Expert: Tina - 4/21/2004

Question
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Followup To
Question -
Hello Tina,

I am in desperate need of advice about one of our cats (we have 3).  Our cat is 8 years old and we have had her since she was a kitten. She has always urinated outside of the cat box. This has been an ongoing problem. My husband is much more of an animal lover than I am, so he is the primary caretaker of our 3 cats. We agreed that we could not let the cat destroy our house (she was peeing throughout our  house, mostly in the floor vents). So we took her to the  vet and tried a few kinds of medications and sprays, etc. Anyway, nothing has  worked. So we decied to let her live primarily in our basement, and my husband set up a pen for her to sleep in at night so she can't roam freely and pee everywhere. She is free to roam around the basement all day, and we let her up in the house in the evenings with us (supervised). On nice days we let her go outside all day. Of course, this cat hates to go outside. She is extremely overweight and never likes to run around the yard, but we like to get her outside to get fresh air. So anyway, today is a beautiful day and my husband went down to get her to go outside. When he tried to pick her up, the cat clawed his face (my husband called it a scratch). His whole lip was sliced open and he needed 5 stitches. I say enough is enough. We have 2 small children and I feel that we need to find a solution for this cat. My husband will not get her declawed (he thinks its inhumane) and even I don't want to take her to the SPCA because I'm sure no one would take her and thus she would probably be put to sleep. So I guess I'm just looking for some input from you. I'm afraid to have this cat around my 2 young children. Do you think this cat's behavior can be improved? Even our vet is suprised we tolerate the peeing! Thanks for any insight you may have.

Victoria
Answer -
Hi Victoria,

A bit of further info will help me answer better:

1. Has this cat ever used the litterbox at all (ie did she use it somewhat when she was younger and has just started going outside the box more and more or did she never set foot in a litterbox at all?)

2. What type of medication did your vet try - what did he think the problem may be and how old was she when you first tried the vet?

3. What food do you feed your cat

4. Do you have other pets

5. She is spayed, right?

First about the clawing... I don't think you need to worry about her clawing the kids, she was probably just very frightened by being outside after being confined in a basement for a long time and all the sudden finding herself in a big open space. When cats feel vulnerable they are likely to lash out if they think their life is in danger. Of course your husband was just trying to help her but the cat was in extreme self-defense mode and I am not surprised she scratched him. I don't think she will do it when she feels safe inside.

By the way, your husband is correct declawing is terribly inhumane. It is illegal in the UK and other European countries, and the Canadian and US Veterinary Medical Board do not advocate it. Fewer and fewer vets are performing this mutilation. Basically the operation involves removing the last bone in each toe with bone crushers. The pain is excruciating when the cat wakes up (I have seen cats in a vet clinic after this procedure and it would break your heart). They often develop nerve damage and continuing pain in their toes just like humans who ahve lost a limb. Finally, declawing is a major cause of litterbox problems, and you don't need any more of those! Cats who are declawed often don't want to step in litter because it hurts their toes. Instead you can trim her claws to keep them blunt, read here for more articles about declawing and trimming claws instead http://www.amby.com/cat_site/

Inappropriate urination is 99% of the time due to a medical cause. Has your vet treated her for a bladder infection (antibiotics) or crystals in the urine? These conditions are very painful and the cat will avoid litterboxes. Have your vet (or another if you need a second opinion perhaps) take a urine sample and test it for these problems. I would suggest the cat be hospitalized for a week and the vet canm observe her urination and get samples, and administer any medications needed. I would look for a urinary tract specialist if you can find one in your area. You say you've tried medications in the past but which ones, what did the vet say he thought the problem was? If they were just "kitty prozac" (a tack lots of vets try but they should check for medical problems first) that would not address an ongoing infection or other urinary tract problem. Antibiotics must be given every day and the cat can't spit them out later (that's why I suggest hospitalizing her).

WHat really worries me is that you say this has been going on since she was a kitten. Did she ever use the litterbox? Perhaps she was never trained to! I can help you with that if she has never used the box. If she did use the box sometimes and just goes outside the box some of the time, that indicates a medical problem to me. Please pursue this with another vet if that's the case.

FInally, cats will continue to urinate anywhere they can smell previous cat urine. Even if you can't smell it your cat still can! You need to clean every spot with a product called Nature's Miracle, it's an enzyme that breaks down the cat urine to smaller molecules that can't be detected by your cat. To find the stink spots, get a black light (sold at many pet stores) and search the floors with the lights out. Cat urine will glow under the light.

Saturate any glowing spots with Nature's Miracle and leave it to dry naturally. THe smell should be gone when it's dry. Don't let it dry too quickly, the enzymes need to be wet to work - in some dry houses you may have to cover the spot with plastic to keep it damp for a few days. You may need a big supply of the cleaner but it's the only thing that really works and as long as yourcat can smell that she will continue to revisit those spots.

PLease send another question with the information I requested and I'll help you further. I'm sure we can fix this problem, the only challenge is that it has beengoing on so long and may require a bit of patience to re-learn new habits.

-Tina


Tina,

Hello again and thank you for your very informative response. Our cat does use the litter box most of the time in the basement, but every so often she just urinates or poops wherever she wants. My husband estimates she uses the litter box 90% of the time. The problem was much worse when she lived upstairs in our house. But, this has always been a problem, since she was a kitten, she has NEVER used the box every time. Our vet said she has an "extra chromosone".  As for treating this problem, we can not recall the name of the medicine but I believe it was a "kitty prozac" type thing like you said. I don't think any medical diagnosis was done. In any event, it was virtually impossible to get the meds down her throat regularly, she would just gag and cough it up, so the treatment was ineffective. At this point, I am more concerened with what she did to my husband yesterday(clawing his face). I do not think she is a violent animal, but because she does have something wrong with her, I'm afraid she just doesn't "think" properly and could possibly harm my children accidently. My husband disagrees and even after yesterday's fiasco he let the cat upstairs in the evening. So I just don't know what to do about this.  Thanks for your help!

Victoria

Answer
HI Victoria,

Please show both these responses to your husband, I think you should discuss them with him.

I don't think that your cat has any mental problems. It is normal for a cat to feel vulnerable and terrified going outside after being inside confined, and therefore to scratch someone. Being picked up is a scary experinece for a cat. Just put yourself in her place, you are being picked up forcibly by an animal about 10x your size and very strong, lifted off the ground about 10x your height! You'd have to feel very relaxed and trusting to not feel freaked out and assume you are about to be eaten. It is NOT an abnormal reaction to her situation! TO pick up a frightened cat, I always pet their back, then take a small handful of the scruff and support their weight with another hand under the back end. Trying to grab them around the middle as most people so evokes an immediate instinctive fear of being eaten.

She will not do that indoors and you should teach your children to never grab at a cat or try to pick her up (until they are old enough to learn how to do it properly). You can ask your husband to trim her claws so they are not so sharp, or take her to the vet to have it done. I am sure she will not hurt your children. Having a pet is an excellent experince for children to learn to respect boundaries, be kind and responsible. I was scratched occassionally by a cat while I was growing up and it never did me any harm, and it taught me to respect other creatures and treat them gently. You are responsible for supervising your children when around a pet and teaching them the right way to approach a cat or other animal.

Since she urinates and defecates outside the litterbox, there are a few possibilities:

1. the box is not cleaned frequently enough - cat boxes should be cleaned at least once per day, if you would not step in it with bare feet neither will your cat! Cats are very clean and don't like stepping in their own feces or urine.

2. She has an aversion to the box due to fear (traumatic experience while in the box such as loud machine turning on or another pet attacking her) Make sure the box is in a private quiet place. Make sure dogs or children can't bother her while at the box.

3. She smells previous "accidents" and will continue to go there until you remove all traces of the smell as I described before.

4. She dislikes the box or the type of litter. Get an extra large box that has lots of space. Try putting less or more litter in it to see if she prefers deep or shallow litter. I forgot to ask what kind you use. Many cats are adverse to any scented litters or pine litter - cats can smell about 100x better than us so to them these smells are overpowering.

I recommend you try either World's Best Cat Litter http://www.worldsbestcatlitter.com
or try this litter especially designed to help cats who avoid the litterbox it's called Cat Attract http://www.preciouscat.com/WebPages/catattract.html
Avoid pine litter, scented litter or litter with large pellets. Avoid covered boxes unless they are very large with enough space for your cat to run around fully and stand up straight. Clean it every day!

I think you'd benefit from rwadin a book on cat behavior, such as "How to Raise a Well-Behaved Cat: Not A Sour Puss" by Pam Johnson-Bennett. It will help you understand what your cat does and to teach your children how to be safe around animals and enjoy them!

PS Your vet can't know if she has an extra chromosome without doing special straining and testing of her cells, and I really doubt that has been done - there was no reason to do so and it would have been expensive. It sounds like you need to switch vets! I am a geneticist so I am quite familiar with chromosomes and genes. Even if your cat does have an extra chromosome, it would not affect her behavior. An extra "X" chromosome can be found in some rare cats but it doesn't change any physical or mental characteristics since female cats already have 2 of these. If she had an extra "Y" she would be a male, and if she had an extra of any other chromosome, she would have died at conception or been noticably deformed.

PLease implement these changes and get back to me if you need further help.

-Tina