# Cat Peeing Outside the Box



## Newt (Aug 19, 2003)

Ugh! 

I've tried putting mats outside the litter boxes to catch all the litter coming out, but he started peeing on them. We assumed it was the rubber because both cats pee on any bath mats in the house. We through all those out, gave the room a good mopping...but he still pees outside the box on occasion. We can't seem to keep it either clean enough or he can still smell the pee and chooses to go outside the box. 

This seems to not be a UTI (taking him to the vet Monday), he's just peeing all over the room where the litter box resides. We had gotten two litter boxes (two cats) but that seems to have made it worse, so we went back to one. 

How can we stop this behavior?


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## KatBudz (Jun 18, 2009)

Im guessing you have already seen the vet, was it a urinary issue? It's always best to rule out medical issues before thinking its just behavioral.


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## Newt (Aug 19, 2003)

We tried a few things. He had been regularly peeing in our laundry room. The pee had soaked our linoleum tile and they started to lift...the stench was getting bad after a few days. We assumed he may be peeing in there because he can still smell it. We had been planning a project to put down ceramic tile, so we accelerated that project. Ripped up all the linoleum down to the subfloor, put down the backer board, then tile and grout. The day the workers finished, he went in the room and peed. We mopped and used PetZyme and he went in there and did it again. We now keep that door shut.

We saw the vet two weeks back. She did not find any urinary issues (UTI) but did say that his Creatin (sp) was slightly elevated. The vet gave us a 30 day supply of Amatripaline (sp) for his behavior/anxiety and rescheduled us for another appt in a month to check on the Creatin levels.

So, for the first week on the pill, he was ok the first two days and then peed outside the box every other day for 4 days. He peed on carpets and area rugs (no rubber backing) where he hadn't peed before. We left on vacation and had our usual pet sitter (neighbors) come in to watch our cats and admin the drug. Albert (the peeing one) did not pee outside the box once the entire week! In fact, we did not leave "pill pockets" for the last two days so he was off his medication and still did not pee. 

On our first and second day back, he peed outside the box and had a bowel movement outside the box. We put him back on the pill after the first pee outside the box. Obviously it's us being here. We don't know what options we have left. Outside of the drugs, we've tried cleaning the box, adding a second box in another location, cleaning the pee with PetZyme, adding catnip to the litter, using various throw rugs near the box (he pees on all of them)....

Any ideas?


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## KatBudz (Jun 18, 2009)

How long have you had him for? How many cats do you have in your house? Becase the general rule is 1 litterbox per cat plus 1 extra. What type of litter do you use? Some cats are very sensitive to scented cat litter and will not use the LB for that reason. If you prefer clay I would suggest the Fresh4Life Multicat litter, it does not have a scent, there is also that arm and hammer one, but they only make one scent free one. My cats are using the World's Best cat litter right now, its made out of corn. Also, where do you have your litter box placed? If its in a loud, or high traffic area (like a laundry room) cats will usually avoid going there. When I lived at my old place, I put one of the litter boxes in the laundry room (I use 3 for two cats), neither of my cats used the laundry room box, unless their other ones needed scooping). Now that I have moved into an apartment I keep one in my bedroom in the corner hidden beside my dresser and a wall, one in my sisters room, and one in the hallway hidden by the hamper, and the cats use all of them. Also, if the litterboxes you are using are too small, some cats dont like that. I buy the biggest size available, they look like really big storage bins with a high top. And, after a while, no matter how much you clean it, litterboxes start to stink within the plastic, and that discourages cats from using it. I replace my LB's every year. Hope this may help! Good luck!

P.S.- my cat has behavioral urination (she does have FLUTD, but when I went to the vet, they did not find anything wrong with her urine, no infection or crystals.) So my vet suggested I put her on kitty prozac to give her a one month ''pill vacation'' from her stress. It may be something you want to look into. And, there are no side effects to it either.


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## Newt (Aug 19, 2003)

KatBudz, 

We've had the two cats (brothers) for 7 years. They have both shared a litter box the entire time without incident. When this behavior started (about 3 to 6 months ago) we bought a new litter box. Both litter boxes are huge (like a dog carrier) and we've tried placing them in different areas. Our laundry room is the quiet area of the house, we only go in there once a week.

We've been using TidyCat (Multi Cat) for a few years now but have begun slowly changing to Schweat Litter. We heard the same thing on litter and scent. Not sure if it works yet, because switching it out takes about a month.


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## KatBudz (Jun 18, 2009)

Maybe you are switching the litter too quickly? Start by switching just one of the boxes to the new litter, and leave the other one with the old litter, thats what I did when switching from clay to corn.


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## Newt (Aug 19, 2003)

KatBudz said:


> Maybe you are switching the litter too quickly? Start by switching just one of the boxes to the new litter, and leave the other one with the old litter, thats what I did when switching from clay to corn.


No, that's not the case. We mix in some new litter with the old. As we clean out the litter box, we continue to replace old with new until it's only new litter. We've done this before when we switched litter...can't switch it all at once as they won't recognize it.


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## Newt (Aug 19, 2003)

Well, his month on the Amatripaline is over and he's even worse now. Peeing and pooping outside the box several times a day.

I guess we're going to have to let him go, seems it's all behavior.


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## KatBudz (Jun 18, 2009)

Oh no  is there really nothing else you can try? Of course, if you think that rehoming him is the best for him, then do it, but have you tried everything you can think of to help him? Is Amatripaline the kitty prozac? Have you tried those Feliway pheremone plug ins? Something must be stressing him out/making him angry in your house, are him and the other cat getting along? Do you play with the cats? Getting them to run around and play is a great stress reliever, I have been playing with my older one more than usual since I have to take her to the vet a month ago, I thought it was a UTI but it was behavioral. I want the kitty prozac to be a last option for me, so I have been playing with her, and getting her to run around until she doesnt feel like it anymore, and she hasnt peed on anything for the last month now. Keep us updated on what happens!


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## Mitsy (Jun 14, 2010)

seems like you have tried a lot of different things.. maybe put a piece of the material that they are peeing on in the box to interest them.. I've never tried doing that before but its worth a shot i guess


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## Newt (Aug 19, 2003)

Update: It was crystals in his urine. They did a full geriatric blood test on him after a night of fastin and everything came out great. Baxter had crystals a little while back, but we tracked that to a new all protein cat food we were trying to help with his weight. We switched both cats off of the food as soon as Baxter was diagnosed. The vet said it could be genetic. 

The cats eat the following diet:

Wellness Turkey or Chicken Wet Cat Food
Blue Buffalo Dry

They get Blue Buffalo once a day and 1/3 of a can of Wellness per cat twice a day. Is it the food or genetics? Vet said it could be either. She has recommended we put him on a complete Hills S/D diet for the next 6 months.

Not thrilled for the little guy to have a problem but am glad we traced it to something.


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## KatBudz (Jun 18, 2009)

Dont use hills, if you have to do a vet diet, use the Medical Royal Canin instead. Also, dont feed the Buffalo Blue, it has fish in it, which could be a factor in crystal formation. You should feed only canned food, if not, do atleast 50/50 with the wet and dry, and add extra water to the canned food and mix it together to make it soupy. Cats get urinary issues because they are not getting enough water and the urine sits in the bladder too long causing infection, inflammation, and crystal formation. Your kitty needs as much water intake as possible. I would strongly suggest to stay away from any foods that have fish ingredients, only the oil is ok. Good luck!


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## Newt (Aug 19, 2003)

Update:

We seemed to have turned a corner. We switched litter to "World's Best Cat Litter" and have Bert on a diet of dry and wet Hills S/D. He's back to his old self again (running around, terrorizing Baxter, climbing to the plant shelf, etc). He's used the litter box every day this week!


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## monelle (Jul 2, 2010)

Congrats, that's got to be a huge relief.

Question: I have a similar problem with my cat, Leona. However, oftentimes she seems almost afraid of the cat pan, and when she uses it she's in and out very quickly. She has been developing worse and worse habits, and lately has been peeing outside of the box everyday. For the past 6 months or so she has been peeing on area rugs by the pan (in the bathroom) and in front of the front door, and often when she uses the litter box she stands up and pees on the floor outside. It's pretty much daily right now, and I'm about at my wits' end. I scoop it on a daily basis, and there really isn't opportunity to keep it any cleaner than I do. I got her checked for UTI a couple of months ago, but it was negative. Are "crystals" something different? Is that a different test? Could it be that this is what's going on? Anyone have any other suggestions?


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## KatBudz (Jun 18, 2009)

You should bring your cat in for another urinalysis. Since you did test it a few months ago, your cat could have developed crystals or gotten an infection since. Do you feed canned food or only kibble? You should be feeding atleast 50% canned food each day. Also, how many litter boxes do you have in your home? The general rule is 1 for each cat plus 1 extra. Cats also like litter pans that are larger, the ones I use for my cats are like extra large storage bins, they are fairly tall and very big.


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## monelle (Jul 2, 2010)

So is crystals the same thing as UTI, and is it identified by a urinalysis? My vet didn't mention that, just UTI, and we were disappointed that it wasn't the clear problem. We have just the one box because, honestly I don't know where else I could put another in my condo. I do think I'll try getting a bigger one. I used to have a bigger one that was enclosed, but she really didn't like that. I had to toss it really early. My wife and I are about to have a baby, and we're pretty limited as to where we can keep a box. I used to feed 50% wet, but the other problem she has is vommitting. She used to vomit regularly, and the vet worked with me on several wet foods. In the end what worked was just sticking to the kibble. She eats Nutro Max now, which my vet had encouraged as an option, and one of 2 problems is solved. It's hard for me to revisit the food scenario, but I could be open to options.


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## KatBudz (Jun 18, 2009)

The vomiting is most likely due to the fact that she eats the canned food too fast. To slow her down, you can even put a small golfball or a plastic ball, so the cat has to eat around it. Or, what I have to do with my cat, because he eats really fast and throws up too, I put the food down for a minute and then I pick it up, wait five minutes, and put it back on the ground. Sometimes I have to pick it up in less than a minute cause he gobbles it so quickly, and then I just do that a few times so I can slow down how he eats. You can even wait like 1-2 minutes, but 5 seems to work for him. With the crystal formation, there can be a UTI present without the crystals, so it is a seperate thing. The only tricky thing about crystals is that they can form quickly outside of the body, so sometimes you can get a false positive, and yes a urinalysis is how they identify crystals. It wouldnt hurt to put the kitty on 14 days worth of clavomox (sp?) just to clear up an infection if there is one. With the litterbox situation, if you really cant find anywhere else to put one, you could always just increase the size of the one you have, and just put another one right beside it. Not sure if i mentioned this before, but some cats like to just use different boxes for their pee and poo. So even if you just place two right beside eachother, you wouldnt have to worry about putting it in another area of your home.


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## jessakamitz (Jul 3, 2010)

I'm glad you seemed to have figured out how to fix this problem. I'm glad it isn't anything more serious.

My cat was peeing outside of the box and it actually stemmed from her health problems...she has liver disease (the cause?), jaundice, hyperthyroidism and a heart murmur. The only thing that's been working for her recently is us is not leaving any towels, rugs, pillows or clothes on the floor. She peed on the carpet twice, but I've since cleaned it and covered it with something else in hopes that she won't use the bathroom there.


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## monelle (Jul 2, 2010)

Ok, I'm trying a few things before another vet visit. Just got an additional cat pan right next to the current one. I remember that my grandmother always had this same set up. It always struck me that all the pee was in one and all the poop in the other. Also, I bought arm&hammer natural corn litter. I'm trying that in one, and the tidy cat in the other. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm aware about the ball in the food, and several other methods. We went through all sorts of techniques to try to figure it out. There's more to it than fast ingestion. She is basically just very sensitive. But anyways, that's a whole-nother topic. I will definitely be revisiting the food issue if there is a medical issue. TBD, but right now, I'll see how a couple of litter box scenarios play out.

Thanks for the help, this forum is great.


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## Newt (Aug 19, 2003)

monelle said:


> Congrats, that's got to be a huge relief.
> 
> Question: I have a similar problem with my cat, Leona. However, oftentimes she seems almost afraid of the cat pan, and when she uses it she's in and out very quickly. She has been developing worse and worse habits, and lately has been peeing outside of the box everyday. For the past 6 months or so she has been peeing on area rugs by the pan (in the bathroom) and in front of the front door, and often when she uses the litter box she stands up and pees on the floor outside. It's pretty much daily right now, and I'm about at my wits' end. I scoop it on a daily basis, and there really isn't opportunity to keep it any cleaner than I do. I got her checked for UTI a couple of months ago, but it was negative. Are "crystals" something different? Is that a different test? Could it be that this is what's going on? Anyone have any other suggestions?



I do have to relay a similar story to peeing outside the box while in the box. The first night we got Bert back in the box I took the lid off thinking it was trapping odor and causing his behavior. I took the lid off and late one night I was in the kitchen and spied him out of the corner of my eye using the box!!! Cool!!! (I thought to myself) I turned on the light and he was standing there while a stream went across the room and onto the floor. 

The vet should have taken urine and could tell if he had struvite crystals or a UTI. Take him back for another checkup, Bert could not squat down to pee with his problem. It was painful and he would pee and poop standing up.


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## Newt (Aug 19, 2003)

Well that was a fun couple of weeks...cat peeing and pooping outside the box again...no change in environment (litter, food, etc).


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## Newt (Aug 19, 2003)

We took Bert back to the shelter today. 

Our vet found nothing physically wrong with him. Estrogen pills made him worse (jumpy, skiddish, etc) than before. We also tried a pheromone collar, but that had no effect either.

Not sure what the policy is...we asked the keeper that if they found any medical reason for his problem (that our vet missed) to please let us know, we'd like to bring him back.


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