Female Cat born Blind- Untrained

[hthegeisha]

Hi, Catsiters. 

I have a question for you. I have six cats, all of which are happy and fairly well-adjusted considering there are 6 of them. They have their dramatic 'weather' at times, but are really good cats and I can't complain about them. 

My one problem is with a cat that I have who was born nearly blind (estimated sight is 5 to 10% and mostly peripheral). Her name is Vox. She was born with a twist in her spine which disabled her legs and neck for quite a bit of her beginning life until I began working with her, and she could not see. She wasn't up and moving when the rest of the kittens were, all of which turned out to be housebroken and litter-trained. After I began working with her for her mobility and she began to gain some strength, I think she not only missed the window for litter training with mama, but couldn't see what mama cat even did at the litter box. To this day, it is foreign to her. All attempts to train her to use it, catching her in accidents and putting her in the litter box, seemed to make her fear of it worse, like putting a blind cat into water, no matter how supportive or helpful I tried to be about it.  

My cats are able to go outside whenever they want to, and for the most part, they prefer to go to the bathroom outside (as I prefer them to!) and she is no exception. But I bring them in every night, and this is when she goes to the bathroom wherever she sees fit- usually on my bathroom rug! Even if there is no rug down in the bathroom, she will still go to the bathroom there. If I don't catch it in time, the other cats come across her 'site' and also (despite being litter-trained) use it to do their business. 

I don't have to explain to you what a problem this is in front of my toilet and shower in the morning and in the middle of the night. Any suggestions on training this little blind girl who truly doesn't know any better? I'm not mad at her and can't blame her, but it truly does drive me insane! I change bathroom rugs like most people change their clothes! 

 

[vball91]

Hmm, that's a tough situation. What about trying something like Cat Attract/Kitten Attract litter? I've never thought about how it works, but I would assume it's scent based.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Could you try a very low litter pan; even with sand or soil in it instead of true cat litter?  Perhaps if it smells like what she uses outside she will go there.  Put the pan where you normally keep your bathroom rug.  If that works; maybe you can mix the sand/soil with cat litter and progressively mix more litter and less sand/soil.  Wean her to use it in a sense.  I have no experience with this; but just a thought.  I can imagine it is frustrating. 

 

[hthegeisha]

I used the Cat Attract sprinkle in the box for all my cat's litters, and it did seem to help some of the other kittens, and then some others it did not. They say when a cat is without one sense, it relies more heavily on another- her sense of smell is just about nil, also. I think whatever condition that made her blind also affected her sense of smell. 

For her... I am wondering if the sand in a shallow pan might not just do the trick. With her being mostly blind, I think she comes across her whole world on foot and decides from there what it's good for, and she is attracted to all shallow dishes on the floor, be it for curling up in or playing. Since reading that, I do recall a situation when one of my male cats (to the right in the pic below) would constantly scratch at the bottom vanity cabinet in the bathroom wearing away the material over time, and subsequently, she would come and use the bathroom right in the middle of the 'shavings' he would leave on the floor. 

Hmm! Got me thinkin! Thanks! 

Vox 1.jpg

• hthegeisha
• May 5, 2013

(This is a pic of her when she was 6 weeks old- you can see the boy next to her is a LOT bigger at the same age). 

 

[meribeth60]

Hi! My daughter brought home a litter of kittens and their mom last year. Stevie was born blind and had problems with the litter box. The way I trained him was to put a small litter box and put him in it. I used his paws to scratch the litter. That seemed to help him a lot. Once I did that he instinctively seemed to know what to do. Now when he got sick and his nose was stopped up a few months ago, he had accidents but it was also because he developed a vestibular disease. Even though he has used that box so many times, he would not go in. The sense of smell is so important to a blind cat. He is still having vestibular problems despite two rounds of medication but accidents aren't happening anymore. Stevie is a year old now and I couldn't love him more. He makes a mess with his food. Normally this would have made me mad but it doesn't. He isn't doing any of it on purpose and I have seen him grow so much in a year. Sad what he is missing but he gets more love. Sad to think what would have happened to him if my daughter hadn't found them and their mom. Good luck! Meribeth

 

[chloespriestess]

This is just a hunch, but her preference might be to do with the texture, rather than the smell etc. She may simply prefer the soft texture of the rugs.

You can try hand-shredded newspaper. Hand-shredded, not cut with scissors or shredded by a document shredder. This is because the fiber of paper is exposed more when it's shredded by hand, making it more absorbent. (Paper shredder cuttings are too small and too dusty.) Pieces that are sized about 2 - 3 cm x 5 - 6 cm seem to work best. You might want to use a very shallow container, like a cafeteria tray first. Then, something with higher sides once she gets used to climbing in and out of it.

To clan the "litter", you can just empty the entire contents in the dumpster, rinse the tray, wipe it with tissue, fill it with freshly shredded paper. You can also "pick" the wet pieces only. (Doing this is faster by gloved hands rather than a scooper.)

There is a newspaper based "litter" in a bag available (called "Yesterday's News") in the U.S. but it gets very heavy and smelly when wet. Hand shredded paper is much cleaner. You can shred a whole week's worth in a paper and keep it in a big shopping bag. (Rubber gloves come in handy; newspaper ink stains hands.) Ask your friends to donate their newspaper to you when they are done with it.  

This "litter recipe" was developed (and perfected) by a friend of mine who wanted to provide her declared cat a "kind litter" for her sensitive paws.