I’ve mentioned before that my 14 year-old cat, Chloe, has diabetes. This condition was confirmed by her vet after having multiple dopers suggest that diabetes might be her problem after I posted prior on her sticky pee.
I’ve not chosen to go the insulin route; I’m sure she’d benefit from it, but frankly, I just couldn’t bear it. So instead, she’s on a diabetic prescription food and it seems to be helping her somewhat but has not “cured” her, of course.
I find myself cleaning the litterbox every day, sometimes twice a day because she urinates so frequently. She’s going through an awful lot of litter right now.
Question is: why, when her box is immaculate, would she choose to pee on the garage floor? She KNOWS she’s not supposed to, and looks very sorrowful when I holler at her for it. Since there’s a clean box waiting for her, I’m thinking she’s telling me f*** you by peeing on the floor. Do cats have the thought processes to punish their people for infractions of their dignity?
I, as always, look forward to the knowledge to be shared on this subject!
A common fallacy people have is that a cat peeing outside the box is a sign of a behavioral problem: that the cat is “mad” at the owner so it consciously pees outside the box to “get back” at him. That’s not how it works. The cat might be sick, mad, upset, or stressed at something, and sometimes this manifests in an intense urge to urinate no matter where the cat might be - even just a few feet from the box. In other cats this stress might manifest as constantly scratching himself or ganging up on another cat or constantly crying for food. Another reason a cat might pee outside the box is that he has a urinary infection and has thus associated the box with pain, so he learns to avoid the box. Even if the UTI is treated, the cat might still associate the box with pain and will continue to avoid it long after the illness is cured.
Is there a reason you don’t want to give insulin? It’s very easy to give the shots - not gross at all and the cat doesn’t even notice.
I’m so sorry about your baby, RSSchen. Everything Missbunnysays is correctamundo. I too have to ask why your aren’t doing the insulin thing. I understand how you might be freaked out at first, but believe me, it truly is no big deal. It’s true, the cat doesn’t even notice / mind it. Anyway, best of luck.
Another thing you might try, once you’re sure she’s no longer in any current pain from urination, is to change both the litter box and the type of litter, and possibly to even move it to a different location, to avoid any associations with the previous painful urination.
Are you using Fresh Step cat litter? My mom believes that some cats don’t like Fresh Step cat litter - when my brother got a kitten, who refused to use the box, Mom pinpointed the cause to the Fresh Step brand he was using. He switched, and kitty used the box just fine. Apparently, Mom’s had several cats that won’t use that brand. I know the plural of anecdote isn’t data, but try switching brands of litter and maybe it’ll help.
We had to put down our Mickey, who was also about 14, diabetic, and pissing all over the place.
We chose not to go the insulin route due to the expense. Multiple vet visits, testing supplies/equipment, and a general feeling that at 14, he had a good life up to this point. We got estimations of 6-8 office visits minimum to get him stable, plus supplies, and it was just more than we could think of spending on a 14yo cat. We’d likely have had a different opinion for a 4yo cat.
It broke our heart to bring him to the Vet for his end, but in the end it was the best for all involved. He could no longer make it up/down stairs, nor jump up to the couch. Other than that, he didn’t seem like he was in pain, and was a wonderful companion up to that point.
Our diabetic cat died about six months ago, at age 14. Over the last six months or so of her life, she would quite frequently go outside the litterbox, something she had never previously done. At first we thought it was because the litterbox was in the basement and she was getting too old and weary to negotiate the stairs, but bringing it upstairs didn’t change anything. She did have some problems with UTIs, and the vet said that this was probably one reason for it. Also, near the end the vet discovered a large mass that he believed to be cancer, and that could have been pushing on her urinary tract.
I am going to echo the queries about your reluctance to give insulin injections. In my limited experience—our cat, and a friend’s diabetic cat that we used to mind on occasions—giving the injections really is a very simple and hassle-free process. Neither cat minded them in the least, and it took literally a few seconds each time.
For us, the more difficult procedure was getting a blood sample in order to take the cat’s blood sugar levels. It often took a few tries to get a large enough drop of blood from the ear, and the cat sometimes got understandably annoyed. I left that job to my wife, because the cat had been with her before we met and was more patient with her probing around with a sharp object. Luckily, we didn’t have to do this very often—only when the vet was concerned and wanted the blood sugar level monitored for a few days at a time.
Cats who are sick have a strong instinct to pee outside their normal place – I believe the instinct is related to an avoidance of concentrating the smell of “I am sick” to a particular location.
Also, scolding a cat, especially hours after the offensive action has taken place, has absolutely no effect. In fact, it might be counterproductive. They have no idea what you’re making the loud noises about and may well associate it with whatever they are doing at that *exact * moment. If she looks sorrowful while you’re scolding her, she’s just being submissive in response to your anger.
You’ve explained something I’ve been wondering about for over a year now. The only time either of the Neville kitties have peed outside their litter box was once when Luna had a kitty cold. The vet said the kitty cold was probably why she peed outside the box, but didn’t elaborate on why a cold would make her do that.
When my mom’s cat had diabetes in the late-stages, it didn’t seem to be able to move more than a few steps at a time. Also even though it had been a vicious-tempered beast when it was healthy, it had a strong desire to follow people around a lot. So it ended up peeing everywhere too. My guess is, it hurts the cat to move around.
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Seems to me that a course of behavior modification is direly needed here.
This will relieve the cats distress and make the giving of the badly need insulin shots a simple procedure.
RSSchen if you can handle your daily routine I’m sure you can handle the shots in stride. Much easier than your other chores.
Please reconsider. I had a cat who had diabetes the last couple of years of her life. Insulin is cheap (in the quantities that a cat requires) and it’s really, really easy to give insulin injections to a cat since the skin is nice and loose (if your cat is anywhere near a normal weight). Our cat didn’t register any discomfort from the injections and there is no blood at the injection site. We never had any problems catching her for her shot. All of this with our big old unfriendly cat. If your cat is friendly, you really shouldn’t have any cat-related problems with shots.
As far as the litter box goes, make sure she doesn’t have a bladder infection. This is pretty common with diabetes. The increased urine output that comes with unmanaged diabetes can also contribute to incontinence. Unfriendly kitty stopped peeing outside the box once we got the diabetes under control and treated the bladder infection.