Peeing outside the litter box - sigh

[Em]

Welcome back Em. you must have taken the dry weather back with you cos its raining again 

Yeah - I stayed away from the pooter, and it stayed fine enough to take the doglet out and completely knacker her out!! Came back on, and whoosh, it started raining... hmmm...

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

oh grit that made me laugh and choked on dinner 

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

Jaffa has been behaving perfectly normally with regard to peeing since his little accident!  I must be a bit on edge about it though because I was sitting on the sofa drinking my morning coffee this morning when I heard what was obviously a cat peeing somewhere and it woke me up much quicker than the coffee.  Rather startled I called "Jaffa... Jaffa, where are you?" as my first thought was that he was doing it again.  Poor lad was in the litter tray (near the sofa) but I hadn't seen him go in.  He obviously finished off pretty quickly and came bouncing out of the tray in response to his name    Thankfully he's not been put off using the tray and went back to finish what he started about 10 mins later 

[Grit]

Matilda is a serial out of the box pee'r!!!!!!  She has done this off and on since we got her as a kitten, we have taken up the carpet in the kitchen but she likes the bathroom and under the dining room table aswell.  In Tilda's case she can't stand any litter box that isn't beautifully clean and smelling of disinfectant.  Once someone has gone in the tray - thats it - she can't use it.  We have 3 cats  and 5 litter boxes however only one is the favourite of all three cats - this was the temporary one by the table that immediately became the only one that will do.

Tilda also hates anyone else using the litter boxes and always watches them intently with a look of pure anger and disgust on her face before trying to swipe them when they come out.

[Desley (booktigger)]

WAsn't your post Em, I have read the background on yours before.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Welcome back Em. you must have taken the dry weather back with you cos its raining again 

[Em]

Desley - just in case it's me and my itinerant piddlers that you're worrying about - my boys both pee outside their trays because when I lived with my sister we took in an unneutered stray and he sprayed - the boys started marking too, and although they stopped in that house once he was neutered and it was cleaned up, the previous owner of this house had cats that weren't litter trained, and so did the owner before him. The problem is so bad that we had to get rid of the hall carpet, but because the (concrete) floor had been soaked we also need to get it skimmed at some point, so the cats are only allowed unsupervised access to the lounge and kitchen, just to contain the problem.

Unfortunately we have the same problem with the kitchen: in order to get rid of the smell we need to completely replace the floor and all the units as the chipboard and cheap laminate is saturated, no matter what we clean it with.

In light of incidents on other thread, can I point out this isn't me being defensive, or taking offence in any way -  I just want to reassure people as to the welfare of my cats!! 

[Desley (booktigger)]

None of the three I had with cystitis were either Susanne - PEbbles wasn't even weeing out of the tray, it was just strong smelling (that was quite amusing, I had to keep sniffing litter trays to work out which of the three it was!!) - I woudn't do a vet visit either, I would just get a bag of special litter, and get a sample checked - £5ish at my vet, and you have peace of mind then. Tom's pee never smelt when he was spraying up things, it was only watching him or suddenly finding something that he had caught that you found out (I didn't realise before he was here that they can wee on things and you can't smell it). In your case, as it was a one off I can understand not doing anything, it was more cos there was a post from someone else where it was a few times.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I agree to a certain extent, Desley but if a cat isn't showing any sign of being unwell a wait and see approach is often best.  Most of use know our cats well enough to go with our gut instinct about whether something's not right and whether a vet visit is needed.  A one off incident of peeing outside the litter box without any other signs -eg straining, signs of discomfort, increased frequency of urination, general signs that the cat may be unwell - doesn't necessarily mean a trip to the vets is necessary.  In Jaffa's case he's not showing any change in his normal pattern of using the litter tray and has used his tray normally since and I really don't think he has a UTI.  If there are any other signs or it happens more than once then yes I think getting the urine tested for a UTI is the first thing to do.

[Desley (booktigger)]

I dont want to sound offensive, but I am a bit concerned about people saying they dont think probs are a UTI and they are going to just keep an eye out for signs, what signs are you actually looking for?? I have had 3 with issues, and all have shown entirely different ways - one still used the tray religiously just had strong smelling wee, one would use the tray but spray occasionally and only one did the classic squatting and straining - and only for a couple of hours, if I hadn't witnessed it, I woudl never have known as she was fine the day after (Although still went to the vets).

[Em]

Crossing fingers it was a one-off!

Doglet got caught out last night - we have two small rag rugs in the hallway and she did a poo neatly in the middle of one and a pee neatly in the middle of the other. Think we need to make her go out last thing at night, even when she claims she doesn't need to...

Since feeding her mostly Trophy her poos no longer smell (unless she steals cat biscuits in which case...  ) so that was good!

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

Not done it again yet!  He has used the tray normally - a couple of times when I was scooping (which he often does) and he went and used it of his own accord last night so fingers crossed that's the end of it.  He's not showing any sign of a UTI but if he does it again he'll be off to the vets to check for that.

[Desley (booktigger)]

Fingers crossed it isnt a UTI Susanne, but if he does it again, i would get a sample off.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

Just in case I don't know, what drill do you mean? Keep an eye out for signs of UTI, that kind of thing?

Yeh - possible UTI, check number and condition of litter trays is ok, think about whether anything might be stressing him etc.   

I was really shocked tbh, which I shouldn't be cos lots of peeps on here and the other cat board I use have occasional probs with peeing outside the tray, but I never expected that from Jaffa.  I do wonder whether the fact that he came and did it right under my nose means he was doing it to get attention.  He had been wandering around whining for his breakfast but I took a shower first and was just putting some clothes on before feeding him when he did it.  I really hope he's not going to think that's a good way of getting my attention or demanding food in future.  Jaffa is quite a needy cat and I often joke that he'd rather be told off than ignored as at least he's getting attention!

Shouldn't laugh about Charley peeing on the cake but 

[Em]

I reckon he should get the connection. If I ever catch Charley being norty she makes a point of going in the tray when I'm watching (even leads me into the kitchen ).

More a "dammit" kind of moan than anything else as I know the drill when a cat starts to pee outside the litter box

Just in case I don't know, what drill do you mean? Keep an eye out for signs of UTI, that kind of thing?

Anyway, you have my sympathies, as someone who has a couple of itinerant piddlers I know how upsetting it can be when they pee on something they shouldn't. Year before last we bought a lovely Xmas cake from Theakstons brewery and it was in it's cardboard box on the side (at that point we hadn't realised just how saturated the house already was from the previous owner's cats) - Charley peed on it overnight...and we couldn't tell her off as we didn't catch her at it...!

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

More a "dammit" kind of moan than anything else as I know the drill when a cat starts to pee outside the litter box, but my perfect little gingerbread man Jaffa peed in an ikea bag this morning!  Maybe he was objecting to the quality of their merchandise as I've just bought an office chair from there and am not happy with it.

It's one of those large ikea bags and it was on the bedroom floor with some stuff in it (nearly full) and the little monkey climbed into it, squatted and started to pee    On top of a new bag I got for xmas too (thanks Jaffa  ) I stopped him mid flow so little damage  but I was rather shocked as Jaffa is 9 1/2 and has never, ever done anything like this before.  A bit later when I was scooping the tray he came and used it.  He's always been mr reliable as far as the litter tray goes, no matter how stressful the circumstances.  I don't think he has a UTI but will obviously keep an eye on him for that.  Mosi was in the other room and I think he may have been using the tray, but I'm not sure.  I do only have the one tray (never been a problem before) so maybe Jaffa decided that the ikea bag would be a good substitute.  I certainly hope it's as simple as that and there will be no repeat performance.  This is the sort of thing other people's cats do, not my Jaffa!!

Like I said, just a bit of a moan!  Just one question - as he was just a few feet away from me and I shouted "Jaffa, No!" and removed him from the bag as soon as I realised what he was doing, do you think he will make the connection and realise it was wrong?  I don't believe in punishing cats for peeing outside the litter tray as there's always a reason, but I shouted at him instinctively when I realised what he was doing.