cat peeing and pooping on things

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KD - 23 Jun 2006 11:07 GMT

Greetings folks:

A bit of background: I have a 14 year old cat, the last one standing of
my original three (other died last December). She's never been terribly
healthy, has had a lot of problems in the past with constiptation
(apparently has a small bowel and has trouble passing large stools).
Vet had me give her lactulose in her food, which she's been getting for
a couple of years now.

So, sometimes over the past few years we'd find pieces of poop on the
living room floor, and on one of my loveseats. Thinking it could be her
age, not wanting to go all the way to the basement, we put a second
litterbox upstairs, that seemed to solve the problem.

For a while.

Now she's pooping on the chair again (just one of the chairs, she likes
to sit on the other and therefore doesn't poop there). I put a partial
dollar store shower curtain over part of it the other night, she pushed
it aside and pooped under it so as not to deprive us of its lasting
aroma. I got a bigger one to cover the whole chair last night, and our
reward was that she PEED on it! Of course it seeped through and my
chair that was just cleaned two weeks ago now has cat pee on it (so
does my husband's pants, as he sat there while getting ready for work
this morning).

Another factor could be that we have an 11 week old baby now, she's not
getting as much attention as she used to. But she was never a
lovey-dovey cat anyhow.

Any ideas on how to solve this behaviour? So far I've come up with,
when I'm not home, lock her out of any room with upholstered furniture
she could deface.

Thanks!

KD

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WorththeWait - 23 Jun 2006 16:31 GMT

At first I was right with you on the age factor, but when you mentioned new
baby... oh, yeah, kitty is attention-deprived. A couple questions: How did
you introduce baby into the home? To the cat?

Cats, especially older ones, can behave like an older sibling when a new baby
arrives. It won't be enough for you to just passively be in the same room,
like before. You need to actively spend some time playing/cuddling your cat,
both just her and with baby. Does she have a favorite treat? Associate her
treats with being around baby, or with baby's feeding times. A favorite toy
or brush? Again, associate pleasant things with being around baby. For an
immediate solution to the problem of the "scented" furniture: First get some
pet-odor-remover & get all traces of kitty-pee-poo smell out of the spots
she's using. Next, get something citrus scented that won't stain your
furniture, & spray it down. Cats hate citrus. Some companies make products
which mimic a cat's "friendly" pheremones, which would also discourage her
from marking that area. The shower-curtain idea was good... but it needs to
be a fitted slip-cover deal, or as you've seen, kitty pulls it right off.
Many furniture companies have plastic slip covers.

Shutting kitty in a room away from the furniture solves the immediate symptom,
but not the underlying problem. Imagine if you had a 5 or 6 year old, well
used to getting all of Mommy's attention, and then you brought a new baby
home. Cats are worse, because you can't talk to them & explain, but they're
sensitive enough to object to the decrease in attention.

>Greetings folks:
>
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>
>KD

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KD - 24 Jun 2006 16:45 GMT

> At first I was right with you on the age factor, but when you mentioned new
> baby... oh, yeah, kitty is attention-deprived. A couple questions: How did
[quoted text clipped - 60 lines]
>
> --

Well, she did it again. This time I had heavier duty plastic on the
sofa. I was in sight of her, having breakfast at the time, and she
pooped on the chair. It caught my attention as she scratched at it as
though to cover it. She fortunately didn't try to pull off the plastic
first. I gave her a good scolding, as she was caught in the act. Maybe
that will help.

Kitty wasn't really formally introduced to baby. She has never been a
very friendly cat, hisses a lot. She's not a lap cat, but she will
tolerate some rubbing sometimes. Not really into playing or cuddling
either. I try to give her as much extra attention as I can, but of
course with a baby in the house it ain't easy. Kitty will sniff at him
sometimes when she's around him, but mostly ignores him.

Fortunately I do have pet odour remover that does seem to work. The
reason I have this is because this isn't the first time we've had
problems with her. she's periodically done her business in
inappropriate places for a few years. The baby's been in the house for
nearly 12 weeks, so I wouldn't think she'd just starting to react to
that now. Would she? Maybe I need to put another litter box in the
living room, as much as I'd like to avoid doing so. *sigh*

KD

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Catlover Medway - 24 Jun 2006 20:43 GMT

I agree, do get your get checked over by a vet first to rule out any possible
medical problems.

Couple of useful sites:

http://www.fabcats.org/spraying.html
http://wizz-catz.co.uk/soiling.html

>> At first I was right with you on the age factor, but when you mentioned new
>> baby... oh, yeah, kitty is attention-deprived. A couple questions: How did
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
>
>KD

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WorththeWait - 25 Jun 2006 17:02 GMT

A basic checkup is always a good idea when cats act up... try switching to
CatAttract Litter. It has a blend of ingredients that smell good to cats,
attracting them to the litterbox.

>I agree, do get your get checked over by a vet first to rule out any possible
>medical problems.
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>>
>>KD

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