urinating and pooping outside litter box

Question
QUESTION: My 3 1/2 year old cat was accidentally let out of the house by a roommate back in January, almost 7 months ago.  during this period we have had several procedures done to save his severely broken/severed leg, i.e., stilts and hard cast, surgery with a pin in his leg, left pin in and put the hard cast on leg again, to keep leg from twisting and not healing, and while this procedure was done we declawed his front paws to prevent him from continuing to ruin one small area in the carpet, and finally we had to amputate the leg, which was very tramatic for both of us.  After we declawed his paws that is when he started to act out by urinating on my bed.  I finally had a break down and called my vet, and she suggested that I confine him to my bathroom for 3-4 days with his water/food and litter box, and also express to him that was wrong and to show him where to urinate.  He was quite aware of what he did, because he felt very guilty and meowed to my speaking with him and would try to hide from me.  Everything seemed to be fine for another week to a week and a half, which seemed to be his average on not urinating, and than my friends got him a kitty bed for him to make him feel better.  He did not like the bed at first, but warmed up to it and a day later he pooped in my bed, for the first time.  But it was more like a hard to soft direah.  I held him and relayed my compassion that he might not feel well and put him in the bathroom with all his things and he urinated and pooped on his bed everyday for 4 days, and after two, i took the bed away and he pooped on the bath mat, took that away, and he pooped on the new bath mat, took that away, and he pooped on the bathroom floor while i was in the shower and i had caught him about to poop in the new towel i had layed down for myself to step on getting out of the shower.  From the very beginning, I have cleaned/scrubbed his litter box, got him a new litter box, got special cat spray, talked to my vet, and he suggested that if this continues maybe he should be put on medication that is actually for people.  I am so worried that I will have to put him down, because one of my friend's mom's had to do that with one of her cats that was much older than mine, but was told by her vet to do so, because of this change and the cat won't stop.  Am I supposed to keep my cat in the bathroom the rest of his life, what am I going to do.  Help!!  I love him, he is so sweet, loving, kind, and smart.  He know he is doing something wrong.  When we amputated his leg, he finally was acting like the old Ashton, which led me to believe that he was urinating all this time because he was in pain, but now he is pooping and not in his litter box.  I took off his lid to the box and I hope this works.

Thank you,

Jenna

ANSWER: You said: also express to him that was wrong and to show him where to urinate.  He was quite aware of what he did, because he felt very guilty and meowed to my speaking with him and would try to hide from me.

First of all...kindly realize that cats do not understand English. Your cat was responding to your TONE OF VOICE and MANNERISMS rather than the words you were saying. I'm not sure that cats feel guilty, as they do not know right from wrong ..but you probably scared the heck out of him which is why he ran and hid.

I always recommend these products for behavior problems..
You can try Feliway as a plug-in or spray  I like the plugins.. Try 1 or 2 on each floor and put it in the central part of the house. It releases natural pheromones which
tell the cat he's in a safe place and can feel good.
My own cat "decided" to quit using his litterpan..and I found a litter called "Cat Attract" that is literally supposed to attract the cat back to using the litterpan.
Both products can be found at Petsmart.

Litterpans should be washed out with dish soap (not chemicals that have a gross smell to the cat) and water, weekly. For 1 cat...you may want to have 2 litterpans
(experts suggest 1 litterpan per cat + 1) some cats like to pee in one and poop in the other.  

You were right to take the lid off his box... just stick your head into it sometime and you'll understand why most cats don't like a hood! (it stinks!)

As you can see..cats like their litterpans very clean

Also location, location, location
Don't put it in a high traffic area or near a place with a lot of noise (like the sound of the washing machine nearby is a turnoff)

As you can see for yourself, most cats adapt quite easily to using three legs. He doesn't know that he used to have four and get depressed like we would. The beautiful thing about animals is that they live IN THE MOMENT -- a lesson we should learn from them.

Try to accept your relationship with your cat on HIS terms.
He willfeel a lot better that way. Don't force him to come to you..or pick him up if he doesn't want you to.  Just step back and when he wants affection, he will come to you -- thats the way most cats prefer it  

Hope this helps






---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: SHOULD I TRY THE FELIWAY PLUG IN AND SPRAY AND CAT ATTRACT LITTER BEFORE GETTING ANOTHER LITTER BOX, WHICH WOULD MAKE TWO LITTER BOX'S FOR HIM, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS SUGGESTED THAT HE HAVE TWO, ONE FOR URINATING AND ONE FOR POOPING.?  AND WHEN I REPREMAND ASHTON FOR NOT GOING IN HIS LITTER BOX, IS THEIR A BETTER SOLUTION THAN GETTING ANGRY AND SPEAKING LOUDLY AND BEING ANGRY?

Answer
Cats are very difficult to train compared to dogs so I don't think you can get him to use the litterpan by scolding him. Even when I have a treat in my hand, my cat won't come to me if she don't feel like it lol
compare this to my dog -- if I have a treat in my hand, he will definately come and most of the time even if I don't have one!

Your best bet as far as that goes..is that when you DO see him using the litterbox..immediately after he is finished (like within 3 seconds) give him a treat   then hopefully eventually he would associate using the litterpan to something positive (getting a treat) to the point where he will use it treat or no treat  = operant conditioning

I don't know what type of litter you are using..My cat that had the litterbox problems hated clay litter cuz after a while his paws would have pee on them
Clumping litter works best for everyone but don't use one that has baking soda or other scented perfumes (just cuz we like the smell don't mean cats do)

You only need to get the plug in OR the spray  
Its really a matter of trial and error as to what you want to try first   Here are your options :D

1) Buy Feliway plug in and Start putting out 2 litterpans (not right next to each other!) use the same brand and type of litter all the time
 Some cats like I said will only pee in one and poop in the other  some cats are more neat freaks and fussy than others

2) Buy Feliway plug in and use Cat Attract litter in one pan

3) Buy plug in and use Cat Attract in 2 pans (this is the most expensive option)

4) another idea is you could use the plug in..have 2 litter pans..put one pan with cat attract in it and the other with reg. clumping litter  then I guess you would find out if a) he wants to pee in one and poop in the other
or b) the cat attract works!

think CLEAN when it comes to litterpans and area (would you want to have to pee in a filthy restroom?)

I thought of another thing...after he poops/pees on the bed or anywhere he's not supposed to..make sure you use a cleaner designed to clean up after pet messes to totally get rid of the smell.. otherwise if his sensitive nose can still smell the pee/poop, he will go back there again next time!

lemme know how it goes