# Cat has stopped using his litter tray



## kellyvision (Sep 18, 2011)

Hi all

I have 2 male house cats. They are both 4 years old, have both been castrated and have both been kept indoors since they were kittens.

Both have been litter trained since kittens. Jepha has always covered his mess in the tray and Travis has always used they tray but has never covered his mess.

For the past few weeks, Travis has been peeing on the carpet in the hallway which is in the vicinity of the litter box. More recently has has started pooping on the carpet too. He doesn't pee or poop anywhere else in the house, just on the hallway carpet. We keep the litter tray clean and accessible. It is a large, deep-sided litter tray. We bought an additional tray last week to see if that helped and placed it over the spot where he has been peeing most often. We chose a covered tray as he might like it better than the open tray. I think Travis has used it a couple of times but is now peeing and pooping on the carpet again. Jepha now uses both trays. 

We have sprayed cat urine stain/odour remover on the spots to no avail. My Husband is currently steaming the carpet with a professional cleaner to see if that removes any scent of urine/poop that Travis can smell. Fingers crossed it works!

I don't think this is down to a UTI as he seems to be in control of his bladder and bowels. He waits until we are out or asleep and defecates on the hallway carpet. I am going to book him in with the vet this week to be sure.

I wondered if anyone has any tips here as it is taking a lot of our time (and money!) to keep cleaning up the problem. We love our cats and are trying to do our best to solve this issue.


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

I would definitely have him checked out for an UTI. A UTI is not not having control about where they pee, its about him coming to associate peeing with pain, and therefore the litterbox with pain. They avoid the litterbox because they assume its that which is causing them the pain.

What are they being fed?

Have there been any environmental changes recently?


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## kellyvision (Sep 18, 2011)

Ok I didn't know that so will see what the vet says.

They eat James Wellbeloved dry food which has ingredients to aid UT health. I chose this food especially for that reason. They always have a bowl of fresh water available.

No major environmental changes except we cleared out the under stairs cupboard to throw some stuff away a few weeks ago. This is right in the area where he is now peeing and pooping. The tidying only took a couple of hours but I could tell that Travis was unnerved by it. He is a stressy cat that hates any kind of change so we try to keep things the same, especially around the litter tray area. I wondered whether a Feliway would help? Anyone tried that to calm nervy cats?


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

kellyvision said:


> They eat James Wellbeloved dry food which has ingredients to aid UT health. I chose this food especially for that reason. They always have a bowl of fresh water available.


Can you tell me exactly what in this food helps their UT health?

As far as I am aware, JWB is a very poor quality dry food with rice as a main ingredient. Dry food on the whole can cause very bad urinary health, so I hope you are feeding some wet food too. No cat should be on a 100% dry diet, and it should be heavily weighted towards wet.

I would love to know what is in JWB that you think is helping their UT health as I cant personally think of anything worse...

I really suggest you read this: http://www.petforums.co.uk/cat-heal...seasoned-cat-owners-alike.html#post1061226634


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## kellyvision (Sep 18, 2011)

Have just read the info on that link that you posted. My vet is a cat lover himself with many cats and so I think I'll ask his opinion rather than go by an article where I do not know the source. My cats have always been on dry food and at their vet check-ups they are always given a clean bill of health (the vet knows that they are on a dry diet). Of course I will now check this again in light of Travis's new problem and I'll take the advice of the professional. Will post the vet's advice on here as may help others.

Just to clarify, I didn't chose dry food for any other reason than I thought it was the healthiest option for my cats. If it turns out that wet food is best, then wet it is!

Thanks for the advice.


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

Sorry which ingredients in JWB in particular did you think were good for UT health, I'm simply interested.

In light of your feeding I would 100% get him checked for a UTI.


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## kellyvision (Sep 18, 2011)

JWB contains added natural cranberry extracts which is known to be beneficial to UT health.

My Husband's best friend is a vet and they were the first person to recommend JWB to us. Best friend's Husband works in the pet food industry and he recommended JWB over the brand that he sells. My Mother-in-law keeps horses and is therefore constantly in contact with people in the veterinary profession and all of these recommend feeding their dogs and cats JWB.

There is an equal meat content to rice in JWB.

We never chose wet food for our cats as amongst other reasons, my parents found newspaper in their can of wet food! Their cats now eat dry food only and are flourishing. I also understand that the jelly in wet food has a high sugar content.

You can see why we chose JWB after researching the options. But again, if the vet recommends wet food over dry then will switch. Our Cats' health is number one priority.

Husband has just been out and purchased a Feliway so will see how that goes.


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## missmoomoo (Jul 23, 2011)

kellyvision said:


> Have just read the info on that link that you posted. My vet is a cat lover himself with many cats and so I think I'll ask his opinion rather than go by an article where I do not know the source. My cats have always been on dry food and at their vet check-ups they are always given a clean bill of health (the vet knows that they are on a dry diet). Of course I will now check this again in light of Travis's new problem and I'll take the advice of the professional. Will post the vet's advice on here as may help others.
> 
> Just to clarify, I didn't chose dry food for any other reason than I thought it was the healthiest option for my cats. If it turns out that wet food is best, then wet it is!
> 
> Thanks for the advice.


Just to add that vets are not nutritionists so aren't always handing out the best advice when it comes to feeding animals. I feed my dogs a predominantly raw diet and the vets hate this, saying it is not right. But I know through alot of research that this diet is far healthier for my animals than the science plan they always try to get you to buy!

My cat also participates in the odd chicken wing


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## Guest (Sep 18, 2011)

My kitten has been the same, he still wet's and poo's in his tray but does the odd one in the hall carpet


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

You may not like the source of the post I linked you to but its as good as youre gonna get on actual cat nutrition here.

Cats need water. They don't eat biscuits in the wild. A huge cause of UTI is lack of moisture in a diet and theres not much moisture in dry food, plenty in wet to keep the kindeys flushed.

Cats do not eat rice in the wild also. There doesnt need to be any rice in cat food - never mind 'equal to meat, putting it at 26% meat only??' There is rice in it, cos rice is cheaper than meat...

Vets know very little about nutrition, they know how to fix illnesses, sadly not how to prevent them when it comes to food. Vets are usually taught about nutrition by Hills, and they tend t recommend Hills too, rather coincidental considering Hills is a pretty crappy food.


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## nimagraven (Jun 28, 2011)

My old cat was addicted to dry food and it was so bad in the end it was just a slippery slope of declining health. She had constant cystitis and when we took her off the dry (which was difficult as she wouldn't eat anything else) and moved her onto the wet (albeit, low quality) her waterworks improved to the point where she had no more issues. I don't think this was simply coincidence and I have heard many a similar story to this effect. My vet was the one that advised the change.

I always find it a bit saddening that people take Hobbs stuff so cynically. I can understand the reasoning for it, but for Pete's sake: She's a cat lover! I don't think she's deliberately taking the time to post things to poison cats (lol). It's your choice whether to follow the advice of course, but do your own research first (from a wide range of sources) before just throwing it out the window in the first case .

EDIT: Oh yeah and while I'm here. If it's the cats first UTI problem then I doubt the vet is going to recommend it's the food causing the problem ... Only because in the original case it was ME who suggested it to THEM (and that was when I had no clue about food and I just had a "common sense realisation"). So yeah... I don't see the harm in taking a plunge and trying it. What's the worst thing that can go wrong?


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## kellyvision (Sep 18, 2011)

Took Travis to the Vet today and she is pretty sure that the problem is a behavioural issue. They have kept him in overnight to get a urine sample to check for any physical problems. I asked about dry food and the Vet said dry food causing UTIs was only a problem with the first dry food manufactured in the 1960s and that modern dry food (inc JWB) is perfectly fine to give to cats.

I am slightly concerned about this being a behavioural issue as have already implemented everything that the Vet suggested. She did say that the Feliway may take a few weeks to take effect so fingers crossed it helps!

Missing Travis tonight but is for his own good. Will report back on here for info for those who may be suffering from the same problem.


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

Cats an certainly survive on a JWB only diet, but not thrive, and Hobbs info allows cats to more than thrive


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## Pheebs (Jun 8, 2011)

This is a good article, written by a vet:

Feline Urinary Tract Health: Cystitis, Urethral Obstruction, Urinary Tract Infection by Lisa A. Pierson, DVM :: cat urinary tract health


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## kellyvision (Sep 18, 2011)

Hi all

Update on Travis the cat who has decided to stop using the litter tray. He is back from his overnight stay at the Vet with a clean bill of health so we now know that the problem is behavioural and not physical. He wouldn't give them a urine sample so had to have it extracted with a syringe - poor boy!

He's back home, has had his dinner, a wash and a good long drink (he wouldn't eat or drink at the Vet for the whole 24 hours that he was there).

We have a new plan of action involving puppy training wee wee pads. We have put a wee wee pad on the hall carpet and he has used it already! Has peed on it and has only been home 45 mins. We've got a new litter tray which we have also fitted with a wee wee pad. The plan is to get him using the wee wee pad consistently in the same place and after a couple of weeks, move the new litter tray with wee wee pad instead of litter into that spot. Eventually we will use a small amount of kitten training litter on top of the wee wee pad and slowly increase it until hopefully he will be back to using just a tray with litter.

In the meantime we are hoping that the new Feliway plug in will also have a positive effect.

Feeling positive now that he has used the pad. The other cat isn't interested in it at all and is still using his litter tray. Must be patient and hopefully we will get there in the end!

Will report back with any updates.

If anyone else has tried this method I'd be glad for any tips that we might not have thought of.

Thanks.


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## Ianthi (Oct 21, 2008)

Pheebs said:


> This is a good article, written by a vet:
> 
> Feline Urinary Tract Health: Cystitis, Urethral Obstruction, Urinary Tract Infection by Lisa A. Pierson, DVM :: cat urinary tract health


I would also like to add that not all vets in my own experience are in favour of dry food, my current one included. Some of you may recall me telling you about another vet I knew who refused to stock it because she believed it was the underlying cause of all the urinary problems she treated at the practice. This is what she told all the visiting reps who were trying to promote dry food!


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

Ianthi said:


> I would also like to add that not all vets in my own experience are in favour of dry food, my current one included. Some of you may recall me telling you about another vet I knew who refused to stock it because she believed it was the underlying cause of all the urinary problems she treated at the practice. This is what she told all the visiting reps who were trying to promote dry food!


*clones the vet*


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## kellyvision (Sep 18, 2011)

Seeing as I now know that this is a behavioural issue and not a UTI, I am definitely not switching cat food as need Travis to be kept in a stable routine to help solve this problem. Therefore no point in this food debate raging on! Any practical tips on re-training adult cats to use a litter tray would be greatly received though.


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## Ianthi (Oct 21, 2008)

I wouldn't automatically rule out a UTI on the basis of one urine test. Firstly bacteria although present may not show up in the actual sample tested. Also with one of my one cats the first urine sample didn't reveal any crystals but they were present in a subsequent one a few days later.

The other thing to consider is his stools. Are they always well-formed and dark? Soft or semi-solid ones could point to inflammation-another possible cause.

Of course it may all stem from the fact he dislikes sharing the tray with his brother or he no longer likes the litter!


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## kellyvision (Sep 18, 2011)

I thought I would post an update for those suffering from a similar problem. It has now been over a week since we introduced puppy wee wee pads and we haven't had a single episode of Travis toileting on the carpet! We have been slowly adding kitten litter over a wee wee pad in a litter tray and he has been using this litter tray consistently. The clumping kitten litter has an attractant in it which may have helped. We've also had the Feliway plugged in for over a week now. So glad we have had success with this!


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