I apologize for this being incredibly long.
I moved into my apartment about 2 and a half years ago, with my fiance, my dog, cat, and room mate and her dog. At this point in time my cat had never had an issue with not using the litter box. I even acquired 5 more cats (litter of kittens that were abandoned at my work)and still no issues. All the kittens but one were rehomed and the two remaining kittys did just fine. Too make a long story short my room mate was too lazy to housetrain her dog. Over the course of the several months she lived here she brought home several animals and basically let them destroy the house. I'm talking like instead of putting a litter box in she just put litter on the floor of her closet and let the cat use that. There were many other issues with the roommate, drugs, etc. It got so bad that my fiance and I along with our dog and cats basically lived in our bedroom. Through all of this we never had a problem.
The room mate finally left and it took us months to clean up the apartment. Recarpeting was not an option so we cleaned everything as well as we could. We could no longer smell the roomies previous animals but apparently the cats could and they started urinating and defecating outside of the box. We eventually decided to once again confine them to the bedroom but by this point the behavior had become a habit. Things went pretty well for the most part as long as litter boxes were changed twice a day but they were still having accidents which gradually got more and more frequent.
I then did something incredibly stupid. I added a third cat. She was a 5 month old who was also abandoned at my job and was headed for the animal shelter where she was to be euthanized because she had a broken femur and possible fractured pelvis. She was still full of live and could get around pretty well despite her injuries so I brought her home. She has made a complete turnaround since then and is doing absolutely wonderful, running, jumping, etc so in a way I am happy I gave her a chance but at the same time I know that I was an idiot for adding another animal when there was already a problem in the household. Please don't flame me for this I really do realize it was a big mistake.
So now I have all 3 cats and were having pretty regular accidents. I have narrowed it down to the first cat and I don't believe she is using the litter box at all. The other two don't seem to have a problem and I see them use the litterbox on a daily basis, although I can't prove that they don't also go outside the box.
I am a vet tech and have had everyone examined for medical issues. I've tried cleaning with enzyme cleaners but I'm pretty sure that it's not going to make a difference without tearing up the carpet, which we are not allowed to do.
My fiance is absolutely at his witts end with these cats. He wants them gone (and I do understand his side because it's disgusting) and we have been fighting over this pretty badly over the last few weeks. We are in the process of buying a new home and should be moving within the month. Part of me thinks that the new house will stop the problem, new carpets - etc. The more realistic side of me thinks that the stress of the move witll just make it that much worse. Fiance absolutely doesn't want all 3 cats in the new house. We cannot afford to have the replace carpets right after moving in. I understand that. However I love my cats and I just don't know what to do. I'm finally going to have a nice, new, clean house instead of this dump and I want it to stay that way! At the same time I don't want to just dump the cats on the side of the road (no we would not actually abandon them, but how do I know that the next owner wont if I rehome them?)
We currently have 3 litter boxes and they only use one, and occasionally the second. I'm thinking about buying a feliway diffuser and new boxes and litter but I don't see the problem stopping while in this house. The boy also absolutely refuses to risk them peeing/defecating in the new house. The first thing he asks me when he gets home is if I've figured out what I'm going to do with the cats. Does anyone have any suggestions I haven't thought of? If it does come down to finding new homes how do I go about doing THAT. It is hard enough with kittens - there are just so many out there. How the heck do I find a good forever home for an adult cat with known issues? I hear the "my cat peeed in the house so I want it gone" on a pretty much daily basis at work and I don't want to be that person but I really don't know what to do... The new house is on a 55 mph road so I am worried about them being outside cats.
I moved into my apartment about 2 and a half years ago, with my fiance, my dog, cat, and room mate and her dog. At this point in time my cat had never had an issue with not using the litter box. I even acquired 5 more cats (litter of kittens that were abandoned at my work)and still no issues. All the kittens but one were rehomed and the two remaining kittys did just fine. Too make a long story short my room mate was too lazy to housetrain her dog. Over the course of the several months she lived here she brought home several animals and basically let them destroy the house. I'm talking like instead of putting a litter box in she just put litter on the floor of her closet and let the cat use that. There were many other issues with the roommate, drugs, etc. It got so bad that my fiance and I along with our dog and cats basically lived in our bedroom. Through all of this we never had a problem.
The room mate finally left and it took us months to clean up the apartment. Recarpeting was not an option so we cleaned everything as well as we could. We could no longer smell the roomies previous animals but apparently the cats could and they started urinating and defecating outside of the box. We eventually decided to once again confine them to the bedroom but by this point the behavior had become a habit. Things went pretty well for the most part as long as litter boxes were changed twice a day but they were still having accidents which gradually got more and more frequent.
I then did something incredibly stupid. I added a third cat. She was a 5 month old who was also abandoned at my job and was headed for the animal shelter where she was to be euthanized because she had a broken femur and possible fractured pelvis. She was still full of live and could get around pretty well despite her injuries so I brought her home. She has made a complete turnaround since then and is doing absolutely wonderful, running, jumping, etc so in a way I am happy I gave her a chance but at the same time I know that I was an idiot for adding another animal when there was already a problem in the household. Please don't flame me for this I really do realize it was a big mistake.
So now I have all 3 cats and were having pretty regular accidents. I have narrowed it down to the first cat and I don't believe she is using the litter box at all. The other two don't seem to have a problem and I see them use the litterbox on a daily basis, although I can't prove that they don't also go outside the box.
I am a vet tech and have had everyone examined for medical issues. I've tried cleaning with enzyme cleaners but I'm pretty sure that it's not going to make a difference without tearing up the carpet, which we are not allowed to do.
My fiance is absolutely at his witts end with these cats. He wants them gone (and I do understand his side because it's disgusting) and we have been fighting over this pretty badly over the last few weeks. We are in the process of buying a new home and should be moving within the month. Part of me thinks that the new house will stop the problem, new carpets - etc. The more realistic side of me thinks that the stress of the move witll just make it that much worse. Fiance absolutely doesn't want all 3 cats in the new house. We cannot afford to have the replace carpets right after moving in. I understand that. However I love my cats and I just don't know what to do. I'm finally going to have a nice, new, clean house instead of this dump and I want it to stay that way! At the same time I don't want to just dump the cats on the side of the road (no we would not actually abandon them, but how do I know that the next owner wont if I rehome them?)
We currently have 3 litter boxes and they only use one, and occasionally the second. I'm thinking about buying a feliway diffuser and new boxes and litter but I don't see the problem stopping while in this house. The boy also absolutely refuses to risk them peeing/defecating in the new house. The first thing he asks me when he gets home is if I've figured out what I'm going to do with the cats. Does anyone have any suggestions I haven't thought of? If it does come down to finding new homes how do I go about doing THAT. It is hard enough with kittens - there are just so many out there. How the heck do I find a good forever home for an adult cat with known issues? I hear the "my cat peeed in the house so I want it gone" on a pretty much daily basis at work and I don't want to be that person but I really don't know what to do... The new house is on a 55 mph road so I am worried about them being outside cats.
I changed my girls to these, and wasn't sure about it, so I had one tub and one of the old litter trays down (which was a fairly big size), and they stopped using the old litter tray and used the tub exclusively.
- IMO the best.... But here is the deal - you need A LOT!!! You can't just spray on it... You need to really pour on it, and soak the carpet and make sure it goes through all layers... (this is for any enzyme cleaner, BTY) An Enzyme cleaner will also take a couple of weeks to completely work, so you need to watch that area carefully... It is work! 
