OK so as some of you know, I have a cat who has been flat out refusing to use the litter box. Numerous tests have shown nothing medically wrong with her and a few days I started her on prozac. She also has separation anxiety issues and aggression issues, so I am hoping that the litter box issues are connected to both of those and that the prozac will work. But since the prozac won't work overnight, I have to figure out what to do with her until then. I have been cleaning my floors twice a day every single day for the past 3 or 4 weeks because she just keeps peeing on them. I know that they can still smell their pee even if we can't sometimes, but I do feel pretty confident that I got the smell out each time. My floor has pretty much been soaking wet for a month now (which also really isn't good).
So cleaning the floor constantly has really been taking up a large amount of my time and has prevented me from doing other things that I need to be doing, and I'm getting beyond stressed out, which I know won't help her issues much. Right now I'm not sure if she keeps peeing in the same places because I didn't get the smell completely out or because its habit now. So I decided that I need to attempt to retrain her to use a litter box. I can't seclude her into a room at the moment. The only room I can seclude a cat in is currently occupied by my cat Moses who is in there because I need to make sure that he's peeing. So Angelina just went into a large dog crate. Now I have a cat in one room because I need to make sure he's peeing and another cat in a crate because I need to stop her from peeing everywhere. I feel like I'm losing my mind here.
I don't want to make her uncomfortable, but I know that I need to start her out in a small area, then slowly enlarge the area and hopefully she will get used to using the litter box again. She already used the litter box once in the crate, but then I put a bed in there for her to be comfortable and she peed on that. So the bed came out. I feel bad that she's just laying on a plastic bottom of this crate, but if she keeps peeing on whatever comfortable fabric I put in there, then I'm not accomplishing anything.
So am I doing this right? Has anyone had to retrain a cat to use a litter box? I feel so bad that I have her in a crate, but its a pretty huge crate - about 3 times the size of what most shelters keep cats in, so she has plenty of room to move, but its just her and the litter box and a bowl of water right now (I feed them in meals - they don't free feed). i want to give her something else to keep her comfortable, but she's not being very cooperative. I dont' want her to end up hating me for this, but the way I have it set up right now is the only way that seems logical to me. so if anyone has any suggestions on how to retrain her, I'd love to hear them. Or if I'm doing everything right for the moment, then can someone let me know that?
ETA: Right now I have Scoop Away litter in the crate with her. I had tried the Cat Attract litter before, but I have 11 cats so I can't tell which ones were using it. I ran out though, and will run to Petsmart this week to pick more up. I would have preferred to have the Cat Attract in there with her right now, but Petsmart is kind of far away and I'm going to completely lose my mind if she is still out wandering around and peeing everywhere .
So cleaning the floor constantly has really been taking up a large amount of my time and has prevented me from doing other things that I need to be doing, and I'm getting beyond stressed out, which I know won't help her issues much. Right now I'm not sure if she keeps peeing in the same places because I didn't get the smell completely out or because its habit now. So I decided that I need to attempt to retrain her to use a litter box. I can't seclude her into a room at the moment. The only room I can seclude a cat in is currently occupied by my cat Moses who is in there because I need to make sure that he's peeing. So Angelina just went into a large dog crate. Now I have a cat in one room because I need to make sure he's peeing and another cat in a crate because I need to stop her from peeing everywhere. I feel like I'm losing my mind here.
I don't want to make her uncomfortable, but I know that I need to start her out in a small area, then slowly enlarge the area and hopefully she will get used to using the litter box again. She already used the litter box once in the crate, but then I put a bed in there for her to be comfortable and she peed on that. So the bed came out. I feel bad that she's just laying on a plastic bottom of this crate, but if she keeps peeing on whatever comfortable fabric I put in there, then I'm not accomplishing anything.
So am I doing this right? Has anyone had to retrain a cat to use a litter box? I feel so bad that I have her in a crate, but its a pretty huge crate - about 3 times the size of what most shelters keep cats in, so she has plenty of room to move, but its just her and the litter box and a bowl of water right now (I feed them in meals - they don't free feed). i want to give her something else to keep her comfortable, but she's not being very cooperative. I dont' want her to end up hating me for this, but the way I have it set up right now is the only way that seems logical to me. so if anyone has any suggestions on how to retrain her, I'd love to hear them. Or if I'm doing everything right for the moment, then can someone let me know that?
ETA: Right now I have Scoop Away litter in the crate with her. I had tried the Cat Attract litter before, but I have 11 cats so I can't tell which ones were using it. I ran out though, and will run to Petsmart this week to pick more up. I would have preferred to have the Cat Attract in there with her right now, but Petsmart is kind of far away and I'm going to completely lose my mind if she is still out wandering around and peeing everywhere .
