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Hello all, my wife and I have 2 cats, one female and one male. They are around the same age, both are rescues so we aren't sure on their exact age but both are about 3.5 years old.
The female has never had one issue of not using the litter box, she chooses to act out in other ways such as chewing on wires and such. The male though has been peeing outside the litter box on and off now since we had him for about 6 months (we got him in February of 2011 when he was a year or so old). The first times were on my old futon while we were in our apartment, we took him to the vet (he came to us with "kenel cough") and he was treated with anti biotics for protein in his urine. The vets wanted to do a bunch of testing but we can't afford to put $1000 into a cat because he has a slight possibility of being sick while having no other symptoms. This went on for a few months on and off. At one point he got really sick but a strong dose of antibiotics cured him of that (that was related to the kennel cough though).
He was good as far as we know for the rest of the time we were at the apartment. We moved into our house in September of 2012 and it was only a week or so before he went again on the futon, this time we threw it out because obviously he wasn't going to stop going on it. He seemed to be fine for the most part, he would go every once in a while outside of his litter box but he would warn us first (he was actually saying his litter box was "full" it turns out). After we figured out to empty it every day it seemed to be fine. The only time he would not pee in his litter box was when the pheromone diffuser would run out. Since then we have kept up on that, kept up on his litter box, moved a litter box upstairs for him, did everything possible to try and make him happy.
We just had a child this last July, ever since then he hasn't gotten as much attention so he has resorted to peeing outside his litter box again. The renters that lived there before we bought the house had a cat that was always kept in one room, it peed on the floor in a few different places, ironically in the same places ours was now peeing. So we spent $500 ripping out the carpet, sealing the floor with kilz sealer and then putting laminate down. It took him all of 5 days to go back to the same spot and pee again. While we were doing the floor (a 2 week span) we moved his litter box into the dining room, as far as we know he never peed outside it once while it was there, it just made a huge mess with the litter so we don't want it there anymore.
So now he is locked out of the room where his litter box was, and all 3 litter boxes are now in the basement. He now is peeing down in the basement, literally 5 feet from 2 of his litter boxes. He will randomly use his litter box but for the most part he is using the floor. We are honestly at a loss of what to do. He is by far the most lovable cat you will ever meet, he is incredibly clumsy (in the apartment he jumped a flight of stairs by accident) I don't want to get rid of him by any means. He will pee on the floor without me knowing and immediately want to cuddle or play like he doesn't know what he is doing is wrong. We have tried locking him up, giving him treats when he uses the litter box, smacked him with a newspaper at the scene of the crim and placed him in his litter box. Two years ago around this time we dumped over $1000 in vet bills only to have them say it must be a behavioral problem and that we need to try kitty boot camp.
Can anyone share any tips to help us? Thank you very much for any tips you can give.
The female has never had one issue of not using the litter box, she chooses to act out in other ways such as chewing on wires and such. The male though has been peeing outside the litter box on and off now since we had him for about 6 months (we got him in February of 2011 when he was a year or so old). The first times were on my old futon while we were in our apartment, we took him to the vet (he came to us with "kenel cough") and he was treated with anti biotics for protein in his urine. The vets wanted to do a bunch of testing but we can't afford to put $1000 into a cat because he has a slight possibility of being sick while having no other symptoms. This went on for a few months on and off. At one point he got really sick but a strong dose of antibiotics cured him of that (that was related to the kennel cough though).
He was good as far as we know for the rest of the time we were at the apartment. We moved into our house in September of 2012 and it was only a week or so before he went again on the futon, this time we threw it out because obviously he wasn't going to stop going on it. He seemed to be fine for the most part, he would go every once in a while outside of his litter box but he would warn us first (he was actually saying his litter box was "full" it turns out). After we figured out to empty it every day it seemed to be fine. The only time he would not pee in his litter box was when the pheromone diffuser would run out. Since then we have kept up on that, kept up on his litter box, moved a litter box upstairs for him, did everything possible to try and make him happy.
We just had a child this last July, ever since then he hasn't gotten as much attention so he has resorted to peeing outside his litter box again. The renters that lived there before we bought the house had a cat that was always kept in one room, it peed on the floor in a few different places, ironically in the same places ours was now peeing. So we spent $500 ripping out the carpet, sealing the floor with kilz sealer and then putting laminate down. It took him all of 5 days to go back to the same spot and pee again. While we were doing the floor (a 2 week span) we moved his litter box into the dining room, as far as we know he never peed outside it once while it was there, it just made a huge mess with the litter so we don't want it there anymore.
So now he is locked out of the room where his litter box was, and all 3 litter boxes are now in the basement. He now is peeing down in the basement, literally 5 feet from 2 of his litter boxes. He will randomly use his litter box but for the most part he is using the floor. We are honestly at a loss of what to do. He is by far the most lovable cat you will ever meet, he is incredibly clumsy (in the apartment he jumped a flight of stairs by accident) I don't want to get rid of him by any means. He will pee on the floor without me knowing and immediately want to cuddle or play like he doesn't know what he is doing is wrong. We have tried locking him up, giving him treats when he uses the litter box, smacked him with a newspaper at the scene of the crim and placed him in his litter box. Two years ago around this time we dumped over $1000 in vet bills only to have them say it must be a behavioral problem and that we need to try kitty boot camp.
Can anyone share any tips to help us? Thank you very much for any tips you can give.
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