I have two 15 year old male cats. One of them has advanced kidney failure and needs a lot of care. I work from home and taking care of him is easily a part time job on top of working and taking care of my family responsibilities.
His brother Henry is driving me nuts. Henry has always had litter box issues here and there, but it is getting out of control and I am at my wit's end trying to care for one very sick cat while the other is destroying my home.
Every single morning I wake up to a large pile of feces either on my brand new wood stairs or in the corner of the living room. Some people start their day with a nice steaming cup of coffee. I start mine by cleaning up a nice steaming pile of cat poop. Every. Single. Morning.
Most mornings I will also wake up to puddles of urine. Henry is considerate enough to try to find a rug or something to pee on that can be washed, but will go directly on the wood floor if need be. The other day I was working and heard running water behind me. H. had decided to pee in the corner of the room right on the carpet just a few feet from me!
Every time he starts to have an "episode" we take him to the vet and he always comes back with a clean bill of health. usually his litter box episodes last for only a few weeks and are triggered by something (moving houses, moving the box, etc). This time it has been going on for 2 months and is steadily getting worse. We moved homes but it was over a year ago already so he should be used to the new house. There have been no other changes.
We took him to the vet again and she said H. is in the very early stages of kidney disease but that it shouldn't be causing box issues. Otherwise his health is fine.
We started using the ridiculously expensive cat attract litter a few years ago and that seemed to help for a while. H. has a sensitivity to baking soda and will not use any litter if it has baking soda in it. He will also not use any scented litter at all.
I wonder if cat attract changed their formula recently?
I scoop the litter box every day. We have 2 litter boxes we keep in a closet and the closet smells awful. We installed a fan that pushes air into the garage and it helped a little but I don't know what else to do since the usual litter stench removal method, baking soda, isn't an option for us. I sweep and clean the floors in there a few times a week. I also dump out all the litter and get completely fresh litter every month or so. Doing it more than that isn't financially an option for us due to the high cost of cat attract litter. Between work, taking care of home chores, and caring for the other cat, I just don't have time to be scooping litter more than once a day and stay sane so that isn't an option either. We think the smell might bother him but don't know what else to do in there. However, the closet doesn't smell any worse now than it did 4 months ago when he was using it just fine.
The boxes are down a flight of stairs and we often seem him standing at the top of the stairs looking down forlornly. I will usually urge him to go down there when I see him do that and most of the time he will use the box if I'm standing there. H. does not have any mobility problems. His joints and muscles are in great condition so physically going up and down the stairs isn't a problem for him.
We don't want to put H. in a cage all night and most of the day but I purchased one today because I just cannot deal with puddles of feces and urine around my house.
Does anyone have any recommendations?
Also, can anyone recommend an unscented clay litter that has no baking soda or other additives? Every litter I find has baking soda or something else added to it that H. will not use.
His brother Henry is driving me nuts. Henry has always had litter box issues here and there, but it is getting out of control and I am at my wit's end trying to care for one very sick cat while the other is destroying my home.
Every single morning I wake up to a large pile of feces either on my brand new wood stairs or in the corner of the living room. Some people start their day with a nice steaming cup of coffee. I start mine by cleaning up a nice steaming pile of cat poop. Every. Single. Morning.
Most mornings I will also wake up to puddles of urine. Henry is considerate enough to try to find a rug or something to pee on that can be washed, but will go directly on the wood floor if need be. The other day I was working and heard running water behind me. H. had decided to pee in the corner of the room right on the carpet just a few feet from me!
Every time he starts to have an "episode" we take him to the vet and he always comes back with a clean bill of health. usually his litter box episodes last for only a few weeks and are triggered by something (moving houses, moving the box, etc). This time it has been going on for 2 months and is steadily getting worse. We moved homes but it was over a year ago already so he should be used to the new house. There have been no other changes.
We took him to the vet again and she said H. is in the very early stages of kidney disease but that it shouldn't be causing box issues. Otherwise his health is fine.
We started using the ridiculously expensive cat attract litter a few years ago and that seemed to help for a while. H. has a sensitivity to baking soda and will not use any litter if it has baking soda in it. He will also not use any scented litter at all.
I wonder if cat attract changed their formula recently?
I scoop the litter box every day. We have 2 litter boxes we keep in a closet and the closet smells awful. We installed a fan that pushes air into the garage and it helped a little but I don't know what else to do since the usual litter stench removal method, baking soda, isn't an option for us. I sweep and clean the floors in there a few times a week. I also dump out all the litter and get completely fresh litter every month or so. Doing it more than that isn't financially an option for us due to the high cost of cat attract litter. Between work, taking care of home chores, and caring for the other cat, I just don't have time to be scooping litter more than once a day and stay sane so that isn't an option either. We think the smell might bother him but don't know what else to do in there. However, the closet doesn't smell any worse now than it did 4 months ago when he was using it just fine.
The boxes are down a flight of stairs and we often seem him standing at the top of the stairs looking down forlornly. I will usually urge him to go down there when I see him do that and most of the time he will use the box if I'm standing there. H. does not have any mobility problems. His joints and muscles are in great condition so physically going up and down the stairs isn't a problem for him.
We don't want to put H. in a cage all night and most of the day but I purchased one today because I just cannot deal with puddles of feces and urine around my house.
Does anyone have any recommendations?
Also, can anyone recommend an unscented clay litter that has no baking soda or other additives? Every litter I find has baking soda or something else added to it that H. will not use.