Years ago when my Pushy was young, he went through a period of recurrent crystals & UTIs. One time we were outside in the snow and he ran around crying and finally peed. It was red like a stream of blood! Freaked us out and obviously we rushed off to the vet.
Exactly. Ever seen those movies with six people living together with one bathroom? Everyone fighting over the bathroom?
I agree completely that you need more boxes. AND I use the Rubbermaid type tubs as shown above and they work great since we have a digger who tosses litter everywhere. Instead of cutting a hole in the middle of the side, we notched an opening in the end that they can simply walk into. It was easier to cut that way. We just cut from the top down about 6 or 7 inches, then about 4 of 5 inches across and back up and lines it with duct tape. I know having a lot of boxes is a pain, but I would bet this is what brought on your girl's issue, and it could easily happen again. If you need to, you can even place the boxes side by side, just have a row of 6 or 7 boxes lined up...it's better than nothing. Best scenario, though, is to have them scattered all throughout the house. We have them on different floors since we have a two story house. We've even got one in our Master Bathroom tub
That’s actually a good idea, I don’t know how I didn’t think of making a litter box like that myself!
I do have to clean every day, and it is tiresome, but I do prefer to focus on as few litter boxes as possible, than spread it out (I used to have to clean 8 different ones in an old setting which was a nightmare), I’m also using an relatively expensive sand mixture, which absorbs pee really well, but I broken two plastic scoops on it so far so I’m looking for a metal one now, but I’ll have to order online since I can’t find one locally.
I always tried to give them a mixture of kibble and wet food, but wet food causes them to have diarrhea frequently. Don’t have access to many good brands locally, at least in the supermarket level, mostly Friskies, Whiskas and Purina. So I switched to boiled chicken instead.
I think with no lid on top of the box, the cats will not feel confined like they might in a standard hooded/covered cat box.
Stress can also cause urinary issues. Is the sixth cat you're bringing on board a male or female? There are lots of good threads on this site about introducing new cats to reduce stress for them.
If you're planning to provide homemade food more than 15% of their diet, I would look up a good proven recipe written by a veterinarian. These days, there are a lot of good, balanced homemade recipes out there for cat food (and some really terrible recipes thrown together by people who don't know what they're doing). You're going to need at minimum meat, 5% liver, and some source of calcium (like eggshell powder, or human-grade bonemeal), plus some added supplements. Extra Taurine is crucial with cooked meats.
Spaying her might help.
Not sure if you knew this but from what I read this cat is a senior so there is a greater chance of complications putting a senior under the knife. Including death from the anesthetic.
