Cat urinating directly outside the litter box

Hi everyone,
I'm new to this group - thanks for letting me join!

I have a multi-cat household - 1 male & 2 females. The youngest cat, a
female named Bumper, is the dominant cat in the house. The male,
Casey, and other female, Moochie, are about 14 years old & Bumper is
9.

We have a litter box upstairs in the bathroom for them, which now has
been moved to the bathtub due to one of them urinating on the litter
mat (the mat that catches the litter that they drag out of the litter
box) instead of the box. This happens no matter if the box is fresh,
i.e. washed & refilled with litter, or whether there is already urine
in it. I do not have a problem with them pooping outside of the litter
box, they all go inside of it.

They also have another litter box that we keep on the patio that they
all seem to use & I don't have a problem with them urinating outside of
it. Of course, I haven't caught any of them urinating outside the
litter box yet!

Also, there are no other symptoms of a possible UTI - no urinating in
other places - just on the darn litter mat!

Any suggestions, hints or ideas??

Thanks,
Janny

Take them to the vet - one of them has an infection. This is their way
of letting you know about it. What do you want them to do??? Write
you a letter???????



janny wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm new to this group - thanks for letting me join!

I have a multi-cat household - 1 male & 2 females. The youngest cat, a
female named Bumper, is the dominant cat in the house. The male,
Casey, and other female, Moochie, are about 14 years old & Bumper is
9.

We have a litter box upstairs in the bathroom for them, which now has
been moved to the bathtub due to one of them urinating on the litter
mat (the mat that catches the litter that they drag out of the litter
box) instead of the box. This happens no matter if the box is fresh,
i.e. washed & refilled with litter, or whether there is already urine
in it. I do not have a problem with them pooping outside of the litter
box, they all go inside of it.

They also have another litter box that we keep on the patio that they
all seem to use & I don't have a problem with them urinating outside of
it. Of course, I haven't caught any of them urinating outside the
litter box yet!

Also, there are no other symptoms of a possible UTI - no urinating in
other places - just on the darn litter mat!

Any suggestions, hints or ideas??

Thanks,
Janny

janny wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm new to this group - thanks for letting me join!

I have a multi-cat household - 1 male & 2 females. The youngest cat, a
female named Bumper, is the dominant cat in the house. The male,
Casey, and other female, Moochie, are about 14 years old & Bumper is
9.

We have a litter box upstairs in the bathroom for them, which now has
been moved to the bathtub due to one of them urinating on the litter
mat (the mat that catches the litter that they drag out of the litter
box) instead of the box. This happens no matter if the box is fresh,
i.e. washed & refilled with litter, or whether there is already urine
in it. I do not have a problem with them pooping outside of the litter
box, they all go inside of it.

They also have another litter box that we keep on the patio that they
all seem to use & I don't have a problem with them urinating outside of
it. Of course, I haven't caught any of them urinating outside the
litter box yet!

Also, there are no other symptoms of a possible UTI - no urinating in
other places - just on the darn litter mat!

Any suggestions, hints or ideas??

Thanks,
Janny

Hi Janny! My first thought is to ask if you have changed litter. They
have are hard time with different litter. You can gradually change to a
new litter but I just stick to the one they started with. I have a 16
year old cat. I have had other older cats as well( all have passed),
Anyway I have found that as they get older at least mine did not like
sharing a box. They also like to poop and urinate in different boxes
too. My cats are indoor and outdoor cats. When they were younger they
always went outside. But as they got older, they started using the
litter box especially in the winter time. As they approached their
teens they started getting picky about the litter box. I even had a 17
year old cat that was blind, FIV, and Hyper thyroid, he always went in
the hallway in the same place! I finally put a puppy pad there and he
would pee on that! He would poop in the litter box, but always peeed on
the puppy pad. What we do for our cats! He was a great cat though! I
hope I helped!
Sue
Kats'n Us

janny wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm new to this group - thanks for letting me join!

I have a multi-cat household - 1 male & 2 females. The youngest cat, a
female named Bumper, is the dominant cat in the house. The male,
Casey, and other female, Moochie, are about 14 years old & Bumper is
9.

We have a litter box upstairs in the bathroom for them, which now has
been moved to the bathtub due to one of them urinating on the litter
mat (the mat that catches the litter that they drag out of the litter
box) instead of the box. This happens no matter if the box is fresh,
i.e. washed & refilled with litter, or whether there is already urine
in it. I do not have a problem with them pooping outside of the litter
box, they all go inside of it.

They also have another litter box that we keep on the patio that they
all seem to use & I don't have a problem with them urinating outside of
it. Of course, I haven't caught any of them urinating outside the
litter box yet!

Also, there are no other symptoms of a possible UTI - no urinating in
other places - just on the darn litter mat!

Any suggestions, hints or ideas??

Thanks,
Janny

maybe oene of my old bosses would like to employ your cats, he was
always telling me to 'think outside the box', was this what he meant?

One of the cats may have a urinary tract infection and should be checked by
a vet. Also, the 14 year old cat may have a problem getting into the box if
the sides are high. You can try adding another box with low sides. You
should have litter boxes on every level of the house. As cats get older,
they need to be able to access the boxes without too much trouble (ie
without traveling too far).
Gail
"janny" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi everyone,
I'm new to this group - thanks for letting me join!

I have a multi-cat household - 1 male & 2 females. The youngest cat, a
female named Bumper, is the dominant cat in the house. The male,
Casey, and other female, Moochie, are about 14 years old & Bumper is
9.

We have a litter box upstairs in the bathroom for them, which now has
been moved to the bathtub due to one of them urinating on the litter
mat (the mat that catches the litter that they drag out of the litter
box) instead of the box. This happens no matter if the box is fresh,
i.e. washed & refilled with litter, or whether there is already urine
in it. I do not have a problem with them pooping outside of the litter
box, they all go inside of it.

They also have another litter box that we keep on the patio that they
all seem to use & I don't have a problem with them urinating outside of
it. Of course, I haven't caught any of them urinating outside the
litter box yet!

Also, there are no other symptoms of a possible UTI - no urinating in
other places - just on the darn litter mat!

Any suggestions, hints or ideas??

Thanks,
Janny

janny wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm new to this group - thanks for letting me join!

I have a multi-cat household - 1 male & 2 females. The youngest cat, a
female named Bumper, is the dominant cat in the house. The male,
Casey, and other female, Moochie, are about 14 years old & Bumper is
9.

We have a litter box upstairs in the bathroom for them, which now has
been moved to the bathtub due to one of them urinating on the litter
mat (the mat that catches the litter that they drag out of the litter
box) instead of the box. This happens no matter if the box is fresh,
i.e. washed & refilled with litter, or whether there is already urine
in it. I do not have a problem with them pooping outside of the litter
box, they all go inside of it.
---------------
Hi, Janny! I would be willing to bet that the culprit is one of your
older cats. As my (now deceased) kitty got up in years, she began
urinating to the side of the box. I would sometimes catch her, and it
would almost seem as if she were unaware that she was even doing it.
She would physically be in the box, but she would kind of position
herself near the edge of the box and then her urine would go half in,
half out type of thing. She did not have a UTI. She did have chronic
renal disease however. I once mentioned this to my sister, and she told
me that her aging cat had done the same thing. She told me she had
asked her vet, and he told her it was not "a protest" of some sort but
rather a physiological thing (but she couldn't remember what
physiological thing he had said it was). At any rate, once you see your
vet and ascertain that there is no UTI going on or something like that,
you can get around this by using a hooded/covered litter box or by
setting the litter box on Chux aka puppy training pads, which will
prevent the urine from ruining your floor. Unfortunately, I discovered
this too late, so I have a wooden floor that needs to be repaired :-(
Best regards,
---Cindy S.

I would pass on the hooded/covered box. I have not had a cat yet that liked
a covered box and, in fact, I think the covered box may contribute to the
problem. You may want to try a box with lower sides as one poster
suggested. It may be that your cat is having some difficulty getting in and
out of the box.

Sue

"cindys" wrote in message
oups.com...

janny wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm new to this group - thanks for letting me join!

I have a multi-cat household - 1 male & 2 females. The youngest cat, a
female named Bumper, is the dominant cat in the house. The male,
Casey, and other female, Moochie, are about 14 years old & Bumper is
9.

We have a litter box upstairs in the bathroom for them, which now has
been moved to the bathtub due to one of them urinating on the litter
mat (the mat that catches the litter that they drag out of the litter
box) instead of the box. This happens no matter if the box is fresh,
i.e. washed & refilled with litter, or whether there is already urine
in it. I do not have a problem with them pooping outside of the litter
box, they all go inside of it.
---------------
Hi, Janny! I would be willing to bet that the culprit is one of your
older cats. As my (now deceased) kitty got up in years, she began
urinating to the side of the box. I would sometimes catch her, and it
would almost seem as if she were unaware that she was even doing it.
She would physically be in the box, but she would kind of position
herself near the edge of the box and then her urine would go half in,
half out type of thing. She did not have a UTI. She did have chronic
renal disease however. I once mentioned this to my sister, and she told
me that her aging cat had done the same thing. She told me she had
asked her vet, and he told her it was not "a protest" of some sort but
rather a physiological thing (but she couldn't remember what
physiological thing he had said it was). At any rate, once you see your
vet and ascertain that there is no UTI going on or something like that,
you can get around this by using a hooded/covered litter box or by
setting the litter box on Chux aka puppy training pads, which will
prevent the urine from ruining your floor. Unfortunately, I discovered
this too late, so I have a wooden floor that needs to be repaired :-(
Best regards,
---Cindy S.

blkcatgal wrote:
I would pass on the hooded/covered box. I have not had a cat yet that liked
a covered box and, in fact, I think the covered box may contribute to the
problem.

The discussion about hooded/covered boxes came up in another thread
with respect to a cat who was kicking litter out of a box. I got the
hooded box in response to the problem, so it wasn't causing the
problem. I have 5 cats and 6 boxes (3 are covered, 3 are open). As far
as I can tell my cats are either neutral about the hooded boxes or
prefer them to the open ones. At any rate, all of the boxes in my house
seem to get more or less equal use. They might not be right for your
cats, but they're good for my cats.

You may want to try a box with lower sides as one poster
suggested. It may be that your cat is having some difficulty getting in and
out of the box.

In the case of my cat anyway (and maybe I misunderstood the problem
with the OP's cat), my cat was able to get in the box just fine,
seemingly thinking she was urinating in the box as usual. I think maybe
she was close to the side and not putting her butt as close to the
litter as she had in earlier years (this was true whether the box was
clean or dirty and didn't vary by box), and the urine would end up all
over the side of the box, sometimes some of it was in, sometimes some
was out, sometimes it was all in, sometimes it was all out. That's why
the hooded box worked, i.e., the urine would stay in the box. I
surrounded the open boxes with waterproof puppy training pads. When
they would get wet, I would replace them, and they prevented my floor
from getting (further) damaged.
Best regards,
---Cindy S.

"bookie" wrote in news:1167183928.722993.275710
@i12g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:




maybe oene of my old bosses would like to employ your cats, he was
always telling me to 'think outside the box', was this what he meant?



No, this would be tink outside of the box.