Help! My cat is peeing on my carpet AGAIN!

Hi ...I have 2 male adult brother cats that I rescued about a year ago. Everything has been great. They share a covered litterbox that is in our utility room. I clean it 2-3 times a day and completely scrub it down once a month. I also have 2 small dogs that get along with the cats fine. One of my cats is really really laid back and the other is kind of a nervous cat.

About 6 weeks ago, my "nervous" cat started peeing (not spraying) in one spot on my carpet in the hallway of my home. I thoroughly cleaned the floor and immediately took him to the vet. He did have a UTI. Some bacteria and blood showed in his urine. I went ahead and had him xrayed to check for stones. There was none. I started antibiotics with him and had his urine rechecked about a week later and everything was good.

I placed plastic and a rug over the area where he as peeing and also added a second litterbox as a precaution.

He doesn't use the new litterbox, only his original one. But his brother will sometimes use the new one.

Several weeks have gone by, since then I have had my carpets professionally cleaned twice. I cannot smell anything at all in that place. I also added a Feliway plugin about 2 feet from where his is doing this.

So assuming that it was medical, over the weekend, I removed the second litterbox. Then I removed the rug and plastic.

I folded the rug up and put it in the laundry to be washed but didn't look at it closely.

Woke up this morning and noticed he had peed in the same area in the hallway. Then I looked at the rug more closely and he had peed on it as well at some point recently (it was still wet underneath)

Spent the morning cleaning my carpets again. I put the second box back down.

Do you think he did it because I removed the second box? I'm pretty sure he isn't continuing this because of another UTI. We just finished the antibiotics about 3 weeks ago. And the vet said there is no medical reason for him to get the UTI other than maybe stress. Like I said earler, he is a nervous cat.

But why after a year of them sharing a box, would he all of a sudden act up? Maybe this started as a medical thing and now it's become behavioral? Now that the second box was taken away, he started again?

Any ideas? I am spending a fortune on my pets lately. Not to go into too much detail, but I've rescued 3 animals in the last year. One of them has had to have multiple eyes surgeries and has cost more than $4,000. And this cat has been to vet for a full workup in the last month and that's very expensive as well. So I can't run him to the vet everytime something like this happens.

Any ideas would be appreciated? Please and thank you

It is possible the UTI wasn't completely cured or that he has another one. A vet check is in order.

Also - just because you can't smell it, doesn't mean they can't - are you using an enzyme cleaner (like Nature's Miracle) to clean the spot.

The general rule is 1 litter box per cat plus one. So if you can, I would leave the additional litter box out.

Definitely have a vet check up on him. If you can afford to get a black light, you might wanna check to make sure you are actually cleaning all the areas that he has peed. You should really use an enzyme cleaner if you haven't, as smells can linger whether or not you can actually smell the urine!

Like the other poster said, the general rule is one litter box per cat plus one. Try uncovered litter boxes, and maybe a littler like Cat-Attract.

Lastly, I know I might get flamed for this but pets cost a lot. Maybe you can look into pet insurance to lessen the amount of money you have to spend at once? Also, Care Credit is there for you if you ever need help.

I would first try to clean the areas thoroughly with an enzyme cleaner and put the second box back. If that doesn't resolve the problem, then another vet visit is in order. I hear you on how frustrating and expensive these urinary issues can be. I do think that sometimes it does start as a medical problem then becomes behavioral, but most of the time, it's medical. It is very weird to me that stress can cause UTIs in cats, but apparently that is not uncommon.

Do you know what kind of bacteria it was last time? One other thing you might want to look into and talk to your vet about is d-mannose. Here's some info on it. http://www.vetinfo.com/d-mannose-for-cats.html

Sometimes an antibiotic doesn't work, he may need a different one. I've got a feeling though that it may be behavioral, I'd leave the second litterbox too. You can buy a black light bulb at Walmart if you've got something to put it in like a small lamp with an extension cord attached, it's a lot cheaper, and it really works to show you where he's gone. Don't look around your stove though, it shows all protein based areas, it'll horrify you at what it will show! LOL Hopefully it's a limited thing, when my cat came back from surgery and was all stressed out, he peed all over the house, but has since quit, so don't give up!

Definitely a frustrating problem. My mom has a male cat who she rescued several years ago.  He started out with an occasional pee in the bathtub.  That stopped for awhile. Over the past year it has become a much bigger issue.  He typically will pee on the front or back stairway landing (so she walks into it almost everytime she comes home through the door.)

We firmly believe his issue is just out of spite, not medical which most articles I've read suggest.  I visit her about once per month for a long weekend and he has done it EVERY single time I visit. Last summer I visited and brought my cat along, and he peed right in my suitcase on my clothing.  On another weekend,  while my mom was dog-sitting her neighbor's dog,  her cat peed within an inch of a chew toy the dog had left on the kitchen floor. 

He is in general an odd cat.  Supposedly, he ended up at a rescue because his previous owner took his own life and the cat was alone for several days after it happened.  My mom seems to think that left an emotional scar but I'm not so sure. 

My mom, like you, cleans the box daily and washes them out. She's tried multiple brands of litter but really seems to be no explanation for this behavior.  Sometimes he uses the box like a normal cat. Usually, but not always, we can associate it with a trigger, for example, she dog-sat again this past weekend and he has been peeing on the floor.  There unfortunately does not seem to be an easy cure for this problem. Wish I had a solution to this one. I've been doing a lot of searching online for my mom, but find that most say it is usually medical related (but we don't agree.)  

tabbygirl855 said:

We firmly believe his issue is just out of spite, not medical which most articles I've read suggest.  I visit her about once per month for a long weekend and he has done it EVERY single time I visit. Last summer I visited and brought my cat along, and he peed right in my suitcase on my clothing.  On another weekend,  while my mom was dog-sitting her neighbor's dog,  her cat peed within an inch of a chew toy the dog had left on the kitchen floor. 

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Personally, I don't believe that cats do things just out of spite. You say you visited your mother's cat and brought your cat along. Could it be that because your suitcase smells like you and possibly your own cat your mother's cat found it as an "intruder" and urinated in hopes to claim his territory? Same thing with when your mother dog-sat. You say your cat urinated on the dog's chew toy- Which has the dog's scent.

I'm reading that your mother thinks that her cat has suffered emotional pain. Is he skittish? Is he playful? 

Jackson Galaxy, a famous cat behaviorist talks about marking via urinating. His show "My Cat From Hell" touches this topic. I suggest you to check it out, it's pretty interesting and has helped me with cat behavioral issues.

Good luck!

Good advice, everyone!  I just wanted to get this one in.  An article on-site about territorial marking.   www.thecatsite.com/a/spraying-when-your-cat-uses-urine-to-mark-territory  I wanted to point out the difference between spraying and urinating.

I think the cat does have abandonment issues and is urinating to mark a "safe territory"  I come to that conclusion from observation only.

One thing I noticed is that you say you scrub your litter boxes once a month. What do you use? Some detergents which smell nice to us or don't smell at all to us can be overwhelming for a cat. If you are you are going scrub your litter boxes, be sure to use vinager.

Thank you Pinkman - ahhh, yes, territorial could be it.  We've never really called it that but it makes more sense.  It is usually in the same places and he leaves a huge puddle.  He yowls sometimes right before he does it too. And,  I just remembered that he also peed on the dog bed the same weekend he peed next to the dog toy.  He is a bit skittish and a little playful - takes him a minute to really go after a toy and start to play.  It took him quite awhile to warm up to me but he is fine around me now. I will check out Jackson Galaxy. 

I see the OP made only the one post and has not been on since.  Very good advice, everyone who contributed.   You would think someone asking questions would check back for answers.