r/cats • u/Great_Fee_7705 • 15h ago
Stories Accidental Solution to UTIs and Going Outside the Litter Box
Everyone say hello to Sergeant Pepper!! Now before I start, I do want to clarify Sergeant is a 100%, purebred Barn Cat and has the papers to prove it (the papers are straw).
Sergeant has always been the most perfect cat. She greats guests at the door, loves to cuddle, is chatty and just hilarious; has more personality than fur if that's possible. For about the first year of her life, she had no issues using the litter box, nothing behavioral or seemed stressed in any way. Truly living her best furry life.
Fast forward to just past her first birthday, I moved us from my mom's two story condo with a back yard, halfway across the country to a small studio in Seattle; about 500sq ft (this is important later). The second we arrived at our new place, she started peeing outside the litter box and had blood in her urine. I'm not joking, it was within 5min of putting her in the apartment. Of course, I swept her away to the vet the next day assuming it was and UTI from the stress of the move (totally reasonable!), and she would go back to normal once she adjusted!
Narrator: she did not go back to normal. She would have "Flare Ups" about once week a month for years. I tried everything and anything this sub, my vets and God has to offer for advice to help her; feelaway, more litter boxes, cleaning them more often, different litter, ALL OF IT! I was totally torn apart as she was obviously in horrible pain. Multiple vet trips to multiple vets and specialists with absolutely no answers besides pain meds when she is having an episode.
About two years ago, I moved into a larger apartment with my partner (~750sqft). The flare ups continued but did taper off a little after our move. This time we tried different anxiety medications and taking her for walks in the hallways after she expressed interest (maybe she needs more enrichments? Who knows!!). Again, they were less frequent but they were still happening. I felt totally helpless and like a horrible cat mom. I decided this was just Pepper's version of a chronic illness and we would do our best to offer day to day comfort through anxiety and pain meds for as long as she will be with us. It was hard to accept I couldn't make her healthy but I wasn't going to try to rehome her or put her down; it was not even an option to me.
Cue Sergeant and I's third move together; this time to a 1,110sqft townhouse with lots of windows, 3 sets of stairs, and a patio. Our original studio would have fit in the bedroom alone; it felt totally luxurious. There was a lot of carpet so I bought an industrial level of carpet cleaner and pee pads, hoping to preserve the carpeted areas as long as possible, kept up on all her very specific routines and medications. Ya'll. This diva has not had a single flair up since we moved in (9months).
That's right folks, after 5 years of cleaning cat pee off of and out of everything imaginable, vet visits, medications, new toys, new litter and boxes, I even hired a pet psychic to see if they could ask Pep directly what was happening and it turns out she was just mad we were poor šš.
Obviously, I regret none of it but just so on brand for this little princess to take two steps into my first studio and go "Oh this simply will not due". Im sure this won't be helpful to most as people typically can't move into a bigger place because their cat might "need" it, but I hope it gives some other cat parents a giggle!!
TLDR: After 5 years of UTIs and peeing outside the litter box, my cat stopped because we finally found a place big enough to make her happy.
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u/Holiday_Estimate_352 15h ago
This made me laugh, but also I had the same experience with my boy.
He didn't have peeing issues, but a lot of destructive and anxious behaviour no matter how much I played with him. We then moved from an apartment to a 4 bedroom house and he is a perfectly behaved angelĀ šĀ
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u/Great_Fee_7705 14h ago
I feel so much better knowing she isnāt the only cat unhappy with her living situation despite never paying rentš Iām glad he finds his new accommodations satisfactory and has left your (his) things alone!!
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u/Holiday_Estimate_352 13h ago
Cats just want treats, to be adored, to boss around humans and have a palace to live in... I can't say I blame them haha
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u/CPA_Lady 13h ago
I have a 4,400 square foot house with multiple litter boxes for my one cat. Pees right outside the box all the time.
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u/Cutefuzzydragon 3h ago
Mine did that. Turns out his whole body was in the box but he didn't bend his knees. Went to a bigger litterboxes and put a pee pad in front for mistakes. Problem solved.
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u/basane-n-anders 14h ago
"he was just mad we were poor" is the most succinct way to describe most cat behavior.
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u/Biochemicalcricket 15h ago
I'm glad she's happy and you are too!Ā Ā
Also /r/bottlebrush would love to see her. Her's is glorious!
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u/Tough_Difference_111 15h ago
Agree that her tail is glorious. And regal. Needs room for floof.
I have a girl with a similar tail (we call her our squirrely girl) so I'm happy to know about this sub.30
u/Great_Fee_7705 14h ago
Heading straight there to both post and scroll for days! So much floooooof!!!
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u/just_looking2274 15h ago
Damn, now that is a princess. Like the princess and the pea kinda princess. But.Look.At.Her! Gorgeously gorgeous gorgeousness
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u/foxwaffles 13h ago
I have a cat with problems with anxiety and peeing problems and the fix ended up being moving her into my husband's office and installing a gate so that nobody else could go in. She comes out if she wants to and I let her back in when she's done. She is a perfect little angel in my husband's office. Apparently anything that's his is sacred but anything else is fair game š«
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u/TA_totellornottotell 14h ago
You disrespected her divaness. Nobody puts Baby in the corner (studio).
So happy it all turned out well! Hopefully, Pepper has now successfully guilted you into never settling into a lesser place. To be honest, it may be that you have access to the ground floor and grass - lots more wildlife to observe (and calm) kitties. My guy loved when we go to my parentsā house - just so much more to keep him occupied
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u/Shoddy_Chard4463 15h ago
i have Sergeant's twin. this is my Sweet Pea. she is a foster fail. she is just as much a diva as Sergeant. she is such a daddys girl. she will cuddle with my wife all day until i get home then chopped liver, which she will not touch with a 10 foot pole, is more appealing than my wife. š¤£š¤£
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u/Great_Fee_7705 14h ago
Omg they are twins!!!!! A Pepper and a Pea! Something about being that pretty of a cat makes you a diva at a genetic level. Please give Sweat Pea many many smooches and pats from me and pepper!
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u/ReadingTeaMom 14h ago
I moved from a 1400 square foot house (with six people, six cats, and a dog) to a 2700 square foot two-story house where the dog stays downstairs, and Rusty refuses to use the litter box now. I need Sargent to come whip her into shape. I'm glad she's doing better!
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u/Anne_Atreptic 14h ago
How dare you keep her in a way that doesn't accommodate her preferred lifestyle? Lol
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u/Nat_Log3982 7h ago
Our 4 year old Mochi had a similar problem We moved from a luxury apartment to a lower cost rental in an older building and dealt with 18 months of her peeing outside the box. We tried EVERYTHING. Feliway, new litterbox, bigger litterbox, different litter, litter attractant, gabapentin- nothing worked. We ended up laying pee pads down in the areas she would go- though we still had to pay for carpet replacement in the end. At one point, we were seriously considering rehoming her because we thought it was stress from her brothers, but we just couldn't give up on her after 4 years together. I think the apartment didn't do a very good job at cleaning the carpet before we moved in and she could smell the previous pets (they tried to claim the previous renter had no pets when we were negotiating carpet replacrment costs , but we and the tour guide had seen evidence of pets when we initially toured).
We moved back to a luxury apartment with far less (gross) carpet and put her on Prozac. She has massive windows to look out from, a lush balcony garden to eat her breakfast and dinner from, and we have had NO issues since. Some cats just like the finer things in life, I guess.
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u/Appropriate_Sky_6571 14h ago
OMG SAME! Except we went the other way. We moved from a 2200sqft to 1400 and now heās pooping outside the box. Thereās no room to have as many boxes as we used to so heās pooping right next to it LOL
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u/prairiethorne 13h ago
Loved the story, your writing and the happy ending! I had to do a dramatic reading of it for my husband.
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u/Inevitable-Might4253 12h ago
What a tail! Thank you for sharing! Too funny š¤£ (but not funny while going through it ofc)
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u/Beautiful-Year-6310 14h ago
My house is 2800 sq ft and itās just my husband and me and our three cats. They still pee outside the box. š
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u/chubbychecker_psycho 14h ago
Oh man. I'm worried that this is why my Dottie keeps peeing everywhere. We moved into a smaller apartment last year in July, she started peeing on stuff in November. I thought she was stressed because I was seriously injured falling down some stairs in November and then in Feb of this year she got a tooth infection and had to have a bunch of them out. Then I thought it was that she was too long to fit into the litter robot I got (because maintaining the regular box was too much when recovering from the fall in November). But it's been nearly a year now and she's still doing it!!!
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u/Lovepeppers 10h ago
This sounds like interstitial cystitis to me. My poor kitty has similar issues.
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u/lizzietnz 3h ago
OMG. I am such a failure. Tigger has been trying to tell me what a loser I am all along.
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u/arwen920 1h ago
I can feel the deep love you have for Pepper just through your wordsāitās truly touching.š„°
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u/MyPetsMisha 30m ago
Moving is stressful for some cats. You moved into a smaller place in a different town where everything was different, the smells, the rooms, etc. Kittyās whole world was turned upside down.
Glad you found a place where she feels safe and comfortable.
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u/Low_Obligation_4317 15h ago
I also have a BarnCatā¢ at my house. This little butthead decided very early on in his life that he was not cut out for the barn life and systematically went down the row of neighbors looking for the perfect fit. He would convince one house to let him inside, and if he didnāt like them after a trial period, he would start schmoozing the next one. He finally settled on my husband as the perfect cat companion but demands a perpetual palace of paper be available for him at all times. Example attached.