Cat pee.. Ugh!! Any suggestions?

[C.Ann]

One of DD's cats (male, nuetered, indoor cat) suddenly began peeing in inappropriate places about a month and a half before we moved to the new house.. His "favorite" spot was the bathroom rug/mat, followed closely by DD & her DH's bed.. When they removed the rug, he continued to pee on their bed whenever he was able to get in there and also began to pee on my couch.. We covered my couch with plastic (it was in their 2nd living room and rarely used), then covered it with a sheet, and he stopped peeing on that but continued to pee elsewhere.. DD took the cat to the vet and he could find nothing wrong with him that would cause these issues..

Upon moving here, he continued to pee in the bathroom on the rug so they did away with the mat entirely.. Now if someone accidentally leaves a towel on the floor after showering - or if a towel falls off the rack, he pees on that.. He has also gone back to peeing on DD's bed and also on my DGD's brand new bed and comforter set..

Litter boxes are always kept clean - no change in the brand of kitty litter or food - so we can't figure out why he's doing this.. It's almost like it's spite because he'll do it right while you're standing there..

You cat owners know how HORRIBLE the odor is from male cat urine and we just don't know what to do to get him to stop.. (They also have a female cat - spayed indoor cat) that is no problem at all.. Both cats have been declawed, so we can't send him outside to pee until his heart is content..

Anyone else have this problem? And if so, how did you deal with it? We're at our wits end here!!!

 

[melanie18]

I'm in the same boat. Our cat goes through phases where she apparently thinks the dining room rug is her litter box. She'll only go @ night after we go to bed. I swear it's just an attitude thing. We also have not changed the type of litter, food, nothing.

I've found that Nature's Miracle works pretty well (buy it at PetSmart, Petco). I also bought a Bissell SpotBot that does a very good job, although that won't work on your beds. It was about $100, but it cleans up stains really well.

I'm interested to hear what others have to say. I'm open to suggestions also!

 

[ckay87]

I have no advice, I'm sorry, but we did have this problem. By the time our cat passed away, it was sadly a relief. We didn't know what to do anymore. Thankfully he never took to the beds or sofas - perhaps it was a territory thing, like he knew those things were "ours." But we would have kids come over and drop their coats on the floor and he'd immediately wizz all over them. He also marked the heck out of our family room. Then the crazy thing was that when we adopted our dog and brought her home, she smelled the family room and thought "oh, this is where we pee" and SHE joined in the fun. Fortunately, you can train a dog!

I would love to have another cat, but I was so turned off by that whole experience, I can't bring myself to get one anymore. We loved our old cat, but wanted him GONE at the same time - it was heartbreaking.

I'm sorry you are going through this. I'm sure you'll get much better advice from others and I'd be interested in reading it as well.

 

[magicmato]

Yup... Nature's Miracle works wonders. We have a 8 month old male cat that pees on any clothes that are left on the floor and a 1 year old female rescue dog we got almost two months ago who pees and poops inside if we don't let her out every few hours (and even then she sometimes does it anyway). We had to remove our hall rugs since that is where she chose to go all the time and that has helped.

As for the cat, we found that he was getting to be rather large, so we tried getting the largest cat litter box we could and this has made a world of difference. In the week or so since I got the new box, I have yet to find a place he has peed and the upstairs smells MUCH better, no more chasing down where the funk is coming from. If that did not work, he was going to go to the vet for tests.

I am also gradually switching them to feline pine, as it seems to control the urine odor more. We will see how that goes.

 

[themarquis]

I second (or third) Nature's Miracle, which you can buy at petco and most other pet stores. It is a completely safe natural enzyme that "eats" away the urine. Get a giant bottle and *liberally* douse the areas with it. Really soak everything in it and leave it on for a while. (or actually, you may not even have to wipe it or clean it up -- check the label)

You may not be able to completely stop your cat from peeing in inappropriate places, but one thing that will help him is to completely deoderize the areas he has peed on in the past. Unfortunately, once a cat has peed in a spot, he/she will often continue to "mark" the same spot, as he/she is drawn there by the odor. If you natures miracle the spot to death (keep repeating the dousing process a few times), you may be able to wipe out the smell and the cat will no longer be attracted to it. Remember, though, that even if you can no longer smell it, your cat still probably can -- no amount of nature's miracle is "too much" lol.

Also, I don't know if anyone has said this, but do make sure to take the cat in for a vet checkup and tell the vet about his problems. Sometimes cats with a urinary problem (infection, blockage, etc) will pee in weird places. If you are at your wits' end, I have also heard that vets now treat these cats with low doses of human antidepressants very successfully. Don't know why it works, but supposedly it does.

Good luck!

 

[C.Ann]

Is the Nature's Miracle a repellant - or just a deoderizer? I thought I read somewhere that cats hate the smell of oranges and "thought" at one time (years ago) I saw something in one of the stores that you could spray on furniture and such, but couldn't find it when I was out shopping yesterday..
Anyone ever hear of such a product?

This is really becoming a huge problem - especially when people drop by and a short time later Taz decides to "do his thing".. Ewwwwwwwww!

 

[magicmato]

It is a deodorizer that destroys the enzymes that cause the smell.

You can spray orange scent on stuff, but I have found that does not work for us.

 

[RachelEllen]

Nature's Miracle is an excellent product, but it will only work if it can get at all the pee. (I'm currantly looking at my gallon sized jug of it) It only removes the smell. It will not deter from future peeing. (Unless, of course, the cat is attracted to pee where it has before.)

You might want to check out this website:
www.planeturine.com

Yeah, it's a bit hokey, but I've used their product for set-in urine and it really did wonders. They have specialized cleaning kits for all sorts of surfaces, from hardwoods, to tile, to carpet stains that have soaked into the padding.

They do have some products for training and deterance, but I am not as familiar with those.

 

[Melwood23]

I second on the vet visit. Though not as common in females, the urinary tract infection is something that causes cats to just pee any place, especially any cool surface, because the area is actually inflamed a bit, and the coolness feels better. I have had several male cats in the past that had this problem. One I didn't know that what was wrong till after we gave him away, then his brother also started have problems, pee the same way, on shoes, even in empty food bowl, till he was found on the bathroom floor in extreme pain. Rushed him to the vet just in time. He was at the Vets a week. Ended up living to 17yrs. But after that read up on the subject. This all was years ago. Then my current cat, a few months back, was fine one minute, then the came out of his litter box just a yallowing..something he never does, and when I touched his belly area, he just was in pain. Knew exactly what was wrong and took to the vet, again about 5 days.

Apparently some cats when they get the stones, can eventually pass them which may explain the on/off peeing problem.

Just make it isn't a medical problem before getting mad at the cat.

 

[DawnCt1]

i heard warren eckstein, radio show pet talk suggest deodorizing with SIMPLE SOLUTION and putting the cat's favorie food on little paper plates where they are having accidents. dogs and cats won't go where they eat.

 

[MzDiz]

Take him to the vet to first rule out a UTI or other problems. Male cats are prone to some nasty urinary issues. Urinating right in front of you is a pretty good sign that he's trying to tell you something. Either he's sick or miffed about something.
Our cat, Jack, had a bad habit of peeing on the living room floor. When nothing else worked, we put him in a large dog cage. He lived in there for about six weeks with a bed, food and water, and a litter box, with only supervised time out of the cage. After a while, it sunk into his head that the litter box was the only sensible place to relieve himself and we haven't had a problem since.
Good luck!

 

[MzDiz]

i heard warren eckstein, radio show pet talk suggest deodorizing with SIMPLE SOLUTION and putting the cat's favorie food on little paper plates where they are having accidents. dogs and cats won't go where they eat.

I should be so lucky! We have a cat that pees on the food dish on occasion. She's got some issues.

 

[twinklebug]

I feel for you. Few things reek more than cat pee. My RB likes the bath mat and towels and even the small bathroom trash container over the litterbox if theres even a hint of a mess in there. Walmart carries a product called Kids-n-pets (in with the household cleaners, not the pet items). It seems to work well for us & it's not too pricy ($4.77?) It works the same way as the other products listed here: It has enzymes that remove the odor, so it needs to sit for a moment or two before being cleaned up.

I touch a dab of mint oil to my couchs to keep one particular cat form clawing them up, I have to re-do the effort every few days, but it seems to keep him away. Maybe this could work for your beds and couches. Perhaps mix some in an atomizer with water and just spray over the areas once in awhile.

I've also read that animals will not soil the places they sleep. Try placing a soft fleece blanket on the bed he's doing his buiness on - place him on it and pat him for a few minutes to let him know it's a good place to REST not pee.

 

[asta]

Can you tell whether your cat is peeing or marking? We have a 5 year old spayed female that started marking when she was 2 years old. When she marks she stands with her back to what she wants to mark and her tail quivers. At one point when she was left alone for a few days, she marked every window, door and the foot of every bed in the house. We have taken her to the vet and even tried prescription sedatives but they did not work. Unfortunately, our vet finally said that there is actually nothing wrong with marking as cat behavior goes and that maybe she needs to be an outside cat. We are pretty sure that marking is her natural response to feeling like her territory is threatened. We think it is in response to seeing neighboring cats and dogs. It is not a lot of fun but when we are not there to see what she is doing we either have to confine her in the laundry room or let her outside (she still has her claws). It also helps if we close the drapes or shutters when she is inside.

I also second the use of the enzyme spray to get rid of odors. It is the only thing that works.

 

[C.Ann]

The cat has already been to the vet numerous times - plus my son-in-law's cousin is a vet and checks Taz every time she comes to visit.. It's definitely not a health issue - seems more like spitefulness..

 

[LtlTee]

Can you tell whether your cat is peeing or marking? We have a 5 year old spayed female that started marking when she was 2 years old. When she marks she stands with her back to what she wants to mark and her tail quivers. At one point when she was left alone for a few days, she marked every window, door and the foot of every bed in the house. We have taken her to the vet and even tried prescription sedatives but they did not work. Unfortunately, our vet finally said that there is actually nothing wrong with marking as cat behavior goes and that maybe she needs to be an outside cat. We are pretty sure that marking is her natural response to feeling like her territory is threatened. We think it is in response to seeing neighboring cats and dogs. It is not a lot of fun but when we are not there to see what she is doing we either have to confine her in the laundry room or let her outside (she still has her claws). It also helps if we close the drapes or shutters when she is inside.

I had a male neutered cat that did this also, except he used to pee down the heating vent in front of my sliding door that led onto the deck. (It cost $450 to get my heating ducts cleaned and sanitized!) Our vet couldn't find anything physically wrong with him, and suggested that maybe he was seeing other cats and dogs outside and he was marking his territory.

 

[meeskamouska]

We have the smae problem with our 6 year old male. He began this behavior in DD crib two years ago. Sometimes it is a medical thing, but most of the time it is an attitude thing!!! And it is usually aimed at DD...I guess we pay to much attention to her and not enough to him, in his opinion!! Drives us crazy!!!! We put him on a RX food just to prevent any flares ups, I have no suggestions, sorry!!

 

[DMRick]

The cat has already been to the vet numerous times - plus my son-in-law's cousin is a vet and checks Taz every time she comes to visit.. It's definitely not a health issue - seems more like spitefulness..

What did the vet do? Blood work, check for stones, take a urine sample to make sure there isn't any blood, or rule out diabetes? If the cat has had a problem, and it hurt to pee in the litter pan, they associate that, and so they often will pee elsewhere. Changes in the house (even having someone new come and live with them can confuse and change their habits as well as confusion in the house, such as when you were all packing to move), furniture moved around, a change of litter (and even though I use one brand of litter, I had a cat that suddenly wouldn't use it..(luckily, she just pee'd next to the box, and not all over the house)..I didn't realize the company changed it, until I called and asked them..it looked the same) can all have a part. Is the cat drinking a lot, or not enough? Has the water changed? Is he on only dry food, and has wet food been tried? Has the cat been confined to one room for a week, with lots of visits from the family to break the cycle, while the smell is taken care of..and covered, so he can't get to the same spot?
A touch type physical will seldom find anything..you usually need more invasive tests to see if it's a medical problem. If the vet rules those things out, then a sedative might be in order.

 

[Micca]

Whatever you do, don't give your cat any asparagus.

 

[ceiligh1]

I have a cat that does something similar. She has been marking our china hutch, anything our dog sleeps on or plays with, the area in front of the master bedroom and my DHs office floor. We have tried moving her food to areas she marked, adding more litter boxes, the hormone spray that is supposed to keep her away from her most popular marking areas with no help. We have taken her to the vet several times in the last 3 years for this but they say its a behavior issue and all you can do is make physical changes to the environment to change the behavior.
At the last visit the vet actually took the time to print out some info for us on this and in the first paragraph about spraying/marking in "clinical behavioral medicine for small animals" it states that if the spraying has just started then physical modifications might help but if it wont help after a week or has been going on for a while then the cat should also have a drug intervention as well, such as prozac. Something to keep in mind when you talk to the vet as the previous vets didnt seem to know that. Our cat is now an outdoor only cat as nothing would stop her and she started to be aggressive to our son (who is 1), I hope you have better luck.