Cat not using litterbox out of jealousy?

[Gothicpumpkinfairy]

It's been a long time since I've posted something on here. The last time I posted was about my partner's cat, Vivi. This post is about her. She was doing really well using the litterbox again, but now she just refuses to use it. We did change the litter once to see if she would use a cheaper litter, but no. So we changed back. Now she seems to be acting out because she is jealous of the eldest cat in the house, who is the very first cat here.

Here is a little history:

The Eldest cat, E.K., doesn't like to be around the other cats. There are four cats in total here. The second eldest, Custard, doesn't mind everyone and just like lazing about. Our kitten, Cleo, who is about nine to ten months old likes to play. Vivi is a very loving cat, but seems jealous of E.K. E.K. likes to stay in my partner and I's room since she does not like to be around the others. We think this may be due to her age. She is about fourteen to fifteen years old. My partner before he moved in with me had two cats and a small dog of his own. Sadly the dog passed away, and we had to put down the elder of the two cats he had due to a condition we did not feel was safe to let go on. So Vivi is the one left.

We have a window unit in our bedroom, and like to shut the door to keep it cold in there at night. I also have a CPAP I use and to keep the cats from poking holes in the hose we also shut the door. E.K. never bothers the hose for my CPAP, and just lays in the bed rarely coming out. We do leave the door open during the day to try and get her to come out even for a moment. But at night we just shut the door and she happily lays in the bed with us. But since we have decided to just shut the door at night due to the fact we want to keep it cold in the room, and to keep the hose for my CPAP safe while we sleep.

Vivi has begun to go outside the litterbox. Most notably pooping around the litterboxes or even peeing on rugs, or other things left out on the floor. And she has begun to poop in front of our backdoor. This all really started when we began to let E.K. just stay in our bedroom, and shut the door at night. We don't want to wake up to hearing fights with E.K. and the other cats though she does tolerate them, she doesn't really like them near her. Every once in a while she will even let Custard groom her. But he was here not too long after she was so they know each other. I'm not sure what we can do. We want a safe place for E.K. to go, especially at night when we are sleeping.

Vivi is used to being shut up in a room with my partner especially when he sleeps. But we have had to swap up a lot of stuff to try and accommodate the four cats, two dogs, and iguana we have. The house is not that big. we have two main bedrooms, and a smaller room along with a single bathroom, small living room and a very small kitchen and small laundry room. There isn't any place we can just put E.K. to let her have her own space as the second bedroom is being used for storage at the moment. But I feel if we can clear it out, and clean it up we may be able to put E.K. in there. Set it up to have a litter box, food, water, and sleeping area, and a few toys. Then just have Vivi sleep in the room with us at night.

Can anyone recommend a really good Enzyme cleaner?

So what do we do to get Vivi to use the litterbox again?
1. Fix up the other bedroom and set it up for E.K. so she can have a safe place?
2. Let Vivi sleep in the bedroom with us asap?
3. Take Vivi to the vet and see if we can maybe get her some anxiety medicine?
4. All of the above?

 

[rubysmama]

Sorry you're having litter box issues with Vivi. Whether it's caused by jealousy or not, is hard to tell. But changing her routine, certainly may have caused stress, which can cause litter box avoidance issues, and even UTIs. So for that reason, a vet checkup is probably a good first step.

And definitely use an enzyme cleaner where she's peed/pooped outside the litter box. I've used Nature's Miracle, but not sure if it's the best, or if there are others.

Here's some TCS articles on the topic:
How to Successfully Combat Cat Urine – TheCatSite Articles
How To Remove Cat Urine – TheCatSite Articles
How To Remove Cat Urine Odor From Your Home – TheCatSite Articles
How To Get Cat Urine Smell Out Of Carpet: Effective, Non-toxic Solutions – TheCatSite Articles
How To Get Cat Pee Smell Out Of Clothes And Linens – TheCatSite Articles

As well as:
How To Solve Litterbox Problems In Cats: The Ultimate Guide – TheCatSite Articles
Litterbox Problems? Here’s Why You Should Call Your Vet – TheCatSite Articles

Stress in Cats – The Ultimate Guide – TheCatSite Articles

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I agree with all of the above! But, if you are considering letting Vivi stay in your room, I take it that Cleo and/or Custard are the ones you are worried about messing with your CPAP hose? If so, have you considered looking at CPAP hose protectors to see if any of them might work for you? That being the case, you could consider a door stop for your bedroom door and leave it open just enough to allow Vivi (or, the others) in at night if she wants to come in? If not a door stop, perhaps add a cat door so that you can still keep the door closed to preserve the A/C?

This is all on the assumption that EK wouldn't mind Vivi being around at night as long as you are there with the both of them. It is also on the assumption that EK might also not like being moved to another room and not being able to sleep with you.

If the rug at the backdoor is the same one that one of your previous cats used to use to poop/pee on, I would just toss it and replace it. That rug is probably no longer salvageable regardless of the cleaners you might use just because the odor is permanently embedded in it at this point. And I know your space is on the smaller side, but depending on how many litterboxes you have, you may need to add more - if for no other reason than to see if that might help Vivi any. Some cats get to the point they don't like to use litter boxes that already have a lot of 'stuff' in them. I know with 4 cats, that can be a lot of stuff! The general rule of thumb is one box per cat plus one - making you need 5, which is quite a number! Maybe you can try for at least 3 if you don't have that many already? Sometimes, even setting up more than one litter box very near another one can be of benefit. Is there a bit of space available by the back door to set up one of the extra litterboxes?

May I ask what the arrangement was before you started closing your door at night? It would seem that it is possible that Vivi is more upset with her 'humans' than she is with EK if she was previously allowed access 24/7 to that room. I also noticed that you said she used to sleep with your partner? If that is no longer happening, it is just another reason to gather she doesn't like being excluded from things she used to be a part of.

Just throwing out some thoughts in case it helps you come up with other potential ideas to help resolve your dilemma!

 

[sunny578]

Good ideas!

Yes, if there is a way to allow both Vivi and EK to sleep with you, you could try that! It might not solve the litter box issue at this point though.

Wondering about your current litter box set up. I hear the accidents are by the back door, by the litter boxes, and on the floor if rugs etc. are left out. Where are your litter boxes now? How many do you have?

Is it possible that Vivi has a UTI or other health issue, perhaps caused by the stress of being locked out of the bedroom?

If not, I would first focus on spending some extra time with Vivi and reducing her stress. Maybe this would include you opening your room to her at night, or maybe it would just be you all making an extra effort to hang out with her during the day. Maybe having some pre-sleep reading time and bringing Vivi to your bed to hang out then.

I would also think about changing up your litter box set up and adding more boxes to your space, depending on how many you have now and where they are. It sounds like Vivi is still sometimes using her box?

If you would like to lay out your current litter box set up, I can give you some ideas on how to make it better.

Please keep us posted!

 

[Gothicpumpkinfairy]

Im so sorry it took so long for me to reply. My laptop has been actong strange and Ive just now been able to check the replies. We have about four litter boxes. We only have three rooms besides a very small kitchen, dining and laundry room. Our livingroom is also quite small. One bathroom. There isnt room by the back door. We really dont have a lot of places to put the litter boxes. Vivi at first seemed upset about the fact the orginal cat she was with Harley was gone because we had to put her down due to a condition we didnt want to go on as she was about 14-16 and very frail. And the dog she was also originally with went to the rainbow bridge.

None of us knew of the cpap protectors until reading one reply. We will have to look into those. Cleo and Custard arent bothered by the door and perfer to stay in the livingroom usually. Vivi was using the litter box in our old room until we moved to the master bedroom. Then we had to close off the old bedroom as its a huge mess with us moving the rooms around. But Cleo and Custard were also using that one. We have all the litter boxes now in one room until we can figure out where to disperse them all. I was thinking of investing in some of those litter boxes you can hide in plain sight. Its just Custard doesnt like anything covered. Anything that covers his head he wont use. And we would allow Vivi in there with us but she and E.K. dont get along too well. E.K. likes to hiss and swat at the other cats it they so much as get near her while walking by. Though she usually calms after a few minutes of being around them.

Vivi likes to do the same thing mainly to Cleo cause Cleo always wants to play since she is still a kitten. Our room isnt that big either but we can try to shut Vivi up in the room with us as we do E.K. It seemed okay when we tried leaving the door open the first few nights we slept in there but then it began to get way to hot to leave the door open. And its still too hot, but its gotten better since we shut the door. Its mainly Cleo we want to keep from my cpap. Custard pokes holes too but its mainly cause he steps on the hose trying to get up closer to my face to lay when he decides to lay on/near me.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Thanks for the reply! At this point, it seems as if you need to try some of the suggestions mentioned above and see what happens. Then, please let us know the results. You never know what 'revelations' can come from doing so!

 

[Gothicpumpkinfairy]

Thank you. I will do that.

 

[sunny578]

Let us know how it goes!

Also wondering if you could open up that other room where the litter box was and see if Vivi will go back to using that?

 

[Gothicpumpkinfairy]

Update:
We tried a lot of the suggestions. We played with her more, loved on her more, tried giving her her own space. Left our bedroom door open all night and day. But it wasnt working. She became even more loving than she already was. She was extremely loving before, but even more so now. She still pottied outside the litterbox. So we finally decided to do something we knew that would help her feel more secure and less stressed.

Though we feel like jerks for doing it, we knew she was happy when we first did it. Originally we put her in a small kennel with a throw away pan for a litter box, and food and water and small folded throw blanket. It was cause she had worms and we wanted to make sure she took her meds and used the litterbox. Plus the vet recommended it. So now we got her a large kennel, regular litterbox, food and water and a bed. I want to put her out in the livingroom where she will be with everyone. But right now she is in the spare room which is mainly storage right now while we rearrange the livingroom to let her be here. I know this is seriously not ideal. But she absolutely refused to come out of the small kennel when she was put in there. She kept going back to it even after we took her out and tried to make sure she could roam around. She absolutely loved that kennel.

But we have to use that small kennel for the other cats incase its needed so we got a large kennel and set it up for her. My partner and I feel horrible doing this as we want her to have free roam. But she honestly does perfer to be in a small space like that that she can call her own and the other cats cant get too.

She meowed for about five minutes and I went to check on her. Opened the kennel and looked at her like okay we dont have to do this. But she wouldnt come out. I think she just wants to be where my partner and I are right now yet stay in the kennel. We are still trying to do the other solutions. And working on getting the Feliway. We honestly dont wanna do the anxiety meds if it can be helped, but our biggest fear is having to rehome her because we cant take care of her like she needs. And that is our absolute last resort. The kennel is something we honestly truly did not want to do, but the pottying outside the litterbox was getting worse. Thing was she pooping everywhere especially behind my partners recliner and the kitchen. And peeing on everything left on the floor, especially if it smelled of my partner. She usually left my stuff alone. Which was a bit odd. But I have heard of some cats doing that cause of territory stuff. But thats the update. Please be kind, cause Im close to tears thinking of what we've done.

 

[rubysmama]

Though not the ideal situation, if she seems happy, then that at least is good. And maybe it will help train her to use the litter box again.

A concern though is whether she will get enough exercise. Would taking her outside for walks on a leash and harness be an option?

 

[Gothicpumpkinfairy]

She seems to like walking with a harness and leash and so Ive started doing that too. But now we have a mystery on our hands. I just went into the kitchen and there are three piles of poop I know she couldnt of done. They all look very fresh and I know they werent there the night before. So now we have the wrong cat in the kennel even though I have seen her pee outside the litterbox Im really not sure which of the other three did it. Im not sure how to do a process of elimination right now.

 

[rubysmama]

Well that's an interesting turn of events. Guess maybe you need to look into setting up a motion sensing camera.

 

[Gothicpumpkinfairy]

I think we may of figured out who did it. The only male cat we have. Im not sure why he is doing this. He is usually so good using the litterbox. Unless its dirty. But theyre scooped at least two to three times a day. I guess we should bump it up to four to five times. Im not really sure.

 

[FeebysOwner]

If your male cat is older and hasn't been to the vet recently, you might just want to make an appt. It could be stress related having to do with your new cat, but a whole host of other reasons are possibilities as well. If he is older, it could also be tied to some arthritis bothering him - cats generally hold different positions in the litter box between peeing and pooping, so the position might be causing some aggravation with any arthritic joints he may have. Cats almost always tie the discomfort to the litter box and not their own bodies.