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Post by Jeremy's Boggle on Apr 16, 2012 8:44:56 GMT -5
Often we find to our horror that a cat has suddenly stopped using the litter box. Somehow we always seem to have three or four of the furry critters living here. Many with abandonment issues which lead to revenge behaviors when they decide we've been gone too long. When this happens they go to boot camp. Sometimes we do a preemptive strike and put everyone in crates while we are out of town. Usually we have to cage them before we pack as one of them will pee in our suitcases if given the chance Here is how we do it: 1. Find a medium size crate that allows enough room for the litte box, food & water and a small sleeping area. 2. Put the crate where you plan to keep the litter box after boot camp is over. This is very important. Sometimes you need to place it in that special spot on the floor they just can't stay away from. 3. Place cat in cage and run for the hills. Some cats will begin terrorizing you with their screams and tantrums. If your lucky you may have one that just lays down but don't count on it. You must be strong and not let the cat out of the crate. If you take them out don't let their paws touch the ground. 4. Clean all "accident" areas several times while the cat is in boot camp. 5. Leave them in the crate for no less than a week. Two weeks is best. 6. After the week is up open the door. Leave the crate in place so the cat can return to it to use the litter box. Move their food back to its usual location. Any out of box use gets them back in the crate for a week no exceptions. 7. After a full week out of the crate without any "accidents", remove the crate leaving the litter box in place. Your cat should now be using the litter box every time. If they slip back into their old habits, repeat the process. Good luck.
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Post by Sherry on Apr 16, 2012 9:20:21 GMT -5
Harsh, but I can see how it would work! Not as harsh, however, as giving them to the pound. One thing I will state here- BEFORE doing something like this, have your cat checked for UTI's or any other medical issues, and check them over physically on a regular basis. Some tantrums will actually pull out claws. That said, I've stickied it for future reference.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2012 14:52:00 GMT -5
Pretty good, only this only deals with retraining and not figuring out why they were peeing/spraying in the first place. We found that we had to crate our two youngest cats at night, continuing from the bootcamp, otherwise they would have spraying wars with the older cats. Luckily they have become possessive of their crate, and see it as "theirs" so they are no longer competing for other territory in the house so much. The older cats "own" the living room and bedrooms. I will never have so many female cats in one household again if I can help it! Even spayed, they are just too territorial and have their constant need to "discuss" who owns what every few days/weeks.
Oh and then there is Misty who will spray if Rolo goes into one of "her" rooms. If it wasn't for her, Rolo would be a full-time free run ferret.
We also have to keep a minimum of 6 litter boxes, as we found that part of the problem is that Jellybean is a major priss and won't pee/poop in the same box. In fact, she will only poop in a covered box, and pee in an uncovered one, and god forbid Misty should use one of her boxes she will projectile spray all over everything in protest.
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Post by Jeremy's Boggle on Apr 16, 2012 22:59:50 GMT -5
True. Sherry just asked me to do a write up on my retraining methods. Making sure they are not sick and identifying territory wars are important first steps.
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 29, 2012 21:09:40 GMT -5
I wish I could convince my coworker to try this, one of her cats is spraying and they are considering putting him down, he mostly does at night so I'd suggested caging or putting him in the bathroom at night but they think it would be too "mean" so they would never lock him up for a week or two.
Do you do anything else? I've suggested meds (he's been on two), feliway (already have), the special attractant litter (they haven't tried), moving boxes where he's going, he's been fully vet checked, plenty of boxes which are kept extremely clean, she's bought a zillion different cleaning sprays and deterrent stuff. Also anyone have any luck rehoming a sprayer? Do they just start up again at the new place? My sisters newer cat sprayed for awhile but she was doing everything wrong and thankfully she took my advice, changed some things and he stopped. I'm so glad my cat uses her box religiously.
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Post by Sherry on Apr 29, 2012 21:59:28 GMT -5
Generally if you can't figure out the trigger, they'll just continue. It does sound like territorial spraying. Only way I've ever heard of rehoming a confirmed sprayer is as a barn cat
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Post by Jeremy's Boggle on Apr 29, 2012 22:19:45 GMT -5
I wish I could convince my coworker to try this, one of her cats is spraying and they are considering putting him down, he mostly does at night so I'd suggested caging or putting him in the bathroom at night but they think it would be too "mean" so they would never lock him up for a week or two. Do you do anything else? I've suggested meds (he's been on two), feliway (already have), the special attractant litter (they haven't tried), moving boxes where he's going, he's been fully vet checked, plenty of boxes which are kept extremely clean, she's bought a zillion different cleaning sprays and deterrent stuff. Also anyone have any luck rehoming a sprayer? Do they just start up again at the new place? My sisters newer cat sprayed for awhile but she was doing everything wrong and thankfully she took my advice, changed some things and he stopped. I'm so glad my cat uses her box religiously. Killing the cat for a natural behavior seems meaner than a cage. Truthfully their probably more worried about dealing with a screaming cat. Is it an only cat? Multiple cats can cause this problem. I had one who did it some but has stopped. A combo of boot camp and me throwing a hissy fit on him. I'd never really yelled at him before. He is blind and bounce of several thing I scared him so bad. Most hard core sprayer end up as outside cats. I don't know of any meds that would help. I am going to my vet tomorrow, I'll see if he has any suggestions we haven't thought of. Where did she find a vet that will put down a healthy cat. My aunt had one with a brain issue that made her dangerous and still had a hard time getting her put down because her body was healthy.
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Post by Sherry on Apr 30, 2012 10:42:48 GMT -5
There are unfortunately many vets who are only interested in the dollar amount.
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Post by Jeremy's Boggle on Apr 30, 2012 21:36:26 GMT -5
I talked to my vet about your friend's cat. If they haven't tried anxiety meds then they might work. Other than that I'd try to get them to consider getting it a home where it can live outside.
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Post by goingpostal on May 1, 2012 18:32:34 GMT -5
He's on/been on two anti depressant drugs, they have 2 other cats, this one is around a year old that they found outside, actually I think their other male brought him home and they have a grumpy female as well, he and the other male were inside/outside but one got hit by a car and injured so they started keeping them in.
I did get the impression he will cry and that's part of not locking him up, I had suggested both making him an outside cat and/or putting a nice big dog kennel setup outside instead, might have to push that idea more. The vets up here are awful, this same vet put down my sisters cat for the same thing, not the new cat I mentioned but the one before him, he's very old school, science diet, vaccinate like crazy, doesn't keep up on anything.
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Post by Jeremy's Boggle on May 1, 2012 19:08:02 GMT -5
Apparently vets are becoming less and less responsible these day when it comes to euthanizing.
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Post by goingpostal on May 1, 2012 19:27:42 GMT -5
Apparently vets are becoming less and less responsible these day when it comes to euthanizing. I don't know, probably realistic, if they won't keep the cat, no one else will take it, the shelter puts down sprayers immediately and doesn't take owner surrenders anyways. In town there are a lot of loose cats and they are in town so he will be out fighting other cats or hit by a car if they leave him out. From what I've gathered most of their cats urine and puke everywhere so I'm not sure what's different/worse but I know he has wrecked some electrical stuff (dvd player, microwave, etc) with his spraying, they have two houses and 3 cats at each place. I'd suggested those scat mats, I don't really understand why they don't get some earplugs and crate him at night, at least that would cut down on most of it and seems like an easy solution.
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Post by Jeremy's Boggle on May 1, 2012 20:56:44 GMT -5
Sounds like they have a real mess going on. If you let it go too long it is much harder to stop. Some people refuse to do the simplest things because they don't want to be bothered. At least he isn't spraying them. My parents had an outside cat that wanted to mark me as his He did eventually stop. There is some possibility that he would stop in a less stressful situation.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2015 15:34:50 GMT -5
Apparently vets are becoming less and less responsible these day when it comes to euthanizing. Not really. If an owner is not willing to work with their sprayer, then what other option does the vet have? Euthanizing the cat is far more humane then passing the cat from home to home before someone eventually euthanizes it anyway. Or before it is abandoned outside and becomes food for the local wildlife or car fodder. My own vet encouraged me to keep trying with Jellybean (thank god I listened to her and she gave me a ton of support) but she also was of the opinion that if it became to much for me to handle (my own quality of life is important too) then putting her down was the only other option. Thankfully she's been doing really well. I actually just went away for 2 weeks on holiday and no spraying or aggressive behaviours of any kind! That was in part because of an awesome pet sitter, and partly because her drugs are working super well for her.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2015 15:51:35 GMT -5
I've crate trained my adult cats like you would a dog. Making it a positive, happy place. Not a place for punishment. It came in handy when my cat did have a UTI and I crated him with no problems. I only have three cats but four litter boxes so there's no territorial issues.
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