Older owners and Cat care

[ASR341266]

Hi all. Looking for advice. My mum is in her late 70s and had to say goodbye to her Cat of 13 years last year, which she still hasn’t come to terms with. I would love for her to get a new companion - but - mum suffers badly with arthritis in knees and has trouble bending down. She doesn’t feel as though she should get a new Cat as she worries that she won’t be able to get down to clean the litter tray. Obviously there are self cleaning ones (me and my partner have one), but you still need to empty the tray at the bottom every so often, and their bathroom isn’t set up to have one of those that flushes.
My question is, do Cats prefer their litter trays at ground level or does anyone have experience of having them raised off the floor? This is the only thing I can think of that would allow mum to get another friend, but the last thing we would want to do is cause any new member of the family any stress or discomfort.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[fjm]

I think a kitten or young cat could easily adapt to a tray up on a bench or table, as long as there was walking space around it. But perhaps your mother could cope with a tray on the floor if she could sit down to pick it up and clean it - a stool or chair close to the tray and positioning the tray near a bench and water supply might do the trick. I am much younger than your mother but occasionally have problems bending, and sitting down works for me.

[ASR341266]

Thank you so much for your reply. I hadn’t considered the sitting option so I will definitely do some testing with that in mind!

[susand]

Yes, I have arthritis and that is what I do, in a way. I have 2 litter trays, one at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom.

For the one positioned at the top of the stairs, I find it ok to kneel on the stair just below and clean it that way, as the stair carpet is soft with thick underlay so doesn’t hurt my knees too much but a kneeling pad would another option I guess. Kneeling on stairs isn’t too strenuous I find because you start by standing on the stair two steps below the one you want to kneel on and stand back up the same way. It means your knees don’t have to bend as much as they would if you were kneeling from standing onto a flat floor. Also, when kneeling on the stairs in this way, the tray is then at waist height, the way it would be if it were on a table, so there is no bending over.

To clean the tray situated at the bottom of the stairs, I sit on the second step up from ground level. This is a little harder as I then have to bend from the waist to reach the tray but it’s still doable for me.

Doing it like this means my cat has his tray on the floor, so to speak, which is what he had been used to when he came to me from his fosterer.

Another thing that helps me is keeping what I need to clean the tray right by it. Also, using a food caddy to collect the litter in is good too. It has a charcoal filter in the lid so there is no smell and I use a scoop to put clumps and solids in it and just leave it in there for a couple of days to save me traipsing outside to dispose of it every single time. The caddy has a handle and is easy to carry while I’m negotiating the stairs, which is important. Much better than tottering about with a lump of poo wrapped in newspaper, in my opinion.

I can see fjm’s reasoning for suggesting a kitten, in that if you opted for putting the litter tray on a table he/she might adapt better. However, I’m not sure I’d be up for chasing about after a boisterous young cat with my mobility problems. I prefer older, more sedate gentlemen, who go at my pace and don’t find it hilarious to run under my feet to trip me up every 5 minutes.

[ASR341266]

Thank you Susan. Some good food for thought there. Yes, was really hoping that if mum did decide to look after another Cat, that we would go down the rescue route - but again - need to make sure we are able to be confident mum and Cat are suited to each other. Thanks again for your reply.

[booktigger]

We had a fosterer with mobility issues who used a chair to do the litter trays, although she did have help with putting the used litter in the outside bin. I wouldn't recommend a kitten or probably a young cat, mainly for similar reasons to Susan, kittens are enough of a trip hazard for agile people, and you can't guarantee their personality, when I was still volunteering, I'd have suggested an older cat who is known for being a lap cat/wanting company for someone like your mum - another option is to speak to a couple of rescues and see if your mum could foster a cat to test out the sitting down option for litter trays, that way there is no pressure if it doesn't work, or if your mum just isn't ready.

[Mollycat]

Poo bags, if you don't want a food caddy knocking about. I have used doggy poo bags ever since we started clumping litter, long before there was a dog. I also find them useful for food leftovers.

[Ruth B]

Glad I'm not the only one to use doggy poo bags to clean the litter tray, Asda used to do a really cheap small bin bag, but then they vanished the alternative was twice the size had fancy ties and about 3 times the price, so i changed to Amazon poo bags.

As for the original question, while I have never tried it, I think a cat could adapt to a tray on a low shelf, particularly if the shelf was over sized so there was room outside the tray for the cat to walk on. If you could combine that with a stool or chair it could mean that bending was kept to a minimum.

I would also suggest that you might want to think of something similar for food and water bowls.

Rather than a kitten, my thought would be to approach the rescues about an older cat, or even a long term foster cat. Some cats like to be on the ground and some are happier higher up, a cat that like a higher perch might adapt to raised bowls and litter trays better. A kitten can be a handful even for a younger person, with the amount of mischief they can get into, so an older cat that is happy to sit with with your Mum might be a better option. As for having a long term foster, if anything happens the rescue they came from will always take them back, or help out short term if needed. My parents had a couple of elderly cats, and after my Dad died there were a couple of times when my Mum put the cats health before her own, because she wasn't sure where to turn for immediate help (I lived 90 miles away and can't drive), and when it was evident that she would have to move into a nursing home, one of her biggest fears is what would happen to her remaining cat, i always said i would take her in, but we both knew there was a possibility that she would not integrate with my three resident cats. Knowing that the cat has a place to go to should any thing happen might help your Mum worry less.

On an entirely different note, I don't know if you have looked into any aids to help your Mum around the house. My own Mum suffered from severe arthritis and problems with the vertebrae in her back crumbling giving her a lot of mobility issues. We ended up getting her a load of aids that helped her around the house, grabber sticks, tipping kettles, and the likes, what ever she needed to help her stay independent as long as she could. While they aren't good for emptying litter trays they might help with other things. I would say it is worth paying for proper mobility aids rather than trying to make do with cheaper alternatives. This is one site I found that seems to provide some good ones.
https://www.manageathome.co.uk/around-t ... -grabbers/

[ASR341266]

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply. This is the first time I’ve been on a forum - when I was thinking about it I saw that a lot of them on Google didn’t seem to have been posted on for years, so wasn’t quite sure what to expect!
You’ve all been super helpful and given me lots of excellent ideas to discuss with her.
Thanks again.

[susand]

I’ve had another thought. If you get a litter tray that isn’t too heavy, would your mum be OK with picking the whole tray up off the floor and placing it on a table or chair when it needs scooping? She could keep a little fold away close by for the purpose. If it’s mainly her knees that are the issue, she would easily manage that but if her hips and back are badly affected as well it might not be an option.

Also, I played a bit of attention to how I go about tackling the tray at the top of the stairs as I was puzzled as to why I find it so much easier than sitting on the stair to clean the one at the bottom of the stairs. The answer is, when near the top of the stairs I kneel on the stair 2 steps below the upper floor level and as I start to bend my knees I place my hands on the upper level floor, adjacent to the top step, enabling me to transfer some of my weight through my arms so my knees are aren’t overloaded and this also helps with stability so I don’t lose my balance. I was just doing this automatically without thinking about it but I’d never analysed why.

[booktigger]

I also use poo bags, which ones do you get off Amazon Ruth, I've struggled to get decent ones in recent years, the current ones are a bit thin. I don't use them for food leftovers as we have food waste recycling which includes pet food. Just wish I could find a way to rinse out the cat food pouches, as both the local co-op and PAH will take clean ones, but even putting them in water overnight wasn't enough, ended up with a lot of fruit type flies in the kitchen.

[Ruth B]

I just get the Amazon Basic ones.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00 ... =UTF8&th=1
They are stronger than the old pedal bin liners I used to get from Asda, more like black bin bag material, and while a little smaller than I would really like they are a bit bigger than most of the poo bags I could see. The litter trays get cleaned two or three times a day, so I don't really need anything too big, just big enough that I can get the scoop in without sending the mucky litter everywhere and long enough that I can then tie it off.

[Amerififer]

I use these.. makes getting rid of used clumping litter soooo much easier..

https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/dou ... 0pk-312533

[susand]

I use a food waste caddy rather than poo bags so I’m not contributing to plastic waste going into landfill. I also use biodegradable cat litter and put it on the compost, much to the horror of everyone I tell that to. However, I’ve done some reading and there is no evidence that toxoplasmosis can survive longer than 18 months outside the host so I just leave it for a couple of years before putting it on my garden. In any case, both mine and other peoples cats pee and poop directly into the flower beds on a regular basis so there is probably toxo contaminating the soil from that anyway. I did try using those biodegradable food caddy liners but they don’t biodegrade very fast so I ended up with piles of compost with intact food caddy liners mixed in with it, so I stopped using them and just put the litter straight into the caddy, then empty the caddy into the compost bin every few days.

[booktigger]

Thanks Ruth. Amerififer - I've never seen those in the three B & M's I have near me.

[Mollycat]

We're all so busy discussing practical solutions, but is that what Mum wants?

How did she cope with litter trays until now?

If she "hasn't come to terms" with losing her last feline companion, does she actually want another one so soon?

Is litter trays just an excuse to avoid saying "Actually I'm not ready to love another cat just yet"?

[Ruth B]

That is a very good point Mollycat, and one only the OP's Mum can answer.

We all grieve differently, I'm the type that wants to fill the hole left when a cat goes quickly, but I know not everyone is the same and rather than saying 'I'm not ready yet' they come up with excuses We can offer all the practical advise we know, but in the end if someone isn't ready for another companion, then time is really the only answer.

[Mollycat]

I needed time after Misha. We were offered Sarah and as we had a vacancy in the house I couldn't refuse, but I made it very clear to OH my heart was broken and he must take on this one as his. Three years later when I was just about ready to be nudged, along came Henry, demanding that I heal and love him. That's why I call him my angel cat, he chose to walk in at just the right time.

Funny things, cats, they almost seem to be sent to us when we need them most.