The 'scent of ammonia' is the dead giveaway for muti-cat homes

Cat hoarders or cat owners with more cats than they can properly care for can be detected from the outside if you are olfactorily observant because the 'scent of ammonia' leaks out of the windows even if they've only been opened by a small amount which is usually the case because these negligent cat owners KNOW that their homes are saturated in the scent of ammonia - let's call it the gross smell of ammonia - and keep their windows closed which makes the atmosphere inside their home even worse, which is detrimental to the health of cats and humans alike.

There's a story today in The Independent newspaper which mentions that ghastly phrase "the scent of ammonia". It concerns a family who lost control of the number of cats in their home. An isolated family with one family member refusing others to enter the home and where their mother died leaving their father alone with cats who clearly hadn't been sterilised and therefore procreated to the point where inside the home there were as many as 175 cats.

When a family member finally was able to enter the home they said that the scent of ammonia was so strong that they felt that they needed to wash their clothes after less than an hour in the home.

Below is the reason why cat urine gives off ammonia gas and below that is a section on how inhaling ammonia for a long time can potentially damage your health.

Health

I am concerned not only for the cats but the people in these homes. The cats in multi-cat homes where the owners have lost control and are not keeping their home clean and the cat litter trays emptied regularly et cetera are constantly inhaling ammonia. How does that impact health? The section below at the base of this article explains.

Urea

Cat urine smells strongly of ammonia because it contains urea, a waste product formed when proteins break down in the body. In the litter box or any place where the urine sits for a while, bacteria start to break down the urea into ammonia, releasing a sharp, pungent odor.

Several factors contribute to why cat urine smells more intense than that of other animals:

1. High Protein Diet: Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they rely primarily on animal protein. This leads to more urea in their urine as a byproduct of protein metabolism.

  

2. Concentrated Urine: Cats tend to conserve water due to their desert ancestry, making their urine more concentrated, and thus, the odor more potent.

3. Aging Urine: As cat urine sits, bacterial activity increases, breaking down urea and releasing more ammonia. If left uncleaned, other compounds, like mercaptans (found in skunk spray), also develop, making the odor even stronger over time.

Cleaning the litter box frequently and using odor-neutralizing products can help reduce this strong smell.

If cats and people are constantly inhaling ammonia gas in cat hoarding homes how does this impact health?

In homes with excessive cat urine build-up, like in severe cat hoarding situations, constant inhalation of ammonia gas poses serious health risks for both people and cats. Ammonia is a toxic gas that can irritate and damage the respiratory system and other organs when inhaled over long periods, especially at higher concentrations. Here’s how it impacts health:

1. Respiratory Issues

• People: Ammonia exposure irritates the respiratory tract, causing coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and burning sensations in the nose, throat, and lungs. Prolonged exposure can lead to chronic bronchitis and worsen existing respiratory conditions like asthma or COPD.
• Cats: Cats, with their sensitive respiratory systems, are highly susceptible to the effects of ammonia. Exposure can lead to respiratory infections, asthma, and bronchitis. Cats may also exhibit coughing, sneezing, and nasal discharge.

2. Eye and Skin Irritation

• People: Ammonia exposure can cause burning, itching, or redness in the eyes, as well as skin irritation if there’s contact with urine-soaked surfaces. Chronic exposure may worsen these effects, leading to persistent eye inflammation.
• Cats: Cats may also experience eye irritation, leading to conjunctivitis and other eye infections. Their skin can become inflamed, particularly on the paws if they’re frequently stepping in soiled litter.

3. Neurological and Psychological Effects

• People: In severe cases, prolonged high-level exposure to ammonia has been linked to symptoms like dizziness, headache, confusion, and overall cognitive impairment. Anxiety, stress, and depression are also common among individuals in hoarding environments due to the overwhelming conditions.
• Cats: High ammonia levels can cause stress in cats, leading to behavioral issues, and potentially affecting their neurological health, causing lethargy or disorientation.

4. Damage to the Immune System

• People and Cats: Constant exposure to ammonia can weaken the immune system, making both people and cats more susceptible to infections. This is particularly dangerous in a hoarding situation where sanitation is poor, and there’s a higher risk of bacterial and viral spread among animals and people.

5. Potential Long-Term Organ Damage

• People and Cats: Over time, severe and prolonged ammonia inhalation can damage the liver, kidneys, and lungs. In the worst cases, it can contribute to irreversible lung damage and kidney issues.

In severe hoarding situations, clean-up and remediation, including proper ventilation and often professional decontamination, are essential for restoring a healthy environment. For people and animals already

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

How do cats automatically know how to use the litter box?

Well, the answer is obvious so I'll keep it short. Cats instinctively look for a suitable substrate on which to urinate and defecate. There is nothing in the home which anywhere near meets their criteria for an effective substrate except the litter in the cat litter tray which is somewhat like earth or sand from outside the home except better as it is made to be more absorbent. So, they make a beeline for it.

Substrate: an underlying substance or layer.

Cats and kittens use them instinctively as the substrate is ideal. Image: MikeB

They can poop and pee on it and if they feel the need (not all domestic cats do) they can bury it. Most often they bury poop. My male cat did not. Perhaps because he felt confident enough not to hide his scent. Hiding poop is a sort of submissive act to make themselves invisible to more dominant males.

Of course, after they've used the new litter tray for the first time it smells of their poop and pee so they recognise the litter tray as their toilet. They already know it is a nice substrate. Becoming their toilet reinforces its use.

Cat litter trays should not be over cleaned and disinfected as it kills off the cat's scent which they like. It is just possible that a cat might stop using their litter tray if it is bleached and scrubbed to well.

It should be kept clean but not overclean.

Indoor/outdoor cats don't need a litter tray indoors as they'll find a suitable area outdoors in the same way: a nice substrate. Although if you put down a litter tray, they'll probably use it as it might be more comfortable for them.

Jackson Galaxy says that in general cats prefer uncovered litter trays as covered ones might be a bit of a barrier. I disagree. Covered litter boxes are more private and cats like that. And cats feel more protected in covered litter trays during what is a vulnerable action.

Declawed cats are seven times more likely to pee in inappropriate places.

Declawed cats can find litter substrates of any kind uncomfortable to use because of their sore feet. They may pee and poop outside the box. Declawed cats are about 7 times more likely to do this than non-declawed cats. A warning to those who are considering this obnoxious operation (mutilation).

Another warning: don't use litter substrates which are too dusty as kittens will inhale a ton of dust when digging a hole to poop into. The worse cat litter and the most dangerous as far as I am concerned is Tidy Cats Lightweight Cat Litter. Avoid the stuff please. It is no good. Some cats have died using it.

The manufacturers sold out health and safety to make Tidy Cats more convenient for women to use as it is easier to carry. The directors thought it was a good idea as cat litter can be heavy but they overlooked the health implications.

Environmentally Friendly Cat Litter

I asked Bing's AI for advice about the best cat litter substrate. The response it not great:

The best cat litter substrates are made up of natural materials that are safe for your cat and the environment. Here are some of the best cat litter substrates and why:

• Clay: The cheapest and most popular material for cat litter, clay is good at absorbing liquids but it gets dusty and smelly (which your cat will hate), so it needs regular cleaning.
• Wood shavings or sawdust: Wood shavings or sawdust are biodegradable and eco-friendly. They are also good at absorbing liquids and controlling odors.
• Sand: Sand is a natural material that is good at absorbing liquids. It is also easy to clean and does not produce dust2.
• Whole wheat: Whole wheat is a natural material that is biodegradable and eco-friendly. It is also good at absorbing liquids and controlling odors.
• Potting soil: Potting soil is a natural material that is biodegradable and eco-friendly. It is also good at absorbing liquids and controlling odors.
• Chicken feed: Chicken feed is a natural material that is biodegradable and eco-friendly. It is also good at absorbing liquids and controlling odors.
• Walnut litter: Walnut litter is a natural material that is biodegradable and eco-friendly. It is also good at absorbing liquids and controlling odors.

I hope that helps!

Landlord blamed tenants' cat for peeing in the bathroom causing the ceiling below to collapse!

NEWS AND VIEWS: This is an extraordinary story and quite ridiculous. A couple were staying in a housing association home - the landlords. In the UK, housing association homes are low rental homes supported by the organisation which owns them. They are a bit like publicly owned properties in other countries. And therefore, this couple were tenants paying a low rent.

They have a cat. And they had a leak from the ceiling above the hallway at the entrance to their home. They mentioned this to the housing association who sent out a tradesman to have a look at it.

That tradesman said that their cat had been peeing in the bathroom and it had caused the roof below to collapse. This was a ridiculous suggestion because a domestic cat cannot produce enough urine to have "water" leaking through the ceiling onto the floor below. 

And that's what the tenants saw. Domestic cats can simply not produce enough liquid to cause a ceiling to collapse. This is common sense and as mentioned it is idiotic to suggest otherwise.

Because the ceiling collapsed as it wasn't repaired, the pair had to leave the property and live in a hotel nearby while it was fully investigated and repaired.

The housing association have now admitted that it was a leak in a heating pipe which caused the damage. They apologised and confirmed that the safety of their tenants are their primary concern.

Details:

• Housing association: Golding Homes
• The Tenants: Stacey Sell and her partner Mark Twaites plus 2 kids.
• Location: Maidstone, Kent, UK.
• Source: Mirror newspaper.

2 tips to keep down cat poop odours

One of these tips is common sense and the other I had not heard of before. A lot of cat owners are probably concerned from time to time about the smell from their cat's litter tray. On the Internet, there is a lot of discussion about keeping down odours. 

I remember one resourceful man with about a dozen cats having an entirely odour free home because he had built a very sophisticated extraction system for several cat toilets. I was very impressed because his home was entirely odour-free. Not many people can do that.

RELATED: Foul ammonia odour exposes homes where there are too many cats.

Coffee grounds are an odour suppresser apparently. Image in public domain.

The first obvious tip is to clean the cat litter as soon as your cat has gone to the toilet. That solves the problem more or less. The difficulty is that you have to be retired or working from home to do this.

Many more people work from home thanks to Covid. So, this obvious tip can be employed.

And it helps to have a litter tray which is easy to get out. There are some beautiful pieces of furniture with litter trays inside them. They fit into the elegant home very well. But access to the litter tray inside is trickier. 

This slight barrier to getting at the litter tray may put off the owner clearing up the litter. This means that odours could leak out of this elegant furniture. The suggestion is that you should have a litter tray which is not tucked away in a nice bit of furniture. This comes down to how houseproud you are and how practical and pragmatic you are.

Multi-cat homes are an added problem in this respect. You should have one cat litter tray per cat. I'm sure people living in multi-cat homes get used to the odours. That's the next tip! Ignore the smell. Get used to it. And don't have any guests in the home! And keep your windows shut 😎. My neighbour does all of this.

I've just read other fancy little tip about reducing the smells of use cat litter. I guess people throw it away in the trash can or waste bin. My cat goes to the toilet outside these days. When I had a cat litter tray, I used to bag it up very carefully which kept the odours in before throwing it away.

Note: read the last paragraph, please.

But a lady from Edinburg in Virginia, USA says that she throws a handful of cheap coffee grounds in the container which effectively suppresses smell. She said: "There's no longer a smell of something dead being in there".

I researched coffee masking or suppressing the smell of poop. Coffee contains caffeine which contains nitrogen which increases carbon's ability to eliminate sulphur from the air. Fancy stuff.

However, you have to carbonised coffee grounds to make them useful as an older suppressant. Perhaps coffee grounds still work to a certain extent in suppressing the odour of cat poop. That must be the explanation as to why the lady from Virginia found it so effective.

You might like to give it a try and if you do, please make a comment.

P.S. Coffee grounds can be used as a cat deterrent! People shouldn't use coffee grounds to suppress the odour of cat poop by putting them next to the cat litter tray. I think that's important. Cats like the smell of their poop. They don't like their litter tray to be deodorised and smelling of perfume. It can put them off using it.

Also, caffeine apparently is toxic to cats and dogs and therefore this tip is only about suppressing the smell of waste cat litter. That's important too.

Cats in cat hoarding environments breath in ammonia fumes

This is a topic which is rarely if ever discussed. In the homes of cat hoarders, you invariably find that there is a strong smell of ammonia. This is because of the high concentrations of ammonia in cat urine, higher than that in human urine. And if the area in which they live is very confined like a campervan, the cats within it are breathing in high levels of ammonia for a very long time. This adds to the potential for ill-health. These sorts of levels of ammonia can harm health profoundly.

Many cats in truck looking at camera. There were 43 cats inside this U-Haul truck. Image in public domain. These are not the cats in the story.

We are used to reading about cats being rescued from a hoarding environment suffering from upper respiratory tract infections, secondary bacterial infections (in the eyes particularly), fleas, worms, ringworm, anorexia, and starvation. But we don't hear about this background health issue which pervades the atmosphere namely the gas of ammonia.

And ironically, it is the hoarders who also inhale this gas, day in and day out. It must do them harm as well. I was reminded of this problem because of a story emanating from Rhode Island's Providence Animal Control. They rescued 18 cats in an abandoned camper. (Newsweek report) They described it as the worst case of animal hoarding that they had seen.

They said that the ammonia levels inside the camper was so high that they'd make a person going into it ill for days. I suspect that they wore masks and hazmat suits. But when I think about that I think about the cats. How long were they in that campervan breathing in this foetid ammonia?

Of course, all the cats were flea-ridden, filled with worms, emaciated and they had ringworm as well. These sorts of cat hoarding cases start within the home and sometimes the person loses their home and lives in a camper and takes their cats with them. And sometimes they use a camper as extra space to hoard more cats.

The case also brings to mind another issue about cat hoarding. What causes it? You will find that it is agreed by the experts that cat hoarding is a mental illness. My personal viewpoint is that a person who hoards any object can also hoard cats because they seem to treat cats as 'objects' which is why they neglect them.

But the reasons why people hoard cats are complex. Once again, in my view, the starting point is insecurity. It is linked to obsessive-compulsive disorders which is also due to a feeling of insecurity and the need to control things. But people hoard objects because they think they might need them. They are playing safe. They keep them just in case. And if the basic mentality is to play safe because they are risk-averse, this points to insecurities. These people are insecure, anxious and worried. They collect these items around them to help them feel more secure. But, as mentioned, there are other issues such as depression and perhaps on occasions delusional thinking.

Associated: Cat hoarder admits defeat and seeks help which is rare.

The last point is evident because very often they say they love cats but they neglect them so badly that they harm and kill them. They don't acknowledge this deficiency in their thinking. They end up putting their dead cats in freezers. This is an extension of the hoarding process. They can't even bury them or cremate them. They have to keep the bodies whole in their home. There is no question it is a form of madness.

Associated: Cat hoarder and his 16 cats sue the local authority for compensation

Cat hoarders do their best to hide what they're doing and therefore they are cognisant of what they are doing. This is one peculiarity of their mental health. They don't recognise that they are killing their cats through neglect but they do recognise that they might upset the neighbours if they found out what they were doing.

And this brings me to the last point. When they are found out (due to the foul smell of ammonia leaking out of their home) and the cats rescued, the question is how do you deal with the person. Do you punish them or do you treat them with drugs and counselling? The answer is that you should do both. However, the more important part of the process is to work on their mental health issues to prevent them doing the same thing again. Often cat hoarders return to their bad habits. It's a deeply ingrained mental problem which perhaps can't be shifted even with the best treatments.

Singapore resident blocks access to HDB apartments with barricade and sign "NO CATS ALLOWED!"

SINGAPORE NEWS AND COMMENT: In Singapore a high percentage of residents live in blocks of flats owned and managed by the authorities called the Housing Development Board. They obviously have access points for the residents. One resident, clearly frustrated with stray cats defecating and urinating in common areas (as she/he saw it) decided to take the matter into her own hands by placing a home-made barrier using various items across the access point and attached a sign saying NO CATS ALLOWED!

The photo comes from the Stomper website hence the embossed wording.

Singapore resident blocks of access to apartments with sign "NO CATS ALLOWED!". Source: Stomper.

He or she had to take the barricade down because it's obviously against the terms of the lease. She was asked to take it down by the authorities and she complied. The authorities say that they routinely clean common parts on a daily basis to 'remove any urination and defecation found in common areas' to use their words.

It is a snippet of Singapore life where they do have community cats which are either liked or loathed it seems to me. They do seem to polarise people as they do in the West. The answer to them is the same answer that you apply to any country and any place: education, to ensure that all domestic cats are spayed and neutered and properly cared for. That they are not abandoned at any time or under any circumstances and that proper TNR programs are managed throughout Singapore supported by the state. That would be my solution. I understand this person's frustration but it appears to have been more a statement rather than a functional effort to stop cats coming into the common areas of this block of flats.

It's always the smell that exposes homes where there are too many cats

Pretty well every time that a person is exposed for having too many cats it is because a foul odour emanates from their home and a neighbour picks it up and complains to the authorities. It's about the person who owns a lot of cats being unable to manage. And the smell is of urine and perhaps faeces. It is an ammonia smell (urine). Which means that some of the cats are urinating inappropriately and perhaps defecating inappropriately as well. Or, it means that the person in charge is not cleaning out the litter trays properly. Both of these things are happening simultaneously. For the cats they are urinating appropriately by the way. Let's get that straight.

What it looks like in a home with too many cats. Chaos and massive smells. Singapore cat hoarder seeks help. Photo: Instagram page of the rescue who is helping her: Cats of Anchor Vale.

It is likely to be the former because if you have 20 cats in a home there are going to be stresses between the cats leading to inappropriate elimination. It will also potentially lead to spraying to mark territory which still happens even when cats are sterilised. When cats are boxed together like this in a very small space, they cannot enjoy the normal amount of space that domestic cats require which in my estimation is going to be a number of acres. 

Of course, domestic cats are adaptable and they can get used to living with much smaller territories (home ranges as they are called) but instinctively, given the freedom to enjoy a natural home range it would be much larger than can be provided inside a home with many other cats. This results in stresses among some cats.

The foul smell that emanates from these homes which is picked up by neighbours is waste product produced by the cats lying around the home which the person is unable to cope with. It is a carelessness in adopting too many cats combined with that same carelessness in being unable to manage the cats to the point where there is no smell in the home. Can you imagine that? I home in which there are 15 cats, let's say, and no smell. Is it possible to achieve that? It is and it has been achieved.

On December 23, 2019 I wrote about a man who has 15 cats and 22 litter boxes. His home smells perfectly! His name is Peter Cohen and he lives in a beautiful Californian home.

If you read the article, the first point that you will notice right away is that he has 22 litter boxes and 15 cats. This is in line with Jackson Galaxy's advice that there should be more litter boxes than cats. And Cohen puts litter boxes in closets i.e. an enclosed space and critically, because he is a builder and knows how to do this, he creates a negative air pressure inside the litter box closets by running a ventilation fan around the clock which sucks the air from the spaces to the exterior.

Finally, I presume that the air sucked out is pushed up through the roof because there'd be no point in pushing smelly air left and right of the house into neighbour's properties.

So, that's how you do it. And, you know what, the sort of systems that Mr Cohen has set up are going to prove impossible for the typical owner of many cats. Therefore, I have to conclude that if you have 15 or 20 cats living full-time inside a typical home it's going to be impossible to keep the smell down unless you have a huge amount of energy, time, commitment, and intelligence and building skills. If I'm correct in that assessment, it tells us that there must be an upper limit in the number of cats that a person can reasonably manage when they are confined to the home.

And here is the clincher: they have to be confined to the home. If they are allowed to wander around outside of the home the neighbours will complain anyway. Cat hoarders always confine their cats to the home. And they don't bother to build an enclosure in the garden because I guess that would also expose their activities to neighbours. They try and keep things secret, away from the prying eyes of neighbours. This of course exacerbates the problem making it impossible to stop massive odours building up.

And they have to open the window sometimes and in doing this the odour escapes. Because the odour is so pungent even small amounts of this air gets into neighbours' properties. It just depends how tolerant the neighbours are as to whether they complain or accept it.

I am therefore drawn to the only sensible conclusion which is that local authorities must have bylaws restricting the number of cats that a person can own to around five. This, I think, is a reasonable number which is manageable. And this rule will apply to any country anywhere. Although most of the news about cat hoarding comes from America it does not mean that cat orders only live in America, it happens anywhere. It's just that most cat news comes from America because they love their cats which, by the way, makes it very strange that they declaw them, an act which is totally against love between species.

Same Chemical in Sauvignon Blanc Wine and Cat Urine

Felinine is an amino acid found in cat's urine. 3-Mercapto-3-methylbutan-1-ol (MMB) is a product of the degradation of felinine. MMB is a thiol and believed to be a cat pheromone found in cat's urine.

MMB is also found in Sauvignon blanc wines, which are gooseberry flavoured. Thiols contribute to the aroma of Sauvignon blanc wines.

Interesting, I think. We usually can't smell cat pheromones. We can smell the aroma of wine however.

No idea what more I can say about this except I am surprised ;) Follow up post on main site.

Cats Are Not Territorial Animals

The title of this post is a verbatim transcript from an excellent book on The Welfare of Cats edited by Irene Rochlitz. The author who makes this statement in the section of the book on olfactory communication, S.L.Crowell-Davis, does not differentiate between wild, feral or domestic cats although the book is mainly about the domestic cat. I think you will find the statement controversial especially amongst the wild cat experts.

Crowell-Davies goes on to say that urine spraying as a form of olfactory communication is not to mark territory - i.e. to make the statement that the cat 'owns' this plot of land and to stay out. The author says that spraying urine horizontally onto objects in small quantities has multiple meanings that depend on the circumstances at the time and on what is in the urine. The implication is that a cat can control what scent the urine has at any given time.

The purpose of spraying urine is to leave a message ("identifying information") about:

• reproductive status
• which cat was where at any given time. I presume this is designed to ensure that cats don't bump into each other which might result in a fight.
• the emotional state of the cat - e.g. aroused.

The author says that cats sometimes leave feces unburied on the "periphery of the home range" and in "core areas". To me this signifies a form or territorial marking, but apparently not.

We hear of inappropriate elimination of domestic cats. One aspect of reducing the occurrence of inappropriate elimination is to move the litter box to a different area, one that the cat might find more acceptable (a quieter place for example). Research by Sung in 2001 indicated that there was no connection between the location of the litter box and elimination behaviour problems. This is another interesting piece of information that appears to contradict mainstream advice.

A cure for a serval with bladder stones

This is a nice story by Dolly Guck about her domesticated serval "Sawabu" who developed a urinary tract infection (UTI) and who had calcium oxalate stones in his bladder. The urinary tract problems were first noticed when Sawabu was doing one of his tricks at a public meeting. He embarrassingly peed on a table. This is the exact same symptom you get with domestic cats who have urinary infections. For my cat it was cystitis. The urine is bloody too - readily noticeable.

X-rays revealed the bladder stones and the vet decided to operation to remove them. Calcium oxalate crystals cannot dissolved naturally through a change in diet hence the need to physically remove them. The operation went well. The stones were about one centimeter in diameter (think the size of the nail of your little finger).

The vet administered antibiotics, the standard treatment for UTIs. Sawabu was well bahaved throughout. He had to wear a protective collar and he put up it with just like a domestic cat.

The interesting bit is this. What caused the stones? What was the underlying condition that prompted the development of the infection?

Dolly does not say in her article and her vet does not say either. However the cure does tell us I think. A colleague of the vet recommended a diet of Royal Canin High Protein Calorie Control canned food - three cans per day. Sawabu's diet to that point was some raw plus "crunchy Mazuri" and Zupreem canned small feline. Sawabu did not like the Royal Canin but Dolly practiced tough love and made him eat it. Good thing too.

I will presume that crunchy Mazuri is specialist dry cat food for "exotic felines". It is dry cat food (kibble) for domesticated wildcats I'd say. It might have been Mazuri Exotic Feline-Small (25 lb) - 5M54. Zupreem Exotic Feline Food is canned (wet) exotic cat food - canned food for wild cats.

It would seem to me that the underlying cause or at least one of the underlying causes or a compounding factor was the dry cat food. Sawabu liked it. He may have eaten too much of it. Dr. Hodgkins in her book Your Cat (a book about cat health and nutrition) concludes with a firm conviction that dry cat food is the cause of many UTIs. I can confirm that my cat was cured of her cystitis by taking her off dry cat food and feeding wet with added water.

Dry cat food can cause mild dehydration because cats don't compensate by drinking more water. The urine becomes concentrated and the flow slower promoting bacterial growth and stones. As I understand it, that is the theory in outline.

The Royal Canin wet food prescribed worked nicely over time and stopped the stones returning. I am not sure what it contains other than it is wet and therefore contains a lot more water. Wet cat food is more natural for a cat domestic or wild. The Royal Canin wet food prescribed might also contain less of certain minerals etc to reduce the possibility of formation of stones.

Moral: feed wet cat food and specialist raw food to a domesticated serval as an ideal. Obviously Sawabu is just one cat and I am sure some people who keep servals feed dry cat food but it should only be as a part of the overall diet.

There is one other compounding factor that I am aware of that can predispose a cat to UTIs: stress. Without being critical (Dolly is a very caring human companion to Buddy) but Buddy may have been stressed for whatever reason. The obvious one being a lack of space in which to exercise natural behavior.

See also Urinary Tract Infections.

Source for story: Feline Conservation Federation magazine Jan/Feb 2012 Vol 56 Issue 1.

Signs of Cat UTI (urinary tract infection)

The signs of urinary tract infection or disease are as follows:

1. The normal voiding of urine is disturbed.
2. Excessive urination. This is called "polyuria". Increased urination leads to increased drinking. You will notice both. Make sure fresh water is always available as it goes down faster. A complication is that the signs of diabetes mellitus and hyperthyroidism are similar.
3. No urination. This is called "anuria". Caused by blockage or kidney failure. Toxins obviously build up in the body.
4. Pain accompanies urination. This is called "dysuria". You will notice straining when urinating and no urine sometimes or bloody urine. Possible distended bladder results. Cats might urinate in bath, passing spot of bloody urine.
5. Bloody urine. Called "hematuria". Bloody urine without pain indicates kidney failure.
6. Incontinence (urinating without control). There are a number of causes for this. A vet must diagnose.

Cat Inappropriate Elimination - Whose Problem?

We cause cat inappropriate elimination. Therefore, it is our problem. It is not a "cat behavior problem" but a human-to-cat relationship problem. In the wild,  the small wildcat will defecate and urinate in certain areas on the ground, on the earth. Sometimes these areas are used as markers to tell other cats of their presence - the feces remain uncovered. Cat spraying is not inappropriate elimination as the purpose of cat spraying is to give signals to other animals of the presence of the cat. The purpose is not to eliminate the urine.

The domestic cat is required by us to defecate and urinate on cat litter in a tray inside a house or some other human structure. From the cat's perspective the litter will usually be a nice place to go to the toilet because litter replicates earth. In the old days, before litter was invented, sand was used. This is why cats don't usually need training to use cat litter.

However, from the cat's perspective litter might not be a nice place to go to the toilet. The cat might prefer somewhere else. If the cat is a full-time indoor cat the only other place is somewhere that is inappropriate for us not the cat. We have the problem. From our perspective this is our problem. From the cat's perspective this is not a problem except that he or she can't find a decent alternative to litter inside a house.

If the cat is an indoor/outdoor cat he or she would almost certainly go outside and use the earth outside as an alternative to cat litter. Earth is actually better than litter as it is softer and exactly the kind of substance a cat would use in the wild.

So when a cat does not wish to use the litter box the problem is ours as we created it in the first place. The cat is simply acting naturally and reacting to the circumstances that exist before him or her.

This argument applies even if the cat is not using the litter due to anxiety, for example. The reason is unimportant. One well known reason for a cat's avoidance of litter is because it is uncomfortable to a declawed cat. This is a double human problem, one compounding the other.

The reason why I am writing this is because I sense that throughout all the many thousands of articles on inappropriate elimination on the internet and in books, the problem is perceived as belonging with the cat. The cat is seen to be at fault. He or she needs to be punished etc. for this "bad behavior".

Wrong, obviously.  Sometimes, there is a terribly arrogant approach to cat caretaking and so called "experts" are often the most guilty. The cat behaviorists - a trendy new occupation - are in fact "human behaviorists" as all their work concerns changing the behavior and habits of people!

Think on...

Related articles:

Avoiding cat behavior problems

Stopping inappropriate elimination



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Litter Box Habits

When I say litter box habits, I mean for us and our cats and mainly for us because what we do mostly dictates what out cats does. And when I hear that the most common complaint about cats is "inappropriate elimination" (a ghastly phrase) or "house soiling" or requests on "how to train your cat [to use the litter]" I get a little uneasy because this puts the emphasis on the cat when, in fact, in my experience the emphasis should be firmly placed on us. We manage the situation. We need to create and maintain a suitable substitute for what would have been soil in the wild.

If our cat does go to the toilet in the wrong place or we think that she has bad litter box habits the following checks should be made before any consideration is given to "training":

1. Is our cat in good health? Peeing on the carpet could be due to a urinary tract infection (also see kidney disease), for example. If our cat is in good health, for sure, then the following should be checked:-
2. Is our cat calm and comfortable? Are we doing something to stress our cat (e.g. out too much) such as create too much noise or shout at our cat (a definite no, no as the opposite, a quiet calm voice is so important).
3. Is our home clean and if our cat has used the carpet then has that area been cleaned properly (if not our cat will associate the area as a litter tray)? The only way to clean urine is by using a special enzyme based cleaner such as Zero Odor. There are others.
   
4. Is the litter in a quiet out of the way position?
5. Is the tray large enough? The larger the better and a lid on it makes it quieter for the cat and keeps the litter in better. It also filters out some of the odor.
6. Is the litter cleaned at least daily, perhaps even twice daily? Wood chipped litter keeps the tray cleaner, much cleaner.
   
7. In a multiple cat household several litter trays are necessary. Is this the case?

If all these check off perfectly then it will be unusual, but training may be the answer. One way to train good litter box habits (a way that is known to work) is cat clicker training (positive reinforcement). That is pretty much it. Living with a cat is not complicated. We need to accept our cat, love our cat unconditionally and keep a clean house and all will normally be well.

OK enough serious stuff. Come on. Chill out Michael...:





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Stopping the Inappropriate Elimination of Cats

The are an endless number of articles about stopping the inappropriate elimination of cats as it is most common reason for people to give up their cats to rescue centers. Firstly, I should like to differentiate between inappropriate elimination and territorial marking (spraying for hormonal reasons which can largely be stopped through neutering). The latter is not the subject of this post although it can be highly inappropriate for people.

Also, inappropriate elimination can be due to medical reasons (e.g. urinary tract infections such as cystitis), anxiety marking and/or not liking the litter box. If a neutered cat is spraying it is probably due to anxiety and the cause of that is probably something that we are involved in (e.g. letting stray cats wander in). If the cause of the anxiety cannot be identified vets sometimes prescribe Prozac incidentally, which has a high success rate (but which I find rather sad to be honest).

This post is about stopping the inappropriate elimination of cats for cat litter reasons.

Inappropriate elimination has been described as the use of places in the home that are not suitable (outside the litter box) rather than as a communication signal in territorial marking. In this form of going to the toilet, cats often deposit one of the two forms of excrement in the litter box and inappropriately use another place for the other form.

Some factors that cause inappropriate elimination that are litter box related:

• unclean litter box
• not enough litter boxes for the cats in the home
• the litter box design
• the type of litter (scented litters are sometimes dislikes by cats although we might like them)
• Plastic liners to the box
• chemical odors that linger in the box from cleaning it (e.g. chlorine)
  

These are called "initiating factors". This means that these are factors that start the problem (for us) of inappropriate elimination. These factors cause the cat to become averse to using the litter box and using another location. Lets remember that to us it is a litter box but for the cat it is just one area of the home to go to the toilet. Over time the cat becomes habituated to using the wrong area and the presence of the urine or feces makes the area acceptable and usual. This is a reinforcing process.

Once all medical, hormonal and anxiety related problems are resolved the way to break the cycle and to build a method for stopping the inappropriate elimination of cats is to:

1. Make the litter box as pleasant as possible for the cat in question. This puts a stop to one of the initiating factors;
2. Change the type of box to find a suitable one and;
3. Alter the type of location may be varied and;
4. Alter the type of litter;
5. Clean the litter box frequently. The frequency of litter cleaning should be increased to one or twice daily. This tackles one reason for inappropriate elimination: an unclean litter tray;
6. Make the area where inappropriate elimination is taking place as unpleasant for the cat. This can be achieved by covering area with smooth plastic or placing food in the area for example (changed significance);
7. Use special odor eliminators in the area of inappropriate elimination. This is important too. Zero Odor is one example, there are others such as Nature’s Miracle.
8. Use positive reinforcement with food treats when going to the litter will help.

Some people take their cats to the vet for putting down because they are incapable of stopping the inappropriate elimination of cats, which as can be seen is really our problem. Following these techniques can save cats' lives as there is a success rate in the order of 72%.



From Stopping the Inappropriate Elimination of Cats to Home Page

Major source:

• http://www.psyeta.org
• http://www.tufts.edu

Stopping the Inappropriate Elimination of Cats - Photo: by lynx81(new window) published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License -- this site is for charitable purposes in funding cat rescue.

Zero odor

Well, I found out about a product called Zero Odor from a Yahoo Group; specifically a cat breeder who uses it successfully.

I am not promoting it, just talking about it. One of the biggest problems for some humans in keeping cats is the smell. Personally, I have never had a problem with smell. Cats smell great. They rub against objects and leave their sent but I can't smell that; other cats can though and that could in some circumstances cause problems. In fact it may be causing a problem for me as another stray cat has turned up. This may have happened because of the smell of my two cats using the cat flap. Then there is urine. This can be a problem but once again it has never been a problem for me. Cats will rarely if ever urinate outside the cat litter unless there is something wrong and that can mean something wrong with our behavior and the home in which we and our cat lives. Or it may relate to the health of the cat (cystitis come to mind as an example).



The video above seems to be a promotional video produced by the manufacturer so it should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Zero Odor seems to be a sought after product. This probably means that it is effective. Apparently there was a person from Tuft's University at the TICA annual in Texas and he said that Tuft's had tested most of the cat urine odor eliminators and they found that Zero Odor was the most effective and it worked immediately. That is a good recommendation.

It doesn't work by masking the odor but by spraying anti-odor molecules that seek and bond with the odor molecules changing them into molecules that do not cause odor. Sounds like eutopia.

But as I said it seems to come highly recommended. You can buy it on Amazon as one example. It can be bought in the UK and USA so seems to be available internationally to at least some degree. Update Feb 2011: At the time of writing it was available in the UK. I can't see it anywhere at this time. Alternatives in the UK will be similarly effective provided they act in the same way - at the molecular level changing the structure of urine molecules chemically rather then simply washing them of the carpet or whatever.

USA - Zero Odor:



UK - Urine Remover/Neutraliser:



I have used Simple Soultion Cat Spray & Urine Stain & Odor Remover with great success. The type I bought is no longer for sale it seems but the product below is made by the same manufacturer:





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Why people abandon cats

I find this extremely sad - photo by Animals Abused & Abandoned

One big reason why people abandon cats is because their cat is not going to the toilet in the cat litter. Yet cats will almost automatically use a cat litter if it is in decent condition. This is because it will be the best thing in the home in which to go to the toilet and cats look for appropriate spots to urinate.

So, if our cat is not using the litter provided, either she is ill (e.g. cystitis which makes you want to go very urgently - this is a human disease as well - this is a Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease) or the litter is unattractive and unsuitable.

If the litter is clean (cleaned at least once a day), large enough (make it large) and well sited (quiet and perhaps covered) all should be well. It also depends on the home. If the home is not clean and our cat has already gone to the toilet outside the litter this encourages our cat to think that the litter is the home or the home is a suitable area.

I prefer wood chip litter. It is not clumping but has excellent odor absorption and it is easy to scoop out as it is relatively dry after use. Clumping litter can be wet after use and it stains the litter tray. Wood chip litter leaves the tray much cleaner so there is less cleaning of the tray to do. A clean tray will encourage use of the litter.

I have never had a problem with my cat using the litter tray except once as mentioned when she had cystitis. This was brought on by eating too much dry food and stress. She urinated in the shower and bath (she is so sweet) and sometimes in the corner of the room during this short phase of illness.

A change of diet and my lifestyle rectified the problem and she has been fine since. So the reason why people abandon cats is the behavior of the people not the cat - sorry for that. The people who are considering abandoning a cat should look at what they are doing very objectively and try to rectify. It may not be the people but cats are reactive so if a cat is exceptionally nervous causing urinating outside the litter we should, I think, adapt our lifestyle to accommodate that to make the home as calm as possible. Persians can be nervous and have litter problems for example.

Some more:

• History of cat litter
• Odor Control Cat Litter
• Eliminate Cat Urine Odor
• Healthy Green Cat Litter
• Clicker training a cat

Why people abandon cats - photo of abandoned cat: published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License

How to clean cat pee

photo by ncfc0721

How to clean cat pee is probably one of the single biggest topics of conversation in relation to cats on the internet. The couple of times I have had to clean cat pee the cause was my fault on both occasions. On one occasion I was traveling in the car with my cat between my place and my girlfriend's place. I left my cat in the cat basket as we traveled; it is an open type basket. Because of the stress she peed and some of it got out onto the car seat. The other time she was stressed because she was left alone while I worked. Of course I came back each evening and so on but I had recently moved to a new place and I think this combination caused stress that led to Cystitis which in turn led to peeing small amounts outside the cat litter due the urge to go. Although sometimes she peed in the shower or bath (very thoughtful of her I thought).

How to clean cat pee was something I had to learn because ordinary water and soap etc. is pretty ineffective. I threw everything bar the kitchen sink at the car seat and the odor came back. But a committed approach with the correct chemical cleaner works to get rid of it.

We should not blame a cat for peeing outside the litter. If she/he is doing this it is probably due to an illness, as mentioned above, or lack of training or poor litter management by the person or stress caused by the person's environment etc. There are a host of human reasons for why you may have to learn how to clean cat pee. There is an underlying reason too, which we tend to forget. The domestic cat is a domesticated wildcat in many ways even after thousands of years of domestication. Such animals don't naturally live inside apartments or a house with delicate furniture and carpets. Cats don't place a value on possessions as we do. They have their own ways and reasons. We need to always respect their ways and not impose our ways on them. We simply need to manage the living arrangements if we decide to keep cats.

I have made a longish post on the subject of how to clean cat pee, which explains why it is difficult to clean and why specialist cleaners are effective. The post is called:

Eliminate Cat Urine Odor

The photo is published under a creative commons license. These kittens are cute but to be honest I am not sure that they should have been born. They are not purebred cats and there are already far too many non purebred cats in the world. See feral cats.

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Eliminate cat urine odor

photo by fofurasfelinas

Before you find the best way to eliminate cat urine odor, it's probably best to find the exact cause of this very distinctive odor. Cat urine is more than just a means to expel waste products from the body. It serves a very important role in marking territory and creating for the cat an environment that he/she considers friendly as once sprayed by the cat the place will smell familiar and like his territory.

Cat urine includes but is not limited to these constituents:

Creatinine, nitrogen, Protein, Urea, Uric acid, Ammonia, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphate and a cat pheromone named as 3-mercapto-3-methylbutan-1-ol (MMB - this is also found in Sauvignon blanc wines. It is not absolutely certain that this pheromone is in the urine, it is speculated or supposed to be present). Wikipedia says that it is this chemical that makes the urine smell as it does. This may not be the complete case, however (see below). It is probable that the particular smell is due to a combination of the pheromone above plus the other elements of urine including significantly the uric acid.

Urine is normally sterile (if the kidney is healthy). If there is an infection it would probably be bacterial, in which case the urine would contain bacteria. Such an infection might, for example, cause Cystitis in cats (which may cause blood in urine)

We know that trying to eliminate cat urine odor is incredibly hard if you employ the usual cleaning methods. Water is a solvent but it won't get rid of cat urine or at least the smelly constituent of it. The usual detergents don't work that well either. The smell just comes back which means the substance that causes the smell remains despite the cleaning. All you are doing is masking the smell for a time.

The major ingredients of Cat Spray and Urine Strain and Odor Remover (a spray that can eliminate cat urine odor) are non-pathogenic bacteria, isopropyl alcohol and natural enzymes. The other ingredients are water and mild detergent. So, we know what is in the cat urine and we know what effectively removes the smell of it. How does it work?


Graphic depiction of enzymes.....author WillowW (Wikimedia Commons).

Enzymes catalyze chemical reactions. This means they are a naturally occurring molecule (a protein) that speeds up a chemical reaction. A chemical reaction is in this instance results in a chemical change of the substance that causes the smell to a substance that does not smell. In other words a chemical change from one product to another as a result of the reaction, which has been speeded up by the natural enzyme, which is one of the active ingredients of the urine odor remover spray.

In this instance the enzymes dramatically speed up the natural (extremely slow) breakdown of the uric acid crystals (please make a comment if you can add to this), which are insoluble, usually. It would also seem to break down the pheromones present in cat urine.

Isopropyl alcohol, another active ingredient is a widely used solvent (it dissolves things as does water only more effectively) and a cleaning fluid. This fluid assists in washing away the broken down substance that used to smell to one that doesn't. In other words the uric acid and pheromones that are broken down at high speed by the enzymes are then dissolved in the alcohol and water and then blotted up by us, thereby being removed.

Non-pathogenic bacteria, another ingredient in the spray, is harmless bacteria incapable of causing disease. These bacteria as I understand it assists the cleaning process by "consuming the waste". It would seem to be a combination of events that combine to make this sort of specialist product effective.

So, it is this kind of product with these ingredients that work to eliminate cat urine odor. One such product that I have used is Simple Solution Cat Spray & Urine Stain & Odor Remover, which is available in the UK and being manufactured in the US must be available there too. It is safe for carpets and safe for car seats! There are a number of similar products and a simple Google search will find them.

I am not promoting this product for commercial reasons. There are other similar products. I can confirm that this product works. My cat used to get nervous when traveling in the car and used to pee in the cat basket. I didn't notice this initially. Some of the pee went on the car seat. Usual washing techniques, no matter for how long or how vigorously, did not work. This product worked although I kept some in the car to give a booster spray when required. You simply spray it on and blot off the excess. Eventually the smell went away.

Conclusion:
To eliminate cat urine odor, get a commercial product like the one mentioned above as you will almost certainly waste your time using the usual methods to clean things. In fact you may make things worse by simply spreading the urine around. Don't use an ammonia cleaner as urine contains ammonia already so you'll be adding to the smell and creating an area that the cat considers a legitimate area to be used as a toilet.

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Photo top of page:

• fofurasfelinas is probably the best amateur cat photographer other than Dani Rozeboom. Published under a creative commons license.

Eliminate cat urine odor - Sources:

• http://www.stopcaturineodor.com
• Wikipedia
• http://www.associatedcontent.com
• Urine.net
• http://www.thewagway.com
• Research papers
• http://www.sciencebuddies.org
• http://www.justrite.com
• http://www.blurtit.com