Update: Treated UTI - cat STILL urinating!!!!

I posted not long ago about a couple of our cats - one who was urinating all over the house, and the other who was spraying (http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...threadid=21382). We thought we had a happy ending when we discovered that the urinating cat did, in fact, have a UTI. Boy, were we mistaken. The UTI has been treated. Everything should be fine... except that she's STILL peeing all over the house! (Our couch and loveseat are literally destroyed. We have to buy new ones.) It appears that her "sick" behavior has now turned into a bad habit.

We're at the end of our rope. We've done everything we know of. We're already under a lot of stress with a baby coming pretty much any day now, and we've decided we just can't live like this any more. Our entire evenings are spent crawling around with the blacklight, cleaning up urine. So we're actively looking for a new home for our cat, but (naturally) no one wants a cat who is urinating in the house. We're now waiting for a spot to open up in our local no-kill shelter (we won't bring her to any shelter that isn't a no-kill facility).

Anyone in northern New York looking for a cat??

Sad ending.

I am sorry to hear that it isn't working out. It sounds as if the cat was urinating in inappropriate places so long that it became habit.

Remind me...is she peeing in the same places all over the house or is it in a different place each time?

If it is in the same places, sprinkling a strong-scented carpet power and then leaving it on there will help, or putting sheets of aluminum foil or upside-down carpet runners an the spots will keep her away.

Does the other cat ever stalk her while she is on the box? That happened in my house, so I had to put boxes in other places in the house so that if the bully was near one box, the one who needed to go could simply move to a safer box.

Well, it's a little of both. There are certain places where she is urinating consistently - on our couch and loveseat, for example, and on our bed. She also likes to go on rugs, and our toilet seat cover. In general, she seems to like to go on surfaces that are absorbent. We have tried absolutely everything to discourage her from this - we've Nature's Miracled, aluminum foiled, put down tape (sticky side up), Feliway-ed, put food there, laid down layers of blankets on the couches, etc, etc, etc. We've determined that she's not going there because of anything she can smell - she's just going in those places out of habit.

She's also going in some random places, too, which are impossible for us to predict or prevent. We have tried adding litter boxes - we had always had 3 boxes in our basement. We actually got up to the 3 in the basement, 3 on the first floor (living room, dining room, kitchen) and two upstairs (each bedroom). And our house is very, very tiny! It didn't help. The new boxes got used, but didn't prevent her from going elsewhere. We thought of the stalking thing, too, but with all the boxes we've had going, it seems like that can't possibly be the problem.

If only we could make her understand!!! Argh!

Holy cow! I want to commend you for working so hard to solve this problem. We often get people who write in asking for help, but who are completely unwilling to change anything that might make things better. It is obvious that you two really love your cat and have bent over backwards to make things work.

I can't remember whether you tried antidepressants. Soemtimes these have proven very successful with cats who are out of control pottiers. I suggest this only when other solutions don't work because medicating a cat is no fun, but as a last resort, I would give it a shot.

Unfortunately, at this point I think you need more than we regular folks can offer. I think you need an animal behaviorist to come to your rescue (or did you try that already?). It is possible that if a behaviorist came to your home and looked at the set-up, she could give suggestions on changes you can make that might help things get better.

We have not tried antidepressants, although we might. We're going back to the vet - again! - early next week to discuss the problem. Since we haven't been able to find a home for her amongst people we know (we refuse to advertise in the paper - we want to KNOW she's going to a good home), and our no-kill shelter has no openings, I guess by default we're continuing to try to work through the problem.

An animal behaviorist is a good idea, but I honestly don't believe we have one in our area (we live in a very rural area). I'll ask the vet when we're there, though.

So it may be true that I need more help than I can get here, but you have just given me two more great ideas - antidepressants and a behaviorist. Thanks.

I just wish our kitty could have become so expensive at a more convenient time!! LOL

Click here for a listing from Meowhoo.com of animals behavior consultants.

Also, at some point Hissy posted a link to a wonderful article about inappropriate urination. I couldn't find it just now, so I'll see if she can remember where she found it.

Originally posted by jnmarz30
I just wish our kitty could have become so expensive at a more convenient time!! LOL

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Sometimes I think they deliberately pick the worst possible moment to get sick, just so they can make our lives more difficult.