The cat keeps peeing on things in the house - Help

[mamacatnv]

I have 2 adult (neutered) male indoor cats. They are 4 & 8 years of age. We have 3 cat boxes that are cleaned daily. The culprit was neutered as a kitten.

The 4 yr. old is a very sweet cuddly cat, but he pee's on things in the house and it is starting to make me crazy. He will pee on any type of clothing, blanket or towel on the floor, a bowl on the dining room table , an empty box, a pillow that fell off the bed (that was this mornings find-pillow is ruined), a bag of clothes in the closet that are awaiting the local charity etc.

He will look right at me and when I get up to go after him he bolts, so he knows better..........Last week he pee'd on a pair of shorts that were sitting on the wingchair in my bedroom, the pee soaked into the upholstery and I cannot get the smell out. He will also douse plastic bags, backpacks and once my DH's leather jacket that was laying across a dining room chair. He does not do area rugs, the carpet or the beds but he will hop onto the dryer and pee on the clothes that happen to be sitting on top of it.

Any advice?
He is about to become a garage cat, I can't take much more and it seems he is getting worse in this behavior. The vet's advice was the addition of the 3rd cat box and to make sure they are clean. They are scooped daily and I completely replace the sand weekly.

Help!

 

[Aristocath]

Years ago my female cat had this problem for 2 days so I took her to the vet. I can't remember if it was a bladder infection or urinary tract infection but it was an infection. After a few doses of the dreaded pink stuff also known as amoxicillin, she was back to normal.

Cathy

 

[Stucas]

Most of the time if a cat is going outside of their box there is a reason. Either something in the house changed and the cat is unhappy and trying to get your attention, or is sick. Cats HATE going outside of their box. For your cat to be doing it so frequently he is definitely trying to communicate. I would for sure bring him to the vet.


-Lauren

 

[DrCavin]

Probably a urinary infection, take him to the vet. We have to use special cat food that helps keep the infections from occuring & it has been very effective.

 

[Sherri]

Someone not too long ago on here had the same exact problem. I think if the vet ruled any physical problem such as stones or a bladder infection then it would behavioral and there meds to help with that. Hopefully the person who started the thread about kitty prozac will update and say how she is making out with it. I can't remember who it was or how to search for threads, but it specifically had kitty prozac in the title if that helps.
If your Vet. only gave advice and didn't check out your cat then it could be something you may be able to treat by changing the food. I know our cats are male and eat a dry food (except for tuna Fridays) that is dry and is for preventing crystals which is a big problem for male cats.
Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[KariC]

i had a friend with this problem....no lie, her vet (after ruling out health issues) said he was an unhappy kitty. He had her buy this plug in thing with inserts that released phermones to make him happy. It worked for awhile, but apparently he's unhappy again. He "tinkled" (fine, she said pissed) in her suitcase last week, on her clothes and the kids' souveniers. (side note, cat does not like her or the kids....only her dh, so it wasn't as if he missed them and was retaliating).

Cat has also been major sick, and she saved him twice, depleting their WDW fund. Now, this viewpoint is skewed b/c I'm not a cat lover per se, but "kill the cat". I mean a WDW vacation was lost on a surgery for a cat who ate part of the floor! Aren't we supposed to be mouse lovers?!

 

[mamacatnv]

Simon has done this pretty much since we got him. He is just getting bolder and it is becomming more frequent.

I am calling the vet, the cat box suggestion was awhile back when I took him in for his check up at age 2 he is due for his 4 year in October.

Prozac...........hmmmmmmmmmm maybe the vet will give some to the Simon and some to me!

Also, our cats never get wet food. They get dry only and it is either Friskies or Whiskas. The vet originally suggested the Costco cat food but it gave the above reference Simon the worst gas........I have never had a cat that we actually have to warn people not to squeeze! Pet, yes but don't squeeze the Simon!

Thanks for the suggestions

 

[daisax]

You may not want to hear this, but my sister's cat started doing that when she was pregnant... both times. (edit to say when my SISTER was pregnant, not the cat!)

The most likely reason is a UTI, but if it's a possibility.... consider it!

 

[Disney Ella]

Sometimes, if they've gotten in the habit of going outside of the litterbox, they need to be retrained. Put him in a room by himself with his food and water at one end and litter at the other. When he goes consistently in the box, open more of the house to him. Of course, you have to get the urine smell out of the areas he has urinated in or he'll go right back to those spots.

We had this problem after my cat had a urinary tract infection/blockage. He couldn't always make it to the box, so went whereever, but then he got used to the house being his litter box and wanted to keep it up after he was better.

 

[safetymom]

I have this problem with my cat. We took him to the vet and had him checked out. No urinary problems.

They put him on anti depressants. We have only been doing it for 3 days. After a week or so then if he isn't using the litter box I need to try and retrain him to use it.

 

[Luvmickey28]

well we had the same problem with our cat several years back... she would pee on anything that was on the floor, shoes, jacket, pillow, anything and everything.... she also went in my daughters suitcase as well which had to thrown away... we thought she was acting out as well...
but after taking her to the vet we found out that she had feline diabetes.... the vet said that when they checked her blood sugar that it was way over 400 (extremely high)..
they offered to put her on insulin (we would have to give the cat an insulin shot three to four times daily)... not to mention having to take her to the vet every few weeks for blood work... put her on a very strict diet..
we just could not see putting her through all of that.. so we put her down... the vet said that she probably would not live but several months even going through all of this. I think that this was the hardest thing that I had ever done.. broke my heart...

 

[clarabelle]

I saw a show on animal planet where they said the cat felt threatened and was marking his territory. One of the solutions was to take a damp rag and rub it all over the cat -then rub the rag everywhere that the cat marked. It sounds like your cat goes on cloth -so that might make it hard. Anyway rubing the cats sent around made the cat feel secure and not have the need to mark things with his sent

 

[lisajl]

1. Always take cat to vet for check up.
2. Could be bladder infection.
3.Cat generally don't pee everywhere just "because"
4.If the cat needs to be retrained to use litter pan there is a special kitty litter you can use for that, check at pet store.
5. Thank you for starting with your vet first...


BTW, we had a client come in and tell me that her female cat had blood in her urine since the spring....it was then fall. When I asked her why she waited this long to bring it in she said it was not that serious.
I asked her if she would have waited that long to see her doctor is that was happening to her.
Her response was no. I told her cats and dogs feel pain just like we do.
They can get infections, tumors, leukemia, etc.

I think I made her feel bad, I was just trying to let her know that her cat had been in pain for months. Not something I would want to put any of my pets through.

Lisa

 

[helenabear]

Simon has done this pretty much since we got him. He is just getting bolder and it is becomming more frequent.

Honestly, if this has been going on from day 1, I would lean more towards emotional distress than physical issues. In the mean time between vet visits, try getting this http://www.feliway.uk.com/feliway_uk.nsf/Page?OpenForm
You can buy it here in the US at most petstores like Petco and Petsmart. You can probably buy the diffuser cheaper online though. You can buy a spray as well that you can use in specific areas. I've used it when introducing a new addition to the house and it has worked very well for us

 

[Danauk]

We had this problem with one of our male nutered cats. I took him to the vet and he checked out fine. The vet suggested it was a marking teratory issue and suggested we put small bowls of cat crunchies in the places he tended to pee. We did this (OK we had lots of bowls of cat food dotted around the house!) but it worked. After about 6 months we began to leave some of the bowls empty then we removed the bowls. He no longer pees in the house. It was a hastle whilst doing this, but we found it really worked.

 

[pppiglet]

If your vet finds out he has crystals or diabetes, switch to all wet food. This will cure the infection problem. If it's stress, use the feliway mentioned by another posted. Our last cat we adopted sprayed 3 times in the first 1/2hour we brought him home. (wasn't a sprayer before). We found out he just doesn't adapt well to change. The feliway worked great! He didn't spray for months after that until 2 weeks ago we moved all the furniture and ripped up the carpet to get ready for Pergo, and he got stressed with the change and sprayed. So I got the feliway out and sprayed around the room as we were changing it and he didn't do it again. Today they are installing the floor, so as soon as they are done before I let him back in the room, I will spray some feliway again.

 

[safetymom]

Feliway didn't help with my cat.