Cat pees on husband, dirty clothes, and bath mat

[felonee]

I'm at my wits end.

We had planned to get our cats fixed when they were six months old, but our son became ill and we were unable to get the cats to the vet. Right around the time they were seven months old, they went into heat for the first time, and one of cats peed on my husband in the middle of the night, two nights in a row. We weren't sure if it was related to her being in heat, but we got them fixed, and the problem seemed to stop.

Bella has always been fussy about the box, and will poop on the bath mat if the box isn't clean enough. Then she peed on my husband (in bed again) and started peeing in the dirty laundry next to the hamper. We thought it was behavioural, but then she peed right in front of me in the bathroom and there was blood in her urine, so we got her to the vet and sure enough a UTI. We did antibiotics and she's been fine. We even let her start sleeping in our room again, and then she peed on him again. We started locking the cats out of our room at night, but they managed to sneak in last week after I got up, but while my husband was still sleeping and again she peed on him.

I clean the box in the morning and again at night. We bought an extra large box that holds over 30 pounds of litter, and we keep it very clean and make sure the sand level is high. Just now she peed on the dirty clothes next to the hamper. She just finished her antibiotics, and she's not displaying any other issues. Shortly after she peed on the clothes, she used the box.

I don't know what to do. My husband wants to throw her outside (we have outside cats that I'm not sure would take her into the fold.) My son gets hysterical whenever he talks about it. He's 11 and has been ill for months so gets distraught very easily. I cry, because I love the kitty and I don't want my son to be upset. Any ideas?

 

[ritz]

I'm so sorry you're having trouble with Bella and well wishes for your son.

I think Bella may be reacting to stress (going into heat, your understandable stress around your son's illness).  I would recommend using Feliway, mimics the natural comforting facial pheromones produced by cats to reduce stress-related behaviors.  You can get it at any big/small pet store, though it is much cheaper on Amazon.  You could also try adding Bach's Rescue Remedy to her food.

How many cats and litter boxes do you have?  The rule of thumb is cat + one, so if you have two cats, you should have three litter boxes.

You mentioned you have outdoor cats--are there any new cats hanging around?  That can cause stress.

Finally, here is a thread about inappropriate peeing that you might be helpful.

 

[mani]

Welcome to The Cat Site

This is one of the things so many people write in about as it is really disturbing and of course it's so important to get to the bottom of it!

Ritz has some good advice.

Also I've copied the bit below from a thread you may want to have a look at, which is at: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/9563/inappropriate-peeing-problems-answered

This particular bit seems very pertinent:

I find that cats are most mysterious when it comes to substrate preference. That is the fancy way of saying what cats pee on. Some cats that have lived outside and then are made into inside cats, will seek out potted plants. Some cats that have had urinary tract infections (UTI), will seek out substrates that are soft (and warm). Even when the cat no longer has an UTI, s/he will return to and potty on the substrate that was most comfortable.

Here is how it works: Cat has an UTI. It is painful to urinate (anywhere). It is less painful to urinate in a soft, WARM pile of laundry. Cat potties in the fresh warm pile of clothes. Cat does this for some time before human figures out that cat has UTI. Cat either battles UTI or human figures it out and takes cat to vet. Cat is better. Cat continues to urinate on fresh pile of laundry. Aargh! Why? Because the cat has developed a substrate preference based on conditioning. The cat is avoiding painful elimination, even when the cat no longer has the UTI. The cat has developed an association with the old litter box and pain. To fix this problem, take a small, freshly laundered rag and place it in the cat’s box. Encourage the cat to use her box again by limiting her access to anywhere away from her box. A laundry room – keeping all fresh laundry away from the cat – or low traffic bathroom is good for this training). She can only come out of her training room when she is being supervised. Do this for about 3 or 4 days. She will be retrained to use her box. Of course you will be cleaning her box frequently (at LEAST once a day) as cats hate messy boxes.

With all of the above being said (and true for many cats), some cats will just decide that the fresh laundry has odors that need to be modified. There are mixed theories that try to explain this behavior. Here is the one I most agree is correct. We humans secrete ammonias through our sweat. We also try to modify these odors in our garments with detergents and perfumes. These detergents and perfumes mask the odors effectively for our mere human noses.

See if that makes sense in your situation.  And do let us know how you're going!