Cat box question?

I have a 15 Yr old male cat (20 lbs), just to the vet and checked out
OK.

I have a large cat box I made for him (actually a plastic storage
container with one end cut out for an entry). Lately he steps in with
all fours but leaves his rear end hanging out the in door. You can
guess what the result is. This is while peeing only 'cause for the
other he goes in and turns around.

There is about another foot or more for him to proceed further into
the box but he chooses not to do that.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get him to move further
into the box? BTW - he just started doing this recently and the box
is emptied, cleaned and refreshed daily.

Ideas please?

Which side of the box do you have the hole cut out of? Try cutting a
hole in the longer side so he is forced to turn around. If the hole is
on the shorter side, he can get in most of the way and not have to
turn around.

Also, how many boxes do you have? He might prefer to urinate in one
and defecate in another.

Rene

ps I'm glad you took him in to the vet, just in case.

Suddenly, without warning, bobmct exclaimed (10/11/2010 12:16 PM):
I have a 15 Yr old male cat (20 lbs), just to the vet and checked out
OK.

I have a large cat box I made for him (actually a plastic storage
container with one end cut out for an entry). Lately he steps in with
all fours but leaves his rear end hanging out the in door. You can
guess what the result is. This is while peeing only 'cause for the
other he goes in and turns around.

There is about another foot or more for him to proceed further into
the box but he chooses not to do that.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get him to move further
into the box? BTW - he just started doing this recently and the box
is emptied, cleaned and refreshed daily.

Ideas please?

You wouldn't think so, but it could be discomfort. Does he have
arthritis? Probably, given his age, actually...

My cat had done the same thing for a long time. Recently we put her on
a stronger painkiller in addition to her metacam and glucosamine, and
she completely stopped this behavior. Apparently it was uncomfortable
to squat down far enough, and for whatever reason when she couldn't, she
wanted to ensure the pee went outside the box. No idea why. I feel bad
that she went so long undiagnosed - we figured it out when she had what
we thought was a cystitis attack, was put on a strong painkiller for 3
days, and for those days had impeccable litterbox habits. And ate
properly, which is the other thing I'd been struggling with her about.
Now she's finally at a good weight, and cleaning her litterbox and
surrounds is no longer frustrating.

Something to look into. If he's already diagnosed with arthritis,
consider upping his pain meds. If he's not been diagnosed, worth
looking into with your vet.

Good luck!

jmc

"bobmct" wrote in message
...
I have a 15 Yr old male cat (20 lbs), just to the vet and checked out
OK.

I have a large cat box I made for him (actually a plastic storage
container with one end cut out for an entry). Lately he steps in with
all fours but leaves his rear end hanging out the in door. You can
guess what the result is. This is while peeing only 'cause for the
other he goes in and turns around.

There is about another foot or more for him to proceed further into
the box but he chooses not to do that.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get him to move further
into the box? BTW - he just started doing this recently and the box
is emptied, cleaned and refreshed daily.

Ideas please?

Put a pan under the box.....I recommend buying one of these garage floor
pans that are designed to keep oil spills off of your garage floor. They are
like very large cookie sheets....You can buy them in auto parts stores.

On Tue, 12 Oct 2010 01:14:34 -0700, "Bill Graham"
wrote:


"bobmct" wrote in message
.. .
I have a 15 Yr old male cat (20 lbs), just to the vet and checked out
OK.

I have a large cat box I made for him (actually a plastic storage
container with one end cut out for an entry). Lately he steps in with
all fours but leaves his rear end hanging out the in door. You can
guess what the result is. This is while peeing only 'cause for the
other he goes in and turns around.

There is about another foot or more for him to proceed further into
the box but he chooses not to do that.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get him to move further
into the box? BTW - he just started doing this recently and the box
is emptied, cleaned and refreshed daily.

Ideas please?

Put a pan under the box.....I recommend buying one of these garage floor
pans that are designed to keep oil spills off of your garage floor. They are
like very large cookie sheets....You can buy them in auto parts stores.

I like that idea. I got something like that at Target back when I
bought the Litter Robot and one of the cats kept peeing out the front.
An auto store might have something better.

"dgk" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 12 Oct 2010 01:14:34 -0700, "Bill Graham"
wrote:


"bobmct" wrote in message
. ..
I have a 15 Yr old male cat (20 lbs), just to the vet and checked out
OK.

I have a large cat box I made for him (actually a plastic storage
container with one end cut out for an entry). Lately he steps in with
all fours but leaves his rear end hanging out the in door. You can
guess what the result is. This is while peeing only 'cause for the
other he goes in and turns around.

There is about another foot or more for him to proceed further into
the box but he chooses not to do that.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get him to move further
into the box? BTW - he just started doing this recently and the box
is emptied, cleaned and refreshed daily.

Ideas please?

Put a pan under the box.....I recommend buying one of these garage floor
pans that are designed to keep oil spills off of your garage floor. They
are
like very large cookie sheets....You can buy them in auto parts stores.

I like that idea. I got something like that at Target back when I
bought the Litter Robot and one of the cats kept peeing out the front.
An auto store might have something better.

Yes, but if you do this, put something under it to keep moisture from
becoming trapped there.....A towel or something like that.....

Suddenly, without warning, dgk exclaimed (10/12/2010 10:27 AM):
On Tue, 12 Oct 2010 01:14:34 -0700, "Bill
wrote:


wrote in message
...
I have a 15 Yr old male cat (20 lbs), just to the vet and checked out
OK.

I have a large cat box I made for him (actually a plastic storage
container with one end cut out for an entry). Lately he steps in with
all fours but leaves his rear end hanging out the in door. You can
guess what the result is. This is while peeing only 'cause for the
other he goes in and turns around.

There is about another foot or more for him to proceed further into
the box but he chooses not to do that.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get him to move further
into the box? BTW - he just started doing this recently and the box
is emptied, cleaned and refreshed daily.

Ideas please?

Put a pan under the box.....I recommend buying one of these garage floor
pans that are designed to keep oil spills off of your garage floor. They are
like very large cookie sheets....You can buy them in auto parts stores.

I like that idea. I got something like that at Target back when I
bought the Litter Robot and one of the cats kept peeing out the front.
An auto store might have something better.

A good idea but does not address WHY your cat is doing this. Also, he
may decide to go further afield - for instance, if he pees on it and it
splashes back at him. I say this because I put a huge catmat under
Meep's box (one of those ones like a doormat), and though she peed out
the front onto it for a while, after a couple of months she started
peeing on the floor next to it.

Like I said before, once we got to the root of her problem - pain - she
started using the box properly. It looked very much like a behavioral
problem, but it was not.

jmc

On Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:18:27 -0400, jmc
wrote:

Suddenly, without warning, dgk exclaimed (10/12/2010 10:27 AM):
On Tue, 12 Oct 2010 01:14:34 -0700, "Bill
wrote:


wrote in message
...
I have a 15 Yr old male cat (20 lbs), just to the vet and checked out
OK.

I have a large cat box I made for him (actually a plastic storage
container with one end cut out for an entry). Lately he steps in with
all fours but leaves his rear end hanging out the in door. You can
guess what the result is. This is while peeing only 'cause for the
other he goes in and turns around.

There is about another foot or more for him to proceed further into
the box but he chooses not to do that.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get him to move further
into the box? BTW - he just started doing this recently and the box
is emptied, cleaned and refreshed daily.

Ideas please?

Put a pan under the box.....I recommend buying one of these garage floor
pans that are designed to keep oil spills off of your garage floor. They are
like very large cookie sheets....You can buy them in auto parts stores.

I like that idea. I got something like that at Target back when I
bought the Litter Robot and one of the cats kept peeing out the front.
An auto store might have something better.

A good idea but does not address WHY your cat is doing this. Also, he
may decide to go further afield - for instance, if he pees on it and it
splashes back at him. I say this because I put a huge catmat under
Meep's box (one of those ones like a doormat), and though she peed out
the front onto it for a while, after a couple of months she started
peeing on the floor next to it.

Like I said before, once we got to the root of her problem - pain - she
started using the box properly. It looked very much like a behavioral
problem, but it was not.

jmc

Oh sure, there's plenty of reasons that cats pee inappropriately, but
that isn't the case with Nipsy. The Litter Robot is recommended for
cats up to 16 lbs, and while Nipsy is around 15, he is a very big boy.
It's a bit small for him so sometimes his butt sticks out.

I used to have a motion detection video camera set up on the robot so
I could make sure that one of my other cats (Espy) was peeing. He had
been blocked so I checked the recordings daily to make sure that I saw
him pee. It caught Nipsy peeing out the front so I know just what
happened. He jumped in, stirred it up a bit, and turned so his butt
was facing the front and out it came. Just a random shot in the dark,
so to speak.

I deactivated the camera a few months back since it had been a year
since Espy's blockage and it looks like it won't repeat.

On Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:27:29 -0400, jmc
wrote:

Suddenly, without warning, bobmct exclaimed (10/11/2010 12:16 PM):
I have a 15 Yr old male cat (20 lbs), just to the vet and checked out
OK.

I have a large cat box I made for him (actually a plastic storage
container with one end cut out for an entry). Lately he steps in with
all fours but leaves his rear end hanging out the in door. You can
guess what the result is. This is while peeing only 'cause for the
other he goes in and turns around.

There is about another foot or more for him to proceed further into
the box but he chooses not to do that.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get him to move further
into the box? BTW - he just started doing this recently and the box
is emptied, cleaned and refreshed daily.

Ideas please?

You wouldn't think so, but it could be discomfort. Does he have
arthritis? Probably, given his age, actually...

My cat had done the same thing for a long time. Recently we put her on
a stronger painkiller in addition to her metacam and glucosamine, and
she completely stopped this behavior. Apparently it was uncomfortable
to squat down far enough, and for whatever reason when she couldn't, she
wanted to ensure the pee went outside the box. No idea why. I feel bad
that she went so long undiagnosed - we figured it out when she had what
we thought was a cystitis attack, was put on a strong painkiller for 3
days, and for those days had impeccable litterbox habits. And ate
properly, which is the other thing I'd been struggling with her about.
Now she's finally at a good weight, and cleaning her litterbox and
surrounds is no longer frustrating.

Something to look into. If he's already diagnosed with arthritis,
consider upping his pain meds. If he's not been diagnosed, worth
looking into with your vet.

Good luck!

jmc

Thanks for the advice, jmc. Quick one - what pain meds are you
administering and what method? Thanks

Suddenly, without warning, bobmct exclaimed (10/13/2010 2:13 PM):
On Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:27:29 -0400,
wrote:

Suddenly, without warning, bobmct exclaimed (10/11/2010 12:16 PM):
I have a 15 Yr old male cat (20 lbs), just to the vet and checked out
OK.

I have a large cat box I made for him (actually a plastic storage
container with one end cut out for an entry). Lately he steps in with
all fours but leaves his rear end hanging out the in door. You can
guess what the result is. This is while peeing only 'cause for the
other he goes in and turns around.

There is about another foot or more for him to proceed further into
the box but he chooses not to do that.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get him to move further
into the box? BTW - he just started doing this recently and the box
is emptied, cleaned and refreshed daily.

Ideas please?

You wouldn't think so, but it could be discomfort. Does he have
arthritis? Probably, given his age, actually...

My cat had done the same thing for a long time. Recently we put her on
a stronger painkiller in addition to her metacam and glucosamine, and
she completely stopped this behavior. Apparently it was uncomfortable
to squat down far enough, and for whatever reason when she couldn't, she
wanted to ensure the pee went outside the box. No idea why. I feel bad
that she went so long undiagnosed - we figured it out when she had what
we thought was a cystitis attack, was put on a strong painkiller for 3
days, and for those days had impeccable litterbox habits. And ate
properly, which is the other thing I'd been struggling with her about.
Now she's finally at a good weight, and cleaning her litterbox and
surrounds is no longer frustrating.

Something to look into. If he's already diagnosed with arthritis,
consider upping his pain meds. If he's not been diagnosed, worth
looking into with your vet.

Good luck!

jmc

Thanks for the advice, jmc. Quick one - what pain meds are you
administering and what method? Thanks

She gets metacam drops in her food and Tramodol compounded liquid.
Tramodol is more or less a last resort though, not a normal painkiller
for cats.

jmc