Cats are destroying my house

I agree with the peroxide solution. When mycat Henry had a UTI and started peeing in the corner, then all the other cats started peeing in the corner, I used it...after I had bough Urine-off ($20 for a little spray bottle that didn't do squat by the way). The peroxide got all the smell out and everyone stopped peeing in the corner.

I've heard that using a predator urine product can help to keep stray cats away from your property. I wonder if using such a product outdoors around your home to keep the strays away might help? Perhaps someone here has tried it and may have some feedback?

http://www.critter-repellent.com/cat...-flowerbed.php
http://www.predatorpee.com/

How are you doing?

Well, neither of the cats will stay in the basement. Every time someone opens the door, they run in and hide. The rooms I have cleaned are still being sprayed in, but keeping up with it much better now with the black light. I am still very unhappy and very discouraged.

Originally Posted by Butterflyy

Well, neither of the cats will stay in the basement. Every time someone opens the door, they run in and hide. The rooms I have cleaned are still being sprayed in, but keeping up with it much better now with the black light. I am still very unhappy and very discouraged.

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I am sorry to hear this! I wonder if you can put a poof can (I think they call it SSScat, it is at Petsmart) and stick a few by the door so they can't run out so fast. Or stick up a tall baby gate or exercise pen so you can catch them before they have the chance to dart out into the house and spray all over.

Originally Posted by hissy

I
Buy the book- Dusty talks about this issue in several chapters, because if someone has over 3 cats and tells you they don't have a sprayer in the group, they are either in denial, or lying. It is how cats communicate and they communicate in groups through signals (scents) in their urines-

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Sorry but that just isn't true. I have 4 and none of them spray.

Originally Posted by mschauer

Sorry but that just isn't true. I have 4 and none of them spray.

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I have never had more than one cat but did find that fact alarming! Have you blacklighted your home lately? Now I want to do that too!

Originally Posted by cococat

I have never had more than one cat but did find that fact alarming! Have you blacklighted your home lately? Now I want to do that too!

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I've never had a cat that sprayed but from what others have said if you have one that does you would know it. Very stinky!

I think the more accurate statement would be that the more cats you have the more likely you will have one that is territorial enough to spray. None of mine is territorial so none of them feel the need to spray.

At what point is enough, enough? Just reading your posts I can tell you have so much love for these cats. If it was me, they would be barn cats by now. They are so lucky to have you. You also sound like a much better house keeper than me. A black light In my house would reveal lots of sins!

I hope something changes, and remember, living in your basement is better than at a shelter or abandoned. Good Luck.

The peroxide mixture does work. No offense to anyone but some of the store bought stuff is ok but not great.
My Cleo was a pee pee machine in my old apartment and I was at my wits end. He peed on my new bed with my excellent soft sheets, on the floor, he ruined a sectional I had just peeing everywhere. He sprayed one time and it confused him because he is neutered. As a small kitten too.
I think he would have been a Tom like his father if he had not been fixed.
Anyway, I was over it and near tears every time I would stumble upon another area of pee pee.
Confining him was a must. He lived in the bathroom and then in my daughter's room. He peed a few times but we cleaned it up. Then he stopped.
We moved here and my stupid ex put one of the old pee pee rugs in the cat room so he peed a few more times. I discovered this past weekend. The peroxide helps with Cat attract in every box, feliway and I have herbal medicine if that doesn't work. De Elsy who makes Cat Atract makes some herbal mixture to add to the cat attract to extra attract the cats.
You are being held a prisoner by these cats and they have some serious issues. I wonder if you separate them that that will retrain them. Cleo was reacting to his brother as well as leftover cat smells from the prior tenant.

These two can not be allowed into the general living area until you find a solution beyond cleaning.

Originally Posted by laureen227

the only time i smell pee is when it rains - mostly in the kitchen... i think i'm smelling where the feral toms have sprayed [actually saw one doing it last night!]
going to try trapping everyone this summer & getting them all fixed. i have 3 traps now!

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Same here...when it rains its just *gag*...also when it starts getting hotter out the smell is just awful. PLUS we have all the strays on the front porch who pee. I can't win, inside or outside I am surrounded by pee. Most days I wish I could just spray the inside of my house down like I do on the porch lol.

Unfortunately there is no other room in this house we can put the cat or cats in besides the basement. We use the door alot because the washer and dryer is down there, and the cats refuse to stay in there. We have quite a few nasty bites and scratches already from trying to keep them in there. There is one room in there if we could clear out, we could keep them in that room in the basement and shut the door. But that would be a project in itself because the room is filled with boxes.

In my case I really don't think ANYTHING is going to work to make them stop spraying. I know that Basement is the one who does it more, so I guess he should be the one confined. All I can do right now is just keep up with that black light everyday and cleaning the spots I see they have sprayed in since yesterday.

Also: Does anyone know if cats will spray/compete for territory with dog urine?

Your cats sound like they are really stressed out. Stress is not good for any of you. Have you tried any of the remedies for the cats outside? You have to start there and you have to remove the smell. Not wash it down but use the product to completely remove the urine smell. That must be done first or your cats are going to continue to spray.

Your cats are spraying to mark their territory from the outside cats. Did you try that derrent for the outside cats?

Are there any rescue groups in your area? You can call them and alert them to the outside cat situation.

I would hate to be in your situation and Im sure its so dfificult, but you are going to have drastic measures in order to remedy the problem, so your cats can come back upstairs again.

I asked this in my last post but not sure if anyone saw it.

Does anyone know if cats will spray/compete for territory with dog urine?

Originally Posted by Butterflyy

there is nothing I can do to keep all those cats out of our yard really.


I am ordering the stuff you mentioned in your post, I am willing to try anything so that everyone can live happily in the house, but for now the bad boys will have to move into the basement. .

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You could get a dog for the backyard! Just kidding!

I know you're really frustrated but let me say congratulations on your tenacity to make everything work out for your family. Because I run a professional pet sitting business, I hear from people all the time who want to find a new home for their pets because "it's not working out." The pets grow up, they're not cute anymore and suddenly they're an inconvenience to their owners. I HATE that. There are some cases where finding a new home makes a lot of sense and is a good option but too many pet owners are quitters. You are NO quitter! If after everything you've tried you still feel that the boys need a new home at least you'll be able to say, "I exhausted every option," rather than, "They were good cats but it just didn't work out," as so many less dedicated pet owners do.

Butterflyy I can certainly sympathize with you as I have the same problem but I think only one of my males is spraying (Like you, I also have two male littermates). He is my alpha (and has been since we adopted them 8 years ago!) while his brother is very timid and skiddish. We took in a stray female 6 years ago and the alpha male's spraying commenced within the first year after she joined our family. They do not get a long. All three cats have been neutered/spayed. I am at my wits end with the spraying... I have tried everything - all night I've been looking online to purchase two new couches since he has completely ruined mine and last weekend (after I ripped up all the carpeting), my husband had to rip out sections of our subfloor AND the boards under that (yep, big hole in our living room floor that two of the three cats jumped in and landed in the basement! Unfortunately the sprayer wasn't one of them! LOL!). What a huge mess and expense - I'm constantly cleaning his spray mess... I have confined the female within the last two days (during the day she stays in my daughter's room and at night she is out in the garage). I have spend hundreds of dollars on ScatMats to keep him from getting close enough to spray all four sides of my couches. Tonight, my daughter left my bedroom door open and all it took was a minute for him to go in there and spray all over her senior portrait that was being stored in my room while I painted the living room walls. Needless to say, he and his brother are confined to the basement. His brother is the sweetest thing and has a bit of a hairball problem, but he does not pee outside of his litter box. Should I separate the two males and let the "good" one come upstairs? I am calling the vet first thing in the morning to see if I can get him started on that antidepressant. I am just done with this. I cry myself to sleep all the time thinking that I am going to have to take him back to the shelter from which we adopted him 8 years ago I don't know what else to do because he will surely continue to spray in the basement as well. I am stressed beyond what I can take now. If the antidepressant does not work, I have no other choice but to take him back... it's to the point now that it's either me or him. So sad because he's a sweet cat who loves to snuggle and comes running when we call him. I'm just really sad and frustrated. If anyone else has had this terrible of a problem and has tried the antidepressant, I would appreciate any feedback. Thank you and good luck Butterflyy. At least with him in the basement tonight, I don't have to wake up to urine spray all over my kitchen counter and up under the top cabinets.

LeppardChica, I am so sorry to hear you are going through this as well. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

Tonight was just the straw that broke the camels back for me. I keep cleaning up pee in my kitchen. I SEE the male cats do it, but I was suspecting that my male dog was peeing in there as well, hence my question about cat/dog competing for territory.

Indeed, my male dog is peeing in the kitchen. He marks on the kitchen table legs, and the boy cats are spraying still on the counters, fridge, and baseboards. I am going to lose it, I can feel it coming. I spent a good 2 hours crying tonight. I am exhausted and so frustrated.

So the Urine-Off came yesterday, which I cleaned up all over downstairs with. Today there was spray all over again. Even IF this stuff worked I could not afford to buy this on a regular basis to keep both my indoor cats and the outdoor ones off my porch. It is the same thing with the Feliway...if I decide to "try" multi diffusers in each of the rooms...that is ALOT of money each month for the refills. I am spending like 2+ hours a day going over the SAME DAMN SPOTS I cleaned the day before. My back is killing me, my nerves are frayed.

My dog, which I had held off on getting neutered because we were contemplating on breeding him, is an easy solution. He will be neutered, and dogs can be trained, and if not trained he will wear the pee-pee wrap around his belly to keep him from marking in the house.

This spring/summer we were supposed to start our house remodeling in order to get ready to sell it. What point is there now, with these cats ruining everything. They are pissing all over my basement and all of my storage and boxes down there for the few hours they will stay confined in there. I am embarassed to have anyone even come over anymore because of this smell.

I love these cats with all my heart. I cannot afford these expensive litters, cleansers, and diffusers though...even if they DID work. If I choose to let the biggest of the 2 boys out, the one who is DYING to get outside and the one who sprays the most, I will worry non-stop and I will be sick with worry about him.

I still have the option of the anti-depressants. I called my vet, and because we are new patients they will need to see the cats to prescribe the meds. I will have to worry about this after we get back from our MUCH needed vacation coming up. Until then I will keep using the Urine-off, and will continue to mix up the bottles of that peroxide mixture...at least I can afford that.

Again please, if anyone knows anything about cats and dogs and the whole marking thing, let me know. My male only used to mark when my female dog would go in heat, but she is not in heat now.

EDIT - I thought about making this a new post but decided to add it in here. How do you KNOW if your cats really like one another? These 2 boys seem to get along, they will sit together and look out the back screen together, and I often see them grooming one another. But several times a day they engage in battles....slamming each other on the floor etc. Right now, the big excitement is the box that a fan we recently bought came in. They LOVE boxes, and are battling non stop over who gets to lay on the box.

I have never been a multi-cat owner until these cats came into my life about a year and a half ago. I know alot about animals, but this whole situation has me perplexed. Maybe the 2 boys just really hate each other? What do you all think is going on here?

I doubt the boys hate each other. If they will sit next to one another and be relaxed that's a really good sign that they like one another. The issue with the box is probably mostly play but there may also be some dominance issues going on as well. Each cat is trying to be dominate over the other and neither is the clear "boss". You'll sometimes see alpha's go up to a cat who's sitting or laying somewhere and move them off the spot and take it for themselves for no other reason than they can. Vying for dominance explains excessive marking too. If one cat could establish himself as the boss things would settle down for you. You may consider changing your mix and put one male and one female together upstairs and the other two in the basement. Rearranging them with the females might help set clear patterns of dominance and get them to chill. There's no guarantee that that will work but after all you've gone through it's worth a shot.

I worked hard on Cleo's pee problem and I think I found a good solution. I bought 2 HUGE open litterboxes. I put Cat Attract in it and I clean them twice a day.
I used pee cleaners recipe plus 2 caps full of bleach and some vinegar. It WORKS! I went over the space and walls twice. Then I did a vinegar and water the next day. Now this is hardwood floors and walls.
Use the recipe but add a cap full of bleach and vinegar.

Give it a try.
I asked my friend who is a cat expert and she said it may be the males reacting to each other. Separate the males and see what happens.

Gosh, I really feel for you in this situation. I can too can see how much you love your animals but I don't know how long I could cope with that! I was just wondering, how many animals do you have in total? Do they all get along? I read that you have four litter boxes in on room and two others around the house, do you think that you could distribute them 1 box to one room? I know that that may not be pleasant in some rooms but its better than just random pee everywhere! I also understand that these things are not cheap and I too could not really afford the endless cleaning supplies and the rest. I was wondering if a solution could be the litterboxes with the covers over them, you know, the whole box ones that they actually go inside? Again, this is more expense but could work. My sister has three cats and the boy used to 'guard' the litterbox and intimidate the girls, so they would just pee all over thhe furniture, could that be an issue? If, so boxes equally spread around the house could be an answer. Feliway could help too. I really do sympathise with your problem, I wish you all the est of luck.