Cat Keeps Peeing Around The House, Please Help!

[RSummers94]

Hi, my cat is now 4 years old and for the past 2 and a bit years has been pooping and peeing around the house, basically anywhere but his litter box. I have tried changing the litter boxes, even changing the litter and moving around the litter boxes to different areas.

For a while he would only poop and pee on my bed, this happened a while after we moved house, but there was still quite a bit of time in between moving and him starting to do this. After not being able to stop him from doing this, I then moved him to a different room in the house so that he couldn't use the bed as his litter tray anymore. Yet he has continued to poop and pee on the sofa in the room that he is now in. There has been times where he occasionally stopped peeing on it, but it would only stop briefly and then he would continue to do it again. I have taken the tops of the litter boxes a few times, after this he went in the litter boxes frequently and stopped peeing and pooing around the house for maybe a week if I was lucky, but as per usual it would start up again. I have taken him to the vets many times and they said there is nothing wrong with his health. They thought at one point it might be cystitis but that wasn't the case.

I've even had to close off doors in the house as whenever I had a door open he would use something as a toilet in there, but because I have to close the doors it is restricting his space to roam which is making him more unhappy but if if I do open the doors he will wee and poo on beds / Bathmats and at one point the carpet and door mat by the front door. I've even tried fellyway for 3-6months with no avail.

I'm not sure if it's behavioural as there are other animals in the house and they don't all get along. They tolerate eachother more but there is still tension between them in the house, so I'm not sure if this is mostly the cause for the way he is acting. We have 4 cats and 1 dog all together and although they dont all get on all of the time the other animals seem to cope with it better than he does.

He ran away from the house a few weeks ago and was gone for a week, but luckily I managed to get him back. He used the litter boxes for a little while but is back to his usual ways. I thought maybe if he does want to be outside and I'm keeping him indoors that that could explain his behaviour. So I've been trying to put a cat harness on him so that I can take him outside without him running away. He seemed scared at first, as though he didn't want to go outside. I struggle to put him in the harness as he just seems really frightened if i go near him with it, but when he's outside he seems quite happy.

I feel like I have tried everything and have now run out of ideas. So any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[abyeb]

Can you take him into the vet for a checkup? Inappropriate elimination can be a sign of underlying health issues.

When Physical Problems Turn Into Behavior Problems

Litterbox Problems? Here's Why You Should Call Your Vet

 

[rubysmama]

Hello and welcome to TCS. Sorry you're having litter box avoidance issues with your cat.

How many litter boxes do you have? The suggested number is one litter box per cat, plus one. So with 4 cats, that would be 5 litter boxes. And preferably spread throughout the home.

I have taken the tops of the litter boxes a few times, after this he went in the litter boxes frequently and stopped peeing and pooing around the house for maybe a week if I was lucky, but as per usual it would start up again.

Would it start up again while the covers were still off? Or once you put the covers back on?

TCS has several articles on litter boxes and avoidance. Hopefully one of them might have some helpful suggestions for you.

How To Choose The Right Litterbox
How Many Litterboxes Should You Have?
The 10 Most Common Litterbox Mistakes Cat Owners Make

How To Solve Litterbox Problems In Cats: The Ultimate Guide
Inappropriate Peeing, Spraying, Toy Obsession And Leg And Hand Nipping

Also one on stress:
Is Your Cat Stressed Out?

 

[maggiedemi]

When my cats have pee problems, it's usually caused by diet. What's his diet like, does he get canned food every day?

 

[RSummers94]

Can you take him into the vet for a checkup? Inappropriate elimination can be a sign of underlying health issues.

When Physical Problems Turn Into Behavior Problems

Litterbox Problems? Here's Why You Should Call Your Vet

Thanks for your reply. I've taken him into the vets on many occasions and they've suggested various things which I've tried without any success. They thought it might be cystitis at one point which I have given him medication for and he's still not using the litter box very much.

 

[RSummers94]

Hello and welcome to TCS. Sorry you're having litter box avoidance issues with your cat.

How many litter boxes do you have? The suggested number is one litter box per cat, plus one. So with 4 cats, that would be 5 litter boxes. And preferably spread throughout the home.



Would it start up again while the covers were still off? Or once you put the covers back on?

TCS has several articles on litter boxes and avoidance. Hopefully one of them might have some helpful suggestions for you.

How To Choose The Right Litterbox
How Many Litterboxes Should You Have?
The 10 Most Common Litterbox Mistakes Cat Owners Make

How To Solve Litterbox Problems In Cats: The Ultimate Guide
Inappropriate Peeing, Spraying, Toy Obsession And Leg And Hand Nipping

Also one on stress:
Is Your Cat Stressed Out?

Thanks for the reply, I'll give those a read and yes we do have 5 litter boxes in total, so I don't think that's the issue.

When I've taken off the tops of the litterboxes he has went in and used them with no issues for a few days and on a few occasions a week at the longest, but then he goes back to soiling in other areas around the house. He does still sometimes use the litter boxes but he frequently goes other places.

 

[RSummers94]

When my cats have pee problems, it's usually caused by diet. What's his diet like, does he get canned food every day?

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I think his diet is fine. I give him a combination of wet and dry food, which he eats no problem.

 

[rubysmama]

Thanks for the reply, I'll give those a read and yes we do have 5 litter boxes in total, so I don't think that's the issue.

When I've taken off the tops of the litterboxes he has went in and used them with no issues for a few days and on a few occasions a week at the longest, but then he goes back to soiling in other areas around the house. He does still sometimes use the litter boxes but he frequently goes other places.

That's really strange, and obviously frustrating for you, and probably him as well.

After he started using the litter box again, do you recall anything happening to trigger him stopping. Constipation? Diarrhea? Bullying from another cat? Litter box didn't get cleaned as thoroughly as usual?

Do you ever see him when he goes outside the box? Or does this happen when your away from the house/asleep?

 

[RSummers94]

Yes it's been very frustrating. I really don't want to have to rehome him, so I want to make sure I've literally tried everything.

I don't remember anything that triggered it to be honest, it was so long ago when he started doing it that it's hard to remember. I just remember it happening very suddenly.

I clean the litter boxes very regularly, twice a day and even sometimes three times a day.

I have seen him a few times and so have my roommates. There were times early on when I would be sitting on my bed with him, leave for a couple of minutes and when I would come back he would be in the middle of soiling on my bed. There was a phase where he kept peeing on the carpet and door mat by our front door and he would do it as u were coming out of the living room door or on the landing, in clear view of him.

 

[rubysmama]

How many other animals were in the house when you first got him?

 

[maggiedemi]

But why not try all wet food for 3 days and see if it works? It's better than rehoming him. My male cat pees all over the house when he eats half a cup of dry food, so I have to keep it under that. I only shared this because it happened to me.

 

[RSummers94]

I've had him on an only wet food diet before for nearly a whole year and it didn't effect his behaviour. But thank you

 

[RSummers94]

How many other animals were in the house when you first got him?

My sister and her roommates 2 cats where there when I got him and about a week later was when my sister decided to get my cat's sister. I kept Bailey sepearte to th3 other cats for quite a while when he was kitten and he was fine. It was only really when we moved house that I put him and his sister in the same room. But it was a while after we moved in that he started to soil on the furniture and around the house. About a year a year and half after that was when our other roommate moved in with her dog, but the dog and Bailey seem fine with each other. It's my sisters Siamese that he has the problem with.

 

[Timmer]

It seems like you have tried everything and the cat is healthy so I am going to throw my guess in and say there are too many animals in the house right now. It's not like he doesn't know to use the litter box because he does it sometimes, so he does know. He may be worried that your sister's cat is going to attack him if he uses the litter box, so he goes where he can when he wants and now it's become his habit and his thing. Nothing is stopping him from doing that.
I'm sorry.
All I can say is my female started spraying around the house and I put her on a low dose of Prozac and she stopped doing that. Your cat's issues may be from stress. All may look fine to us, but to the cats, they have their own kitty issues we don't know about.

 

[RSummers94]

Thanks for your reply and advice.

I have been worried that it was because of the other cats.

 

[rubysmama]

You may have already read it, here's a TCS article on The Multi-cat Household that might be helpful.