Kitty Litter Box Issues

muenginerd

To start off with, I'm a dog person, always had dogs never cats.  FI is the cat person.  He moved in with me last year and had to leave his cat behind with his parents.  We adopted a Kitty about 2.5 months ago.  Deal was I clean-up after dog, he cleans Kitty's litter box.

Kitty came from a rescue at 5 months old.  The shelter told us she had fleas when they found her and she was treated and given a clean bill of health.  We follow up with our vet and find that she had giardia as well.  We were fine with this, I've been through this with dogs, and treated her for 3 weeks following.  She hadn't been back to the vet since that follow up. 

So on to the litter box.  We have been having trouble battling her litter box.  She had some awful litter box smells, wouldn't burry poop like FI's other cat, and the poop is quite large.  We adjusted her food removing cheap grocery store brands and wet food, and used a higher grade food.  This definitely seemed to help with some of the smell.  Last night I was hit with an infestation of house flies.  Those big ugly flies that are slow moving.  There were atleast 30+ in the house.  I would kill some and they would keep coming back.  On a whim I checked the litter box and there were alot of flies hanging around in there.  Absolutely gross, I am still creeped out by this.  I called FI and asked him to clean the litter box when he got home.  Litter box cleaned, and the flies were gone (that I know of) this morning.

So has anyone had fly issues with their litter box before?  If so what did you do?  There was no rotting food, kitchen garbage was emptied the night before, and kitchen sink/countertops are wiped down every night.  I would not imagine that fly larva would come internally from the cat but with her previously having giardia and the issue with the litter box should we take her back to the vet just to have another check?  I want to think a single fly might have snuck into the house and laid eggs in the litter box that hatched and grew into many adult flies.  I just don't want to go through this again.

Litter box is currently in our office, has a lid but no door on the lid.  I'm thinking a door might help the problem.     

Djinxs

How often is the box cleaned? It really should be daily at least. A lot of people recommend twice a day or, ideally, just right after the cat uses it. But that's a little over the top, I think. Once daily seems to work for us.

First of all, I would take the cat to the vet. She might have worms or some parasite. Do you know if she was dewormed when you got her? All those flies suddenly around the box seems weird.

For the smell, we have a covered box from Nature's Miracle that has a carbon filter built in and our litter is supposed to be odor-killing. We hardly ever smell them, usually only if we're standing right there when one of them poops. Higher quality food does help, but make sure if you're stopping wet food to always have lots of fresh water. Cats get a lot of their hydration from food and sometimes don't drink enough.

Also, I'd recommend doing a full litter box cleaning. Get rid of all the litter and wash and sanitize the pan to get rid of all traces of the poop that might be infested.  

LuckyAngel07

Ditto @Djinxs. Also finding a litter brand that works well for your stinky kitten could help lessen odors. Don't necessarily go for the perfumed stuff, but odor-locking/killing types (or even just dumping baking soda in with your regular litter), might control her stinkiness better. Although, kittens tend to be smellier than adults, so she'll likely grow out of this (at least a little bit). Switching to a higher quality food can definitely help this A LOT (but wet food for cats is a very good thing! getting a good quality wet food would be smarter than cutting it entirely). 

As for the flies, I have no idea. Two years ago we had a sudden infestation of flies in our house too. We had NO idea where they came from, but it was like 2-3 days of nonstop fly killing. They weren't congregating around the litter box, but we didn't have particularly stinky boxes either. Our best guess is that something somewhere must have died (in a wall or the attic, although we never found or smelled anything) and the flies came from that.

Quick question off topic: why did your FI have to leave his cat behind, but you guys got a new one? Was it more his childhood cat/parents' cat?

muenginerd

Thanks for the help.

The litter box was on day 4 and due to be cleaned that night anyways.  This is about the timeframe FI has always used to clean litter boxes, but his house had 2 litter boxes for 2 cats.  I'll suggest to him to maybe clean it more often.  It was completely emptied and santized last night. 

We've only tried using one type of litter so maybe we'll try some of the brands suggested for the smell.  The cat does have plenty of water and usually doesn't even drink out of her feeder but uses the dog's which is quite humerous to watch.  We'll work with the vet on the right kind of wet food to introduce.

The new kitten came about because FI had to leave his cat behind.  His cat was 10 years old, declawed, and bonded with his parents' cat.  My dog is 5 years old and a hunter.  We didn't think it would smart to introduce the two animals and didn't want the older cat to go through the shock of a new enviroment, losing a cat/gaining a dog.  The thought was that a kitten would be much eaiser to introduce into the house.  She was, and it's pretty comical how the kitten bosses the dog around now.  FI is still at his parents' house at least once a week so he still gets to see his other cat.

 

LuckyAngel07

muenginerd said:

The litter box was on day 4 and due to be cleaned that night anyways.  This is about the timeframe FI has always used to clean litter boxes, but his house had 2 litter boxes for 2 cats.  I'll suggest to him to maybe clean it more often.  It was completely emptied and santized last night. 

We've only tried using one type of litter so maybe we'll try some of the brands suggested for the smell.  The cat does have plenty of water and usually doesn't even drink out of her feeder but uses the dog's which is quite humerous to watch.  We'll work with the vet on the right kind of wet food to introduce.

4 days for one box...yikes! Definitely get your FI to scoop more often. That is way too long to go.

Do some of your own research for wet foods. Vet's really get very little nutrition education in vet school and many simply recommend the big well-known brands (Iams, Purina, etc). I really like Wellness, Merrick, and Natural Balance for wet foods (I've fed them all). Evo and Innova are other good brands, and Taste of the Wild is a great brand, but I can't recall if they offer wet cat food.

chrisnjay05212010

The pps gave great suggestions. And I agree 4 days is way too long to let the litter box go without scooping. I do it once a day, in the morning when I feed my cat.  We use Fresh Step cat litter, for us I have found this is the best at hiding odor and for easy scooping.  We never smell anything unless we are in the room right after the cat goes poop.

kittie8709

All of the above are great suggestions. My mom cleans the litter box (the cats won't use it if I clean it) and she liked the new litter by Hartz. We also get kitty litter deodorizer and that gets sprinkled after she cleans the box.