Indoor toileting

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• Cause: multifactorial.
• Signs: deposition of urine and/or feces in an unacceptable location within the home.
• Often associated with a refusal to use litter boxes provided.
• Cases may involve a total failure to housetrain or a breakdown in previously effective housetraining.
• Diagnosis: inappropriate urination/defecation needs to be distinguished from indoor marking.
• Urination usually occurs from the squatting position onto horizontal surfaces whereas indoor urine marking usually occurs from a standing posture (although not exclusively), defecation is often hidden whereas using feces as a marker is usually more blatant.
• Treatment: use of behavioral techniques designed to break habit.
• Prognosis: common cause of death through euthanasia.

• Urine and/or feces deposited in unacceptable locations within the home.

• Total or partial refusal to use the litter boxes provided.
• Urine and/or feces found in a variety of often secluded locations but certain locations will be used repeatedly.
• Deposits often made on a particular substrate, eg carpet.
• In case of urination significant volumes of urine involved.
• Urine deposited on horizontal surfaces.
• Signs of anxiety or distress.

• Any age can be affected.

• Young adolescent males.

• Persians are reported to be over-represented in problems of inappropriate urination and/or defecation.

• Variety of possible causes:
  • Lack of initial house training, eg due to poor maternal example, lack of litter and/or boxes, inappropriate litter and/or boxes.
  • Post-trauma breakdown in house training, eg following enforced confinement, after medical conditions affecting elimination, following inappropriate attempts at medicating the cat on the litter box.
  • Aversion to the litter substrate provided, eg litter not fine enough, problems with deodorizing litters
  • Aversion to litter boxes, eg location (next to food bowl, in busy passageway, or fear of disturbance by children, other pets, etc.) or box (too small, too big, too clean, not clean enough, uncovered)
  • Preferential selection of inappropriate substrate, eg carpet or linen soft under foot.
  • Preferential selection of inappropriate location, eg under sideboard or behind sofa because quiet and secluded.
  • Fear of specific or generalized stimuli, eg urination in response to the sound of the doorbell or arrival of visitors.
  • Disruption of substrate association at adolescence especially in males.
  • Overcrowding, eg lack of enough litter boxes for number of cats.
  • Geriatric alterations in needs, eg location of box no longer appropriate, not enough boxes provided, too far to get to box.

• Lack of initial housetraining.
• Preceeding medical condition.
• Trauma such as temporary confinement.
• Inappropriate litter and/or boxes, eg location, litter box type, litter type.
• Sudden changes in litter type.
• Nervous/fearful individual.
• Kitten from a queen with an inappropriate urination/defecation problem.

• Initial learning failure.
• Subsequent breakdown in house training.
• Loss of toilet control due to medical condition.
• Loss of toilet control due to fear and anxiety.

• Urine and/or feces deposited in inappropriate locations within the home .
• Total or partial refusal to use litter boxes provided.
• Excessive water intake and urination frequency.

• Urine and/or feces deposited in inappropriate locations within the home.

• Total or partial refusal to use litter boxes provided.
• Urine is deposited in significant amounts on horizontal surfaces.
• Feces deposited in secluded locations sometimes close to the litter boxes.
• Excessive water intake and urination frequency.
• Evaluation of diet, eating habits and frequency of defecation.

• May see signs of trauma to the pads of totally indoor cats if the litter provided is inappropriate.

• For presence of underlying cause, eg urinary tract infection.

Other

• Use of fluorescein to identify indoor urination culprit in multi-cat household.

• If abnormal defecation .

Radiography

• To identify underlying cause.

Biochemistry

• Thyroxine assay in geriatric cats suspected of hyperthyroidism.

• Presence of urine and/or feces in the house.
• Position of the urine and/or feces.
• Presence or absence of medical problems concurrent with the onset of inappropriate urination/defecation.
• Presence or absence of disruption to social environment.

• Posture of the cat especially when depositing urine.
• Timing of the depositing of urine and/or feces in relation to stimuli.
• Reaction of cat to litter boxes provided.

• Indoor marking.

• Conditions causing polydipsia/polyuria eg diabetes mellitus , hyperthyroidism , renal disease .
• Conditions causing polyphagia.
• Conditions causing pollakiuria, eg FLUTD , calculi, feline interstitial cystitis, cystitis .
• Conditions causing increased frequency of defecation or increased urge, eg inflammatory bowel disease .
• Conditions causing pain in defecation or urination.
• Conditions causing loose stools or diarrhea .

• Conditions causing urinary or fecal incontinence .
• Conditions affecting locomotion especially in geriatrics eg arthritis.

• Conditions affecting the CNS.

• Effective cleaning of previously soiled locations:
  • Wash the area with the warm solution of detergent, rinse with cold water.
  • Leave to dry.
  • Spray the area with surgical spirit (alcohol).
  • Do not rinse.
  • Leave until completely dry before allowing cat access again.
• Deter cat from soiling in the area again by redefining the function of the location with food or bedding.

• Frequency of urination or defecation in inappropriate locations.
• Alterations in nervousness/fear.
• Owner's assessment of progress.

• It may be necessary to alter the behavioral modification program as treatment progress. For example it may be necessary to confine the cat to a smaller part of the house to start with and then gradually increase its freedom.
• It may be necessary to start with solely behavioral modification but to institute drug therapy if progress is very slow.

• Adequate house training of small kittens.
• Do not breed from queens with house soiling problems.
• Pay attention to the possibility of house soiling as an after effect of certain medical conditions in cats and of certain traumatic experiences.

• Decrease in the frequency of indoor urination and defecation.

• Standard reasons eg incorrect diagnosis, client non-compliance.
• Significant learned component to the behavior may make progress very slow.
• Inability to remove or treat the trigger for the behavior.

• D Appleby Dip CABC, The Pet Behaviour Centre, Upper Street, Defford, Worcestershire WR8 9AB, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1386 750615; Fax: +44 (0)1386 750743; E-mail: appleby@petbcent.demon.co.uk.
• Dr H Ellen Whiteley DVM, HCR 64 Box 606, Guadalupita, New Mexico 87722, USA.
  

• Companion Animal Behaviour Therapy Study Group, c/o Mr D S Mills BVSc MRCVS CABTSG Secretary, De Montfort University, Lincoln, Caythorpe Court, Caythorpe, Grantham, Lincs. NG32 3EP.
• European Society of Veterinary Clinical Ethology, c/o Dr J Dehasse DVM, 129, Avenue de la Fauconnerie, B-1170, Brussels, Belgium. Tel/Fax: 00 32 2 675 8666
• Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors, PO Box 46, Worcester WR8 9YS, UK.Tel/Fax: 01386 751151 E-mail : apbc@petbcent.demon.co.uk.

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