Herding Cats at Home - March 2006

Special springtime warning: Easter lilies and other lilies are VERY toxic to cats! Easter lily (Lilium longiflorum), tiger lily (Lilium tigrinum), rubrum (Lilium speciosum), Japanese show lily (Lilium lancifolium) and various day lilies (Hemerocallis species) can cause rapid, irreversible, kidney failure and death in cats. It's not known which specific toxin in lilies causes the destruction of the cat's renal tubular epithelial cells (cells lining part of the kidney). There's no known antidote. All parts of these lilies are highly toxic to cats.

Even a few nibbles can be deadly. Unless treated aggressively within 18 hours, the damage is irreversible, and kidney failure and death will result within approximately 36-72 hours. If you know or suspect your cat has consumed any part of a lily plant, (or any other plant you don't know to be safe), rush her to the veterinarian immediately. Prompt, aggressive veterinary treatment is essential.

Other lily plants also pose serious dangers to felines. Plants of the Spathiphyllum species and calla lilies contain toxic oxalates. Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria majalis) harbors a cardiac toxin.

Don't take chances - keep these plants out of your home, and away from your cats.

Q: My kitten, Callie uses her litter box to pee but she will not poop in it. I keep it clean. She used to use it but now she poops under my bed. My room is small and smells real bad! It's gross! I need help with her or my parents will make me put her outside. What can I do? And why do her farts and poop smell so bad? I've changed her food.

A: I've discovered that many cats really prefer to have two litter boxes, even if they don't have to share with any other cats. They like to pee in one, and poop in the other. Who knows why? - but I think it's always wise to accommodate your cats' preferences in litter box matters!

Sometimes, it's because they feel that their one box is just too small. But it's easier to just add an extra box. Keep them both clean, of course. This generally solves the problem. So, add an extra box, right next to her existing box, and see what happens.

Meanwhile it's really important that you thoroughly clean up the area under the bed where she's been pooping, or the residual smell will continue to draw her back there. As long as it "smells like a litter box," she'll tend to consider it a litter box. Clean up using an enzyme cleaner made specifically for getting rid of cat waste odors (such as "Nature's Miracle"). Fortunately for you, it's MUCH easier to get rid of cat poop odors than cat pee odors, especially on carpet, because the poop doesn't sink in and spread out like the pee does.

If possible, after you do the complete cleanup, make the under-the-bed area inaccessible to Callie for at least a couple of weeks. This will help her develop good, new habits of using her litter boxes, and help her forget about pooping under the bed. So, either keep her out of your bedroom, or block the access to under the bed.

Cat poop does, indeed smell rather... gross.. when it's fresh. ESPECIALLY if it's under your bed. But once Callie starts using her litter box, she'll most likely bury her waste and that will get rid of most if not all of the odor. Be sure to scoop the box at least once a day.

Without knowing what she's eating, I can't tell you why her poops and farts would smell any worse than any other cats'. But it's true that sometimes young cats and kittens have tricky digestive systems for awhile while they're young, especially of they're adjusting to new food or water supplies. They usually grow out of this. If you think it's a real problem, be sure to ask Callie's veterinarian if she should be on a different diet. Sometimes, a food allergy or other kind of sensitivity can cause such problems.