[QUOTE=Simkie;6024995]
Some cats don’t like lidded boxes. Try one without. And get another box–rule of thumb is number of cats + 1.[/QUOTE]
I agree. And put them on different floors. It’s way too easy for a critter on or near the stairs to monopolize access to and from litter boxes when they’re all in the basement.
I have 2 boxes on the 2nd floor and 2 in the basement. Ditch the lidded boxes, most cats don’t like them. And keep them scrupulously clean. Change litter completely in all 4 boxes once a week. Use baking soda.
This, of course, is in addition to trip to the vet.
I still think you really don’t like this cat from your description of what you and husband are thinking of doing to him. Throwing a hairless cat outside??? Tying his poor pee pee in a knot? Could be hyperbole but IME people who love their pets don’t talk like that, even when dealing with a difficult , exasperating, and smelly issue.
I have a cat like that too. If anyone in the house leaves clothes or towels on the floor he pees on them. He also pees on rugs so we don’t have them anymore. Our dogs bed was a target as well so he doesn’t have one anymore either. Our cat has been to the vet and there is nothing medically wrong with him…it is behaviorable. Honestly we just deal with it and we have to work around his problem. We make sure stuff is kept off the floor and we live without rugs.
The trash bag thing wasn’t to stop him peeing on the bed, it was to keep the bed from soaking up urine and making the cleaning easier.
How about a box with towels in it? Get the cheapie towels, or pee pads (or the human equivalent known as “chucks” that you can buy in bulk through med supply places) an put them in a low box.
Yes, washing towels is a nuisance, but you’re about to have lots of stinky laundry to deal with, so maybe it won’t seem so bad…?
[QUOTE=BLBGP;6025023]
Agreed. If you “love him” and don’t want to deal with him, how can you find some stranger who will? Glad you have a vet appointment. Hopefully it will turn up something that can be easily dealt with (UTI and crystals are painful!). And yes, removing the lid and trying different litters is always a good idea.
ps - congratulations on your pregnancy. Although you may want to remove you recent blog post from a few days ago…[/QUOTE]
Which post? There’s about 50 that state how I don’t want/can’t have kids. And if you are referencing the drinking one, I didn’t know. Just found out 3 days ago
[QUOTE=oliverreed;6025077]
I still think you really don’t like this cat from your description of what you and husband are thinking of doing to him. Throwing a hairless cat outside??? Tying his poor pee pee in a knot? Could be hyperbole but IME people who love their pets don’t talk like that, even when dealing with a difficult , exasperating, and smelly issue.[/QUOTE]
Ease up, people. Seriously. :rolleyes:
Had a hairless male cat who also peed on everything. Also, while I was pregnant, so I know how you feel. It was very stressful. My cat had no physical issues but the vet determined that he had anxiety disorder and prescribed kitty Valium for him. It helped some, but we ended up adopting him out to an older woman where he could be an only cat. I’ve since lost touch with her but she told me that he didn’t have that problem once he acclimated to her home.
I wonder if something like this would be enough of NOT a dog bed, to break the cycle and stop the cat from peeing on it: http://www.berkersdogbeds.com/
I would expect the following at the vet, and this is what I would request were I in your shoes (and I HAVE been in your shoes):
Cystocentesis (needle in bladder) to check for infection, blood and crystals
Kidney panel to check for kidney disease
Abdominal radiograph to check for kidney mineralization and stones in kidneys, ureters and bladder
I would discuss cosequin (often helpful with sterile cystitis), feliway collars or diffusers and anti-anxiety meds, on the chance that everything else does come back normal.
I would purchase a black light and scan the house for other potty locations.
I would switch to scent free scoopable litter, as this is what the cat behaviorist recommended when I had a cat that was peeing inappropriately.
I would also provide plenty of high hides for all the cats–vertical space is important to cats.
Also–ALL of the inappropriate peeing issues I had (not many, but once in a while) totally disappeared when I switched my cats to grain free wet food only.
If it does turn out to be behavioral instead of medical, and you are not willing to struggle through that, euthanasia is far kinder than sending the cat to a shelter, tossing a hairless cat outside, or even letting the cat continue if it is totally miserable in your house. There is nothing wrong with giving an animal a peaceful end to it’s life.
Sorry, I know I said I would throw him outside. I would never in real life do that, I am hormonal and very dramatic…and if I ever did rehome the cat, I would NEVER bring him to a shelter. I would probably give him to a friend who has no other pets and I would be very open about his issues. I still maintain that he would do really well with no other animals and I am a little concerned with the surprise baby coming…he has nipped before (when being petted, not hard but enough to scare a kid).
I will talk to the vet about the list of bladder/urine things listed. I never thought to get a black light (though I would be kinda scared to see what I would find).
oliverreed, if you heard half of what I said TO my animals, you’d try your best to have me arrested. Trust me. It’s all in jest, very sarcastic and not meant to be mean. It’s my personality. My cats have better clothes than I, the dog has better dental care and the horses have a better diet. :rolleyes:
Oh, Simkie, I have one of those beds! My DH made it. It is metal framed with a wood “box spring” . We put a flat thermal bed that was heated on top. He peed on that too. And that was a $100 heated bed for the old boy dog that passed away.
What a bunch of crap. Yes, it CAN be appropriate and it can work. And I don’t care how many books you’ve read, my personal experience over several cases taught me otherwise.
Cats deal with each other physically and none of my cases had any physical reason for not using the litter boxes OR going outside if they really wanted to.
Othello, the pooping cat, was taught with just two episodes of whacking (as I mentioned)…prior to that I changed litter boxes (all cleaned TWICE a day), tried different litter, put mouse traps behind the entertainment center, changed food…I spent MONTHS trying to figure out what he needed.
Finally, when he crawled back there right in front of me to poop while I was watching tv, I snapped! Maybe he just didn’t “get” that the ONE RULE he needed to follow in my house was not to crap outside the litter box. NOT a tough rule.
So I grabbed him by the scruff, rubbed his nose in the poop, whacked him twice on the butt and tossed him out in a snow drift.
Rinse repeat times one.
Never had another issue. That was 5 yrs ago. Othello sleeps on my bed, sits on my lap when we watch tv…in fact he just now gave me a polite “meow” to ask to go out.
So he has not been damaged by the experience. And it worked.
Suffice to say it also worked on another cat – the dog bed pee-er. But I won’t bore you with that story. But the outcome was the same – after several vet visits, many other attempts at a solution, washing dog beds daily, MONTHS of tolerating this behavior, I finally said “enough”.
And he stopped. It was marking and dominance…and all I did is make it real clear I was more dominant. Now we have that settled and there is peace (and love) in the kingdom.
When push comes to shove the house IS mine, although I’m happy to share it with my (currently) 6 cats & 2 dogs. Nothing wrong with me setting the rules…
And when people suggest death is kinder than discipline, something is really skewed…
I had this problem with one of my cats about a year ago, and I know how frustrating it can be!
What worked for us was to put Oliver (our cat) in our office with the door closed (we put a litter box, food & water, cat toys, bed, etc. in the office with him) and kept him there segregated from the rest of the house for one month. We would visit him daily and play with him, check food/water/litterbox, and give him treats. It was important that he didn’t feel separated and punished, but the plan was for him to reestablish good litterbox behavior. He did not have any accidents while in the office.
After one month of good office behavior, we allowed him access to the remainder of the house. We left a baby gate up in the doorway (one with the little cat pass-throughs at the bottom) so our dog could not get in the office. Oliver had access to this room without fear of being followed by the dog. I think he really enjoys having his own space, and we no longer call it the office, we call it the “cats’ room”! The things we do for our pets 
Honestly there was a time I didn’t think we’d ever figure this out, but I am so glad we did, because now he is probably one of our sweetest/well-behaved pets!
If the cat is peeing on soft things, don’t leave soft things out. The advantage of that bed is that it is “soft” to the dog, as it’s suspended, but it should not trigger a “soft” reaction from the cat. Putting something soft on top of it totally defeats the purpose, IME.
And with something like that, you should be able to take it out and hose it down, if he does pee on it–although you might need to put it on a cleanable surface, like linoleum, as the pee should just go right through…
OR you could teach the cat he is not allowed to pee on the dog bed…:rolleyes:
[QUOTE=Kyzteke;6025578]
OR you could teach the cat he is not allowed to pee on the dog bed…:rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
Do not assume that because Whacking the snot out worked with your cat that it will work with others :rolleyes:
I think I’ll place my confidence in those that have their Feline Practioner certification & have worked with hundreds of cats exhibiting behavioral issues …
Christ, no kidding.
Especially since this cat has not been evaluated for MEDICAL issues that would lead to inappropriate peeing. Sure, let’s whack the snot out of a cat that’s peeing on soft things because IT HURTS TO PEE.
Yeah, that’s fair :rolleyes:
[QUOTE=LittleblackMorgan;6025006]
I cannot touch them myself, and honestly the smell did not occur to me until I got pregnant and my sniffer went haywire.
Do you suppose I should keep the cat in the bathroom until he goes to the vet?[/QUOTE]
There’s no reason for you not to clean the cat boxes yourself and keep them scrupulously clean. It’s a myth perpetuated by human doctors that pregnant women can’t clean cat boxes. Two reasons–a)you may already have a positive titre for toxoplasmosis, many women do {I do, I had mine checked when i got married and kids were a possibility and all my technicians of child-bearing age have been checked and b)if you clean the cat box daily there is no risk as the feces have to sit at least 24 hours for the organism to be infective. Realitstically, gardening in outdoor flower beds is considered to be more of a risk
This kind of behavior is usually emotional. Perhaps he would do better in a single cat home. This peeing on eveything is a sign of him not being secure in his home. Cats are territorial. Peeing on things is marking the cats territory. He is trying to get the dog and other cats to leave. He is emotionally disturbed over something.
I do not hit my cats unless they have done something truely hienous. I use a squirt bottle turned to stream and when they are caught in th act of doing something really bad, they get the long arm of the law. I can reach 6 feet with the squirt bottle. They do not know it is me doing it. Just that water hits them from somewhere. I had birds in the house in a cage and my big orange striped tom was determined to get them and eat them. My son emptied his Water Blaster on him when he had his paw in the bird cage as far as he could reach. He got soaked to the skin. Sorry looking cat but he never went near that bird cage again.
This cat sounds like he has some emotional issues. You need to tell him that this is not acceptable and he will be sent away to another home.
Yes have him checked out by the Vet. But the Vet may tell you the same thing I am.
He is distressed over something.
Perhaps he is feeling your distress with your pregnancy?
Have you tired putting him his own room and putting 2 litter boxes in there so the other cats can’t use them? I have one cat that hates any other cat using her litter box.
I do hope you can get this solved for both of your sakes. His and yours.
Wish you the best.
sadlmakr
While you are working to solve the problem, put the cushion of the bed inside a twin-sized waterproof matress cover. Then you only have to wash the outside cover.
One of our adult cats doesn’t like her new kitten brother. Prozac is doing wonders for her opinion of him!
:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
Sorry – I had to laugh. I don’t have a “Feline Practioner” cert – I’ve just had dozens and dozens of cats. And NEVER had to rehome one because of any sort of issue.
Let’s think about “hurting to pee.” The hurting to pee is from the INSIDE (if it is indeed the problem)…so unless the cat has sore paws WHAT they are peeing in (litter vs your laundry) has no relevance to a painful or infected bladder, cysts, etc.
Geeze, that doesn’t even make sense…:no:
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