Unusual catbox training issue...?

Question

OK... I have had many many cats of all ages, but this is a new issue.

We rescued a very young kitten in January. Mr Jinx. He was 3 weeks old w/a very damaged eye. We had to hand feed him the first week. The vet said the eye was not causing him any pain, so we waited until he was old enough (5 months) to handle an operation. The eye was removed and he was neutered at the same time. That was four weeks ago. He was relatively box-trained before the operation but has taken to peeing anywhere he wants since. He uses the box maybe 10% of the time, otherwise he pees on the bed, behind the toilet, under the desk, etc.

Mind you, he still poops in the box, but he acts like he wasn't pee trained at all before.

Any suggestions? We watch him as carefully as we can, and the second we see him "assume the position' he gets picked up and placed in the litterbox... but we have to sleep and step out every now and then...

P2Orion · Accepted Answer

Cats and dogs will go wherever they smell their own pee and poo.  So, you need a blacklight and a pheromone-eliminating odor removal product made specifically for pets to get the odor out.  Clean thoroughly with these and also add special kitten training litter to the litter box so that he is better able to smell where he has to "go".  ^_^

Happy Hippie · Answer

I've never had to train a cat to do his/her things in the box, they just know it naturally... at least all the ones I had (and throughout my childhood I had more than 80... they were large families), always knew what to do and where, from the moment they could walk.

So I wouldn't know... maybe ask the vet about behavioural issues, the cat might be acting strange because of the shock of the operation, or even hormonal problems after losing his "parts" (you could have chosen vasectomy instead of neutering, it would have been more merciful on the poor kitty...)

Universal Whisperer · Answer

Confine the cat to a smaller space such as the bathroom or an extra large plastic airline dog crate with his food, water, litter pan, and bed.  You can get a product called Cat Attract that is supposed to attract a cat to the litter pan.  Clean up the areas of the house where the kitten has peed with an enzymatic cleaner such as Natures Miracle, so there will be no urine scent on the floor to attract the cat back to undesired spots.  Usually once the cat is confined, it will use its litter pan consistently.  After the cat has been using the litter pan consistently for a month, let him out of confinement.  Make sure to keep your litter pan clean enough to suit the cat.

Another thing you might do, if you don't want to confine the cat, is to put more litter pans in the areas where the cat is peeing (plastic dish pans make excellent litter pans for this kind of purpose btw) and see if the cat will pee in these litter pans instead of on the floor.

I have a rescue cat who is one-eyed too, she was dumped at a sanitation plant as a kitten with her left eye put out.  The remnants of her eye were removed and she does fine.  In fact, she's the most athletic and has the best coordination of all my cats!

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Unusual catbox training issue...?

3 Answers