Cat Refuses To Use Litter Box

[a0628h0427]

We have a male cat, neutered, who has been with us since he was a kitten of about 6 months. He refuses to use a litter box. If he is allowed inside the house, he will only go (both pee and poop) in a bathroom sink or on our bed. We have tried different litterboxes and different types of litter, to no avail. Since he will not use a box, he is only allowed outside or in the garage. If he is outside, he constantly scratches at doors and windows, to the point that it wakes us up in the middle of the night. In the garage, he pees and poops on the floor. Even treating the spots for their odor, it's unbearable in our garage. We're at our wits end and need to get a good night's sleep. There is a local cat shelter that I've contacted, but they are full and not taking new animals. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[FeebysOwner]

You can try a couple of fairly sizeable cardboard box lids and fill them with dirt/soil - or whatever it is that he uses outside - and see if he might use them instead. If you can find a bit of his pee or poop from outside, add that to the soil/dirt in the lid, so that his scent is present in the lid.

It would be best to try this in the garage for 2 reasons: 1.) he is safer in the garage than he is outside, not to mention it sounds like he doesn't keep you up at night in the garage, 2.) putting a lid with soil in it outdoors, where he can go wherever he wants, isn't probably going to attract him to the lid. Until you can get the garage floor cleaned, you might place these lids over top of the area(s) where he typically tends to pee/poop.

To clean the concrete to remove the smells, you can try Fizzion or SCOE10x, which are both non-toxic enzymatic cleansers, so they are safe around both humans and animals. Both can be used on most any surface - but, I think they may both have to ordered online.

You could also try one of these lids in the bathroom, and perhaps partially fill up the sink with some water to hopefully prevent him from going in there.

If by chance your cat would use the lids, you can gradually transition him to a litter box, and then on to litter (a little litter added to the soil, then more litter and less soil, etc.).

Has he been doing this all his life? If it started more recently, I think a vet visit would be in order just to rule out any possible health related issues.

 

[jen]

At what point during all this did you take him to the vet for a check up, bloodwork and most importantly a urinalysis? You have to rule out a health issue before banishing him to outside and a shelter. There are also behavior meds you could try to help him stop if it is purely behavioral.