Ever since Flora’s visit to the vet a few weeks ago I have been keeping her in the laundry room.
The vet said she might need some time to get retrained to use the litter box. Also we never really ruled out cystitis, due to the blood in her urine. I wanted to keep her confined to the laundry room until we ruled out a medical problem.
We were supposed to recheck her urine after 2 weeks. A few days ago I went to the vet to pick up a little box and this really cool litter called “Nosorb“. You are supposed to put only the Nosorb in a litter pan. It doesn’t absorb urine, but gives cats the feel of cat litter. I thought it was neat, but Flora didn’t.
The first thing she did was go into the box and scratch all the litter out of it and spread it all around the cabinet where her box is located. I kept checking to see if she peed, so I could collect the urine to take to the vet. I kept looking in the box, but it was dry. Then at the end of the day I noticed that she had been peeing all around the litter box. GRRRR! I was able to suck some of it up with a syringe so that I could take it to the vet.
After that I spent forever cleaning up small black pellets of Nosorb and cat pee. I dropped off the sample to the vet yesterday, and expected a call with the results today.
I did get the call, but no results. Apparently the lab spilled the sample in transit! Why did this have to happen to Flora, who is such a pain to get urine from???? For plenty of other cats it would have been no problem at all. But for Flora it is a total pain to get urine.
The vet was super nice about it and offered to do just about anything for us. I decided to drop her off there tomorrow morning and let them worry about getting the urine this time!
- I am Kerry, and this is my blog. I am a wife, mother and photographer. I use this blog to talk about my life, my family, and my love of photography. I also use it to showcase some of my photos. I hope you enjoy it!
I wouldn’t hesitate to use prozac with a cat (or dog) to treat a behavioral issue. I’ve seen some pretty amazing results with prozac and behavior modification.
If you haven’t tried OdorMute to clean your carpet with, I highly recommend it. It’s much more effective than most of the other enzymatic cleaners. It’s a powder you mix with water just before you use it, and you can mix it to different strengths – skunk strength, or regular. (Skunk strength is 1 tablespoon per quart of water, regular is 1 tablespoon per gallon. I usually only use 4 to 8 oz. at a time, so I mix 1/2 tsp of the powder per cup of water – a little “lighter” than skunk strength.) Use the skunk strength for older spots, use the regular strength for new spots and for soaking launderable stuff before washing. Thoroughly douse the spot, you need it to soak all the way down into the padding (and even to the sub-floor, if the urine soaked down that far). Do not blot, and allow to air dry. It may take a couple of days to dry, and you may notice urine odor until then, but the odor goes away once the carpet is dry.
You might also think about adding another box, in fairly close proximity to where the inappropriate urination is occurring. Sometimes adding another box helps. If you’re using a hooded box, try adding an open box, and vice versa.
Is there anything that might make her uncomfortable about using the box in its usual place – is she being interrupted, does she feel too exposed, is there too much foot traffic nearby, is there another pet that’s either guarding the box or waiting to ambush her when she exits the box? Had you changed the type, scent, or brand of litter before this behavior began? Had there been a change in the household routine (work/school hours, for example), a lot of company, a new person living in the house (even a temporary visitor) that coincides with the onset of the behavior? If it’s not a medical issue, a little detective work might help you discover what triggered the behavior, and prozac and behavior modification can help resolve it.
Good luck!
By Nancy on 12.09.08 10:50 pm | Permalink
Wow, thanks for all of your great information! I really appreciate all of your advice.
I think I will try the Odor Mute. I’ve tried Nature’s Miracle, but I haven’t had much luck. I also had the carpets professionally cleaned, but it didn’t really help either.
I don’t know what started it, but I think it may be our traveling. I think she gets upset when we travel, and then she urinates on the carpet. Once she starts, I think she keeps doing it even after we get back home and things return to normal.
At the advice of my vet I confined her to a room with her litter box for 2 weeks to re-train her to use the box. In the meantime I got another box and put in on our lower floor so now there is a litter box on each level.
For now, things seem to be better. Next time we travel I will keep her in one room away from the carpet. Hopefully that will help.
If I notice that she is urinating on the floor again, I will definitely try the Prozac.
Thanks again for your advice!
By Kerry on 12.10.08 10:05 pm | Permalink