Expert: Becky - 9/17/2006

Question
why has my male cat refusing to use his litter. He is going in the corner of the living room or in the middle of the living room floor. He is putting feces and urinating in the corner. He litter is cleaned daily. Is he sick? I have tried to retrain him, he is 12 years old and neutered.please help or I will have to send him away.

Answer
Hi Vanessa!

You should take him to a Vet to make sure there is not a medical problem here.  At his age, he could be having some type of urinary infection and/or blockage that may be causing him not to use his litter box. Cats will often show that something is wrong by not using the box as normal, especially if in the past he used it correctly.

Or... Have you changed litter, or location of the box?  Cats do not like change and it could be as simple as that.

I am going to copy to you below a method I have found on re-training cats to use a litter box.  I really think you should have him checked first to make sure it is not medical.  I hope this helps.

God Bless!
Becky

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!!