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Ok, so the Vet has deemed our Cat old and he doesn’t want to go outdoors anymore, making his point with some overt displays of toad in the hole.
So what’s the best way other than euthanasia to keep the household aroma bearable without shares in Yankee Candles? We have a covered cat litter box, is there some super litter or Uber box location to reduce a pungent awakening in the mornings?
I’m counting on you STW. Bring it….
Put extra litter boxes in favourite poop-deposit locations. Rule of thumb is N+1 for litter boxes vs number of cats, but old, incontinent cats may need more.
If the litter box has the filter fitted in the lid and a swing door, that should minimise odour, and there are some litter types that are billed as odour-absorbing, but it depends in the old bugger will tolerate them.
I believe for older moggies, multiple poop stations are a requirement. They must be cleaned after each visit or the furry bundle of joy will look to use cupboards or behind the curtains.
we tried some wood-based litter from Tesco, I was sceptical but it seemed an improvement on the normal "gritty" stuff.
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/252867475
alternatively if budget not an issue these are supposed to be really good!
https://www.robotshop.com/uk/litter-robot-3-automatic-self-cleaning-litter-box-eu.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsa_-kuGH-AIVa49oCR2LmANNEAQYAiABEgIQ9_D_BwE
Catsan is expensive but the best. The clumping stuff is dire, avoid.
Scoop out solids ASAP like the world's unluckiest gold prospector.
However unpleasant it might initially be IME the smell never lingers longer than a few minutes and quickly ceases to smell. Urine can be more of a problem if left for long periods.
It never ceases to amaze me how something as small and fluffy and cute and innocent as a kitten can produce such a diabolical and evil stench when they vacate their bowels.
A quick response involving shutting doors usually deals with the problem.
It never ceases to amaze me how something as small and fluffy and cute and innocent as a kitten can produce such a diabolical and evil stench when they vacate their bowels.
Never judge a book by its cover, what you’re observing is just the cats real personality showing through, or out.
Agree with the n+1 rule. We use wooden horse bedding pellets. Cheap as, and pretty effective. What an absorbing thread.
it's already been said but I'll second the natrual litter as the biggest improvement you can make, it's way more exspensive but will reduce odour significally and will not need chaging so much as it is clumps efficiently. You want the fine grade wood based litter, I'm using catsan natrual at the moment I think it's called.
A quick response involving shutting doors usually deals with the problem.
yep, until now with the cat on the outside looking through the frosted glass.
We use wooden horse bedding pellets
Yup, it's exactly the same stuff as marketed for cats but at a fraction of the cost, eg:
https://www.ashurstfarmfeeds.co.uk/stable-field/bedding/pure-wood-pellets-15kg__9735
Just find somewhere local that does equine supplies.
Supplies might be a problem though due to the Ukraine war, Russia is/was a major supplier. But supplies from British Columbia appear to be replacing Russian origin sources, and so far IME not really affecting prices.
Our solution for the older cat beginning to toilet around the house was banning from the house except downstairs when we are there.
He now sleeps in the summerhouse with a catflap on the door. In the winter it is insulated and has a greenhouse heater to keep the edge of the chill and an cat electric blanket in his basket.
Seems happy.
The dog eats them if he finds them before they are collected. Sorts the short term smell out but the belching later is grim.
Op I'd suggest a house swap with the forum member that spent a day walking around with a composting mouse in his boot without realising it.
Job done.👍
We use wooden horse bedding pellets.
Was I the only one wondering why a wooden horse would need bedding? Yes? OK, carry on.
The smell of cat poop is completely dependent on the food going in at the front end. We feed our 14 Year old moggy dry senior food and the poop is fine. When she used to eat wet food the poop could knock out a horse at 50 yards.
Completely? Nope.
The smell clears pretty quickly when the poo is removed so just deal with it and enjoy your cat for the last few years of its life.
Watching this thread with interest.
We have cat , 14 years old ,that has recently started refusing to poo outside.
We just bought a cheap litter tray with lid and door and some basic litter from pets at home.
It seems to work ok,but the smell was pretty bad,will try some catsan.
We've got a cat with a sensitive stomach who refuses to poo outside. We seem to have found a food that has made his rear end much less... excitable, which is good. But we've tried the traditional gravelly litter, white catsan stuff and the wooden pellets ( https://groceries.asda.com/product/cat-litter-accessories/smart-litter-wood-pellet-litter/910000205700 <-That's better than the Tesco own brand).
We've recently switched to a paper based one, Breeder Celect https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/breeder-celect-eco-friendly-cat-litter. It clumps together but without the dust or sawdust of the 'normal' or wooden pellets and does a good job of containing the smells. As someone said above, it's the wee that's worse, assuming you're removing the nuggets of cat gold fairly soon after they're dropped.
Thanks for all the advice, liking the look of the eco-litter. Ours also has a bed outside in the lean-to, a covered cat carrier with no door and blankets inside basically, so he sleeps out of the weather when outside.
More often than not he’s slumped on his favourite cushion with his mouth open or whole face buried in it, you have to look carefully to make sure it’s not time to scoop him up and avoid an awkward conversation with the kids!
Just to expand a bit on my previous posts, now I have a little time to kill whilst waiting for a server to deploy.
We have three cats, all of whom are indoors-only. The eldest, Mollie, is 9 and the other two are 18-month old sisters. They all eat a mixture of wet and dry food, Mollie prefers a different brand but the kittens have identical diets. I can tell which of the three has just had a core dump from the next room by aroma alone, which is why I disagreed earlier with Tony's assertion that it's solely down to diet (though of course it will surely have a large impact).
I've tried various litter compounds and keep coming back to the regular Catsan. The non-clay types - wood shavings, pellets etc - either turn to a nasty mush or the cats simply won't use. Supermarket Catsan-a-like sounded like a winner as it's broadly the same stuff at a fraction of the price, but the quality control isn't the same. There's a lot of powder so they tread dusty footprints all over the place (and I can't imagine a lungful of the stuff is overly healthy) and a few big lumps that Freya likes to try to eat. I had high hopes for Catsan clumping, I figured cat wees in litter, litter clumps, Cougar fishes out solid 'used' litter, repeat. Right? Except it sticks like snot to a five-year old's lip, I had to literally chisel it off the bottom of the tray with an old knife when I was doing a full clean. Tray liners might've helped but is a non-starter here, after a poo Mollie is an OCD digger and won't stop until she hits kangaroos.
Catsan absorbs wee, the heavier wet litter sinks under the dry with a shoogle of the tray. It reaches critical mass eventually but I generally get a week out out of it give or take before it start getting ripe and it all needs replacing. It dehydrates and eventually desiccates solids, but I try to scoop those promptly before someone else sits in it.
The outlier here is Sienna. Sienna isn't right in the head (no, seriously) and won't use litter at all. She has her own tray lined with a puppy training pad. Charcoal-lined pads kill the smell of wee almost instantly but poos need bagging up quickly because her arse is a biohazard. She lays quite astonishing Richard the Thirds that are like King Kong's finger and you can't ignore them because your eyes start bleeding. No wonder she miaows, size-to-body ratio it'd be like me crapping a bowling pin.
So that's my experience. It's not exhaustive because eventually I started getting told off by my partner for 'messing about' trying different things. But ultimately you likely need to experiment to find out what works for you and for him.
Our cat just turned 15 and stopped pooping completely for a few days, until one night she sat down in the hallway and started rocking with her ring pulsing and ejecting clear mucus and blood, cue a midnight dash to the vets and a course of cat laxatives and she's back to her happy normal self. She's always used Catsan ultra clumping clay litter and as long as we check and clear the clumps and poops twice a day the stench is not a problem because she likes to dig and bury, so deeply that standard trays aren't deep enough. I bought her a plastic storage crate 12" deep and fill it with 3-4" of litter.
Get a small boy. Our daughters' cat ( female) hasn't pooped or peed inside the house since our grandson learnt to walk 2 years ago,in fact she now spends most of her time outdoors,only coming inside for the odd meal. To clarify,daughter,her son and her cat all live in our house,although the cat appears to be regretting it.
The litter robot is the best thing ever invented for cats (if money is no object as mentioned). Pair this with Ever Clean clumping litter ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00VTMVY9E/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) and you will never know a cat is in the house. We have the WiFi connected robot and it lets you know when the cat goes, when it interrupts a clean cycle and when it's full on the app. You can even set a night mode so it doesn't cycle at night. Only needs cleaning one a week or so for one cat and the litter linked never smells and lasts far far longer than anything else we've tried as there is very little wastage. The robot has a level for the litter and won't allow you to overfill but bear in mind with clumping litter you need a deep fill for it to work properly.
1) If you have an attached garage, give them a cat flap into it (we had to put one through the cavity wall)
2) Extra large litter trays are small, I bought a couple of plastic underbed trays from Sainsburys that are a better size (and cheaper)
3) I used a combination of horse wooden pellets (actually VAT free pellet boiler pellets) and the green Sainsbury's wood pellets, cats liked them but with lots of wee it just seeps through and I was getting through loads, and it smells. I tried various clumping and non-clumping, some wouldn't scoop out of the tray cleanly and left clay-ey goop stuck to the scoop and tray. I tried Catsan but luckily only bought a small bag, can't remember why I didn't like it. Favourite now is the Frank's cat litter from Sainsbury's but the supply is very intermittent. Cheap, clean and scoopable, don't use much and the cats seem to like it.
B&M sell 30l packs of wood pellets for £6.99. Far better for smell (including soaking up wee.
Both our trays are doubled up - one has a grate in it, so wee goes through - did the same with a larger tray, but bought two, and drilled one. Put a squirt of bleach in the bottom, grated tray on top, wood litter in. Enables you to clean and tip out any pee/reduces pee smell and helps the litter not turn into sawdust (then tread every where). We have 4 cats that are indoors, but we do have an external cat run - might be worth thinking about something if you have the space - our's go into their run via a conservatory window. They prefer to do poops outside, but 3 of them are pedigree's so we don't let them out.
I recommend
Catsan clumping or non clumping both are better than the alternatives
Get a large enclosed litter box
Get more than one large enclosed litter box
Remove the solids ASAP
Change the litter every week or more often.
You might forget how long the litter has been there, cats never forget.