cat that plays in water bowl

Question
Please help!  We recently had an outdoor cat that had an accident and broke one of his rear legs.  Due to his accident, we had to bring him inside to recover and have decided to make him an inside cat.  However, this cat has an obsessive need to paw every last drop of water out of the water dish.  The water dish is a 1/2 gallon waterer that is meant to provide water to three cats and a dog.  He can empty this thing 3 or more times a day all over the floor.  I have tried squirting him with a water bottle when I catch him but that did nothing as he is already playing in the water.  If I can't stop this annoying and dangerous habit(as he makes the floor slippery for the other 5 people in the house), I'm afraid he will be voted back out of the house when he finishes healing.  We love him dearly and want him to stay.  Please help!

Answer
Amanda,

Your cat is doing it because of an emotional problem due boredom and stress from his injury, pain, and from being kept inside. Punishing him will only complicate matters.

I would get one of the low sided 'under the bed' plastic containers and put the water container in that. When the cat splashes water out it will go in the container and not on the floor.

You can speak to your vet about putting the cat on kitty Prozac to calm him.

Or you can try  a very popular cat calming spray and plug-in you can use called Feliway or Comfort Zone with Feliway. It is available at pet stores or on-line. It copies relaxing pheromones that cats produce from rubbing their faces on things.

There is also another cat calming product that you can add to his food that reduces anxiety called Bach's Rescue Remedy. It is available on-line and in health food stores. Here is a link about it: (copy and paste, or type the whole links into your address bar)
http://www.bachflower.com/Pets.htm

I hope this helps.