sterile urine sample and some blood. The vet was checking for a urinary tract infection or something in Nestle’s blood work that might indicate a health issue. She was also planning to do a urine culture which would take a few days.
The next day the results starting rolling in and there was nothing physically wrong with Nestle. Her blood work was unremarkable. There was no bacteria in her urine. A few days later the vet let us know that the culture was negative. The vet felt it was probably behavioral.
Behavioral? How do we fix that?
The vet explained that cats can stop using their box for a variety of reasons and they may not be obvious. Many times it is the result of stress even though visibly the cat does not look stressed. Some kitties get so stressed that they need medication.
Of course we did not want to go the medication route if we did not have to. The vet recommended a couple of changes that we could make within the household.
She recommended a different litter called Cat Attract. It is contains an herbal attractant that is supposed to entice a cat to use it. It is not cheap, but at this point I was willing to try. Since I needed it quickly, I purchased it at a local store. The woman who checked me out told me they sell a lot of it and people with good kitties gone bad swear by it. An encouraging sign.
The other thing the vet suggested was a Comfort Zone Feliway Cat Diffuser which contains pheromones that are supposed to calm a kitty and reduce scratching and urine marking. Again not cheap. I was very skeptical of this but I was willing to try it. Anything to save the carpet.
I also purchased a new litter box but left the old ones where they had always been. The new litter box was set up in the dining room because I was hoping Nestle would use it rather than the dining room carpet.
I am happy to report that kitty started using that box immediately. The dining room carpet appears to be safe.
Nestle was at the vet yesterday for annual vaccines and I had a different vet who is also the owner of the practice. He is the vet we took our dog to when I was a kid, (many years ago). He has had cats for years and also had a problem with a kitty not using the box. He asked if Nestle had been using carpet instead of her box. Yep that was it. He said that sometimes it is the texture of the carpet that attracts them. He drew me a diagram of a box he made years ago where he made a raised platform around the box covered with indoor/outdoor carpet, (imagine a raised deck around a swimming pool with the litter box being the pool). He said that cured the problem immediately and several years and many cats later, it is till the most popular box in his house.
Project!
I always think to go to the vet for medical issues, but I honestly never think to ask for advice on behavioral issues. Based on this experience I can say that they have a wealth of information if you only ask.
So how about you? Have you ever dealt with this issue? If so do you have any tips?
I have never had a cat as a pet – although my best girlfriend brought home a kitten one day when we were sharing an apartment – so I can’t say I’ve ever had this problem. BUT, I do look to our vet for advice on behavioral issues with Ducky. Just as I did when Callie and Shadow were young and crazy.
Oh dear, I hope that never happens at our house. Mom has only had a really old cat who missed the litter box because she was 19 and couldn’t see or move very well. Good luck.
Yes, I have had that problem. I had a cat in my extra room that started to use the bed as her litter box. I was horrified. I turned the mattress over and sprayed it and she quit doing it. I think that once a cat urinates in a different place and continues to smell it, they will continue to urinate there. With carpet, that makes things really hard. Putting a litter box in the dining room was a great idea.
Oh no! Hopefully things improve.
I had a cat once that from the time she was a kitten would not faithfully use the litter box. Tried all kinds of things but nothing worked so I resigned myself to just staying on top of cleaning up after her when she decided she didn’t want to go in the box. She lived until she was 16. So I have no solutions for you. sounds like what you are doing is working so good luck.
Our angel cat Cinder (aka Nin) always had bad litter habits. He would pee outside of closed doors, beside a clean box etc. We never found the perfect solution for him (as the habit would change). Hope you find something that helps.
I’ve heard of this from my cat loving friends. Glad the new setup is helping!
I’ve never heard of this type of litter, but I’ve heard of good kitties going bad before. I’m glad your solution was fairly easy (but not the expense.)
With our last cat, Smokie, we used the litter that was like sand. She had no problems with that. My mistake was using sand when I set the manger up in the bay window for Christmas and used sand to surround the manger. Poor baby Jesus. I didn’t use the sand the next year though. 🙂
No cats here, so not an issue, but that’s cool your vet had that great idea.
I have not dealt with that, but am glad you were able to solve the problem!
HA! What a very interesting litter box design – you SO have to take a picture of your project once it’s done!! Unfortunately I don’t have any cats (the husband is allergic) but I have several kitty clients from my pet sitting business. I took a mental note in case one of my clients should ever experience something similar, and am definitely pinning this!
By the way, I love Nestle’s name 🙂
I’ve had cats in the past that wouldn’t use the litter box. It is so frustrating. Glad she didn’t have an infection and I hope those products work, the feliway is what we recommend too. I have gotten a sample of cat attract but it wasn’t enough to know if it made a difference.
Never a worry, we only ever had two cats and they lived outdoors. Barn cats.
Vets are very knowing ~ think of all the advice and stories they catalog.
I’m so glad you found something that works! I wish I’d known about those things sooner. Samantha doesn’t always use the litter box, but uses our shower which is at least easy to clean up. Physically she is also fine, we think she’s just basically lazy. We’re hoping with the new house all on one level that she will be fine. But at least I’ll know these other ideas if not. We’ve always been afraid that changing kitty litters would just make things worse, but I would definitely try that Cat Attract.
I’m so glad you had Nestle checked out when this happened, and that she’s okay. Cats are SO good at hiding sickness and stress; survival behaviors passed down through the ages. Cat Attract and Feliway often do help cats who are stressed and exhibit such behaviors. The new litter box in the dining room was a great idea, too.
We need more cat psychologists. When we moved into this house, our two cats began peeing on the carpet. We cleaned it and they peed on the edge of the area we cleaned and so on and so on. Now we have hardwood floors!