Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:
My daughter’s cat, Titan, is a neutered 6-month-old big boy, the only kitty in our home. He started pooping and peeing around the house, which he has never done, noticed bloody runny stool and very stinky. We brought him to the vet first thing this morning, they will be doing fecal test and we get him back on Monday. My question is, will he continue to pee and poop out of his litter box–which we keep very clean and scoop multiple times a day? We have thrown out the old box and scoop and have replaced it with all new fresh ones for when he comes home. I am worried he will pee and poop where he has already, even though we have cleaned everywhere we think he has gone. Our house is on the market and my real estate agent is very concerned about the smell keeping people from purchasing. Please help! We love our Titan and he is not going anywhere. We found him on side of the road when he was just tiny tiny.
~ Donna
Thomas: Well, Donna, the good news is that if it turns out that Titan has a parasitic infection like coccidia, giardia, or even worms, once that infection is treated, he should stop producing such runny, bloody and foul-smelling feces.
Bella: He’ll probably also stop going outside the box. Our guess is that he had moments where he had to poop but he couldn’t get to the litter box in time. Diarrhea can be like that sometimes.
Tara: It’s good that you’ve thrown away his old litter box and scoop because that’ll help prevent him from getting re-infected by whatever parasites are bothering him.
Thomas: But sometimes kitties have runny, stinky poop because they develop food sensitivities. Even if they’ve been eating the same food for months, the manufacturer may change the formula or for some reason unknown to anyone, kitty’s stomach and intestines just start rejecting the food.
Bella: Of course, some cats poop and pee outside the box due to territorial marking. If Titan is going near windows, he may be getting agitated by seeing other cats in the yard and pooping in those locations due to stress.
Tara: Food can also be a factor in producing stinky poop. Again, some cats just don’t tolerate certain foods very well, and just like with humans, foods that aren’t easy to digest can produce really foul-smelling stools. We recommend avoiding fish-flavored foods to see if that helps with the stool odor.
Thomas: Your vet may send you home with some special food that’s extra easy for Titan to digest while he recovers from whatever’s bothering his intestines. He or she may also recommend a probiotic supplement like Fortiflora to get the “good” gut bacteria working again.
Bella: This is especially important if Titan is on antibiotics or antiparasitic medication, because those medicines can kill the good bacteria that contribute to digestion.
Tara: We do want to address one other issue that’s probably pretty important to you since you’re selling your house: How do you deal with stains and odors?
Thomas: We have some experience with this because of Tara’s little problem …
Tara: Stop embarrassing me! I said I was sorry, over and over again!
Bella: Oh, Tara, it’s okay. We know it’s been hard for you and you’ve been sick, and that’s why you did it.
Tara: Oh, okay. *sniffle* So, I’ve been having this problem of peeing where I shouldn’t. My first vet thought it was due to stress from being in a new home, but after it had been going on for months, Mama took me back to another vet who works at the same clinic. They ran blood and urine tests and even took an X-ray, and it turned out that I have a urinary tract infection, which is at least part of the reason why I’ve been peeing where I shouldn’t. After all, it hurts back there!
Thomas: But Mama got you medicine to stop the hurting and fix your infection. She even got you that Fortiflora we mentioned earlier.
Bella: Anyhow, Mama still has some cleaning up to do, and these are her weapons of choice:
Tara: First, you’ll notice there’s a black light. These are available in pet store and online. If you use the black light in a dark room, the spots where Titan pooped or peed will glow. This will be the case even if you cleaned them because there are still proteins from the poop or pee. Oh, and make sure to check under furniture as well as in places you know Titan pooped.
Thomas: For light cleaning, particularly for urine, we recommend Fizzion (by the way, the Jackson Galaxy odor remover is exactly the same stuff). It helps dissolve some of the oils and proteins in urine or feces and can reduce the odor.
Bella: But for deep cleaning, especially of carpets, we recommend the Just Rite 1-2-3 cleaning kit. It was made by people who run a carpet cleaning company. They did lots of research to find the combination of detergents that can clean up stains and odors. Mama’s using that for Tara’s pee stains because she tended to pee in the same spot a lot.
Tara: It’s a bit pricey, but it really works! It completely eliminates odors! And if you call in your order, the person who answers the phone is the owner of the company and he’ll tell you exactly how to use it.
Thomas: Your real estate agent won’t even know you had a cat with a poop problem if you use this stuff.
Bella: We hope this helps you figure out what’s going on with Titan and how to clean up your house so you can have potential buyer visit and not be turned off by the stink.
Tara: What about you other readers? What have you used to eliminate pet odors and stains in your house? Did it work? Please share your experiences in the comments.
JaneA Kelley is a punk rock cat mom and award-winning blogger. She is a regular columnist for Catster Magazine, and she and the Paws and Effect Gang share a home in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Our mama buys big gallon jugs of Nature’s Miracle at the kitty store! She puts some in a spray bottle, and sometimes just pours it on the floor from the jug.
She started buying it because of all the sprays we did before we all got fixed – but now she uses it for all kinds of stuff. It has something called EN-ZA-MAT-IKS in it that eats up all the yucky stuff!
She sprays the floor around our potty boxes when she changes it or gets us a new one, just in case we miss the target or fling litter out. She uses it when we has a sick, too, like an upset tummy or a furball. Sick smells yucky, so the Miracle makes it better!
She sometimes uses it for peeple smells too — onna sweaty mattress or pillows, the couch, gramma-mama’s special bed – even if gramma-mama has an accident!! Gramma-mama is kinda old and her bones hurt her lots, so sometimes she has potty problems, too.
Mama says that the Miracle stuff is better than yucky Febreeze to make stuff smell fresh – and we kind of think so too!
(We even have Nature’s Miracle sand in our potty boxes! It’s very nice, but a little bit dusty when Mama pours it in the box.)
Although Mama’s never used Nature’s Miracle, she has heard lots of good things about it. She chose to go with the professional carpet cleaner stuff because she’s really sensitive to the smell of pee–almost as sensitive as we are–and she wanted to make totally sure the smell would go away and never come back!
I’m a big fan of bicarb (baking) soda to absorb moisture and odour. Vacuum it up, then scrub the area with an acidic cleaning agent. I use a commercial orange-based cleaner that’s available in Australia, but vinegar works just as well.
Thank you for your tip! Yes, white vinegar is great for cleaning urine odors especially.
My big, handsome Noah had runny, bloody, smelly poo. The vet switched him from Kibble to a mainly wet food diet, and he’s much better!
I have used Nature’s Miracle Spray for years…it is, to me, the best enzyme spray for pet odors, fecal, urine and vomit.
Once you clean the area well ( I spray with Resolve Carpet Spray) then I use my Bissell Little Green Steam Machine to steam the area…then when it dries a little, I spray the Nature’s Miracle. Sometimes I have to dump some of the liquid out onto the spot if its bad, other times I can get away with a saturating spray. I guarantee that it will take up all the odors and not just cover them up. Sometimes you have to spray twice a day if its bad, for a couple days but soon all odors will be completely gone.
Now they have special Nature’s Miracle especially for cat urine, and various other types of sprays specific to each problem. This stuff is TRULY a miracle and I have been using it for about 20 years.