Inappropriate peeing

Kam

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I have two cats one (the culprit) is a black 5 year old female and a grey 4 year old male. I have had both since they were born so they are not new to each other and came from the same mother and are also already spayed and neutered. So about 3 years ago I moved into a very small apartment with a new roommate. My cats frost incident was on my roommates bed. She had never done this before and I wrote it off as her being unfamiliar with my new roommate. It happened again a few days later and my roommate started keeping her door closed. The peeing stopped for a while and everything went smoothly for about 6-8 moths. Then I found that my vest for work and my shoes and bag that I kept next to the couch on the ground was being peed on. This happened multiple times so I started putting things up and bought new shoes and again she stopped. A little while longer goes by and I realize she had started peeing in my laundry basket. I was starting to get frustrated at this point and tried flipping the laundry basket over to avoid her getting in there. This did not work, she would just start pulling my clothes out through the handle holes just to pee on it so I had started sharing a laundry basket with my roommate to avoid my clothes in my room and again she stopped, but she had started clawing at the corners of the doors if the door was closed so now she has begun the bad habit of clawing up my carpet and every door way is now missing a patch of carpet. About 2 years ago my roommate had moved out and my bf moved in. Everything was going smoothly for about 3 months when I had noticed that my cat was peeing on the carpet where my laundry was so I started buying pee spray stuff to try and get it out of my carpets but she was persistent and would not stop. I had to by a large mat to put over the spot because the cat pee sprays were just not working. She would scratch at the mat to reveal the carpet by the wall and pee there again so I put 2 of my storage bins on it and then she stopped. But then I found a spot in the living room right by the front door by the wall so I cleaned it and put something over it to avoid her peeing there again. She then started peeing next to it. At this point I purchased a shampooer specifically for pets to try and get the pee out of my carpet and this didn’t work either she just repeed in the spots so I bought another mat for the living room and placed more storage bins on top and she stopped again for a while. About six months ago I found another spot in the living room and was so frustrated so I started keeping both cats in the room with me at night and closing the door to be able to better monitor her at night (litter box is in my room closet). Well this caused her to start peeing on the carpet in front of the litter box. So I would clean it then cover it with something. She then proceeds to pee next to it and then next to that. So I by another mat. And then she stops for about 2 weeks and then she just pees next to the mat! I’m constantly changing the litter box and thought I had found a litter she likes but I don’t know what went wrong. I have taken her to a vet and they said nothing is wrong with her but didn’t really inspect her or take blood work so I’m going into another place for a second opinion. Im ripping my hair out over this and don’t know what I’m doing wrong for her to pee on every inch of my carpet. I really don’t want to but a bunch a mats to cover my entire carpet. My apartment is so cluttered with all the stuff I’ve used to put on top of the mats and it just looks trashy. My apartment is very small so you can smell it everywhere and I’m so embarrassed by it. I am constantly waking up at night to catch her scratching over or by the spot she had peed in and feel sick everyday from the smell. I am at my breaking point and don’t know if I should give her to a home that will let her be an outside/inside cat(which is what she used to be before I had to move into an apartment and had an incident with the neighbors down stairs that ended up with the cops being called so I can’t let them outside again). Please I really need advice and my carpets are just destroyed. I don’t want my other cat to get lonely either and start bad habits if I do have to rehome her. What do I do at this point? I have tried the spray bottle and cat deterrents and she doesn’t care. Shampooing doesn’t help and neither does scrubbing the spot on my hand and knees. And I clean the litter box everyday or every other day so I doesn’t get disgusting and I’ve even started scrubbing the box every now and then to keep it smelling fresh and it’s not helping. I can’t keep living like this and want a decent nights sleep without waking up every 30 mins because I think and see her scratching or peeing on the carpet. I just want my cat to be happy and my apartment to be clean.
 

FeebysOwner

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Based on what you are describing, I am not sure that you have much choice but to find a professional cleaning service that deals with cat urine and have all the carpeting cleaned. If there is an area to confine your girl to that has no carpeting, I would do that as well until the carpet has been cleaned - after using an enzymatic cleaner for hard surfaces like Fizzion or SCOE10x, both of which can also be used on wood. I would also set up a second litter box with puppy pee pads inside to see if she would be more inclined to use it while you are trying to figure this out.

It would seem to me that she has become an easily stressed cat, with every little change that goes on - even simple things that we humans take for granted - causing her peeing issues. It can be caused by the littlest of things, construction outside the area, newcomers - including other animals - in the apartments near you, noises made by other apartment dwellers, etc. You get the idea. You need to closely pay attention to every little thing that goes on to see if you can find a pattern for what things trigger her. Stress can bring about a form of cystitis which often causes inappropriate peeing. It can also cause inflammation in the bladder which results in the same problem. I've included an article (see link below) about cystitis that might be helpful to you.

Aside from a vet check up, which I would recommend, you could try various calming products - not all work on all cats, so you may have to experiment some. Just do an internet search on 'cat calming products' and see what you might be interested in trying, up to and including cat music (David Teie's Music for Cats which is on Prime and Spotify, Cat In My Arms on Spotify and elsewhere, and RelaxMyCat. Members on this site swear by it for helping to calm a cat!).

Spraying a cat with water in many cases ends up making the problem worse rather than serving as a correctional process. A cat has no idea what the correlation is between being sprayed and what they have done. It just stresses them out more.

Feline Idiopathic Cystitis – How To Improve Your Cat’s Quality Of Life – TheCatSite Articles
 
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Kam

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I will definitely look into that cat calming products for sure. I have installed a second litter box that is self cleaning so I’m hopeful that she will use this one since it will be cleaned around every 30 mins so it’s fresh for her. I have also noticed that when she poops in the litter box she often doesn’t pinch it all the way off and ends up dragging her butt across the carpet and I’ve had to clean it out of her furans it doesn’t seem like she cleans very good back there. Which makes me think that it might be uncomfortable to go to the bathroom in general and am hoping the vet can find something and hopefully help her.
 
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Kam

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Also thank you for replying! I’ve posted on a couple of websites over the past few weeks and you are my only response and I really appreciate it.
 

FeebysOwner

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I have also noticed that when she poops in the litter box she often doesn’t pinch it all the way off and ends up dragging her butt across the carpet and I’ve had to clean it out of her furans it doesn’t seem like she cleans very good back there. Which makes me think that it might be uncomfortable to go to the bathroom in general and am hoping the vet can find something and hopefully help her.
It might also be possible that when she ends up in her stressed mode, she find the litter or litter box not to be to her liking, so trying another litter box is a good idea. Glad to hear that a vet visit is in her near future, given the additional issue with her poop!
Also thank you for replying! I’ve posted on a couple of websites over the past few weeks and you are my only response and I really appreciate it.
You are welcome! Keep us posted!!
 
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