Kitty News
So Moxie (that's him in the icon) has been peeing outside the box occasionally for a really long time. Since, basically, our older cat Mica died about 5 or six years ago. It's been getting worse lately though, so the extent that I find puddles of pee in the bathroom next to the box pretty much daily. We've tried all kinds of things: new litter, more boxes, cleaning more often...etc. But he'll do it even when the box has just been cleaned, he's done it with all different kinds of litter in the box, etc.
So I took him to the vet yesterday to see if there was a medical reason. We still talked about behavioral things: figuring out how to de-stress him (he's been seriously a different, more neurotic cat since Mica died) and break the connection of bathroom=peeing on the floor for him, but we did also find a medical reason. His urine's ph is too high, and apparently crystals have been forming. It's not bad enough that he's gotten blocked or anything, but it's probably painful. Fortunately for all of this, we can treat it with a diet change. So he's on special prescription food for the moment, and locked up in the library with it and his own new, clean litter box. I'll be deep cleaning the bathroom today, after a trip to PetSmart to get some enzyme cleaner to really get the urine smell out, and maybe some happy cat pheromone to make the bathroom less stressful. Keeping Pepper off his food and out of his face (she causes most of his stress) is the rest of the challenge. We toyed with the idea of sending her to the kennel for a few days to reset him, but I'm not sure that's the best plan. We'll see how they do after I clean the bathroom and let him out. Other suggestions?
He's a gorgeous boy, isn't he?
So I took him to the vet yesterday to see if there was a medical reason. We still talked about behavioral things: figuring out how to de-stress him (he's been seriously a different, more neurotic cat since Mica died) and break the connection of bathroom=peeing on the floor for him, but we did also find a medical reason. His urine's ph is too high, and apparently crystals have been forming. It's not bad enough that he's gotten blocked or anything, but it's probably painful. Fortunately for all of this, we can treat it with a diet change. So he's on special prescription food for the moment, and locked up in the library with it and his own new, clean litter box. I'll be deep cleaning the bathroom today, after a trip to PetSmart to get some enzyme cleaner to really get the urine smell out, and maybe some happy cat pheromone to make the bathroom less stressful. Keeping Pepper off his food and out of his face (she causes most of his stress) is the rest of the challenge. We toyed with the idea of sending her to the kennel for a few days to reset him, but I'm not sure that's the best plan. We'll see how they do after I clean the bathroom and let him out. Other suggestions?
He's a gorgeous boy, isn't he?