[A*LOT*OF*HOPE]

I love my cat to death!!! He is 6 years old, and shouldn't have made past a couple months!! He has a liver shunt and it makes him really sick!! He also has a pretty bed equilibrium problem. With proper diet we can control his sickness, and is pretty much fine!! he has a problem with peeing on everything!! He will pee anywhere dark, like a closet are corner of a dark room. He will also pee on anything we leave on the floor ie: clothes, blankets, pillows. His litter box is very out in the open, in one of our main rooms(which I hate, but can't move it), and he still pees on stuff!! Last night I was laying on the couch and was so tired I just threw the blanket off me. Well between last night and today when I got home from work, he had peed on the blanket and the pillow on the floor!!! He is fixed!! Also, when he poops, he strains so bad, I guess because of his liver issue, that he starts to poop in the litter box, but from all the strain he ends up stepping out and pooping on the floor!!! It is gross, my house stinks, my husband hates him, and it can't be good when he have kids!! Even with all of this going on, I still love him like he is my baby!! He has been with me through some really hard times, and as I write this it makes me cry because I couldn't stand not have him as my kitty!! he is the biggest cuddle muffin, loves attention and follows me everywhere!!

I guess what I am wondering is if anyone has a solution to my peeing and pooping problem?? My husband is about to kick him to the curb. I kow I can't have this going on when I have a baby, but I don't know what to do!!!

[*krista*]

My cat used to do the same thing with the peeing thing. I thought I was emptying her box enough, but it turns out I wasn't. I changed her to the clumping littler and scoop for poop every morning. We no longer have the problem.

I don't know if it is the same situation as yours though since your kitty has a medical condition that could be causing it. Have you asked the vet?

[Oriyan]

My first questions to help since i see this all the time at work:

1. What kinda diet is he on? What food exactly?
2. Have you tried changing litters? (have you recently changed litters?) Getting him an enclosed litter pan? (or an open litter pan if he has an enclosed one)
3. Do you feed him wet food?
4. When was the last time he went to the vet about this problem?

[A*LOT*OF*HOPE]

1. What kinda diet is he on? What food exactly? He eats Hills Prescription Diet l/d.

2. Have you tried changing litters? (have you recently changed litters?) Getting him an enclosed litter pan? (or an open litter pan if he has an enclosed one) he has had both and neither of them have worked!!

3. Do you feed him wet food? I don't give him wet food, it makes him sick

4. When was the last time he went to the vet about this problem? He went to the vet about 6 months ago, vet said he was fine!! I used to take him to the vet back home every 4 or 5 months!!

[Oriyan]

Good! Glad he is on the l/d! Was gonna be upset if he wasn't lol. My dog has to eat I/D for intestional issues.

Does not like either box ehh? Have you tried different litters? Scented, unscented, litter crystals, clumping, clay, etc etc? Some cats are ridiculously picky about what they pee on. Cats who usually have making issues even after they are fixed either a) don't like someone or something in the house b) don't like their litter or litter pan or c) pan isn't clean enough for them.

The straining when he goes poop might have to do with the lack of water in his diet -- cats don't usually drink water all too often. Cats that eat wet food get the majority of their water intake from there. The l/d could be constipating him which is why he walks out of the litter box -- he is trying to move around to get the poo out and he cant.

one solution you can try is isolating him and his litter pan to 1 room until he stops peeing and pooing everywhere. Sometimes cats just like their litter pans in smaller areas and not in a large room.

There are some nontradtional cures that your vet might or might not know about. Some male cats are given the depo shot to counteract their hormones and it stops them from marking. Other vets use something called clomicalm, but it tends to make some cats very sleepy.

It is possible that he has some kinda metabolic disorder or an underlying urinary tract issues -- i'd go back to the vet and demand a urinalysis to make sure he is ok.

[A*LOT*OF*HOPE]

Sam, your so awesome!!! He was peeing blood at one point a couple years ago so I too him in!! The vet said he had crystals in his urine, big sharp pointy ones that were causing the blood!!! He said it was from his liver shunt and there was nothing we could do!!! We were giving him lactulose and that helps with constipation but I guess he is in the habit of straining so he just gets diarrhea on the floor!! He was on metronidazole for his live shunt, but hated it, so we found that with a controlled very low protein diet he was ok with no meds!! He is not allowed treats are people food(which he loves...cheesies, pasta, cheese). I would love to give him wet food ad have a ton of the l/d stuff, but it seems to make him sick, the vet assured me that there is no more protein in that than in the dry food, but it still make shim sick, so I don't know what to do! I hate it when he is sick, it is so sad, he gets all drooly, and disoriented, and uncomfortable, it is truly the saddest thing ever!!!

We have a self cleaning litter box that we are going to start using tonight!! That way it will always stay clean!! We also got them some new litter that we will use!! I am also going to take your advice and move our litterbox to a smaller room and see if that helps!!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this an answer!! You are so wonderful!!!

[Oriyan]

Did your vet switch you to C/D or S/D when he said he had crystals? He could very well still HAVE crystals and they could be causing major issues -- which can be causing him to urinate all over the place. Crystals can lead to a major blockage and infections. Get him that urinalysis soon (Most in house tests are like 80 dollars - main thing to do is the urine needs to be looked at under the microscope)

[A*LOT*OF*HOPE]

Thanks Sam!!!! I will definitely take him soon!!!! I don't want anything bad to happen!!! Our vet did not have us switch food!!!! Should he have?

[ShannonMVT]

Here is one more thought...you said he pees anywhere in the dark, like in corners. Maybe he doesn't like that you have the litterbox out in the open? Some cats seem to want to be out of sight when they are doing their business. You could try sticking another box somewhere more isolated and see if he'll use that one.

Of course everything Sam has said is great, just thought I'd throw this out there since it came to mind.

[A*LOT*OF*HOPE]

Shannon, you are right, I am going to move it to a different spot and see if that helps, I really hope that doing all these things helps!!!

[LadyGamer]

My cat is on C/D because of crystals. She used to pee all over the place too. It isn't much of a problem any more

[**jessie**]

hmmm, it's really hard to say without seeing him if his peeing probs are behavioral, some other health prob or as a result of his hepatic shunt, which causes hepatic encephalopathy (high ammonia levels in the blood that can cause weird behavior problems, equilibrium problems, ect). H.E. can also cause polydipsia/polyuria (drinking and peeing too much). This sometimes is observed by the owner as peeing in weird places or more than usual.

Is he only on the l/d food? No snacks or anything extra? Unfortunately, even previously well maintained shunts can get worse no matter what you do. I'm not saying this is the case with your guy, but its a possibility especially as he is 6 yrs old. That is a good long time to go with diet management only. Did your vet take some blood to recheck his liver enzymes, urea and ammonia levels? I think that would be a good place to start. The u/a Sam recommends is also a good idea. All the feline Hill's diets contain a prophylactic urine acidifier to help reduce urine crystals, but it is still a possibility. The shunt itself predisposes the cat to crystals- not struvite the most common ones, but uric acid crystals instead. Because of his shunt though, he has to remain on a liver diet and cannot be switched to c/d or something like that. There are other liver diets out there, but Hills is a good one and if it has been working well for you, I would be reluctant to switch.

If he is found to have a worsening shunt, there are medications that can be used to help control the hepatic encepalopathy. You can give oral ampicillin or neomycin (antibiotics) that decreases the amount of bacteria in the gut that produce the offending ammonia or oral lactulose, which binds ammonia in the gut.

Other things that could be causing the problem have already been mentioned. Like Sam said, UTIs or crystals are common and are very easily diagnosed. Behavior probs are much more difficult to control. If you eliminate everything else, the idea of just using one room to lock him into with only his food/water, bed, toys and litter box to try to 'retrain him'. The bathroom works good for this purpose as there is no carpets- just pull up the rugs before letting him in there.

Sorry I wrote a novel and couldn't even help much. I hope you and your vet can find some answers. Keep me updated.

[Mars]

I know nothing about cats but I hope he gets better soon.

[Resi]

One of my cats poop outside the litter box often. It drives me crazy. She has been doing it for 3 years. Most of the time it's on a rug under the littter box. But there have been MANY times that it has been on our carpet. I have tried everything but she just has "issues". I hope you can find a way to resolve your kitty's problems. You got good advice and I hope it helps.