My cat is not using the litter box anymore

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#21
Ok, so I tried everything and to no avail is working. I even got the carpets professionally cleaned and put my cat in the bedroom with hardwoods. He's good unless there is carpet. I let him out for a second and he tried to pee.

Do I have a choice but to put him outside???
Has he been tested for a UTI? That is quite a good possibility, especially if he is on an all dry food diet of low grade food. What do you feed him? There are a load of things you can do to prevent a UTI from reoccurring but you need to find out if that is the problem first.

If that is not the problem, add more boxes, try different litters, keep them spotless, buy Feliway, retrain him by confinement to the bathroom, laundry room, bedroom for awhile. A week or so should do.
 
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#22
I am showing him he's important... all the time. He sleeps with me etc. Actually of all the animals he is the spoiled one. He gets a ton of attention. He's just refrusing to use the litter box. You don't understand, I can't have pee smell all over my house. I need help. I love him and believe that something can be done, but what? What else can I do that I'm not already doing?

Yes, tested for UTI, negative. completely healthy
Big cat, 12lbs solid
I have 4 litter boxes and they are all clean, 2 with tops, 2 without. 2 downstairs, 2 upstairs.
Using Feliway in the room that he pees in, doesn't work
Getting Cat attrack litter today. He's in the masterbedroom right now by himself.
 
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#23
Hey, I would get him checked with the vet, but he's probably just pissed off at you. Cats have a funny way about them, I know Binki does. Good luck at the vets
 

Mordy

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I am showing him he's important... all the time. He sleeps with me etc. Actually of all the animals he is the spoiled one. He gets a ton of attention. He's just refrusing to use the litter box. You don't understand, I can't have pee smell all over my house. I need help. I love him and believe that something can be done, but what? What else can I do that I'm not already doing?

Yes, tested for UTI, negative. completely healthy
Big cat, 12lbs solid
I have 4 litter boxes and they are all clean, 2 with tops, 2 without. 2 downstairs, 2 upstairs.
Using Feliway in the room that he pees in, doesn't work
Getting Cat attrack litter today. He's in the masterbedroom right now by himself.
What did they test?

I had a similar problem with one of my cats and it turned out that he had bladder stones and crystals in the urine that were so irritating to him that he was basically crying for help by urinating out of place, his way of showing us something was wrong.

For quite some time I thought it was behavioral and tried to address it that way, but obviously it wouldn't make a difference.

If you let it go for too long, he could also suffer from urinary blockage, which will result in one dead cat if you don't get him to the vet in time.
 

Debi

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#26
I agree with Mordy...something is very wrong. when my daughter's cat wouldn't us his box, it turned out he had a digestive problem. also as mentioned, cats are extremely sensitive to ANY change. some cats get upset if you rearrange the furniture. adding other pets, children, moving...all totally upsetting to a cat. it is a sign of depression. my opinion here, but you can't just put a cat outside and expect the problem to be solved unless you don't plan on it coming back in. it could still choose to eliminate on your carpet. that is not an answer to your problem. I'm curious as to what your vet suggested was the problem?

did you try using the plain clay litter as I suggested? also...have his paws been examined carefully? it may be the litter is irritating him somehow.
 
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#27
The vet tested him for UTI and crystals and all was negative. He has had allery issues for quiet some time now but wouldn't be related. He is on omega liquid drops for that. They wanted to do allergy testing but my vet said that all it would do is say he's allergy to dust mites, etc like people are and then I would have to give him shots everyday. He said that his cat has allergies as well and he choose not to put him through all that. Noa, if bored with nibble on himself to where his skin is raw. So hense the omega oil, it's working.

The vet told me to do this. Put him upstairs in the master where there is no carpet all hardwoods and is a farely large room. Put his own litter box, food and water in there and toys, retrain him to the litter box by using kitty Xanac. So today is day 2 of kitty drugging. He doesn't do the peeing on the floor unless it's carpet. Ex: He won't go on the bed, he won't go on anything laying on the floor, just carpet.

I don't want to put him outside. I'm honestly wondering if adopting him to a family with no other animals or just one would be helpful. Maybe he's depressed with all the farm here.
 

ToscasMom

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#28
The litter box of his own is a good idea, along with the private room. Give him a chance to adapt and give him more attention than the others. He is just feeling a little less loved because of the others. Give it a little time, he needs to sort things out.
 

JMixx02

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#29
I have 4 cats and 1 dog. One day out of the blue my male cat started peeing on the bathroom rug. He was whining and crying while doing it and it ended up being UTI. However, to this day he will pee on the bathroom rug no matter how clean the litter boxes are and the fact that his UTI was 2 years ago. I no longer use a bath rug, I just use a towel and pick it up off the floor. Kitties are finicky and will do whatever it takes to express their feelings. My first cat would not speak to us for three years after we introduced 2 new cats to the house, but now she is fiestier than ever. My guess is he is upset about the new dogs and is letting you know it!! It's not a bad idea to keep him isolated for a little while... But it may end up taking months before he is back to normal. Hang in there!
 

Muggie'sMum

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#30
Sounds like your only option is a private room for him. My Toby used to hate to use a litterbox that my roomie's cats had used. :p He was fine in my own room, with his own litterbox, even when I was gone overnight, except that my roomie was too lazy to clean her own litter boxes so she let Toby out of my room and her cats into mine, and by the time I got home they would have filled up his teeny kitten litterbox and he would have shat on the plastic I had laid out under it. :p
 

mamie

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#31
when I got my kitten Mademoiselle Kama, she didn't want to go in the litter at all but as some of you mentioned, I had a hooded litter and I was using yesterday's news when she was used to the clumping at the petstore. I took the hood off, changed to clumping. I left it like that for a couple of weeks then put the hood on and again let her get used to it for a few weeks and then slowly added some yesterday's news in the clumping now the only time she goes anywhere else is if I forget to scoop out for one day and when she soils, she goes in the dogs beds lol what a kitten. here's her picture
 

Loviedovie

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#32
We'll nothing has changed since my last posting on the litter box issue. Even during the 16 days my dogs were at training Noa continued to pee and poop on the floor. I just recentely adopted out 2 of my 4 cats to a good friend of mine. I kept them together and they are as happy as can be and I know that they are being taken care of to the fullest. So with less pets in the house I was hoping things would change with Noa. IT'S NOT! He is still peeing on the carpet. Only difference is now that the puppies are trained to sleep in the crates at night now, Noa gets to sleep with me so he's getting more attention, but my patience is wearing thin. I can NOT continue to have him ruin my house that I worked so hard to get all my life. It smells of cat pee. My boyfriend even had a friend of his come over and professionally clean the carpets and he's just pees on them again. I have tried the Feliway, downsizing the family, putting tarpes all over my house in the places he pees, putting him in a bedroom for weeks (that's just cruel), medication and testing for any illness. I really do not believe he is going to change.
 
A

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#33
We'll nothing has changed since my last posting on the litter box issue. Even during the 16 days my dogs were at training Noa continued to pee and poop on the floor. I just recentely adopted out 2 of my 4 cats to a good friend of mine. I kept them together and they are as happy as can be and I know that they are being taken care of to the fullest. So with less pets in the house I was hoping things would change with Noa. IT'S NOT! He is still peeing on the carpet. Only difference is now that the puppies are trained to sleep in the crates at night now, Noa gets to sleep with me so he's getting more attention, but my patience is wearing thin. I can NOT continue to have him ruin my house that I worked so hard to get all my life. It smells of cat pee. My boyfriend even had a friend of his come over and professionally clean the carpets and he's just pees on them again. I have tried the Feliway, downsizing the family, putting tarpes all over my house in the places he pees, putting him in a bedroom for weeks (that's just cruel), medication and testing for any illness. I really do not believe he is going to change.
wow, i really don't know what to say.

He just started doing this out of nowhere?
 

ToscasMom

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#34
There's a reason he got this way. If it's not physical then it's emotional. Now all you need to do is backtrack to what occurred in your home that triggered it. What changed in your home? For example, did someone move in? Did someone leave? Did you change litters?

However, unless I am reading you wrong, I sense that you have already given up. If I am wrong then perhaps the cats you adopted out aren't exactly the animals in your home that are the trigger. The question is, what changed. Take it from there. Once you figure it out then you have to undo that which caused the stress to begin with. Thinking like a cat is not so hard. Did it possibly occur to you that removing two cats from the home is making him think he's next and therefore doesn't solve the issue. Was he well adjusted to the two cats before his problem started? If so, you didn't change a thing by giving them to someone else. Backtrack. It will come to you. Once it does, you can deal with it. Or....you can give up.
 
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#36
As annoying as it is, try something like this... (we may have covered this already, I don't remember)

Get a whole bunch of small plastic litterboxes. Lots of them from the dollar store or somewhere cheap. Buy a bunch of the smallest bags of cat litter. Scented, unscented, feline pine, yesterdays news, clumping, non clumping, different brands...etc... put them in all the boxes and label the boxes.

Now either put them all over your house and let him pick and choose for a awhile, or confine him to one room with all these choices. He will pick the ones that suit him and you can narrow it down from there. If after a week he doesn't touch 2 or three of them then remove them. Until you can narrow it down to one or two. Then stick with those. Some cats don't like how the litter feels. Is he declawed? Then this is even more important to try because declawed cats often have litterbox issues. Make sure to keep all these boxes super clean and spotless.

I know it sounds like a pain in the butt but this is your baby, he relies on you. It is your responsibility to try EVERYTHING. You don't have a lot of things left to try :)
 

ToscasMom

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#37
The sense I got from the last post was she was going to get rid of the cat. If she comes back I will be thrilled and apologize profusely. But it sure looks that way. It's so much easier....

I can NOT continue to have him ruin my house that I worked so hard to get all my life. It smells of cat pee. My boyfriend even had a friend of his come over and professionally clean the carpets and he's just pees on them again. I have tried the Feliway, downsizing the family, putting tarpes all over my house in the places he pees, putting him in a bedroom for weeks (that's just cruel), medication and testing for any illness. I really do not believe he is going to change.
 

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