Have you ever had this happen? You’re a happy cat owner, your kitty is using
box just fine, but one day…you come home and find a giant urine spot in living room…the bathroom…heaven forbid – on your bed!What happened? What went wrong? It isn’t normal for a cat to use her litter box faithfully, then one day decide it’s no longer right for her. There’s always a reason why a cat stops using litter box.
Always.
If this happens to you, don’t panic! The earlier you realize kitty isn’t using her box, earlier you can stop this problem cold. By careful investigation, you can figure out what’s going on, and how to get kitty to use her litter box again.
Let’s examine 5 common causes that could affect kitty, and solutions for each.
Medical condition:
Your kitty suddenly stops using litter box because she’s developed a medical condition. It is most likely crystals in her urine, which form in bladder, and make urination extremely painful. Kitty associates urination pain with her litter box, so she continually tries to find a spot in house that isn’t painful – to her!
The solution – get kitty to vet as quickly as possible. A course of medication can clear crystal problem in short term. A permanent solution is to change your cat’s diet to canned food. Be sure to consult with your vet on large-scale diet changes for your cat.
New house or residence:
You moved to another location. It’s fine by you…but kitty is stressed out by move. A week or two after moving in and unpacking boxes, you start finding “accidents” in new digs.
To solve this problem, you will need to confine your cat to one room, and retrain her to use litter box. She’s most likely stressed out by new house or apartment. Set up a room with her food, water, litter box, and toys. Shrink her new world down to a manageable size, and start over with litter training. As she demonstrates her willingness to use litter box again, bring her out, under supervision, and watch her. After a week or so, your cat should be better acclimated to new residence, and use her litter box again.
Change to a different cat litter brand:
Cats can be fussy creatures. You change to a different brand of litter because it’s cheaper, it hides smell better, or it’s simply more available. Kitty tells you she hates her new litter by most obvious method – she stops using it! Switch back to old brand you were using. Assuming kitty liked that, problem should be solved. If not, try Cat Attract brand litter. It has a unique blend of herbs and clay, and it really does solve problem for about 98% of feline population that has a litter box complex.
