Uncleanliness of the cat

We receive a lot of questions concerning the fact how you can make your cat/dog clean, or make him clean again. In these modern times people usually immediately suppose that there is a behavior problem (stress, jealous, unhappy etc). However, very often uncleanliness with animals, which used to be clean, but not anymore now, has a physical cause. They are ill and after treatment the undesired urinating or dripping will disappear again. Examples are: bladder infection, stoppage of the urethra, kidney problems, diabetes and so on. We therefore always first check the urine, before we start discussing the behavior. Our first advise therefore: have the urine check by your veterinarian.
This page further informs you what you can/should do if your veterinarian informs you that there are no physical problems. We have written 4 pieces.

Uncleanliness of the young cat
Making a young cat clean is very easy actually. Give the kitten a cat’s box which it can easily enter (with a low border). Place the cat on it a couple of times and the cat will immediately use the box. Don’t place the box near the place where he eats.
If your home is big enough, first place your cat in one room where the cat’s box is located. For a small cat it might otherwise be difficult to find the cat’s box again if he may run through the whole house.
If it doesn’t work as easy as we describe then something is wrong with the learning process or the kitten has been separated from his mother too young. It will then cost a lot of time and patience. On moments that you cannot pay attention to your cat you must lock up the cat in a very small room, preferably a cage with a cat’s box so that the cat is forced to enter the box.
If the kitten is walking around, closely watch him then and regularly place him on the box, so that it becomes a habit to answer nature’s call in the box.
Help him bury his faeces by digging with his forepaw through the sand and covering the turd. You must keep on doing this patiently until he finally understands it. But in principle a young kitten must become clean by his own without any problems.

Urinating problems of the adult cat
Urinating problems with the castrated tomcat or female kitten can be divided in two problems:
-The cat which sits and urinates; you will find the pee on the ground.
-The cat (this might also be a female cat) which sprays against something which finally drips down. 
The female cat or tomcat which sits and urinates and which doesn’t have defects in the urine checkup has either never been clean well or has some kind of problem. First of all it can occur that he doesn’t appreciate the cat’s box. You can experiment with the box. With or without cover, different kinds of filling, two cat’s boxes per cat (some cats don’t want to urinate and shit in the same box), another (more quiet) place (trough and cat’s box never near each other).
Never clean the places which are dirty with something which contains ammonia (this smells like urine according to the cat) and place a piece of aluminium foil on the places where the cat urinates. If the cat urinates on the bed, the solution is simple: Keep the bedroom door closed. Don’t place any clothes or bags on the floor.

Urinating problems of the adult cat
Urinating problems with the castrated tomcat or female kitten can be divided in two problems:
-The cat which sits and urinates; you will find the pee on the ground.
-The cat (this might also be a female cat) which sprays against something which finally drips down. 
The female cat or tomcat which sits and urinates and which doesn’t have defects in the urine checkup has either never been clean well or has some kind of problem. First of all it can occur that he doesn’t appreciate the cat’s box. You can experiment with the box. With or without cover, different kinds of filling, two cat’s boxes per cat (some cats don’t want to urinate and shit in the same box), another (more quiet) place (trough and cat’s box never near each other).
Never clean the places which are dirty with something which contains ammonia (this smells like urine according to the cat) and place a piece of aluminium foil on the places where the cat urinates. If the cat urinates on the bed, the solution is simple: Keep the bedroom door closed. Don’t place any clothes or bags on the floor. If your cat only urinates on one nasty place, temporarily place an extra cat’s box there. If the place is really awkward (for example behind a door), place a piece of aluminium foil on that spot and place the extra cat’s box as close as possible to it. If your cat urinates in the box, try to push the box more and more to a more convenient place every day.
If your cat has urinated on several spots for some time now and unfortunately really has a behavior problem, you must start training the cat again. You must lock up the cat in a small room, for example the shower (no mats on the floor) or cage with cat’s box and food and drink. Place him here during one week.
Then, the cat may only walk around if you can closely watch him. Make sure you have a plant spray around. As soon as the cat wants to urinate somewhere you must use this spray so that he gets scared. You then place him in the shower or cage again. In this way the cat will get a cat’s box training. Often after a short or long time the cat can completely walk around in the house again. Isn’t it mean such a plant spray? No, because it is only water. You actually only insult him. Isn’t locking up mean? Of course it is a little bit mean but you don’t do it without reasons. The only other alternative is the animal home, from which the cat might find an outside-address. People still request us to carry out euthanasia, but we definitely refuse this.
An other problem which we often hear is spraying urine around in the house. A tomcat which has not been castrated should do this and should of course be castrated immediately. The spraying problem occurs more often in households with several cats, where territory behavior plays a role. Cats which spray around in the house want to prove themselves or are frustrated about something. Once learnt it is hard to stop it. You can try to stop this undesired behavior with the help of the plant spray. You use the plant spray as soon as the cat starts spraying. Locking up is useless. The sooner you start correcting, the more chance you have to stop it. In a number of cases a hormone injection  helps and sometimes homeopathic means can help. It sometimes helps to sprinkle the favorite spraying spots with Feliway ( a cat pheromone spray). Always discuss this problem with your veterinarian. An occurring problem with dogs and cats is that they suddenly start urinating in the house again after a huge emotional change (move, owner dies, mate dies, another couch in the home, baby in the house, divorce). It is important then to repair the animal’s trust. With cats this means that you spoil them with delicious food and a lot of attention and creating nice sleeping spots (this might also be one of your sweaters). Feliway evaporator spreads a cat pheromone, which ensures that the cat feels at ease. By reducing the stress he doesn’t need to urinate in the house again. In case this patient, loving approach doesn’t function, you should make him clean again according to the above mentioned method: locking up and plant spray.