Thread: Need Help with Pet Cats!!!

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We need help with a cat/litterbox issue...

We own two wonderful Devon Rex cats. One is 9 years old and the other is almost 3. They are both wonderful cats, but recently we have been having some "potty" issues. We have two litter boxes -- which we clean regularly. We have the feliway plug-ins in three locations (kitchen, bedroom with litter boxes, and upstairs). We took our older cat in last month to clear up a UTI, but she should be healthy now.

Okay, that's the background info, here's the problem:

Both cats are peeing on objects in the bedroom with the litterboxes. If a book is on the floor, they'll pee on it. My daughter had her shoes on the floor, and the younger one walked right over and uninated on the shoe. This has been going on for a year now and I just don't know what to do anymore. I like our cats, but we can't allow them to continue weeing on everything. There have even been occasions where one of the cats will sit on the track matt in front of the litter box and just pee there.

Please, PLEASE!!!

If there are any vets or knowledgeable cat owners on this thread, give me your advice. My wife hopes to take both cats in to the vet again this morning, but we're at the end of our patience. We are actually talking about giving them up (to friends, not the pound).

How recently? Did it come soon after any new craziness in your household (little one starting to walk, new pet, visitors come to stay for a while....)

Are the boxes in a quiet and private location or a major traffic zone? Next to the washer or in a busy area can hit them wrong and they'll decide their boxes are no longer "safe."

Changed the type/brand of litter recently?

Are the boxes open or closed type?


The first thing that springs to mind is UTI or kidney issues (weird if they both have one). If they're both healthy then I'd run through these changes:

• move boxes to quiet and private area and treat every accident area with enzyme cleaner (from pet store) so there is absolutely no trace on carpet/floor to make them think it is okay to continue to go there

• switch litters. Try a different brand of the same type.

• If you have two boxes that are the same type, I'd get one different and try that. One closed and one open box so they have a choice.

• Make sure they aren't being messed with when they go in to their litterboxes. I had one cat that started peeing on a bathroom rug and we were totally confused, but it turns out one of the other cats was stalking her everytime she went to the box (had two closed ones so she got ambushed when she came out).

• one cat I had a while back was diagnosed with crystals (calicium) in his urine. (Male cats get this apparently) and we had to put him on some meds to try to control that.



I know how yucky it is to deal with this. I would try all of it, but see if any of it makes sense to you and do what you can. Hope something works; it would suck having to get rid of a family pet. They might just be reaching their threshold for dealing with a busy household with kids and need a family without the high activity levels. (That's wonderful if you have someone that can take them. Animals with "known" bathroom problems tend to not get adopted)

Good luck!

Originally Posted by Frankie's Girl

How recently? Did it come soon after any new craziness in your household (little one starting to walk, new pet, visitors come to stay for a while....)

We have a three month old (our fourth daughter). It is possible the cats are not getting enough attention and this is their way of retaliating, but this has been going on for a year or more, and M.J. is only three months old.

Originally Posted by Frankie's Girl

Are the boxes in a quiet and private location or a major traffic zone? Next to the washer or in a busy area can hit them wrong and they'll decide their boxes are no longer "safe."

The boxes are in my oldest daughter's bedroom. She sleeps alone, and is gone to school most of the time. Her door has a cat door, so the kitties always have access. It is a quiet place, in a quiet area of the home.

Originally Posted by Frankie's Girl

Changed the type/brand of litter recently?

Are the boxes open or closed type?

We changed litter about six months ago, thinking that may have been the problem with the cats. At first, we didn't know which cat may have been peeing outside the box. Later, we learned it was both of them.

Originally Posted by Frankie's Girl

The first thing that springs to mind is UTI or kidney issues (weird if they both have one). If they're both healthy then I'd run through these changes:

We took our older kitty in last month, she did have a UTI, we gave her the meds and she should be all better.

Originally Posted by Frankie's Girl

• move boxes to quiet and private area and treat every accident area with enzyme cleaner (from pet store) so there is absolutely no trace on carpet/floor to make them think it is okay to continue to go there.

As I said, the boxes are currently in the quietest area of the house. The strange thing about their peeing is they pee on objects in my daughter's room. As far as we know, they haven't urinated on the carpet at all, it's always on a book cover, her school binder, her shoes, etc. I have been pleeding with my daughter that these are all signs she should keep her room clean, but this morning, as soon as she put a book on the floor while packing up her backpack for school, one of the cats came in a urinated on it!!

Originally Posted by Frankie's Girl

• switch litters. Try a different brand of the same type.

• If you have two boxes that are the same type, I'd get one different and try that. One closed and one open box so they have a choice.

• Make sure they aren't being messed with when they go in to their litterboxes. I had one cat that started peeing on a bathroom rug and we were totally confused, but it turns out one of the other cats was stalking her everytime she went to the box (had two closed ones so she got ambushed when she came out).

• one cat I had a while back was diagnosed with crystals (calicium) in his urine. (Male cats get this apparently) and we had to put him on some meds to try to control that.

I will search for the cover to one of our boxes and see if that helps.

My wife is calling the vet this morning to take both cats in and have them looked at again.

Originally Posted by Frankie's Girl

I know how yucky it is to deal with this. I would try all of it, but see if any of it makes sense to you and do what you can. Hope something works; it would suck having to get rid of a family pet. They might just be reaching their threshold for dealing with a busy household with kids and need a family without the high activity levels. (That's wonderful if you have someone that can take them. Animals with "known" bathroom problems tend to not get adopted)

Good luck!

We have friends that are real cat lovers. They work with outreach programs and have several older cats themselves. The only problem is, they wouldn't be able to adopt our cats until March, so we have six months to see if we can resolve the issues. I really hope we can, as I like our kitties.

Thank you for the detailed response. I will try what we can and see what the vet says. Keep those ideas and experiences coming.

Of course, it may just be our rambuntious two-year-old! She can be rather loud. She stays downstairs, and lots of time the kitties can just come upstairs when they need to. I might take one of the litter boxes upstairs, too! That may help.

If they've urinated in a place before , maybe the older one that had the urinary tract infection.. may have had an previous accident and they might still be picking up on strong scents and thinking "hey this is a toilet spot"

Get a good cat urine odour neutraliser Urine Off 500mL Spray Bottle Urine Stain and Odor Remover that's the one I've used in the past, get hold of a UV light or torch and go around the room looking for any glowing radioactive UV cat pee.

What brand of litter so you use? we have 4 cats and I love litter pearls, they're silica based and absorb the cat pee so it keeps odours locked in. I'm surprised you're having a problem because you use two trays so it's not being caused by a litter tray sharing issue. I agree with Frankies Girl get a hooded litter tray in case you have modest cats.

The if you catch them about to do a pee, clap your hands and say "NO" firmly. Then pick them up and take them to their litter tray, put them in and say good girl/boy and reward them with cuddles if they do it in the box.

We had a cat that was like that eventually it got sorted out

I have two cats and every once there was a "outside the box" problem.
We found out that one of the cats will not go in the box if she feels it smells off.
I started cleaning the box out in the morning and evening.
Problem solved.
We had a automatic cleaning box for a while,and that works well if they go in the middle of it.
If they tend to go one the edges,the cleaning arm binds up.
Good luck

We are having the same prob. One of our old cats, female and now dead, had a bladder prob. We cleaned up all the spots and treated them. When I found a female cat and brought her home she decided to piss anywhere and **** anywhere she wanted. She was declawed but, I found her out in the wilderness. We have three cat boxes, one for each of the cats. They are in a quiet spot and get cleaned out twice a day. Now the boys have decided to **** wherever they want to. It's driving me nuts! The female now will **** in front of the dryer, on the other side of the room from the cat boxes but, the males will sometimes go in the box or in the family room, stairs, living room, etc. etc. Sometimes I think it's more of an emotional thing. The one who doesn't get enough attention will act out.

All the suggestions here are great ones, I also would ask a vets for suggestions, or even research on the web, there are many sites that offer help with cat issues. I have a sister in law who has one of her cats on a medication, a anti anxiety type thing to help
Growler, I don't know what to say, you have got something going on there , that seems more than just basic peeing problems, I would , like I said before, check on feline behavioral problem sites, or in our town, believe it or not, we actually have a cat shrink type person!!
Best of luck to you all, i know how hard it is, right now I have a plastic mat, with the pokey things to have it stick to the carpet, pokey side up , under where my bird was, before my little guy died, for some reason, the seed that would fall or what, but I had a cat that decided one day to pee there. so now, if they want to go there they have to walk on pokey things,

We have cleaned the carpet and moved on of the two litter boxes upstairs, so now there is a litterbox on each floor. We also discussed the problem with the vet and she prescribed "kitty prozac" for our little kitties. (it's a pain because they're pills and we have to give 1/2 a pill a day to our older cat and 1/4 of a pill to our younger cat every day! Fortunately, my wife has volunteered to take on that task.

So far, so good. New food with more protein, plus some cat treats called "cat-berries" (it's a chewy little treat with a cranberry center. Supposed to help protect against UTIs by increasing the natural acidity.)

Shoulda got dogs!

I just figure your hands were full with the kids as it were TK!