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Cat Urinating in Sink & Bathtub

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This week I am focusing on questions related to pet potty training. One of the questions was related to a cat urinating all over the house, peeing on the bed or on the laundry.

When a cat’s behavior changes and the toileting habits change suddenly it is important to rule out any veterinary medical issues such as a urinary infection or blockage.

Feeding a quality diet that does not include grains or fillers can help keep your feline healthier but if your veterinarian makes a recommendation you should follow the directions.

These days I prefer to refer cats to feline veterinary specialists because I believe there are too many developments in the veterinary world to keep on top of all of them. Specialists see the specific species and issues and so can delve into them deeply.

Cats with urinary tract infections will urinate outside of the box and sometimes the cat will urinate in sinks or bathtubs. They may cry in the litter box, or begin to urinate more frequently in smaller amounts. In other cases you may observe a cat straining to urinate (and failing) or excreting bloody urine.

Your veterinarian will want a urine sample. So the cat will need to urinate in a special non-absorbent litter. Otherwise the veterinarian will do a procedure called a cystocentesis.

Next a urinalysis is done (sometimes an ultrasound may also be recommended) to rule out an infection, disease, stones or crystals.

If the cat has a bladder infection you will be given a prescription to relieve the infection and discomfort. If the cat reveals crystals, the treatment usually involves a diet change (PH)  for up to eight weeks.

Follow up visits are a must and maintenance usually also involves getting your cat to drink additional water or to take in more fluids through wet food.

However, litter box avoidance can also be caused by stress and I’ll talk about this tomorrow.

If you have issues with cat urination or cats urinating around the house I can recommend a few cat odor neutralizer and cat clean up products:

Have you experienced this problem? If so, how did you solve it?

Blog Posted August 19, 2008 at 7:00 am

Litter Trained Cat is Missing the Box

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This week I am going to be touching on some common pet behavior problems. I’ve been reading a lot of questions about toileting issues lately and am appalled at the advice people give to those seeking help.

Here is just one example of such bad advice:

Just shove the cats nose into its doodoo and throuw it out, they normaly get the message pretty quick.

Now the misspellings aside, I just wonder how many people will take that advice and torment their cat or kitten.

This type of information is the crap (no pun intended) that keeps perpetuating archaic and abusive animal training techniques.

My students are told that this type of activity is about the same as taking a soiled baby diaper and then taking a toddler’s face and pushing it into the diaper as an effort to potty train the toddler.

Would you do that?

I certainly hope not. So why do people think this type of activity is okay to do with an animal?

It is NOT okay.

When animals have potty training problems there is usually a reason. In some cases it can stem from age limitations or lack of proper environmental conditions.

Young animals can only hold their bowels and bladder for short amounts of time and they learn to toilet in the environment they are brought up in.

However, when a litter trained cat is missing the box suddenly–it is a message. The message is that something is wrong.

Get the animal to the veterinarian for testing immediately. Unusual changes in behavior are clues to illness or medical complications.

Coming from the the wild animal field I learned that the behavioral clues are so subtle that if we didn’t notice changes it could cost the animal its life.

Yet the average pet owner misses the fact that behavior problems are not normal.

Yes, there are other reasons cats and kittens will lose their litterbox training and I’ll talk more about this in subsequent posts but my advice is to start with a veterinary wellness exam.

If finances are a concern, most clinics offer discounted services if you ask about them. Also, you can arrange to make payments. An early check up can save an animal’s life.

Finally, if the veterinarian doesn’t find a veterinary medical reason for the issue–seek the right help from the right sources–animal behaviorists work with these types of problem.

Where do you get your advice on animal behavior problems such as litter box avoidance and pet potty training?

Blog Posted August 18, 2008 at 9:47 am
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