featuring Tails from the Alley
Allison Couture Otero
Help!
My Cat Stopped
Using Her Litter Box!
W
e all know how
frustrating it is to have
a dog that is not potty
trained. Puddles of pee
here, a fresh pile of poop
there...not fun. But while dog urine
is annoying and slightly smelly,
nothing quite compares to the
smell of cat urine. The cause for
the drastic difference in canine and
feline urine smell is the ammonia
that is metabolically produced in
cats. While all cat urine contains
ammonia, that particular smell may
be more pronounced due to a cat’s
diet, health, and hydration level.
18
|
WINTER GARDEN MAGAZINE
|
JANUARY 2019
I am a proud CCL (Crazy Cat
Lady) with hundreds of cats having
been in and out of my life through
fostering and pets of my own. I am
also a self-proclaimed expert on
feline bathroom behavior. In fact,
this may be one of the few pieces
that I have written that I won’t have
to take to the interwebs to find
answers and information on the
topic at hand.
In my experience, inappropriate
elimination is the number one
reason people get rid of their cats.
So, let’s dive into the proverbial
litter box and see if we can “scoop”
out some helpful information to
curb unwanted potty problems!
Cats are about the easiest animals to
potty train - put a 4-week-old kitten
in a litter box a couple of times and
it instinctively knows to “go” there.
But what happens when they stop
using the litter box that they so
easily took to before? The very first
cause that comes to mind is that it’s
medical. The way their bodies are
made up makes them more prone
to UTIs or Urinary Tract Infections.
This is when bacteria travels up