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Babysitting 3 of Sisters Cats

statica Jan 07, 2004 10:13 PM

Hi there,

I am babysitting 3 of my sisters cats for 10 days, 1 boy and 2 girls. The girl kitties are no problem, but the boy kitty has an unusual problem. When using the litterbox, he misses it totally when urinating. He will get in the box and do his buisness, but I guess either he dosent realize where he is aiming or something cause the urine is all outside the box. He poops in the box and everything normally, thank goodness. My sister warned me that he does this, but honestly, I cant see how she can deal with cleaning out the entire litterbox/bathroom and under it every time this happens. I clean their litter box every day (kinda have to with this problem, but I would anyway) and the cats are all used to me. I have placed paper towels all around and under the litterbox and some old placemats cause he will sometimes hit the wall but it only prevents me from cleaning the entire bathroom daily, now I only have to clean half..

As far as their temperment, they have been over here before and remember me. We are great friends! I do not remember this cat having this problem before. My sister does take them to the vet regularly so I assume he is in good health. They have had no other behavior type problems since being at my house. They are acting as if they are at home.

In addition, my sister had told me a story a few weeks ago how she was in the restroom and the boy kitty had followed her in. He was standing on the sink and sprayed her and looked like he was not doing anything wrong when she got mad at him.

I believe my sister is attributing this to old age, he is around 10 or so. While I know that this may be true, I have not seen any of my friends cats doing this, even at 10 years older or more.

Please help!

Replies (2)

PHMadameAlto Jan 08, 2004 09:50 AM

Although the cats have been checked by the vet, unless your sister has complained about that specific problem then any medical reason for it would probably not have come to light yet. I am wondering if somehow the angle of the penis has changed to where he just can't "aim to please" anymore. A vet visit with this problem specifically in mind is the first step to take.

If you could get him to use a covered box or perhaps one of the roll-over litterboxes this would solve the problem of pee all over. There should also be as many litterboxes as there are cats, but this is not always possible.

On the off-chance that he is indeed "marking" in the litterbox, a ComfortZone plug-in or two placed around the house could help. Also the vet might be willing to prescribe some sort of anti-anxiety med.
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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

JaimeMarie Jan 09, 2004 03:38 PM

The cat at the house I am staying at also misses the litter box. He is 9 yrs old (I believe). We switched to a large covered litter box. He know doesn't miss any more.
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Jaime owned by
Mya the dog
and the cats:Crash, Moxie, Gabby and sometimes Tucker

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