At my wits end! Cat peeing in the water bowl

[Punkie]

One of my cats is quite literally going to send me to the loony bin. He will not stop peeing in the water bowl!

He’s a year old domestic shorthair and I’ve had him and his brother since they were 8 weeks old. Absolutely no health issues (I’ve had a full urology work-up done on him), no problem using the litter box (I’ve tried switching litter and location with no change in behavior; he uses the litter box to defecate and urinate with no issue, no yowling or avoidance issues when it comes to urinating), and he’s not discriminatory when it comes to water sources.

I use one of the square horse feeders as a water dish because it has to supply my Pot Belly (who drinks as much as a small pony), two dogs, and both of the kitties. I’ve tried supplying the cats with their own water source, but it doesn’t seem to matter. He pees in that one, too!

I change the water everyday, but if I have to leave as soon as I’ve changed it, it will likely be peed in by the time I get home. This means that whomever is left in the house while I’m gone is stuck with peed-in water.

I’ve tried bleaching the dish, sending it through the dishwasher, replacing it with a new bucket, putting it in different locations…it doesn’t matter. I’ve even tried leaving the bathroom door open (he LOVES to pee and play in the toilet which his DISGUSTING) to see if he would use the toilet instead and leave the water alone, but to no avail. If there is a standing water source, he HAS to pee in it! And it’s not that he doesn’t use the litter box to urinate, he just insists on peeing in everything else as well.

He’s completely neutered (I had his vet double check), he’s not marking anywhere else, he’s never peed in the food (his or otherwise), he’s relaxed, happy, and healthy. I cannot, for the life of me, figure this one out and my vet is at a loss as well. If it were just him in the house, I wouldn’t feel so bad. But everyone else has to deal with gross water either overnight or while I’m gone. It’s not fair to the other animals.

He gets along well with everyone in the house, he and his brother are inseparable, the pig completely ignores him and he plays with the dogs willingly and happily. I’ve even tried putting everyone but him out during the day to see if it’s a territorial behavior and it doesn’t seem to matter.

Any ideas oh wise COTHers? I don’t know if I can deal with another 15-20 years of this!!

[spotted_draft_x_fill]

Maybe try water bottles. There are some with bigger spouts. That’s the only thing I can think of that would keep the wrong end out of the water while everyone can still get access

[SarEQ]

Do they make one of those water fountain type devices that would be large enough for the pig to drink from?

You’d said he’ll pee in any standing water source so I wondered if the water would still attract him if it was moving.

Could your pig drink the water if it was raised? Could you lift it just a bit to make it hard for him to pee in (I don’t know how agile he is) but low enough the animals can drink.

If you put out multiple bowls, does he pee in all of them before you return?

[rockonxox]

Oh my! I have no good advice but that would frustrate the dickens out of me. Hopefully you can find a good solution soon.

[GraceLikeRain]

Does he use a litterbox normally? Declawed?

[Simkie]

Have you tried kitty cosequin? It’s cheap enough for a trial, and would help address any inflammation in the bladder lining. Sterile cystitis might not show up in a urinary workup.

If that doesn’t work, how about a consult with a behaviorist and/or kitty prozac?

[wendy]

he sounds like an ideal candidate to be trained to use the toilet, not the litterbox.
Other than shutting him up in part of the house so he can’t soil all the drinking water, I’m not sure what else you can do.

[chestnutmarebeware]

I bought a very small underwater “waterfall” pump on the sale shelf at Petsmart that is designed to be used in a big water bowl to keep drinking water agitated. The kittehs love it and it might keep Mr. Tinkles from peeing in the bowl you already have (unless he likes the idea of a feline bidet!). :lol: And if he does, you must supply pictures!

[Canaqua]

I agree on seeing if he can be toilet trained (literally!). I’ve know a few cats who were, they weren’t fans of litterboxes, but were perfectly happy to squat on the people toilet to do their business. That hardest part is training the people who live in the house to leave the seat down and the lid up for the cat.

[Kyzteke]

YOu said you tried leaving everybody out but him. Why not leave HIM out? If not that, I would put him in another part of the house for afew months.

How long has he been doing this?

[tinah]

He sounds like a great candidate for an outside cat to me.

[WildandWickedWarmblo]

Buy some kitty cosequin capsules and give him one daily. Yes, it does work on cystitis.

[Punkie]

Thanks for all the replies, guys!

The water bottle would be a great idea if it weren’t for the dogs and pig. There would be no way to get a water bottle a) big enough and b) angled correctly for Ms. Piggy to drink out of it. The fountain would be good, but I would need something in a 2-4 gallon size which I haven’t been able to find. Though I don’t know if it would make a difference, it would be worth a try if I can find one!

No one had mentioned the Cosequin, that’s a great idea! How do you feed it? He’s not very pleasant to give pills

As for the toilet training, the issue is that he likes to, well, go swimming after he’s done his thing. If I leave the toilet seat up, the bathroom looks like someone had a water fight…so much ew!

He’s been doing this since he was about 3 months old and he’s now over a year; I’ve had him since he was 8 weeks. He would love to spend more time outside, but he dislocated his patella this summer and my vet said that for his own safety he really needs to live an indoor life. The knee is not super stable and while he’s fine inside and jumping up and down on low surfaces like you’d find inside is fine, jumping up into the rafters in the barn or traipsing through the tree line is not recommended.

Darn cat.

[Simkie]

[QUOTE=Punkie;7262483]
No one had mentioned the Cosequin, that’s a great idea! How do you feed it? He’s not very pleasant to give pills [/QUOTE]

Open the capsules, sprinkle the powder over his food Super easy.

Would it be possible to give him a box with water to pee in? Maybe that’s just his thing? Perhaps not an awesome idea with his desire to go swimming…

How about a bottle for him to drink from and a higher, less pee friendly, container for the piggy and the dogs to drink from?

Is he on wet or dry food? I have a handful of cats and I found their pee issues disappeared nearly overnight when I switched to an all wet diet.

[CrowneDragon]

How about a waterer that has a small drinking area (just large enough to get nose/snout in)? You could get one of those gravity-filled multi-gallon waterers, and modify the bowl to make it very difficult for him to pee in. Perhaps make a V-shaped opening going up vertically that is wide enough to get the widest face in, but also far enough above the water that is would be a precarious balancing act. Or put the waterer raised up in a box with a door flap, making it difficult and awkward for him to get in. Don’t leave enough room to get in and turn around, and have it high enough that he can’t back in.

[Punkie]

[QUOTE=Simkie;7262634]
Open the capsules, sprinkle the powder over his food Super easy.

Would it be possible to give him a box with water to pee in? Maybe that’s just his thing? Perhaps not an awesome idea with his desire to go swimming…

How about a bottle for him to drink from and a higher, less pee friendly, container for the piggy and the dogs to drink from?

Is he on wet or dry food? I have a handful of cats and I found their pee issues disappeared nearly overnight when I switched to an all wet diet.[/QUOTE]

I wish I could contain him that way, but it seems to be that any water source is fair game.

The feeding with Cosequin gets tricky because he and his brother eat in the same area at the same time and take all. night. to finish their portions. I’m thinking there will be some syringes and an upset kitty while we give this a try

They have free choice dry food and a can of wet food per day. I had them on all wet food for a few weeks because I kept forgetting to pick up dry food and it didn’t seem to make any difference

The problem with having anything “up high” is that a) they’ll jump onto/into just about anything and b) the pig is a Pot and thusly has VERY short legs and VERY large jowls, so anything up off the floor she couldn’t effectively get her snout into and anything smaller than a horse feeder and she’ll just dump the whole thing towards her for her convenience!

This damn cat is so agile that he actually perches on the edge of the dish (all of .5 in wide) to pee…without ever stepping foot in the dish until its time to stir up his little concoction :eek:

The cat food and litter is up on its own shelf (or the dogs will go to town) and when I had their own waterer up there, he still made use of that!

Sigh. Unless the Cosequin works, I think I’m going to be spending the next 20 years of my life dumping cat pee out of the water dish…

[Simkie]

Could be worse–he could be peeing on your carpet

I have four cats on all wet and we had to change up some things when one of them got obese. We started feeding them all in crates. It is AWESOME. We leave them in for perhaps 30-60 mins, and then let them out and pick up the food. All the kitties adjusted very well and quickly and now they eat their own portion quickly and the system works great. The fat cat slimmed down and my one that was a little skinny and always walked away from her food is now cleaning it up and has gained weight.

If you’re having trouble with yours not eating quickly or eating their own portions, you might want to investigate that option. We’ve just had SUCH good success with it.

You could also find something he likes–pill pockets? stinky cheese? liver?–and put the cosequin on that instead.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=Simkie;7262634]

How about a bottle for him to drink from and a higher, less pee friendly, container for the piggy and the dogs to drink from?[/QUOTE]

How about hanging a water bucket? Make it low but unstable. It sounds wack, but you need something like a chicken waterer suspended from the ceiling. Chickens like to perch on anything and then sh!t in it, including the edge of their waterer. But hang that up so it’s unstable and no good for perching and the problem is solved.

The one I have seen looks like this: http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/Little-Giant-3-Gal.-Double-Wall-Waterer/0000000003626?utm_source=googleps&utm_medium=shopping%2Bsearch&utm_campaign=google%2Bproduct%20search&gslfah&gclid=CIfZtfvu6LoCFYY1QgodExAALA

But it’s suspended. Not sure the shape of it works for you, but the hanging-ness is the relevant part.

[Big_Grey_hunter]

Our big male used to do this … he has a weird obsession with water. We solved the issue by using raised water dishes. The raised part is wire, so there’s no where for him to perch to pee. Other then the indignant yowling for a few days, we had no problems with this set up. We just have 3 cats and two medium sized dogs to water, so we just filled both bowls with water. If you need 2-4 gallons, you could always get a few raised dishes. As an added bonus, even if he does manage to pee, he can’t possible pee in 4-6 different bowls

[Louise]

Do the other animals quit drinking after he pees in the bowl? If that is the problem, I’m wondering if you could confine him to a room by himself, with his own food and water, during the day. That way, at least he is only fouling what he has to drink and the other animals have clean water to drink.

If you’re worried about isolating him from the other animals, how about something like this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GS71KW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=290T4B4O3A5I9&coliid=I29FE9XQK5VP2S ? Again, he could have his own litter box, food and water in there but still at least be able to see the other animals.