My cats are ruining everything

[MamaJenese]

This problem has been going on since we moved three years ago. We have two male cats about 12 and 14. They are peeing on everything. Everything. If my children leave a stuffed toy on the ground they pee on it. They have peed in the dress up box twice, even though we keep that door closed all the time they still managed twice to get in there and pee. They have peed on our couch, our bed, any basket or box they can get to. Recently they peed on a wooden school house bench. We keep as many doors closed to as many rooms as possible but I have two toddlers so some doors need to be open. We tired serperating them, there is no where were we could lock them up. They have been to the vet he basically said they are old and cranky no real medical problems. Everything in my house has been soaked in natures miracle. They have two litter boxes each that are cleaned all the time. I live in fear of finding random puddles. I feel like I small cat pee everywhere I go (even though most of the time it is in my head). I am going to loose my mind. It is immpossible to re home old cats (especailly pain in the ass old cats that pee on everything with out a heartbeat) . But I feel like they are ruining our home. They are my husbands cats from before we got together which were actually abandoned at his place by his ex. THis is really a rant but Ideas are welcome. Now I smell cat pee in the office, off to fing sniff everything.

[Subhuti]

Gee- this is really hard. You can see my post about the cat peeing on the bed ... it's very gross. But you have it bad!

Thank god for petastic/nature's miracle.

What we have done for now is to confine our cat onto a floor where she has no access to beds or things that we are worried she'll destroy. If she is also peeing in strange places there, I'm going to bring her to a vet in case she has a UTI. But my suspicion is the peeing was as a statement, not a medical situation. Our cat is three.

If it continues in our situation we are going to keep our cat out of the main part of the house. I can't have bedding / beds being out of commission for days on end while I treat the cat pee in it. Right now we're sort of doubling up but it means we're not getting a lot of sleep.

We are like you, it's very hard to keep shutting bedroom doors, etc. when you have little kids. In fact, it's impossible, when you add in a husband!

Just sending out commiseration. It really stinks!

Liz

[outlier]

Can I ask what you feed them?

For the record, my cat does not pee outside the litterbox, but I thought I'd throw this out there anyway in case it may be useful. I switched my cat from dry kibble to raw food about six weeks ago, and the behavioral change that most surprised me is the fact that she hardly drinks any water now. I use the same water bowl that I've always used with her, and all the years I've had her I never knew how much she was drinking compared to how much was just evaporating. When she was on kibble, her water would get pretty low after only three or four days. Now that she only eats raw meat, her bowl is still half full after a whole week, and I end up changing the water just to keep it from getting mildew. She's healthy, happy, and maintaining her weight well, but she doesn't pee or poop nearly as much as she used to. Maybe a diet change could improve the situation?

I'm so sorry you're dealing with this! I can't imagine how frustrated I would be if I were in your shoes.

[MamaJenese]

Thanks for listening ladies. I will look into changing their diet. At this point I would look into anything! The thing about confining the cats is there is only room that they could really be confined in and they can not be locked in a room togther, last time they got in a fight and one ended up injured. We don't let them on the floor where the beds are but occasionally on of the kids leaves the door at the top of the stairs open and they immediatly run to the bed and pee. ugggg.

[FloridaBorn]

Cat aficionados will throw rotten vegetables at me for this suggestion, but is there any way you can put the animals outside?

Now, I live in Florida so the winter isn't terrible, but my old Mama Cat lives outside and always has. If it's cold and rainy, she comes in *AND* let's me know when she needs to go back out to relieve herself. I absolutely do NOT do litter boxes.

My mom also keeps her cats outside and instead of letting them in when it's cold she puts two heating pads, covered with a bath towel, in the laundry room for the cats to sleep on.

I realize this is not a possibility for folks who live in apartments or on busy streets.

I have had outdoor cats since I was a girl and they have led long and healthy lives.


>> begin throwing of sticks and soggy tomatoes <<

[Krisis]

Our cats did that and we had them neutered. No more problems! But they were a year old at that point, not old like yours. If they aren't neutered, I would get that done. If they are, dude, I'd put them in a stew or something. I hate the smell of cat pee. Especially from cats that know better.

(HEAR THAT KRISIS' CATS?! YOU BETTER NOT PEE ON ANYTHING OR YOU'RE STEW!)

[womenswisdom]

A few suggestions:

1. Get them neutered if they aren't already
2. Have a full urinalysis (chemistry and sediment) done
3. Have a full blood panel (including thyroids) done

If all is physically normal, here is some behavioral information. You should have one litterbox per cat plus one additional box. They should be in separate areas of the house if at all possible. Cats are fastidious about litterboxes, so these should be scooped at least once daily.

It's usually one cat in the house who is doing the urinating. It sounds like the two cats don't get along all that well if they fight to the point of injury when confined to the same room, so you're probably dealing with intercat agression. If it's on horizontal surfaces, it's probably not a dominance/marking issue and is more likely the submissive cat. The submissive cat may be urinating outside the box because it doesn't want to pee where the dominant cat goes, as urinating asserts dominance (so multiple boxes are good, as the dominant cat will typically have a preference and the submissive cat can go elsewhere). Or the dominant cat could be ambushing the submissive cat in the box. Either way, if it comes down to it, you could try medicating the submissive cat to reduce its stress level. You can use Prozac, Paxil, amitriptyline, Buspar. Just like with humans, it usually takes a few weeks to see full effect and you may need to try a couple types before you find the one that works for your cat. Your cat is not doing this to be hateful, it is a stress reaction (assuming it's not a medical issue) and if you can find the source of the stress, you can help get the cat back in the box. Good luck, cat pee stinks (ask me how I know).

[Dingletwitz]

once my cat started that type of thing he became an outside cat. In winter, totally confined to a place I could clean it up.....I never really escaped the smell of cat pee until I moved, and never could tolerate a cat again. I can't handle juniper plants either as I swear they smell like cat pee.

[Oubliette8]

Have you tried Cat Attract litter? Its supposed to be great for this type of thing, but pricey. You can also buy an additive to add to your own litter thats less expensive, I think its made by Petastic, or you can buy just the additive from the Cat Attract folks.

There's also Feliway, which is a plug in you use thats supposed to give off calming cat pheromones (don't worry, you cant smell them). Some folks swear by it, others don't see much difference, but it might be worth a try.