Litterbox Dilemia

Ellie is a 2 yr. old female Persian, who came to live with us about 5 months ago with no elimination problems. For the past 2 months it has developed into a serious problem. We have another female cat in the house, but Ellie is not intimiated in the least by her.

Ellie came for frequent visits prior to coming to live with us and we never had any problems, now this! Help, I've had to resort to keeping her contained in the bathroom when no one is home so at least the problem is isolated. She will still eliminate right beside her box. I've tried cleaning, changing liter, moving to different location.

I feel it is a trauma thing due to her living situation, but she acts very happy when we are with her.

She was living at my daughter's apt. and then my daughter moved back home, so she still has her original owner around, although not much. Could that be the problem? Could she be confused about security?

Hi JGuinn and welcome.

Does she only pee outside the box or does she do the other stuff too?

The first thing to do really is have her checked by the vet for any medical problems.

Please give us some more details to work with - when does she do this? What exactly does she do? Does she spray? Where does she go? What have you tried so far, other than isolating her in the bathroom.

The litterbox problem involves both urinating and bowel movements. I'm certain there is no medical problem involved. Last night, I took her litterbox out of the bathroom and replaced it with the top of a box. I thought maybe there was some odor in her litterbox that she didn't like and she used that box top today. That was a success I gained after reading other solutions on this site.

She seems to be urinating on the carpet in our foyer where we used to sit her litterbox when she first came to live with us. The bowel movements always seemed to be in the same place in 2 rooms around windows. We have placed newspapers all around the edges of the rooms to catch accidents.

The problem seemed to began when we were trying to move the litterbox to the garage area. We moved it to the bottom of the steps which leads to the garage, I guess she got upset over this move because this seems to be when the problem began. I just don't understand why she won't go back to it now. Could she just be trying to send a message to the other cat in the house that this is her territory.

Tonight I did notice that I have a room air freshner, probably the one for stron animal odors sitting behind my toilet. Could that odor be causing the problem, although she did use the box today?

Several things to look at -

Her preferred location - She needs to feel safe and secure where she's going. This could very well be it as you say she's going at specific places.

Her preferred litter - have you changed that at some point?

The cleaningness of the box - some cats will not go in the box, even if there's just one poop in there.

You also need to clean where she had her accident. I'm not suggesting that you're living it there , but cats can smell traces that we can't. You should use a special product (check out this site http://www.planeturine.com - for more info about the products).

I started out with one male cate that was completely trained and had no problem getting love from him, then my daughter's boyfriend became allergic to her cat so I took Molson (12 year old cat) in and it took awhile but they are now friends, both had separate kitty boxes to pee in, no problem next came Matilda a small female sitting in our back yard that is totally fenced in. How she got in I'll never know as she has been declawed and I imagine spayed also.
From the minute we decided to keep her the males would back out of her way also the dog will not even look at her as she growls at them and hisses.
When I change the litter box I have to make sure she is not able to get at both because she will immediately run to pee in both. The male cats will not use the litter she has been in so they insist on going outside.
Just last week I closed the bathroom door and changed the male cat's litter, cleaned it out and put disinfectant in it, Molson was able to get in there and actually use it with out Miss Bossy taking over but it wasn't long before she was in there putting her claim to this litter box once again. So I don't know what to do about that. Sure will be glad when spring comes and I can let my boys out so they can have the backyard to run around in and deposit their presents out of the way of Miss Bossy. She is going to stay inside as she has no front claws to protect herself from the neighood bully cat next door. You would think that her being a stray cat she would be a little more sharing with my boys?