Expert: Jana Connell RVT, CVT - 6/11/2010

Question
I have a 9 year old female domestic short hair..She's not up to date on her shots but she's strictly indoor. She has never really had any litter box problems, other than when she was a kitten and learning. But suddenly she's peeing outside her litter box on the floor and pooping sometimes also outside. We haven't changed her litter. The only change was we had 2 other cats but had to give them to a new home when we had our new baby, we live in a small apartment and it just wasn't fair to the cats. They were 2. My cat Caddy never was buddy buddy with them. That was 7 months ago and her problem with peeing only started about 3 months ago. Money is really tight and we can't afford to take her in to have many tests. Any ideas as to why she suddenly would start this?
Also she throws up ALL the time. Every time she eats. Sometimes there's hair in it but usually no. it's usually like everything she just ate. So there's a lot of pee, poop and vomit happening daily on our floors and with a 9 month old baby it's not good.

I appreciate any help you could give me

thank you

Melissa

Answer
Sorry for the delay in answering but it was very late when I got this and I was beat.
Vomiting food up each time the cat eats is actually regurgitation, not true vomiting.

Regug can result from many things- the food irritates her digestive tract, she doesn't like it, she is nervous, she has an intolerance to something in the food.

Changing foods often will often cause a cat to regurg her food so she can get something else. Don't laugh, we have seen it in action.

I would change her diet and try a better quality of food like Science Diet. If she is still regurgitating it then she needs to see the vet for a problem with her throat or digestive system.

This may or may not go along with the inappropriate elimination. Many factors contribute to that as well. Changing the location of the litter box is one of the major ones. Changing litter as well, which you haven't done. Other cats, competition etc can cause it. Dirty litter boxes as well. Also, not liking the substrate around the box is an issue with some cats.

Emotional factors are biggies in this problem. Your baby might be seen as competition to your cat if she isn't getting the attention she used to before the baby was born. Just having a little person on the floor with her could be upsetting to her. The crying as well bothers some cats.

Often time this is a medical issue and it overlooked. Bladder infections, bladder stones, cystitis, etc can also cause these problems. That is why it is important to have them ruled out first. If the cat has a clean bill of health then you proceed with other measures.

I know you can't get rid of the baby and you don't want to get rid of the cat- so the best thing you can do is change some of the above factors that are in your power to change.

Place the litter box in a quiet area out of traffic and as far away from the baby as possible. Give her more attention. Get her on some good quality food- very slowly.Try the Science Diet indoor cat formula.

There is a product on the market called Feliway which is a feline pheromone spray that helps the cat to feel better and more mellow. You can get it in many forms. I don't know how well it works but some people swear by it.

At last resort there are drugs that are pretty safe that you can try for a while. They are like anti-depressants but not as strong.

Here are a couple of articles that might help as well.

http://www.petplace.com/article-printer-friendly.aspx?id=1891

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+2174&aid=158

Good luck Melissa and please let me know how she does.