Inappropriate peeing behavior...does this sound like a good plan?

Hey folks,

In the last two days, one of my cats, Toby, has peed / pooped in my room. Let me start out by saying that I believe this to be 1. my fault (I'll explain) and 2. him repeating what he did yesterday...

I know that anytime a cat pees outside of the box, you should take them to a vet... However, I have a vet appt. on Wednesday for Frazier, so I may take Toby along if my plan doesn't fix matters.

The facts:
1. I seperate toby from the two kittens during feeding time (because he is on a limited diet due to possible allergy).
2. I put toby in my room, and feed the kittens in the kitchen.
3. I release toby after the kittens and he have finished eating.
4. The "peeing" only started yesterday during such a feeding scenerio.

The situation (Thursday night):
- I seperated the cats as usual, gave toby and the kittens wet food, and confined toby to my room while they ate.
- I left toby in my room for about 1 hour (the kittens were being slow eating their food and I hate to waste wet food).
- When I let him out I noticed the unmistakable odor of poo (he had pooped on my bed) and later found that he had peed in a cat bed in the room as well.

Actions I took:
- Thuroughly sprayed both spots with nature's miracle (after disposing of the waste)
- Stripped the bed and washed the sheets and comforter and washed the bed. (used regular detergent on both and pinesol on the bed).
- Put different set of sheets on the bed

The situation (Friday night-today)
- I had to seperate them again to feed them, but this time, they ate dry food and Toby was only in my room for 5 minutes tops.
- I opened the door to find him "leaving the scene of the crime" as he jumped off of my bed-where he had peed on the comforter yet again.

Actions I took:
- Stripped bed and sheets (yet again). Sprayed bed and comforter with nature's miracle and washed all soiled linnens.


The plan:
- Wash all soiled laundry at least twice, this time around... pinesol, nature's miracle, the whole nine yards... and let everything air-dry thuroughly.
- Put a litter box in my room (for use only when confining cats there to eat).
- For the next week or so, allow no cat access to my room, unless supervised.
- When seperating cats for feeding, confine kittens in my room and toby out in the kitchen (with litterbox access).
- Keep a litter box in my room for use when confining cats.


Do you think this will work?
At this point, I think this has just become a "habit" for Toby, also, maybe the comforter was not washed well enough, so it still carried the "scent" of where he had pooped on it before. I'm hoping that thuroughly removing any traces of the poo/pee and keeping him away from that area (in the short term) will help him "forget" this new habit.

Also, important to note, Toby hasn't had any other "accidents" in any part of the house. He also did not go on my bed during the day (when the door was open).

Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Art

It sounds like a stress reaction. Putting a litter box in the room is a good idea.

I've had issues with nature's miracle, meaning when we used it sometimes it required multiple applications.

Also, when washing soiled clothing or sheets, we always do a round of wash with JUST the enzyme cleaner as if it were the soap, bleach and fabric softener - and then we wash them again like regular. Someone recommended washing soiled clothes when in the detergent round with Deft (a detergent I'm not familiar with).

Yeah - whenever we confine kitties, we make sure there's food, water and litter, even if for an hour or two. (But we free feed our cats).

If your plan fixes it, you're probably OK. But stress can also cause a UTI flair up, so if there's still a problem, I would bring him to the vet.

The other thing you can do is try purchasing the litter additive Cat Attract. It may help.

Laurie

It sounds to me Toby is not a happy camper! Do you have to separate them when you feed them? I think it would be best to maybe play with Toby while feeding the kittens, or feed them all at the same time and watch till they are done. I'm sure this would take less time then the clean up........
My beloved Pandi in her 16 years urinated and pooped on my bed 3 separate times. All 3 times I was on vacation and someone took care of her while I was gone.........she was pissed at me!

Thanks for your replies...
I've also been thinking that maybe the shelter didn't give us his exact age (he could be a good bit older than 4 years) so maybe age has something to do with it.

cheylink- I've been seperating them to feed for the last several months...Even before the allergy issues, toby can be a pig and will leave his food to try and sneak some of the other cats food... which is why I have to seperate them. If I even think about opening up the food container he is there instantly, so playing while the others eat wouldn't fly (to him, food = happiness I guess).

This was the first time that he had an "accident" when seperated, however, as I said in the first post, this was the longest time that he had been confined (my fault) w/o a box... So maybe yesterday's peeing was a result of "habit" from the day before and me not getting all of the odor out of the sheets.

I will definately be putting a box in there and today I confined the kittens to my room and toby out in the kitchen (so he had access to the box) and no problems so far. I'll keep going with that arrangement and see how it goes for now (until I can get a box going in that room).

I'm not sure on the stress thing...Nothing has changed in the last several months, other than his diet and he doesn't show any other stress signs.
I am concerned that along with possible age, this could also be a sign of his declining health. Along with allergies, he has an enlarged heart (and ocassional seizures).

Thanks again for all of your help.... This is the first time I've dealt with this sort of problem.
Art

With my cats, their routine is eat, the use the litter box. If he was in the room without a litter box and left in there for a period of time, then that could very well be what caused it. And yes...if you didn't get the smell out with the first wash he will do it again. Hopefully, this wash will solve the problem. I think it may be habit for him.

Are you giving him anything for his seizures, or are they rare? Reason I'm asking, Monster has seizures and has to have phenobarbital every day, and sometimes vailum to keep her from going into a seizure. This is because of one little ant trap that we didn't throw away and she found when she was only a few months old and it poisoned her system. I was just curious if you have to give him medication for it.

calico- I'm not giving him any meds for them. The seizures are rare, plus he has a heart condition (which meds might affect). And, on top of that, he HATES taking oral meds. Vet said that in this case it wasn't worth it as once they get on the meds, you must keep them on the meds or risk the seizures getting worse, etc.

Art

Well after two days of pee-free goodness he struck again, this time on my clothes

Today I took him (along with my kitten frazier) to the vet. Just to make sure. Well, apparently he has crystals in his urin. Which, according to the vet, could be caused by either bacteria (yay! antibiotics) or the food he's on for his possible allergy issues. So, maybe it IS a medical problem after all. I hope so, as that should be easier to clear up than a behavioral issue.

Art