Why is my cat not using his litter box
Pet Care : Why Your Cat Won't Use the Litter Box
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hi I'm dr. Marcia Martin and we're here
at safe harbor Animal Rescue in Jupiter
Florida
and today we're gonna talk about why my
cat won't use the litter box
how soiling is one of the primary
reasons people bring their cat to the
vet and it can be extremely frustrating
to deal with so the first thing that we
start with when we have a cat that's how
soiling is we look for a medical reason
for him not to be using the litter box
is is there a urinary tract infection
does he have kidney disease
hyperthyroidism any sort of underlying
medical condition that would make him
not want to use the litter box we
checked that first after that we look at
litter box habits
where are your litter boxes in the house
or they convenient to the cat can he
find them can he reach them are they in
places that aren't scary or high-traffic
areas places where he can relax when he
uses his litter box litter boxes should
not be these little tiny things they
sell at the pet store yeah they're
convenient for us but no cat wants to go
in a little tiny litter box where he has
to step in his own urine or feces to go
to the bathroom
or worse yet has to step in his friends
litter earth coated with feces and urine
so clean your boxes regularly get a big
box something like an under bed storage
container make sure there's at least an
inch of litter in there check your
litter if they're not using the litter
go back to clay studies have been done
showing the cats before prefer clay
litter so if they're having problems not
using the box go back to the clay you
can also purchase a cat attractant to
help them want to go back into the
litter get multiple cat boxes and put
them in places convenient for the cats
stay away from litter boxes that have
covers it's been shown that cats really
don't like those stay away from the
self-cleaning litterboxes a the noise
scares the cats and be sometimes urine
and feces can collect in there where we
can't see it but they can certainly
smell it check your house for stress is
there a stressor in the house is there a
new cat in the house that's upsetting
the household is there an illness that's
upsetting the household is there a male
cat outside screaming at night upsetting
the household look for stress stress can
be treated with natural methods it can
be treated with psychiatric drugs it can
be treated with Feliway
spray adapters that you can put into the
wall to
put out cat appeasing pheromones to help
settle the stress in the household but
how soiling is a multifactorial problem
it needs to be dealt with on a number of
levels and you need your veterinarians
help