My Cat Keeps Urinating Outside the Litter Box! Why?My 10 year old female indoor cat has recently taken to peeing on certain items--namely my bean bag chair or sometimes articles of clothing or blankets and sometimes pillows (but mostly the bean bag). I'm well aware that cats pee from "time to time" outside of the litter box but I've had her since she was 4 months old and this has only become a recentish problem. She doesn't do this every day (thankfully) but maybe once or twice a month (some months are worse than others). It really only started happening after we got our younger female cat who is now 3 and who also used to urinate on various items of furniture but doesn't anymore. Could my older cat have learned this from our younger one? Is this normal for elder cats?
A few months ago, she sustained a slight leg injury in which I had to keep in her in a kennel for several weeks. Since then she has recovered nicely, but I was warned to move her litter box to a lower level (she had to jump to get to it before) to prevent her from reinjuring the leg. I keep it down below from where it was and this has worked just fine. At the time of the injury, they ran x-rays to see what exactly had happened. They found that this was actually a recurrent injury in her hind legs (probably from straining a muscle or tendon and then not letting it rest and heal properly which was confusing because I had never seen her limp once until this happened). They also found that she had a kidney stone that had caused some scarring in one of the kidneys. I was told that the kidney stone was old and that it would be even more dangerous to remove it now (I didn't know that could happen). The vet wanted to do blood work for her to make sure she didnt' have a kidney disease/infection/etc. Unfortunately, due to personal recent events I do not have the financial means to get this done as it cost nearly $ 200-350 to just get bloodwork done! I've been monitoring her litter box and there is no blood in her urine so that's good. I watch her closely and she doesn't seem to be uncomfortable or in pain when she "goes." In fact, she seems like a perfectly happy cat. She loves to sun bathe (when the sun is actually out) and loves to cuddle and beg for attention. I never see her angry or upset unless of course our other cat is bugging her in which case she'll solve it by taking a swipe at her or if it comes to it, chasing her.
I'm no vet or true expert, but I do know this cat all too well. And if I could make an educated guess, I would think that this is more a behavioral issue rather than a medical one. My reason being is that she seems perfectly ok and happy. I could very well be wrong however. I know that she loves sleeping in that bean bag chair. I keep asking myself why would she pee on something she loves so much? There's just as much possiblity that this is a medical issue, but if it's behavioral, what could be the reason?
***Note: I have looked at other threads and sites that explain as to why a cat could be peeing outside the litter box, but since this cat has a different history (medically I mean) than the ones I've seen, I thought maybe it would just be best to ask my question for MY cat.
Posted by stephanie
It is probably painful for your cat to go pee so she is associating it with the litter box. Because of this she is peeing in other areas.
Posted by Madi
I used to have a cat. She got brain damage (long story) and after 2 years she started urinating outside of the litterbox. she died about a week after that so i think it is the age of your cat. :)
Posted by Kiki
If the cat is specifically going for the bean bag... it could be the material inside the bean bag, or she could be marking her territory on the bean bag. First I'd get rid of the bean bag itself and the other things she is peeing on and see if that helps. Since she's already peed on them she could be going for that scent so I'd just replace them (and maybe not get another bean bag chair, lol). So, if she loves it, it could be that she is "marking her territory", though male cats do this more female cats also do this. I've heard that cats that aren't spayed/neutered do this more, so if she's not spayed yet if you got her spayed that might be helpful (shelters will usually do this for 10-15 dollars). Although it's strange for her to suddenly be doing this after 10 years, when she wasn't doing it before. But, I did have one cat who once she got to be older 12, to 13, she just started losing her continence it seems and occasionally had messes (though mostly of the fecal kind) outside of her litter box, although she had no medical problems. How often is it happening? Since your cat did have a kidney stone it might be good to have a different vet and ask questions but $ 250-$ 300 is ridiculous just for some bloodwork, and you don't even know it's that that she has a kidney disease/infection! So, I wouldn't want to pay for that either, but also animals are not as good at showing their pain as humans are, so it might be good to consult with another vet. I think animal humane, and some other shelters have free behavior hotlines you could try calling, and see if you can do behavioral modifications first, get rid of the bean bag chair etc., and see if that works, and if not go see another vet.
Posted by Purina® Cat Chow® Mentor Dr. Deb Horwitz
There are many reasons that a 10 year old cat would begin urinating outside of the litter box. First, pain is often an issue and it may be easier to urinate where she is than getting to the litter box. Research has indicated that most cats over 11 years of age have arthritis in one or more joints, so she could be in pain without you really knowing. In addition, if she has renal disease, you may not see blood in her urine, but she may be drinking more water and therefore need to urinate more frequently. This usually results in a litter box that is dirtier than usual and may be avoided by the cat. She also could have an endocrine imbalance that makes her drink more water and urinate more frequently as well. The best course of action would be to have some blood work done to assess her overall health. It also might help to place a litter box closer to where she spends her time so she can get to it easily.
Orignal From: Kidney Disease: My Cat Keeps Urinating Outside the Litter Box! Why?
No comments:
Post a Comment