Peeing on the bed

I made a post on one of my cats peeing on the bed a few months ago, and now we've figured out who the culprit is. Its Mogley, the one and only male cat (11yrs) and he ended up having crystals and hyperthyroidism. He's been on the crystal food from the vet for a couple months now and he still pees on the bed every chance he gets. My bf had just about had enough, and I don't know what to do anymore. We try to keep him downstairs at night while my bf's son is sleeping (that's the only bed he pees on) and we shut the door during the day but with a 5 yr old boy doors don't always stay shut and I normally have to wash at least 3 sets of blankets a week.

I'm basically looking for ideas and suggestions of what I can try to get him to stop peeing where he shouldn't be. Its getting to a point where the whole upstairs of our house smells like cat pee and its just not healthy. We've got a plastic mattress cover and I spray the bed down with an enzyme cleaner whenever I clean it and I've even tried spraying lemon jiuce on the plastic to see if that would keep him from peeing (he hates any citrus smells) but that only worked for maybe 4 hours.

This is weird. I do child care in my home, so of course I have a couple of porta-beds up. (Or I did - now I can only leave them up if a kid is sleeping in them). My two male cats have nailed these beds on separate occasions. Dusty sprays the outside of the beds, while Mickey squats and pees in them. (Thankfully I've caught them early enough to thoroughly clean)

Mickey has been diagnosed with UTI's when he has done this, but why the baby's beds? Dusty has had UTI's as well, but now I think he's developed the habit of spraying (we brought in a feral female this past Fall; he wasn't thrilled about it).

But it makes me wonder - in your case it's only the 5-year-old's bed. Here it's the baby's beds. I had a male cat a few years ago who only sprayed in our toy room. It was maddening. Do these cats sense the high energy of a kid and not like it?

I don't have any advice, sorry. Your story just really made me wonder...

Did you ever take him to the vet for a follow-up visit to make sure the crystals were cleared? He may still have a UTI. I have a male cat who suffers from them. Normally he never urinates anywhere except in the litter box, but when he has a UTI I always know because he starts peeing in our laundry basket.

Before you do anything to attempt to change his behavior, I would make sure that he is in the clear on a UTI.

He keeps peeing for several reasons: he may still have crystals. If not, he pees because of the smell of the pee, and now it's become behavioral.

I'd get him to the vet to have his urine checked again. Keep taking him back until you're sure the crystals are gone. And then if he pees on the bed, get him to the vet again.

If his urine is "clean," and the vet believes peeing causes him no stress or pain, then the problem has become behavioral.

I don't know if you've already used an enzyme cleaner to clean up, but they are NOT all equal in efficacy! If you're not already familiar with this, the smell of the urine must be completely removed - from his perspective, not yours. Cats have FAR more sensitive noses than we do! There are two excellent products to do this: http://nokout.com/store/product.php?...cat=258&page=1 (I posted the link to the gallon, because it sounds like you'll need a lot of it). Here's another one: http://www.catfaeries.com/cleanup.html

These are both enzyme cleaners, which is the only type of product that will work. There are many others - in our experience, these are the best.

The product must be added to the wash when laundering the sheets and blankets. The area of the mattress and any carpet, if affected, must be COMPLETELY soaked with the stuff. And when it comes to the mattress, I mean SOAKED down into the mattress. Leave it for 10 or 15 minutes, soak up as much of the excess wetness as you can with towels, and then let it air dry. This is VERY important. It does not work properly if you place a heater near it or use a hair dryer or something to speed up the process. A mattress, if soaked properly, will take a few days to completely dry. Put towels down over the wet area and then make the bed - change the towels daily.

Would your BF's son mind if you pull a plastic cover over the bed during the day? This will also discourage him. When one of our cats was stress-peeing on our bed, we laid down flattened out cardboard boxes over the bed when we weren't in it. That worked for us. We had to do it for about a month.

The enzyme cleaner treatment may take 2 or 3 applications since this has been going on for so long. So please do expect it to take at least a few weeks to change months of behavior.

The other thing you may want to consider is putting a litter box next to the bed, close to where kitty has been peeing. Again - this only works if your BF's son is OK with this. But after a day or two, if kitty is using it, start moving the litter box about a foot a day toward the door - and just keep moving it until it's in a place you want it.

Sorry, I don't know anything about the history here or how many cats you have, etc. Do you have more than one litter box for your kitties? Do you have two floors? Is there a box on at least each floor? Just FYI, the rule of thumb is that you should have one more litter box than you have kitties. Being a senior, if you have more than one floor in your home, and you don't have a litter box on each floor, that can be a problem.

The most important thing is to make sure he still doesn't have crystals. We have three males that have problems, and it can be a challenge, it's not always a simple thing.

for your kitty. Hope this helps,

Laurie

1st, definitely go for a followup vet visit as anjhest to make sure the crystals problem hasn't returned. Any time a cat has had a urinary health issue, it's very important to get him checked again immediately if he starts going out of the box. Is he being treated for the hyperthyroid? Hyperthyroid can make a cat very paranoid and stressed, and stress can cause urinating on the bed. You may need to get his bloodwork rechecked to make sure it's under control.

If he gets a clean bill of health, there are several things to consider. He may have learned to associate his litterbox with the pain he suffered while he had the crystals. I had this problem with one of our cats after he had crystals (he developed a preference for the bathtub mat), and this is what worked for him: Try purchasing a new box of the same type (plastic litterboxes retain odors, so this may help), and try changing to a different litter - I highly recommend 'Cat Attract' brand litter for cats who've had litterbox issues. It can be found at most pet supply stores.

When the bed isn't in use, protect it from him and make it a less attractive surface by covering it with a waterproof tarp.

Consider trying Feliway - it's a calming pheromone that discourages behavioral urine marking and calms stressed cats, which can help with cats who urinate out of the box due to stress. When one of my female cats went through her bed-peeing phase, I found both the diffuser & spray to be helpful. I plugged in the diffuser, and sprayed Feliway on the bed every day. It can be found at most pet supply stores, and many vets carry it too.

Read this article about litterbox problems: http://www.catinfo.org/litterbox
It has lots of helpful info about how to make the box as appealing as possible for a cat.

Also, as hard as it may be, be very careful NOT to yell at or be angry at the cat for doing this when he does - if the behavior is a reaction to some stress in his life, that will only make it worse. Consider any possible sources of stress that may be affecting him: Has your routine changed recently? Are you away from home more? Has your bf been angry with him since this started happening? Has the child been chasing him or bothering him? (Make sure he has a safe place to hide and get away from him if he wants to). If it's at all possible, try to stick to a regular schedule (cats hate change), and set aside some scheduled time for your cat every day, to pet him, play with him, and let him know he's still loved. Have a daily 'play therapy' session with him too. http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...therapyforcats.

Are there any new cats coming around the outside of your home? Cats are very territorial creatures and can be upset into urinating inappropriately by the scent or presence of a strange cat outside. If you've seen any strange cats around, consider putting cat repellant outside your home to discourage roaming cats.

I hope this helps! Hang in there - it may take some detective work and a lot of patience, but the problem can most likely be solved.

Wow, lots to reply to lol. I'll start with LDG and anjhest:

I will try to take a pee sample back to the vet for a urinalysis as soon as I can, its hard to coordinate getting a fresh sample and getting it there, he never pees when we actually want him to lol

I have used an enzyme cleaner, but it isn't either of the ones you posted. I've soaked the bed so many times I've lost count, but I just must not be soaking it enough.

There actually is a plastic covering over the mattress that we leave on 24/7. It totally envelops the mattress and then we just make the bed as normal over it. Our biggest problem is that this cat loves anything plastic and crinkly.

I went out tonight and bought a new litterbox and put it on the bed (with the mattress off the bed) while the bf's son is staying at his mothers. All the other cats think its a totally cool place for another litter box and hopefully he will too.

I have 6 cats, and now have 6 litterboxes in the house. There are 3 upstairs and 3 in the basement. (Before tonight there were 2 upstairs, but I've added the one in the boy's room). Before the crystals none of the cats had any issues having 5 litterboxes, we actually only had 4 for a while with no troubles as well.

tuxedokitties:
He is being treated for hyperthyroid, and he just finished his first month on the pills and got his bloodwork and the dose he is on is working perfectly for him. He has actually gained .3lbs in the month as well.

I will definitely go looking for Feliway in the pet stores here, and give that a try. I don't get mad at Mogley when I catch him going/gone on the bed, but unfortunately my bf does and I can't exactly stop him from getting upset. The cat is peeing on his son's bed and he's more worried about his son's health than the cats (meaning he doesn't want his child to have to sleep in a bed covered in pee or in a room that reeks of it). The other changes would have happened after he developed the hyperthyroid and crystals. All the cats went from being free fed to getting 3 meals a day and Mogley now has to take a pill twice a day. That is certainly stressful for him but unfortunately the only way I can get him to take he pill is to scruff him and put it down his throat. The boy is actually really good with all the cats, he's grown up with them and he doesn't bother them. He plays with the ones who will play and pretty much leaves the other ones alone.

I'm not sure if there are any new cats hanging around outside, but there definitely are cats that are nearby. I never see them but there are plenty of tracks in the snow, but its always been like that. He's never seemed to take notice of any cats outside before now, but who knows, maybe that's what is bothering him lol. I just wish I could ask him what was wrong, it would make everything so much easier.

I know it's a nightmare, we've been there. Thank goodness we didn't have kids, I'm sure that makes it that much harder.

I'd skip worrying about getting a pee sample to the vet and just take him there. If he's got any pee in his bladder, they can extract some.

It really sounds to me like he's still got a problem with crystals.



Laurie