Posted by:
catlover101
at Thu Sep 13 00:32:59 2007 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by catlover101 ]
I'm getting pretty stressed out about my little Winston's litterbox avoidance!
I adopted Winston (5 months old) and Bentley (4 months old) from a local shelter about 4 weeks ago. Both have been sheltered since May and were strays before that.
Everything was great for the first two days. The third and fourth day, I caught Winston urinating on two different spots. I took him to the vet on the fifth day to check to see if anything was going on medically. I brought in fresh poop and the vet extracted urine and tested it. Both turned out o.k. The next few days, however, Winston began pooping just outside his litter box (not over the edge, just beside it). I changed his litter back to pellet pine (which is what they were using at the humane society) and that didn't work. I bought numerous products (including Nature's Miracle) and he would just poop two inches from that spot.
This went on for a week until Winston came down with an Upper Respiratory Infection, with him sneezing blood and throwing up. I immediately took him back to the vet, who i.v.'d fluids into him and gave a weeks worth of antibiotics and eye ointment for conjunctavitis for both cats. The vet suggested isolating Winston, due to both the sickness and litter box issues.
So, I chose one litter brand (unscented) to stick with and isolated Winston in the bathroom (not an easy thing to do!) as the vet recommended. He used the litter box for about one day, but then started pooping in the tub! I've tried everything, from aluminum foil (which he urinated on), to adding an additional litter box, to buying Comfort Zone, placing food dishes in the bathtub (he just pooped on any open spot), to spraying "Nature's Miracle", with not much success. Finally, I decided to stop fighting it, and put another litter box inside the bathtub. This is not enjoyable, as I have to shower in there and I'm constantly cleaning up litter. This has worked for a few days, but now he's back to pooping beside the litterbox inside the tub!
I'm frustrated and concerned, because I know cats don't just poop anywhere and usually it's a medical or behavioral problem.
Does anyone have any other suggestions??? Should I just give it more time? How much longer do I keep him in the bathroom? What do I do when I remove him from the bathroom? I don't want to just give up on the little guy, but am getting extremely frustrated.
Oh... one last thing.. I even talked to a cat behavior specialist on the phone, who gave me little help (suggested more litter boxes - I have 4, and to buy some other product to get rid of the odor). Thanks so much in advance for an suggestions!!!
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- pooping outside of litterbox ..help!! - catlover101, Thu Sep 13 00:32:59 2007
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