Please help needed for coping with my cat

[grouphug]

I just need somewhere to talk really so ignore me if I'm wobbling on.

I got my rescue cat 4 years ago and I just can't cope with her any more. The final straw was coming home from the Drs with my dd who has an eye infection to find cat sick in the lounge and cats poo in the kitchen and my friend turned up at the door who I'd invited round for dinner.

My cat has issues when we first got her she hid for 3 months behind the sofa and is absolutely terrified of men and plastic bags and she soils downstairs I say once a fortnight. She was an indoor cat and has now started going outside but still uses a litter tray inside. Probably the only cat in the uk that actually comes inside for the toilet after being outside.

I am just worried that when my dd starts crawling which will be very soon she is going to end up in cat poo. The litter tray has a door on it but it is the ones she does outside of it I'm worried about, how can I stop her doing it? I clean the litter house thing twice a week.

She also clawed my new rug in the lounge and just seems to trash everything, when she was aloud to go upstairs she trashed £1000 of brand new carpet. Occasionally she will come up to me and sit on my lap and give me a look as if to say I'm sorry I don't know what I'm doing I love you so I would never get rid of her, even though my OH is concerned for the baby.

Any ideas welcomed to get my cat to go to toilet outside and stop clawing things, sorry for long post. I also have another cat but she is no problem as we had her from a kitten.

grouphug...

a few suggestions...i was told ( and im not judging) but i was told that cats who use a litter tray only soil outside it if they feel its too shall we say full? my two use a a covered box is that what you have? it also has a door, however we remove the "dirties" from it daily, i would suggest this as a start, we dont cmpletely change the litter just remove the wet and poop using a scoop and nappy sack...this should help on the poop front.i would ask how you know it is one cat and not the other?

behaviourally my two are lil buggers(also rescue) they have scratched our bottom step and occassionally the sofa which is fecking irritating, and they get screamed at, and we have also got a spray bottle with which they get thoroughly soaked! this seems to have put them off, but they still have a go at the step now and then, i also allow them to use my wicker laundry basket to scratch... a small victory in that they now stick to that..so i would suggest a bit of a dunking.

as for the scared behaviour i would just suggest trying to give calm one-on-one attention. Keep goin please she sounds like she needs you! hope to help x

Thanks bemylilbaby,

I think you are right about only soil outside if they feel its too full, I do remove the poos everyday but I think with 2 of them weeing in there, she just gets fussy about it and shes a clean freak. She's just high maintenance. I've just read about putting the cat litter tray outside the back door and getting a cat flap put in and leaving the litter tray and they eventually go outside in the garden once the litter tray gets really bad so will try that maybe.

I will try the spray bottle I just have to catch them doing it at the time. She uses a wicker chair to scratch (as well as her scratching post) I guess she just loves scratching. Since having the baby she doesnt get much one-on-one attention so I will try that also its just the baby, my oh and two cats all want my attention and I'm finding it hard.

Thanks

I am a catlover, and I had similar problems with a cat that was making my life very stressful, and seemd beyond help.

I took the decision to rehome him, and he was rehomed on a farm, where he could 'get away' with these weird behaviours, without upsetting another 'home' iyswim.

Sometimes although yu have tried you best, and obv you have, its is time to caal in the rehoming people. I sobbed my heart out, and felt I'd let our car down, but he def had a scre loose, and being a cat he was quitehappy withis own behaviour, and independant, and had no idea the greif he was causing.

You cannot change this puss, so maybe its time to think of alternatives to make 'your' life better.

good luck

group hug i sympathise it does get harder the more committments you have, pirate cat makes a gd point about rehoming however not all cats are lucky enough to find accomodating homes,when i got my two they had been stuck in a shelter for a year, keep persivering if you can, she'l thank you for it

as with literbox idea thats defo a gd one, maybe ( and yes this sounds nuts) but maybe try putting one of her poops in the garden to maybe give her the idea? i defo think daily cleaning will help specially if you have more than one cat.

Having had her a while and ahving ahd her behaviour not get better, maybe if rehoming you could find a friend who has time to give her one on one attention? i defo think a cattery would be stressful for her x

Thanks piratecat and bemylilbaby

I don't think she'd get a better home than this as the two of them sleep together and groom eachother so I couldn't separate them, she'd been in a rescue place for ages too before me and she is so much happier since then she so friendly with me. I feel better for just talking about it I will cope just having a wobbly day. Off to get quotes for getting cat flap put in double glazed door probably end up with more cats coming in lol.

Sounds like cat is stressed..and it may be the baby?
Mine went strange after my DD arrived but then calmed down.
I used Rescue Remedy drops in my cat's milk which helped.
Yes really.
Really
No, REALLY!!!

Get a cat flap with a magnet thing...stops other cats.

One cat behaviour expert says to get 1 litter tray per cat, and then 1 extra.

Might be worth trying another if she doesn't improve.

OMG 3 Litter trays, I would totally lose the plot, but I can see the logic thanks redadmiral for the suggestion.

I've never given my cat milk before miggsie, can the drops go in food? Will do some cat flap research on magneting bits thanks.

Yes, I ignored it too...

I liked the cat detective books where she talks about all kinds of behaviour problems (Vickie someone, I think.)
Maybe you could find one in the library... Sometimes cats soil when they are stressd or unhappy.

For stress you could try Feliway - it contains feline pheromones, and you can get it from vets. It seemed to work quite well on our cat. Good luck

To stop clawing you can buy sticky paws stuff, which is essentially double sided sticky tape. But it where they scratch, they dislike the feel of it and stop, it is expensive though. But the best thing I did to stop mine scartching was to get a much bigger scratching post (it was £25 at Lidl and its taller than me, bargain).

www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=3185&dept_id=77 for sticky paws

For being sick, get them both wormed if they haven't been lately, with a dual wormer too. My old boy was sick a lot lately and it was worms to my eternal bad cat mum shame.

With the pooing if you can't manage with 3 trays can you at least get an extra one? My lot manage OK with 2 trays between 3, well my old boy poos on the doormat but that is down to senility we think.

Good luck, it is very frustating when they soil outside the box and must be much more so when you've got one about to crawl.

Thanks everyone.

Can just imagine my OH coming home to sticky paws stuff over everything, water drenched cats, 3 cat litter trays, a 6 foot tall scratch post and me reading a cat detective book. lol

No seriously you have all made me feel much more able to cope and really appreciate it, I love Mumsnet.

Another recommendation for feliway. You are best to use the spray if there are specific areas she always uses when she does not use the tray, otherwise try a room diffuser if the poo is not always in the same places.

Hello,
I had a cat with the same soiling prob, I think it was due to this being a multi cat house, even though they love each other and cuddle up together they still seem to have a territory war lol I tried more than one litter tray it didn't really stop the prob cos both cats wear using the 2 trays, I bought a feliway plug in and haven't had any problems since! No scratching,spraying or pooing, its really helped,

my cat is bloody liability for soiling in the house - dh would happily rehome her but I got her from an animal sanctuary and would never put her back in one - it wouldnt feel right. She's a PITA though.

No scratching, no bringing stuff in, just the pooing and bloody awful smelling wee!!

3 litter trays is a good idea, when I had 2 cats I had a tray in the hall and one in a corner in my bedroom. And running in to use the tray instead of going outside is common, so your cat is not odd, mine have always done that.

Babies can definately cause a cat to soil where it should not, mine peed in the baby seat! But it didn't last, and giving them privacy of a (fresh every day( hidden tray should work.