r/chcats

Hey there! So this isn't my first rodeo with some wobble kids but this is my first time having to deal with some litterbox help.

My two wobble cats (Bolt, black and white) and Champ (the big dude) share a box. Champ is quite large. When he pees he tends to just kind of crawl in, squat super low (almost laying) and pee. He doesn't really try to turn around, he has decided that the right side there is where he pees. He pees straight out of the back side which sometimes hits that corner and sometimes goes right out the opening. Poop is fine he goes in gets comfortable turns around makes a little nest. Bolt goes fine.

I've adjusted as much as I can. I have a rotating set of towels I use to catch any strays. Below the towel are puppy pads. There has to be a towel over the pads or else he just rips them up or pees on those directly. He is extremely particular about the condition of the litter box. If there's even one stray poop when he wants to go he just pees on the towel.

I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas. My apartment doesn't have washer dryer hookups so it gets pretty expensive washing the towels. If I wait till the end of the week I have to deal with the smell of the towels, if I wash them the day of incident I'm out $6 a day for one towel. To kind of manage I spray down some Natures Miracle and twice a week use a carpet spot scrubber to wash the area.

Quick note: They used to have 2 boxes. We had to relocate due to a fire in the apartment building and are living in a hotel for the time being. Everyone's ok and safe! This issue persisted even with the 2 boxes in their home. There isn't enough space in the room for a second box.

TLDR: big cat is able to go into the litter box but ends up peeing straight out of the door. Poop is fine, smaller cat is fine also

Edited to add her personality: she is very very sweet, friendly, fearless, cuddly, and purrs non stop.

She has a mild caste of ch. she doesn’t really have head tremors, it’s in her back legs. I’m open to names not on my list! Here’s the short list:

Tumbelina or stumbelina
Millie Wobble Brown
Sabrina (after the witch, not the singer)
Betty Rocksteady or Black Betty
Senora (shake, shake, shake, senora!)
Oopsie
Donut
Cha cha
Slinky

Edited to add: I just thought of Wednesday to add to the list!

Nixed names husband said no to:
Weeble (we already have one, he is a tripod cat)
Salsa
Tango
Mambo
Tipsy

My family and I are fostering Fluffernutter: ~7 weeks old female kitten with severe cerebellar hypoplasia (CH). She is unable to walk or even stand unassisted. As such, I doubt she will ever be able to use a litterbox by herself, being unable to navigate to get inside nor able to prevent herself from getting messy while trying to leave. As it is now, she is able to expel waste herself but usually ends up flopping around in it and needing a bath, which she does not particularly enjoy. Her current schedule is odd as well, sometimes pooping every other day to pooping multiple times a day. Despite eating a lot of food, she is not pooping as often as I would expect from a kitten. Would it be possible to train her to go to the bathroom on a schedule by stimulating her to poop at certain times of the day? My concerns are twofold:

1. Is this possible?
2. I would stimulate her after breakfast and dinner, then eventually introduce a litterbox for her to stand in while I do it. Once I stop stimulating her, the hope is that she associates the litterbox with bathroom time and also has gotten into the metabolic schedule of pooping after eating. Could this work or would she abandon the schedule once she is no longer being stimulated?
3. Is this ethical?
4. She does not enjoy being stimulated to use the bathroom. This is understandable, I don’t think I would want that either. I don’t want to cause her unnecessary stress just for my convenience.

Please let me know your thoughts on this! I will also be cross-posting to subreddits for CH and other neurological disorders. Thank you for reading.

edit to add: Cerebellar hypoplasia is also known as “wobbly cat syndrome.” Fluffernutter gets around by flopping on her sides. She is able to clean herself and eat by herself, provided she has a stable wall to lean against or area to wedge her butt into. She is able to coordinate herself well enough to play with toys. She enjoys cuddles and being held.

While she doesn’t enjoy bathtime or being stimulated to poo, she does not show extreme signs of stress like biting, growling, or hissing. She just tries to wiggle away from me.

meet Foxglove (girl, severe) and Wolfsbane (fluffy boy, moderate). I adopted this pair a few weeks ago. 💜