Cat Urinating EVERYWHERE!

[British Girls]

Hello everyone. I have a cat who is 4 years old, and we recently moved to a new house about 1.5 months ago. Since then, she has started urinating everywhere. She has a room where she is put during the night with an adjacent bathroom where her litter boxes are, yet she urinates inside and outside of the litter box...on cushions, towels, anything fabric, cat tree base, tiles, in the litterbox, etc. At 12:00 pm today, she urinated in my basket of clothes, and 1 and a half hours later, she proceeded to go into my bathroom and urinate on the shower drain. At this point, she's driving everyone crazy. Yesterday at 1.am she urinated on the floor of her room, and this morning, she urinated three more times on the floor. There is evidence of her urinating the litterbox too (she has two, and we clean them once a week). There is no straining when she urinates...she just goes, and starts scraping the floor/material around it and leaves it...Has anyone experienced this? Is it a territorial thing? Could it be something else? She never defecates outside of the litterbox; she just urinates. She is also on wet food but doesn't really drink water.

 

[Maurey]

Vet trip to rule out urinary issues, first and foremost. Needs a urinalysis and possibly an ultrasound of the bladder.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Also, there may be a bunch of neighborhood cats that she can hear and smell, even if she can't see them. This is very new territory to her, and she may be marking it. Females do that, as well as males. But yes, you do want to have her checked. Since you recently moved, she might well have idiopathic cystitis, which is generally brought on by stress.

 

[sunny578]

Hello!!

My cat had a difficult period like this too! I'm sorry you are dealing with it. It's so hard.

Moving was a huge trigger for my cat t. It's so stressful on them (and everyone else)

You could check in with her vet, and if they determine that it is not health related, you could consider going back to 24/7 confinement for a period of time. Did you start her like this after the move? Keep her in the bathroom/the adjacent room for a few days?

Since it sounds like she is urinating outside of her box even when confined to a room, you might want to start by confining her to the bathroom for a few days. Hopefully, during this time, she would start using her litter boxes 100% of the time. (If not, crate training is also an option, but kind of a last resort sort of deal.)

Then, once she is only urinating in her box, I would let her out of the bathroom for very short supervised visits. During this time, you would pay very close attention to her--play with her, give her treats, spread out some catnip, brush her, etc. Then, when you are done being able to supervise her, put her back in the bathroom.

The goal is to slowly increase the time she spends outside of the bathroom until you are at the point that you can trust her 100% of the time.

Also, while she is confined to the bathroom, you could reconsider your space. How is this new home different from your last? Is it much bigger? Is there carpet that could still have some lingering scents from the previous tenants/owners? Do you have any new residents at this new home--any new roommates, any new pets?

And, you also will want to think about your litter box set up. I would over do the litter boxes at this point, even if you only have one cat. I'd have one in each room of the house--and maybe more in the rooms where she has really been urinating illegally. You want your litter boxes to be easy to get to, with multiple points of exit and entry (like not shoved in a corner.) I'd have some hoodless options too, and maybe try some new fun litters like cat attract.

Wondering if you have lots of scratching posts, and lots of high up places for your cat to jump to? You mentioned that she doesn't drink much water--do you have a variety of water sources spread throughout the house, and not just one bowl by her food?

Anything else going on with your cat that might make her more interested in using soft surfaces for urinating? Any health issues? Does she have her claws?

I have a new baby, so apologies if my response isn't super clear. I have lots of experience with this though, so please keep us posted and let me know if you have any thought or questions!