Our male cat, 3YO, no other behavioral issues, has been peeing outside the litter box consistently for about 9 months. We can't figure out what to do to fix the problem, and it isn't sustainable -- we can't keep him and have all our furniture soaked in pee.
Background -- About two years ago, he started peeing in front of the box on the rug one of the litterboxes sat on. As he had grown, we figured the little box we had was too small, went out and got a large storage container with a lid, cut a hole in the top like commercial top-entry boxes, but large enough for our big boy. We also moved the box from the laundry closet to our spare room, out of the flow of household traffic, in a more private location for him, free of washing machine noise. Our girl cat, 6, coped well, and has never had litter issues. Shortly thereafter, he began peeing on the couch in the spare room where the boxes are, so we put a scat mat on it and problems subsided for a while. 9 months ago, he began peeing on the rug again. We removed the rug, and he began peeing on the living room couch, our bed, or the living room chair. Took him to the vet, he was diagnosed with a bladder stone, had surgery to remove it, and is now on c/d diet to keep him from developing another. However, the pee issues have continued -- it began as a periodic couch-pee incident on the living room couch, and now happens any time we leave the couch uncovered (have been covering it with a blanket when we're not sitting on it). For sanitation reasons, we just can't keep doing the routine of 'take off couch cover, wash, replace, cat pees on it again.' We have been using enzyme cleaner to try and rid the cushions of the smell, and have been washing the covers in the washing machine.
Environment -- We have two cats, the 3YO neutered male and a 6YO spayed female. They get along pretty well, but don't exactly cuddle together. He has been checked for UTIs and recently had an ultrasound on his bladder to ensure no urine crystals were forming again. The two boxes are on opposite sides of a rarely-used spare room. We live in a small apartment, so we have no where to put any additional boxes and the inevitable litter-spray prohibits places the boxes in any other room. We scoop the boxes daily and use fine grain, unscented litter. There have been no major life changes - moving, new occupant, baby, schedule change, etc - that we've read sometimes trigger behavior issues. Girl cat does not attack him in the room where the boxes are, nor does she attack him when he's getting in/out of the box. We tried Feliway, to no avail.
After an incident this morning, where the couch was unoccupied and uncovered for approximately 5 minutes before he peed on it, I've reached my last straw. I love him, but don't want to have all my furniture covered in cat urine for the next 15 years we have him. We're going today to get whole new boxes (residual odor, despite routine cleaning, perhaps). We will get two large boxes, one covered, one uncovered.
Any suggestions? When we last spoke with the vet, she said he was medically clear, it was a behavior issue and told us to get feliway, which didn't solve the problem.
