Litter tray aversion

SillyMangoX

Hey all, as you know Dude is a pissy little fellow because of his accident, but he's been worse over the past few days, holding it to the point of being over full and having overflow incontinence, squatting where the mood strikes him and running away because of being 'embarrassed' for lack of a better word. I found it really odd that he had stopped using his litter tray to pee in because he's always been quite good to go there except for accidents and he still does his poops out there.
Today though I discovered when he was going to his outdoor toilet, which is essentially all the old litter thrown up in the compost heap, he would dig at it, not do anything, shake his paws and run. So I looked at the litter pile and saw a load of baby nettles starting to grow. So basically whenever he needed to pee and would dig in the litter his poor paws were getting stung! I picked out all the nettles and got rid of them, brought him back up to the litter and he went no problem but instead of trying to bury it he just legged it away as though he was expecting pain. So I'm thinking that now whenever he smells or goes near litter he expects pain!
What would be the best way to over come this? I was thinking maybe feeding him treats after putting him in his tray, giving him treats whenever he uses it inside or outside.. does this sound like it could work? Sorry for long post!!

jimf

maybe you could dig up some of the compost and put it in his tray or maybe another tray

could be the area that's scaring him

when my little spoiled feck was young I found it very hard to get him to use the litter tray until one day as a last resort I tried filling the tray from under the trees at the back of the house where he usually went to the toilet and bingo he starting using the tray that evening and reverted back to the litter a week later

Nody

Could you try going with another litter for a while (simply to avoid accidents) and then start to mix the two up again slowly (like switching dry foods) to let him regain his confidence with the smell? You can also look up declawed cats issue with toilets because it follows the same pattern with toilets except the declawing made them hurt going to the toilet and hence they start to refuse to use the toilet.

SillyMangoX

Good idea with trying a new litter for a bit, I still have a half a bag of clumping litter so will give that a go tomorrow. The fact he still poops in his tray is what baffles me, he must only have been trying to pee whenever he got stung!

Rancid

SillyMangoX wrote: »

...squatting where the mood strikes him and running away ....

I'm sure you've considered cystitis or a uti when he stopped using the indoor litter box?
It's just that the "squatting and running away" is exactly what my cats have done when peeing was painful. They ran from the location where they felt the pain.

Really hope Dude is ok, he's been through so much and is such a little survivor.

SillyMangoX

No definitely not a UTI or crystals or anything like that, the first thing I did was bring him to the vet for tests and he's all clear