Litterbox 101

Urinating in the wrong places is the number one reason cats are surrendered by their owners. Many of these issues could be avoided, by handling the litterbox issues properly.

Listed below are a few important litterbox tips:

Your household should have the same number of litterboxes as the number of cats you have (3 cats, 3 litterboxes).

Have a litterbox on each floor of the house-(one on the first floor, one on the second floor)

Scoop your litter box DAILY, keep garbage bags, and a scooper by each litterbox; it will be worth the small initial investment.

The easier you make it for yourself-the easier it will be to keep up!

Larger tall cats can’t stand UP to poop in the covered litterboxes, so they tend not to like them as much. They may be fine for months, then one day, just decide ‘I don’t like this anymore’, and start going else where. 

The covered litterbox style holds in odors more, scooping and cleaning them daily is vital.

Keep the litterbox in low traffic area, cats like their privacy-like humans. NO busy laundry rooms (near the garage door entrance), or no busy hallways. 

IF you relocate the litterbox, make sure you show the cat where it is being moved to-do not change out the litter the same day as you move the litterbox the cat needs to be able to identify its familiar scent in the box.

If changing the TYPE of litter you’re buying (for example changing from scoopable litter to Yesterdays News-or scoopable litter to the clay type) make the change over a week or two. Gradually mix the two litters- ½ and ½, then ¼ old and ¾ new, so the cat gets used to using the new type of litter over the course of that week. Now, would NOT be the time to change locations of the litterbox, or purchase a new litterbox. Change only one thing at a time.

Tapeworms: how do our dogs and cats get them and how do you know they have them?

Another intestinal parasite, the tapeworm, is transmitted to dogs and cats when they eat those annoying fleas off of themselves! Or they get tapeworms from eating birds, mice, or other rodents that are infected with tapeworms or fleas. If you were to see an entire tapeworm you would see many tiny rice-like repeating segments making up the worm of about 4-6 inches long.

This worm lives in the intestine of the cat or dog until it is properly treated. The small rice like pieces of tapeworm is what is seen in the cat or dogs stool.

Many cases are diagnosed simply by seeing these tiny rice like pieces attached to the pet's fur around the anus or under the tail; they even move around a bit shortly after they are passed and before they dry up and look like little grains of rice. These segments of the tapeworm contain the eggs. Tapeworms cannot be killed by the typical generic, over-the-counter wormers. See the veterinarian for a prescription - it's the only treatment that really works. So don't waste your time or money on non-prescription tape worm medications...they don't work very well.

Most often, cats with tapeworms have enormous appetites, and remain thin, due to the tapeworm eating all the nutrients from their food!

Roundworms: what are they and why do kittens need deworming treatments?

A large percentage of puppies and kittens are born with worms. The most common one is the roundworm. 

The roundworm larvae goes through the mother's tissues right into the developing pup or kitten in the mother's uterus! The worm larvae can also be transferred to the nursing kittens from the mother's milk. 

The larvae make their way to the intestinal tract where they set up housekeeping. They start shedding eggs and the worm infestation begins. The eggs that the worms pass are in the kittens stool and when the stool is accidently eaten (this happens when the kittens are grooming themselves and licking their sweet little paws!). So, you can see that repeated exposure to stools with eggs in it is easy when a whole litter of kittens is sharing a small litterbox. That is why it is so important to scoop the litterbox at least 2 times a day,and/or have 2 litterboxes, so the chances of the kittens stepping in a piece of poop is lessened. And….that is why we do a series of deworming medicine- you are trying to kill as many adult worms as possible, at different stages of their life cycle. Which is NOT a one time task.

Next month we will discuss tapeworms!