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- Jan 7, 2014
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Hello! New member here. Unfortunately, I joined to discuss a not-so-happy issue... I've tried to include a lot of details in my post, so this is a long one.
My family owns two cats – brothers we adopted from the humane society in 2007 when they were roughly one year old, so they should be around eight years old now. They are two of the friendliest cats you could ever meet. They never have those typical cat mood swings, never hiss, and want attention and affection all the time. They were neutered shortly before leaving the humane society with us but are not declawed, and are indoor cats only. We’ve had no major issues with them until now.
We’ve been to two veterinarians to rule out medical problems, and both vets have been gloomy on the outlook of this problem ever getting better. Essentially they don’t think there’s anything more to be done, and have told my mother that it’s a behavioral problem that will most likely never go away. My mother has pretty much been convinced by them, but I have not. This problem really only began after we moved, so I think it’s obviously due to stress/insecurity, and it seems like that should (eventually) be fixable, no?
My family moved for the first time roughly 2 years ago. The cat we’re having problems with is “Romeo,” the smaller of the brothers. When we moved, the cats seemed to adjust quickly to the new house, just as they did to our old house when we first adopted them. It wasn’t until a few months after we settled in that I discovered Romeo was peeing behind the large TV stand that’s in the corner of our living room. He had peed behind there numerous times. We put tin foil on the carpet, a tactic we had read about online, but he simply peed on top of the tin foil. Later, when we hired someone to paint a number of rooms in the house, Romeo peed in the corner of the living room opposite to the TV stand, in the presence of myself, the painter, and my parents, who were all in the room at the time. I believe it’s at this point that we took him to the vet to be tested for a UTI, which he did not have. The vet said he did have a small amount of crystals in his urine (although I believe she said this isn’t uncommon and didn’t raise any red flags), and gave us a special brand of dry food for crystals (he won’t eat wet food). It made both our cats throw up quite a bit, so now we mix a little in with the brand of food they like. It then came to our attention that Romeo was peeing in various spots in our unfinished basement: in small spaces beneath the shelving units, on top of a pile of packing papers, and in a spot near the wall.
The urine is usually in a puddle on the floor; a few times, however, it appears he has sprayed versus/in addition to urinating (as the urine is also been present on the walls). By the way, we are 99% certain the previous owners did not have a cat or dog. The home is only 4 years old, and they were the first owners. I think they just had some fish.
In the old house, we had occasional incidents with the cats peeing outside their litter box, but it was never a big issue. Once, one of the cats peed in a handmade "to be shredded” bin made out of cardboard that we threw papers in. Another time one of the cats peed in a filing drawer we had taken out of the cabinet to clean and left unattended on the basement floor. These incidents seemed to be obvious mistakes given that they were peeing in boxes similar to their litter box, so it wasn’t very worrisome. While we were preparing to move and the movers were boxing our things up, one of the cats peed on a pile of packing papers they had put on the basement floor. We figured he was upset by all the commotion. I also discovered that one of them had peed behind the TV set while cleaning the house for the new owners, which I also believed was due to stress from the workers going in and out of the basement and making a lot of noise. Note that these previous instances of inappropriate elimination were from BOTH cats, whereas now we just have problems with Romeo.
The litter boxes in the new house are placed in the basement, which is not finished and is, unfortunately, fairly cluttered due to the fact that it’s mainly used for misc. storage and exercise equipment. We try to keep things up on tables and in shelving units so the immediate areas around the litter boxes are open. We took some spare carpet and put it underneath their boxes to make the area more comfortable, and there’s a light above it that we keep on. There’s also two cat stands nearby and some toys scattered about which they do occasionally play with, just to make it a bit more homey. There are three litter boxes in one corner of the basement along the wall, and there is another box on the other far end of the basement underneath the stairs, as we thought Romeo might feel safer with a “sheltered,” enclosed area given how he liked to pee behind the TV stand. They do utilize all four of the litter boxes.
In our previous house, the cat litter was also kept in the basement against a wall in the corner. That basement was finished and fully carpeted and contained a TV stand and TV, a couch, a chair, and a juke-box. The light wasn’t always on; instead there was a night light next to their boxes for nighttime.
We bought various cleaners designed for getting rid of cat urine odor (usually based on online reviews), and I bought a spray that was supposed to be used after the area was cleaned to ensure the smell was gone. I then sprayed Feliway in the areas he had peed, as well as in areas he liked to frequent, such as his cat stand. We also bought Cat Attract litter which we still use to this day. Eventually I also tried using Spirit Essences (Safe Space) drops in their water bowl, and also rubbed it on their fur. I did this to both cats even though the problem is only with Romeo. After another incident I tried confining him to the spare bedroom upstairs that only has a couch and TV. I placed a litter box in the room, put food and water in the opposite corner, and left him in there while the other cat stayed outside and was only let in for occasional visits. He only ever peed in the litter box when confined, and it seemed to work for a while, but it appears the problem always returns. The vet gave us Amitriptyline pills to try, but Romeo is very picky and barely eats any treats – he refuses any sort of table food, and will not eat wet food. We bought one of those pill popper things to make giving him his medicine easier, but it was nigh impossible to get the pill down his throat, and was EXTREMELY stressful for him (and for us). We gave up because it was clear it would never work as a daily thing. A number of months later we tried transdermal antidepressant gel even though the vet was REALLY against it, which frustrated me. I was like, for God’s sake, it’s at least worth trying isn’t it??? It didn’t go that well. Romeo hated having the stuff rubbed on his ear and started getting a touch skittish; he would duck/dart when we went to pet him because he was expecting us to try to rub the gel on him.
When we replaced the carpeting in our living room (because the previous owners had really worn it out), we used that paint you’re supposed to buy for cat urine odor and painted the flooring underneath the spots he had used as a litter box. We figured that would for sure get rid of any lingering odors. Well, we left the room briefly unattended after the paint had dried but before the new carpet had been installed, and guess what? Romeo went back to the corner and peed there. And there was no way he still smelled urine. So now we keep that spot blocked off with a large piece of cardboard that’s thankfully hidden somewhat because there’s an armchair in front of it. We also have items blocking his access to the corner behind the TV stand. He peed once in our dining room, but after cleaning it and placing a cat bed over the spot he hasn’t attempted it again.
We also had an incident where I placed a large cardboard box upstairs on the floor, having ordered a pillow in the mail. Within 5 minutes Romeo had hopped in and peed. It didn’t bother me as much, because both cats had peed in boxes before, and it seemed a different matter than peeing on the carpet. But it just seems like he’s really eager to pee in all these places OTHER than the boxes downstairs. So for a while I had a litter box in the corner of my bedroom, where it was partially shielded by my old bed set, so it had a nice sense of privacy. But Romeo barely EVER used it, so eventually I got rid of it. There was no point. Here I thought he was dying for a litter box upstairs.
As mentioned earlier, Romeo is very friendly. He and his brother are close, and I can’t imagine separating them. I’ve seen them eating and drinking from the same bowls before, and they’ll often sleep on the same perch in their cat stand and groom each other. They enjoy play fighting, which can get rough, but I don’t believe they’re genuine cat fights. It seems more like hyper play between two cats who’ve got energy to burn. They get particularly excited when we come home after a long day, and they’ll chase each other through the house and start wrestling to celebrate. It does appear at times that Romeo is a bit more timid and overly concerned with what his brother is doing. He jumps a little more at strange noises, and sometimes if someone is holding or petting the other cat, he’ll sit off to the side and stare, and he just has this look about him that’s hard to describe. Sulky, maybe! Sometimes if he’s sitting on my lap or near me and the other cat walks in the room, he’ll jump down or walk away after a minute or so. But I have never seen any signs of bullying, although his brother is bigger (mainly due to the fact that he eats too much). He also seems restless at times. For example, at night he’ll come sleep in my bed, but 10 minutes later he’ll jump down and go off somewhere. Then 10 minutes later he’ll be back in my bed…then he’ll jump back down again… But there have also been times I woke up in the middle of the night and he’s sleeping in bed, so…
One of our neighbors did have an older indoor/outdoor cat, and I saw him on our patio once and in our yard once, but that’s it. I think the cat might have passed away recently, actually. I’ve been pondering the possibility that the other cat urinated around our house, but I kind of doubt it. I also doubt that they’re getting spooked by seeing any animals roaming about, because our blinds are usually closed.
I’m not sure what our best options are. I’m very frustrated because I know this issue won’t be tolerated for much longer. We had a period of respite, and then he peed in the master bathroom’s shower, which was a new spot for him. We crossed our fingers and hoped that he was only confused by the square shape of the shower, and had mistaken it for some sort of box, but on May 7th he peed on the floor in the bathroom. Fast-forward a bit, and we once again thought the problem was over. But on January sixth he peed in the kitchen only about 3-4 feet away from his food, and my mother told me that he peed on top of a cooler in the basement a few weeks prior (which I hadn’t known about). The kitchen spot is exactly what I was dreading – it’s not in a room/area that can be closed off. Everywhere else we’ve been able to block or keep closed, but this is smack dab in the middle of the house.
So in summary he has peed:
Behind the TV stand in the living room
In the back corner of the living room (near a window)
In the dining room next to a book case in the corner (near a window)
In the master bathroom on the floor and in the shower (this bathroom does have two windows)
In various (3-4) spots in the basement
In the kitchen 2-3 ft away from his food (near sliding glass doors)
God knows if he’s peeing anywhere else we haven’t noticed. We can’t smell anything, so I don’t think so, but it’s hard to keep track since he keeps moving around. This is just getting so confusing because he’s peeing all over! It’s not just one spot or even one room, and I no longer know what to do. I have cried buckets over this issue and prayed my heart out, all to no avail. Frankly I’m amazed by mother hasn’t carted him off to be put down already. If this cat were to pee on someone’s bed or on the furniture, he’s a goner. Period. My parents will not tolerate thousands of dollars’ worth in damage in a fairly new home. My mother told me the vets informed her flat out that this probably isn’t fixable, that the cat just “wants” to pee wherever (which I thought was a stupid thing to say), and one of them said she’d previously put down a cat of her own because of the same issue. So basically, they’re really not helping.
I’m in the process of buying more of the Spirit Essence drops that are put into water/on the fur, more Feliway spray (we tried the diffuser and it smelled like it was burning after a while), and three new litter boxes to replace the old ones. We use those jumbo concrete mixing tubs you can get at Home Depot/Menards in addition to some of the large-size litter boxes available at pet stores. But guys….I don’t have many more tricks up my sleeve. I would sooner chop off all of my toes than choose to euthanize this cat, but my family can’t afford to have a house badly damaged by a little cat. We just don’t have that kind of money. And cat urine is a very difficult thing to deal with. This is killing me. Does anyone have ANY words of advice?
My family owns two cats – brothers we adopted from the humane society in 2007 when they were roughly one year old, so they should be around eight years old now. They are two of the friendliest cats you could ever meet. They never have those typical cat mood swings, never hiss, and want attention and affection all the time. They were neutered shortly before leaving the humane society with us but are not declawed, and are indoor cats only. We’ve had no major issues with them until now.
We’ve been to two veterinarians to rule out medical problems, and both vets have been gloomy on the outlook of this problem ever getting better. Essentially they don’t think there’s anything more to be done, and have told my mother that it’s a behavioral problem that will most likely never go away. My mother has pretty much been convinced by them, but I have not. This problem really only began after we moved, so I think it’s obviously due to stress/insecurity, and it seems like that should (eventually) be fixable, no?
My family moved for the first time roughly 2 years ago. The cat we’re having problems with is “Romeo,” the smaller of the brothers. When we moved, the cats seemed to adjust quickly to the new house, just as they did to our old house when we first adopted them. It wasn’t until a few months after we settled in that I discovered Romeo was peeing behind the large TV stand that’s in the corner of our living room. He had peed behind there numerous times. We put tin foil on the carpet, a tactic we had read about online, but he simply peed on top of the tin foil. Later, when we hired someone to paint a number of rooms in the house, Romeo peed in the corner of the living room opposite to the TV stand, in the presence of myself, the painter, and my parents, who were all in the room at the time. I believe it’s at this point that we took him to the vet to be tested for a UTI, which he did not have. The vet said he did have a small amount of crystals in his urine (although I believe she said this isn’t uncommon and didn’t raise any red flags), and gave us a special brand of dry food for crystals (he won’t eat wet food). It made both our cats throw up quite a bit, so now we mix a little in with the brand of food they like. It then came to our attention that Romeo was peeing in various spots in our unfinished basement: in small spaces beneath the shelving units, on top of a pile of packing papers, and in a spot near the wall.
The urine is usually in a puddle on the floor; a few times, however, it appears he has sprayed versus/in addition to urinating (as the urine is also been present on the walls). By the way, we are 99% certain the previous owners did not have a cat or dog. The home is only 4 years old, and they were the first owners. I think they just had some fish.
In the old house, we had occasional incidents with the cats peeing outside their litter box, but it was never a big issue. Once, one of the cats peed in a handmade "to be shredded” bin made out of cardboard that we threw papers in. Another time one of the cats peed in a filing drawer we had taken out of the cabinet to clean and left unattended on the basement floor. These incidents seemed to be obvious mistakes given that they were peeing in boxes similar to their litter box, so it wasn’t very worrisome. While we were preparing to move and the movers were boxing our things up, one of the cats peed on a pile of packing papers they had put on the basement floor. We figured he was upset by all the commotion. I also discovered that one of them had peed behind the TV set while cleaning the house for the new owners, which I also believed was due to stress from the workers going in and out of the basement and making a lot of noise. Note that these previous instances of inappropriate elimination were from BOTH cats, whereas now we just have problems with Romeo.
The litter boxes in the new house are placed in the basement, which is not finished and is, unfortunately, fairly cluttered due to the fact that it’s mainly used for misc. storage and exercise equipment. We try to keep things up on tables and in shelving units so the immediate areas around the litter boxes are open. We took some spare carpet and put it underneath their boxes to make the area more comfortable, and there’s a light above it that we keep on. There’s also two cat stands nearby and some toys scattered about which they do occasionally play with, just to make it a bit more homey. There are three litter boxes in one corner of the basement along the wall, and there is another box on the other far end of the basement underneath the stairs, as we thought Romeo might feel safer with a “sheltered,” enclosed area given how he liked to pee behind the TV stand. They do utilize all four of the litter boxes.
In our previous house, the cat litter was also kept in the basement against a wall in the corner. That basement was finished and fully carpeted and contained a TV stand and TV, a couch, a chair, and a juke-box. The light wasn’t always on; instead there was a night light next to their boxes for nighttime.
We bought various cleaners designed for getting rid of cat urine odor (usually based on online reviews), and I bought a spray that was supposed to be used after the area was cleaned to ensure the smell was gone. I then sprayed Feliway in the areas he had peed, as well as in areas he liked to frequent, such as his cat stand. We also bought Cat Attract litter which we still use to this day. Eventually I also tried using Spirit Essences (Safe Space) drops in their water bowl, and also rubbed it on their fur. I did this to both cats even though the problem is only with Romeo. After another incident I tried confining him to the spare bedroom upstairs that only has a couch and TV. I placed a litter box in the room, put food and water in the opposite corner, and left him in there while the other cat stayed outside and was only let in for occasional visits. He only ever peed in the litter box when confined, and it seemed to work for a while, but it appears the problem always returns. The vet gave us Amitriptyline pills to try, but Romeo is very picky and barely eats any treats – he refuses any sort of table food, and will not eat wet food. We bought one of those pill popper things to make giving him his medicine easier, but it was nigh impossible to get the pill down his throat, and was EXTREMELY stressful for him (and for us). We gave up because it was clear it would never work as a daily thing. A number of months later we tried transdermal antidepressant gel even though the vet was REALLY against it, which frustrated me. I was like, for God’s sake, it’s at least worth trying isn’t it??? It didn’t go that well. Romeo hated having the stuff rubbed on his ear and started getting a touch skittish; he would duck/dart when we went to pet him because he was expecting us to try to rub the gel on him.
When we replaced the carpeting in our living room (because the previous owners had really worn it out), we used that paint you’re supposed to buy for cat urine odor and painted the flooring underneath the spots he had used as a litter box. We figured that would for sure get rid of any lingering odors. Well, we left the room briefly unattended after the paint had dried but before the new carpet had been installed, and guess what? Romeo went back to the corner and peed there. And there was no way he still smelled urine. So now we keep that spot blocked off with a large piece of cardboard that’s thankfully hidden somewhat because there’s an armchair in front of it. We also have items blocking his access to the corner behind the TV stand. He peed once in our dining room, but after cleaning it and placing a cat bed over the spot he hasn’t attempted it again.
We also had an incident where I placed a large cardboard box upstairs on the floor, having ordered a pillow in the mail. Within 5 minutes Romeo had hopped in and peed. It didn’t bother me as much, because both cats had peed in boxes before, and it seemed a different matter than peeing on the carpet. But it just seems like he’s really eager to pee in all these places OTHER than the boxes downstairs. So for a while I had a litter box in the corner of my bedroom, where it was partially shielded by my old bed set, so it had a nice sense of privacy. But Romeo barely EVER used it, so eventually I got rid of it. There was no point. Here I thought he was dying for a litter box upstairs.
As mentioned earlier, Romeo is very friendly. He and his brother are close, and I can’t imagine separating them. I’ve seen them eating and drinking from the same bowls before, and they’ll often sleep on the same perch in their cat stand and groom each other. They enjoy play fighting, which can get rough, but I don’t believe they’re genuine cat fights. It seems more like hyper play between two cats who’ve got energy to burn. They get particularly excited when we come home after a long day, and they’ll chase each other through the house and start wrestling to celebrate. It does appear at times that Romeo is a bit more timid and overly concerned with what his brother is doing. He jumps a little more at strange noises, and sometimes if someone is holding or petting the other cat, he’ll sit off to the side and stare, and he just has this look about him that’s hard to describe. Sulky, maybe! Sometimes if he’s sitting on my lap or near me and the other cat walks in the room, he’ll jump down or walk away after a minute or so. But I have never seen any signs of bullying, although his brother is bigger (mainly due to the fact that he eats too much). He also seems restless at times. For example, at night he’ll come sleep in my bed, but 10 minutes later he’ll jump down and go off somewhere. Then 10 minutes later he’ll be back in my bed…then he’ll jump back down again… But there have also been times I woke up in the middle of the night and he’s sleeping in bed, so…
One of our neighbors did have an older indoor/outdoor cat, and I saw him on our patio once and in our yard once, but that’s it. I think the cat might have passed away recently, actually. I’ve been pondering the possibility that the other cat urinated around our house, but I kind of doubt it. I also doubt that they’re getting spooked by seeing any animals roaming about, because our blinds are usually closed.
I’m not sure what our best options are. I’m very frustrated because I know this issue won’t be tolerated for much longer. We had a period of respite, and then he peed in the master bathroom’s shower, which was a new spot for him. We crossed our fingers and hoped that he was only confused by the square shape of the shower, and had mistaken it for some sort of box, but on May 7th he peed on the floor in the bathroom. Fast-forward a bit, and we once again thought the problem was over. But on January sixth he peed in the kitchen only about 3-4 feet away from his food, and my mother told me that he peed on top of a cooler in the basement a few weeks prior (which I hadn’t known about). The kitchen spot is exactly what I was dreading – it’s not in a room/area that can be closed off. Everywhere else we’ve been able to block or keep closed, but this is smack dab in the middle of the house.
So in summary he has peed:
Behind the TV stand in the living room
In the back corner of the living room (near a window)
In the dining room next to a book case in the corner (near a window)
In the master bathroom on the floor and in the shower (this bathroom does have two windows)
In various (3-4) spots in the basement
In the kitchen 2-3 ft away from his food (near sliding glass doors)
God knows if he’s peeing anywhere else we haven’t noticed. We can’t smell anything, so I don’t think so, but it’s hard to keep track since he keeps moving around. This is just getting so confusing because he’s peeing all over! It’s not just one spot or even one room, and I no longer know what to do. I have cried buckets over this issue and prayed my heart out, all to no avail. Frankly I’m amazed by mother hasn’t carted him off to be put down already. If this cat were to pee on someone’s bed or on the furniture, he’s a goner. Period. My parents will not tolerate thousands of dollars’ worth in damage in a fairly new home. My mother told me the vets informed her flat out that this probably isn’t fixable, that the cat just “wants” to pee wherever (which I thought was a stupid thing to say), and one of them said she’d previously put down a cat of her own because of the same issue. So basically, they’re really not helping.
I’m in the process of buying more of the Spirit Essence drops that are put into water/on the fur, more Feliway spray (we tried the diffuser and it smelled like it was burning after a while), and three new litter boxes to replace the old ones. We use those jumbo concrete mixing tubs you can get at Home Depot/Menards in addition to some of the large-size litter boxes available at pet stores. But guys….I don’t have many more tricks up my sleeve. I would sooner chop off all of my toes than choose to euthanize this cat, but my family can’t afford to have a house badly damaged by a little cat. We just don’t have that kind of money. And cat urine is a very difficult thing to deal with. This is killing me. Does anyone have ANY words of advice?
I on the other hand solved my cat peeing problems by scooping the box more often. I used to clean it every other night. That's what worked for me in the past. Until we got this new kitten & he started peeing in the floor beside the box. So I started cleaning it nightly & I haven't had any issues since
