Expert: Becky - 8/18/2006

Question
We have two cats, a 12 year old neutered male (Ricky) and an 8 year old neutered female (Hobo) both are declawed.  Ricky has been peeing in various places throughout the house, we clean the litter box twice a day and have even switched to "yesterday's news" thinking the clay clumpable sort was bothering him.  He's done this peeing in the past and the Vet told us to change the litter to yesterdays news, put out a second box, change his food etc.  And that worked then, and we've followed the same things this time and we thought it had stopped.  I have just about convinced myself that he's doing the peeing out of spite and last night is a perfect example.  As I was getting ready for bed he kept meowing as though he wanted fed, but my husband had just fed him so I was talking to Ricky telling him I wasn't feeding him to go to sleep.  I got in bed myself and within about 5 minutes he got on the bed at my feet, where he usually sleeps and urinated all over my feet and bed.  Thank god we have a water repellant mattress pad cover.  We cleaned up the mess and literally put him outside.  Although he's an indoor cat, he goes outside daily while we are home for an hour or so he's no stranger to being outside.  I was livid when he urinated on me and the bed, it was late so we didn't know what else to do.  This is the first time he's done this on me or my bed but he recently urinated all over a brand new bathroom rug (he's done it to other ones in the past, we treated it and cleaned.   In the past two weeks he's urinated in the corner of our spare bedroom on hardwood floors causing the wood to buckle some (so he's probably done that a few times before I caught it), in the bathroom at the baseboard (which is brand new since we just refinished both of our bathrooms), on the rug, now on our bed.  I'm at the point that I feel like having him euthanized, I cannot rationalize ruining $1,000's of dollars of furniture because of the cat. He's peed on most of our furniture and all of the family room carpeting in various areas. I am going to take him to the vet Saturday to rule out any sort of health issue, but at this point I don't even want him back in the house.  Our vet had told us that if he had urinary tract infection he would likely not use the litter box but he is, he's pee/pooing in the the box.  One other thing that may be important is that we have a 14 yr old daughter who LOVES this cat but she chases him trying to grab him and love him, she can't understand why he won't come to her.  He's always been standoff-ish my husband believes that our daugther's chasing him causes him to do what he's doing but I don't think so especially when the episode last night had nothing to do with her, she wasn't even around him when he did that.  And one saturday he peed in the spare room ruining the hardwood floor when no one was even at the house (we were gone for about 6 hours that day running errands etc.).  Do you have any suggestions in the event he doesn't have a medical problem? And honestly I'm thinking he doesn't because I know for a fact he's been peeing and pooping in the litter box because I've seen him in it at least twice a day for the last week.  

Answer
Hi Carole!

I can feel your pain. I know it is very frustrating, and you're right, you will probably need to put him down if it doesn't get better because since he is declawed he really doesn't need to stay outside all the time.  You might ask your Vet clinic about them or someone they might know who would keep him as their clinic cat as most clinics have tile floors.  I am going to post the information that I have on retraining a cat to use a litter box. I know you said he does use it, but he doesnt' all the time, so maybe some of this will help.  I don't blame you , I would be very upset about everything being ruined too.  I hope this helps!!
It takes time and patience but cats can be re-trained to use a litter box.   If you will follow these instructions, you should have good results.  
1.   You must remove the urine from the area that your cat has been urinating.  If it is carpet, rent a good steam cleaner, buy some good pet urine remover shampoo and clean the carpet really good.  You can also add white vinegar to the shampoo. I have never had a problem with vinegar staining my carpet, but you may want to try a small area behind a couch to test it first.   Vinegar is a natural deodorizer and it will help to remove the urine stain so that the cat cannot smell it.  Sometimes you can’t smell the urine, but the cat can, so it’s very important to use these products when cleaning your carpet or bare floor.  You can get white vinegar at any grocery store and it’s cheap.  
2.    After you clean the carpet and it dries completely, put aluminum foil over the area or areas where your cat used to “go”.    Cats hate to walk on it, and will avoid the area.  Other good deterrents are pine cones or mothballs. (Cats don’t like to step on anything prickly, and they don’t like the odor that the moth balls produce.  These also work well to keep cats out of your house plants!)   This will help train your cat to NOT keep going back to the same place over and over again.  Mistakes happen, and if your kitty does “go” on the carpet or somewhere outside of the box, clean well with the shampoo/vinegar mixture. Please do not rub your cat’s face in it or spank your cat as a disciplinary action.  This does NOT work ; it only terrifies your cat.
3.   This part is the hardest part.  Until your cat is completely re-trained, keep him/her in a small bedroom or bathroom when you are not home.
    Make sure the toilet lid is down, especially if you have a kitten , to avoid accidental drowning.  Put a litter box in there with food and water. This will pretty much force your cat to use the litter box when you are not at home.   When you are home, watch him/her closely.   If you can tell that there is about to be an “accident”, scoop the cat up and take him/her to the litter box.   Please do not hit or spank your cat.  That does NOT work with cats.  It will only scare the cat and you will never get them trained.  
4.   Be sure to lavishly praise your cat when he/she does use the litter box!

If you follow these instructions, you should have good results.  I have had many people tell me that it worked for them and I have a very good friend who did this with great results.  Your kitty should be doing fine in about a week.   Good luck!!


God Bless,
Becky