Recommend me options for a cat that wees a lot please :)

[BigBoysDontCry]

Dcat is nearly 17. She has hyperthyroidism, a raised heart rate and a slightly diminished kidney function but is otherwise pretty healthy and enjoying life and the vet is happy with her.

She has had some urine infections recently but is currently fine.

Until about the last year, she has generally toileted outside in the corner of our garden. Doesn't leave the garden. Another cat moved in and she is scared of it so we've had to have indoor facilities since. She doesn't go outside at all for the toilet but will come out and sit if anyone else is out.

She wees a lot, no issues, the vet says she is just regulating her kidneys well. She mostly does it in one of two trays but sometimes overpees, I've tried trays with enclosures and she doesn't like so will pee on the floor instead.

I've currently been using clumping litter as it seems better smell wise and she is happy with it but.... essentially the clumping feature is a waste of time as I end up needing to completely empty the whole tray daily. I've started using puppy pads to line the tray as otherwise it can take kettles full of water to try to clean the compacted litter. She still manages to track it all over the house, her paws are caked in it and the biggest issue is that we only get our bins collected every 4 weeks and by that point the bin is so heavy that I struggle to get it put out and it's not fair on the bin men either. I also cant bag up days worth of sopping litter to take to the dump in my car.

Any clever solutions or litter type suggestions that might be less heavy and easier to manage?

Reduce the amount of litter in the tray.. Gradually reduce how much you put in so dcat can get used to it. If you are emptying it every day it won't matter.

Thanks, I've already done that. I put in half a puppy pad and two mug fulls at a time but that sometimes doesn't even last a full day and if I don't change it, she'll wee on the floor instead. I love her but it's driving me insane!

Liners for the trays?

I'm going through about 2 16l bags of sanicat a month. I can't even lift the bags when new, my son has to bring them in and put near the tray and I scoop it out with a mug. 😩

I would have thought clumping ones weren't great with that condition - sticking to her paws can't be nice. I use paper based litter, it's also much lighter and doesn't track beyond a few steps from the tray so easy to sweep up.

The plastic liners are a waste of time, the half puppy pad to line the tray works well. I think the system kinda works, it's just a lot and it's so heavy when we only have 4 weekly bin collections and we are only allowed one normal sized wheely bin for general waste.

How much is the cat drinking? Sounds mean, but could you reduce the amount of water in her bowl? If she’s peeing so much of it out maybe the drinking is a habit more than actually needed? Has the cat been checked for diabetes?

I agree re the clay sticking. Is there one you recommend? I initially used a paper/pellet type but once she started weeing more, it wasn't absorbing enough and the tray was very wet and then she just uses the floor. Wood floors so not great either they are now damaged and she wont tolerate the tray being moved to somewhere with a better surface. I also have puppy pads on the floor but she manages to get the wee under them.

I have a 19 year old cat with kidney issues who also pees a lot. I use KatKin clumping litter. It's not clay based so you don't get the horrible sticky lumps. It's really easy to lift the lumps out, I clean every day and usually take out about half a dozen clumps. The rest of the litter is fine so I just top up a bit and don't have to change the whole thing that often.

It doesn't track as much, a bit around the tray. We used to have litter all over the house because she doesn't retract her claws properly anymore so grains would get stuck. This is more long thin strips that don't get caught the same way.

It smells really sweet which I hate, but apparently the perfect litter doesn't exist. And I guess it's better than stinking of ammonia.

https://www.katkin.com/planet-litter

She's been checked for diabetes and the vet says she will drink a lot as she needs to regulate her kidneys to prevent infection. I can't therefore reduce her drinking or it would lead to a uti and the consequences of that are obvs not good for her and also means she will randomly pee blood stained urine all over the house.

She has had every test under the sun, my vet bills will attest to that!

You could try to encourage her to pee outside again, put a tray near where you sit and then if she uses it, gradually replace litter with soil and then remove it.

Also have you got a washable mat for under the tray indoors? We have this for missing the tray. Just goes under the tray and then in the washing machine.
https://amzn.to/3XzmjB4

But is the main problem that she’s peeing a huge amount? I can’t quite get my head around what’s happening. Is the vet sure she isn’t diabetic? It sounds like a lot. Ah edited to say I see she’s been tested for that.

We have 2 cats and use "World's Best" original non perfumed litter. It's a by product from the corn industry, incredibly light, contains odours well, and clumps perfectly.

We just use the puppy pads - our indoor cat has one tray with wood litter where she poos, and then a couple of locations with pads where she wees. They soak up everything (although occasionally she decides to dig a hole first and folds the pad so she wees on the waterproof backing, which doesn't soak up).

she definitely wont wee outside anymore. She's been out with me and then will return to the house to have a pee and then come out again. She is scared of the neighbouring cat (he's a vicious gobshite). She's too old to get involved in fights.

Thanks for the recommendations, i'll definitely suss them out and give them a try. I had a washable mat under the tray but she then decided to not use the tray at all and wee beside the mat. She's an arsehole, but she's my arsehole... 😂

We have a cat with CKD and I can testify that he pees (and drinks) a lot. We are currently using corn litter which is light and creates big light clumps which we just scoop out. It tracks a bit but that's ok.

It's a nightmare isn't it? I had to up the number of litter trays because mine is very fussy about the cleanliness and I discovered she'd been weeing behind a cabinet and wrecked the wood floor there. Thankfully now she's mostly confined to the litter tray for wees, although poo is another matter.

Hmm, I wonder if she would use the puppy pads but on top of the washable mat.

At one point she did use one tray for poos and the other for pees but she currently favours the one on the wood floor and will occasionally use the other one. To be honest I think her mental capacity is probably not as it was, she was never the sharpest knife in the drawer at the best of times, but as i say she is otherwise healthy and happy and it's not time to say goodbye yet despite how much of a pain in the bum the weeing situation is.

I defo need to do something else or I'm risking a hernia trying to put the bin out.

My cat uses Biokitty clumping litter . It is heavy tho.
Unlike pp I find it better if its deep ( about 5 inches ) He had lots of urinary problems last year so I have tried quite a few and have to say catsan was one of the worst.

Can you put a 2nd tray down for her so there is more available space for her to pee.

Oh and I forgot to pay the cat tax.. Here is the arsehole herself.

Oh he's lovely! He looks well for his age and conditions.

Yes, you really wouldn't know how old she was. Looks a bit thinner in the back end than a young cat but is doing well and takes her meds straight from the syringe.

Sorry, I called her a he and I don't know why as you clearly said herself. Ours is definitely showing her age, she's a skinny thing and a bit stiff. But she keeps going, I keep thinking she can't have long left but she's been defying expectations.

Our family cat when I was a child lived to be around 23. By that point she was a bag of bones and had faked her own demise at least twice! She was a tortie and clever as anything.

When my old lady was alive I used the silica crystal litter - B&M sell it. It absorbs the smell and the liquid evaporates. I would put newspaper in the tray, then a liner, then more newspaper, then the litter. The first newspaper very seldom needed changing, and it didn't smell.

Thankfully my younger boys are happy to go outside, so the litter tray is no longer needed.