Refuses to piddle in litter box.

What can I do? I've used cat attract and it doesn't work, I've tried to retrain him to use the litter box and that didn't work. He's "delicate" when it comes to a litter box and I know it. Now, though, it's getting way out of hand. Now he's pee'ing on the bed, chair, couch, stove (cook stove), entertainment center. Pretty much wherever he wants. Right now he's comtained in a huge dog crate because I don't trust him out of it.

Teddy made a fatal mistake last night and pee'ed on my hubby when we went to bed. (Now, Teddy has been vet checked and got a clean bill of health so there's no reason for him to do this.) Hubby stated last night that either Teddy starts going where he should or Teddy goes.

What we don't understand is he'll do number 2 in the box but not number 1. Is there anything else I can try to do?

A little background on Teddy:

His name is Teddy Bear, he was born about 2 years ago, he is altered and up on his shots. Not sick in anyway the vet can tell. He's a total love ball almost to the point of obsessive (sp?). He's a 1 person kinda cat but is ok with another person. He's loyal to me more then Mike. He has no behaior issues cept peeing where he shouldn't.

Any help and/or ideas will be appreciated. I don't want to lose Teddy over this.

Chrissy

Check out the posting "Tried everything..." a few letters before yours.

I read it and how does that help me? He pee's everywhere and I do mean everywhere. If he only pee'd on one surface type I could probably get a handle on the situation. I can't even leave him in the bathroom without him peeing on top of the toilet, the toilet seat, in the tub, in the sink, on the counter, floor, you name it, it gets pee'd on. It's almost like he thinks "Huh. I gotta pee. Well, where I stand is good enough." and off he goes, peeing where he stands. He's even gone so far as to pee n my kitchen table. He'll do it with us watching or without us watching. Almost like he doesn't care if he gets caught.

I'm just frustrated with this situation.

Two more things to check if your vet hasn't: One of our cats peed outside the box because of pain. She needed two teeth pulled. As soon as they were pulled, the peeing problem went away. The other kitty had a very small "cyst" of crystals embedded in his uterine wall. The MRI at the vet was not sensitive enough to see it. It cost us an arm and a leg to go to the specialist, but in the end it was worth it. The more sensitive MRI caught the problem, and the kitty had an operation, and no more problem.

There are two things you can consider:

1) Retraining in a large crate/cage. While Teddy is confined in the crate, get a black light, and use it throughout the whole house. ANY PLACE that turns up with even the smallest yellow splotch in the light needs to be treated completely and thoroughly with an enzyme cleaner. We use nok-out (http://www.nokout.com). Sometimes you need to reapply it.

When (if) Teddy is confined to a large like a dog crate, or if you can find available those large cages they use at some shelters - has mutli-levels). When he consistently pees in the box when confined to a crate, the next step is releasing him into a single room. &etc.

2) The other option you can discuss with your vet is medication. We moved, adopted a daughter, and one of our kitties had an adjustment issue. We used Elavil. It is an anti-depressant, and it has the further benefit of causing kitty to not want to pee so often. A lot of people on TCS have a conceptual problem with giving cats this type of medication, but if it is the only solution to keeping your pet, it is something that should be considered. It is given at rather low dose initially (10mg) once a day. If, after a few months, it's working, then you can slowly wean him off and see if he keeps using the litterbox.

Have you considered litterbox placement? The type of litter? Whether litterboxes have lids or no lids? You may want to consider trying the elavil, and increasing the number of litterboxes, consider their placement, and maybe try different types of litter in several of the boxes.

Good luck,

Laurie

Thank you Laurie.

Teddy seems ok with using the box he has now in the crate. When he's been faithfull for a week, I'll let him out to roam the bathroom. In the meantime, I'll get him vet checked again and his teeth checked and so on. I'll mention the medication to his vet to see what he thinks. I hope we come across a cure for this guy.

As for boxes and placement and such, he loves his huge covered box, will not go in any other box. I have several of them around for him and several open boxes, too. He seems to enjoy Tidy Cat crystal blend over any other so his boxes are filled with that.

Chrissy

Chrissy - I was wondering how Teddy's doing?

Laurie

Better. LOL Has yet to mistake in the bathroom. Which is a bonus seeing as how the last time he was in there he made sure everything got wet. We bought him a brand new box and the cat attract. Mixed that with his normal litter and it seems to be working. The vet wants us to try one last retraining before using medication. Teddy had some blood work done, urinalysis, and his teeth checked and everything is fine. The vet can't find a medical reason why Bear won't pee in the box.

We, also, let him come out of the bathroom under supervised visits. So far, that's worked well but it's only been for an hour at a time. Next week we'll increase his time to one and a half hours.