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Dr. Magnifico (and anyone else), a friend has a difficult situation he’s trying to rectify with his cat.
He has a male cat who was treated for a UTI very recently – 2 weeks ago, to be exact. In the past two days, the cat has taken to urinating on a specific spot on the carpet on the same floor as the litterboxes (they have 3 boxes for 2 cats). He is not actively AVOIDING the boxes, he’s just preferring the carpet for urine. He isn’t marking, either – he’s emptying his full bladder in this one particular spot. I’ve suggested cleaning the heck out of the spot with an industrial shampooer with Nature’s Miracle added to the mix, to get the urine out of the pad. What other suggestions can I give him? I have zero experience with a cat with a UTI, and I’m at a loss at the moment.
I have been feeding him water through a straw to make sure he stays hydrated.
I am getting concerned that he’s not eating; this isn’t like him.
He just tried to use the litterbox but couldn’t go. Probably because there isn’t much food on his belly.
I have given him two tiny portions of a pepcid tablet today, spaced out over the course of the day to hopefully ease his tummy but I don’t think it worked.
We have had to carry her to the litterbox where she does go. And she can stand up..but wont move! What could be going on
I recently adopted a dog, she’s a year old Basenji/Lab mix (two very contradicting breeds in terms of behavior). I’m having the worst time trying to potty train her. I’ve tried so many different methods but she refuses to go potty outside. She literally has no warning signs. She already paces and sniffs like its her calling in life. She squats after she already starts going. I have no idea when she needs to go. She will not go potty outside. She acts like grass is her personal enemy and will lay on the sidewalk instead. I’ve tried taking her in and out, I’ve tried waiting her out. We walked in the park in hot weather for five hours and she peed on the floor when we came back inside. Training her to go outside is becoming a hassle that’s frustrating and depressing both of us, should I just give up and house train her to use pee pads or litter instead? We just have a hard time getting outside fast enough with her aversion to stairs and the elevator and there’s a power struggle once we’re outside. How do I react to bad behavior without making her scared of me?
so, you should avoid punishing for toilet behavior in the house. it sounds like she really just doesn’t know the rules yet.
these two links are pretty similar and i’d read both. they should help.
https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/How_to_Housetrain_Any_Dog%20(1).pdf?token=AWzFzr8QX0C6GNFaOKVxlOKyjHpjo4l1GKKLvup9PqoNRBewfhYcPaW8epVfl7TD-hzvF2V2XyFxKavjepjUKq75rqsQH7ckQTKV-VOq-pItBQ
remember, be consistent. good luck. housebreaking is the biggest pain in the butt regardless of the age of the dog.
oh, one thing…make sure you’re feeding meals rather than just leaving food out for her. meals will help you to better schedule her toilet runs. try to feed a high quality food, as well.
Thank you so much! Those help a lot!
I have 3 cats, 2 dogs and a small house with no mud room, basement, hallways, separating doors, or dog or cat proof room. Yes, I know it wasn’t very good planning on my part. I am married and my husband goes to work, while I stay home.
I am a novice dog owner and even more novice at keeping cats as well. My bull breed mix is 80-100 pounds and is almost 2, and my rat terrier chihuahua mix is 9 months. Two of the cats are almost 2, and the senior one is 12.
I need help because it is icy and snowing with snow on the ground, and my dogs can no longer stay outside and wait for me to get to them. They’re unhappy inside their crates, and my eventual goal is to have them roam around the house with no issues with peeing or pooping, no issues of running around everywhere, and no issues of them bothering the cats because my husband doesn’t like it.
I can successfully keep them reasonably calm in the living room while I’m there, and I can get a glass of water or something from the kitchen if I tell them to stay. But issues of them just loose without me looking at both of them is that they will get into things and chew or eat them (stuffed pillows or other stuffed things, garbage, etc), eat cat poop, pee, or jump on the mattresses, which my husband doesn’t like.
The winter is much worse than last year, and keeping track of 5 pets is just so much. If they dogs and cats would get along somehow, I think that would help a lot. I just don’t know what to do concerning the litterbox, because my bull breed mix is very adamant about eating stuff from there unless I change it constantly. So when I let him out of his crate, I do change it, but I can’t trust him to roam around while I’m busy with something, or away. The little dog has issues with escaping her crate and peeing, and bothering the cats.
Time, they will learn to coexist with each other.
They may not be best friend but they will be able to be in the same room ect and tolerant each other.
We had 3 cats and then got a dog. Get a pet gate that also has a small door in the bigger gate. Approx $60 at pet smart. Use a strap or something to hold the small door open. Depending on the size of your dog if it can fit through the small door get a bungee cord and use it to make the small door smallerUse the gate to give the cats a totally separate space to “escape” from the dog. We did this and put the litter boxes in that room, and also used that room to feed them. It will take a while for the peace and harmony your hoping for. if your cat has claws I can’t help there ours do not, but I will tell you that your sweet little cat will probably make sounds that seem to be coming from the depths of hell towards the dog ours did. Our dog learned to back down from the cats so we didn’t worry about aggression towards the cats. Good luck and remember to pay equal attention to all of them to prevent jealousy.
For example, after coming in from a walk, their feet are wet and dirty. So I put them in their crates a bit to dry off. And after a little while, I take them to the bathroom and wipe them with moistened towels with baby wash and also dry towels, but that isn’t perfect because I have to walk them from the living room to the kitchen to the bathroom. And the cat litterbox is by the bathroom doorway, so they feet track the litter too.
I know that washing couch blankets, dog bedding, vaccuming and sweeping a lot and general home maintenance is good, but I’m looking for ideas to make it easier, and quicker, and would allow my dogs to be happier.
(I have 3 cats, 2 dogs and a small house with no mud room, basement, hallways, seperating doors, or dog or cat proof room. Yes, I know it wasn’t very good planning on my part. I am married and my husband goes to work, while I stay home.)
Keeping more litterboxes is a really great idea. I think of part of they kick a lot of litter out of the litterbox may be a territorial thing, since the young female cats don’t like the old male cat and vice versa. So since they’re essentially forced to use the same litterbox, maybe that causes problems? I’m not sure… But I don’t want to confuse my cats, since the I’ve been using the same spot ever since I moved in. (My husband set up that spot back when there was just 2 cats and 1 dog.)
Here’s the layout of my home for some context: The front door opens up into the living room, and to the right side of you when you walk in are the dogs’ crates. Bones has a wire crate and Coffee has a travel crate. There’s an armchair and 3 cushioned couch to the left, and on the wall parallel to the side where the dogs are is a window that the cats like to look through. Directly forward, a doorway leads into the dining room, and immediately there is a small dining table and chair set to the left of you. A little forward, and a doorway leads into a small kitchen. To the left hand side is the stove and cooking area, a window which allows sunlight onto the stove that the cats like, and the cat waterer, and to the right hand side is the garbage can, sink area, litterbox, and the bathroom. The bathroom does have a door, and it has a sink, a washer, dryer, and a medium sized shower, big enough to possibly bathe two of my small dog (she is 23 pounds) but not two of my big dog. Back to the dining room and past the dining table, there are some stairs that lead into a room that has the pets’ food closet, a sewing machine table and a dresser shaped record player that the cats like to be on, and a mattress. Directly past that is a room with a door that has a more expensive mattress, the computer area, and the clothes closet. The dogs aren’t allowed in this area because of pee accidents.
My point of mentioning all of this is that I don’t really have many other places to place 2 or more litterboxes. While I could possibly do so anyway, I would like to have my dogs roam around one day, and having a litterbox in almost every area of the room could possibly be way too enticing…
I’m in no way shutting you down or anything, a lot of people tend to think so.. Thanks again for your help!
Keeping both moist and dry towels by the door does help! 🙂 It really saves a trip to the bathroom and prevents the dogs from tracking the cat litter if they don’t even go there in the first place.
Both of my dogs are short coated, but I agree that it would be a good tip for having a longer haired dog.
She is six months I’ve tried many things with her litterbox she was spayed last Tuesday and got a rabies vaccination I just changed her food three days ago but she has puked a few times two months or more ago she also seems a tad bit friendlier
I defiantly will but I don’t have much money how much does it normally cost just to get them examined
We have 2 male and neutered cats, and one female spayed dog. One of the cats (we aren’t 100% certain which, but are setting up video cameras to determine which) is peeing on the dog beds. It started a year ago and would happen for a couple of weeks, then stop for a few months, start over again, repeat repeat. It happens mostly on the dog’s various beds, but has also happened on plastic shopping bags full of clothes. Comfy, soft things.
We took both cats to the vet when it first started and they didn’t find anything wrong… Just a few tiny crystals that most likely formed because they had to wait 2 days between the samples being taken and being tested, so all three of the vets said they were normal. We are taking them both to the vet again next week to do more testing (or just these guilty one, once we discover which one is doing it).
We have multiple CLEAN litter boxes, both open and closed top. One is even self cleaning after use, and my husband empties the others very frequently and cleans/washes them evey week. They have various bathroom and liter options, so I’m sure that’s not the problem.
We have tried cleaning the dog beds with all the appropriate cat urine cleaning solutions, but the second time we threw them all out and bought new ones. We did that the third time too. Now our poor dog has no beds until we solve the problem.
The dog is not a fan of the cats. She growls at them a lot, and is very protective of her food, “spaces,” toys, and bed. The cats don’t seem to mind at all, and act as though she’s not there, although I know sometimes cats don’t show when they are stressed. We know this is an issue, but she has been this way her while life. We not getting rid of the dog to solve the problem, not an option.
We of course will do all the tests at the vet (and do any surgery, take any medicine, or perform any procedure he needs), but we are worried that the poor cat is doing this due to a behavioral or dominance problem. If this is the case, does anyone have any recommendations about how to change his behavior? We will not be putting him in a shelter, we will not be re-homing him (unless we discover that he needs to be in a single pet home, in which case I will be heart broken but we will find him the perfect family), and no way in hell will we be putting him down. We will keep him even if he pees on my favorite rug or couch or carpet every 2 days. But I would obviously prefer if that weren’t the case… We have a baby coming in 6 months and I am hoping we have the issue mostly dealt with by then (although I realize long term behavior may take longer than that to change completely). Please help if you can. I feel like I am losing my very hormonal mind.
My question is could he be having urinati g problems now because of that. I have caught him 3times on 3 different rugs squatting looking like he wants to peepee, so i then go to pick him up to put him in the litterbox and he crys alittle like hes in pain. He use to complain the same way after when i would stop his brother from suckin on him.
Does anyone have any comments or suggestions?
I actually had a male kitten that had a sibling suckle on the end of penis and had actually caused an injury to the penis so the male cat could not pee! It was easily fixed and required some TLC. Today the cat is fine.
So take him to a vet ASAP!
I am looking after a cat who is not eating after being treated for a bladder infection on 10/31. He returned home on 11/3 after being under vet supervision, and although he was somewhat active, he was still being lethargic and then slowly started to decline again (not eating, although drinking and using the litterbox). He was taken back to the vet on 11/7 I was told that he is depressed and misses his owner. I returned to the vet today and was told again that he is “starving himself from depression”. He has since stopped drinking and using the litter box. Any advice on what to do?
Also, the owner is out of the country until June! I am the long-term caretaker.
Hi Carolyn,
There are steps your vet can take if he has stopped drinking as well as eating- give fluids subcutaneously, prescribe an appetite stimulant, etc. Did they run bloodwork? You can tempt his appetite, possibly, by offering Fancy Feast, or Gerber’s turkey or chicken baby food. Sometimes they’ll try tuna, or rabbit (vet sells.) You can syringe feed him with Hill’s AD(add water.) Worst case scenario- they can hospitalize him and/or place a feeding tube. They need to do something to turn him around.
If you can post a head shot here, I could send him Reiki long-distance.
Thank you, Krista. I appreciate your advice. The vet only suggested taking him to an emergency vet and said that they would run tests that would cost 3-5K, with no mention of a feeding tube or any other suggestions for sparking his appetite. Although he did give us nutritional gel, he was not interested in that and we have had to force feed it to him to at least get him some nourishment. It seems as though he should be taken to another vet! Thanks again. Best,
Carolyn
Just to update, friend rented a Rug Doctor and thoroughly cleaned the spot. Once it’s dry, he’s going to do another round of cleaning on the spot.
I’m wondering if he out the box there, would the cat use it? I know it’s not a permanent solution, but it may help short term. Then perhaps move the box back little by little, IF the cat starts using it again. Just a thought….
Hello,
Here’s my gold standard recommendation. Serial urinalyses (three to be exact) to look for any evidence of a urinary issue. This might include a culture and sensitivity. I also like an X-ray and ultrasound. Point being work out a medical issue to the ninth degree!! At the same time start to address behavior issues. I have a few blogs on “inappropriate urination”. I think (hope) that I have added all my secrets and tips to them. If things get bad (like to the point of considering giving up use the drugs!!!). Try fluoxetine.
Sarah – Thanks! I suggested the box move. Even if it’s just plopping ONE box in that spot, it can’t hurt, right? I don’t think they’ve furnished the basement yet, so it’s a great idea. 🙂
Dr. M – THANK YOU! I’ll recommend another urinalysis. My gut feeling is it’s not quite gone, especially when this started a day or so ago, and he was seen by their vet 2 weeks ago. I’ll recommend another visit today. I’ll also dig through the blog. 🙂
Update! He will cover the spot with plastic and put a litterbox on top of it, and he’s trying to get his cat in today to get a urine sample captured today or tomorrow. He also washed the spot again before returning the Rug Doctor this afternoon.
Thanks a ton, ladies! I’ll keep updating as things progress.
are they declawed? some cats dont like the feel of the litter. have several types of litter boxes high, low, covered, open, etc. to encourage proper elimination