Cat peeing on floor vents

I am in desperate need of some help here. I have two fixed cats, one male and one female. Our female has taken to peeing on the vents, and this is a huge problem that we're not succeeding at fixing. 

BACKSTORY: 

• We recently went on vacation for 12 days and had a friend that the cats know stay here on and off while we were gone
• Female cat has peed on bath mats / in bath tub in the past when we leave for extended periods of time
• We thought having someone stay here as opposed to just checking on them every other day would make them feel better and stop peeing outside of the litterbox

• She's also peed outside of the litterbox when we put things like litter-catching mats outside of the litter box

• We currently have 2 litterboxes for the cats to use, which was fine for a few weeks

So we go on vacation, come back, and my friend tells me that my female cat has been peeing on the heating vents in the floor. There are several, but she's peeing on two specific ones. This is a problem because we can't take the vents out of the floor to clean on the underneath side to fully eliminate the odor of her leftover urine. 

WHAT WE'VE TRIED:

• After thoroughly cleaning each time, we've tried putting things over the vents to block her, but she just pees around them
• We put citrus-scent down on the floor, and she pees regardless
• We moved their two food bowls to over these two vents so she won't pee where she eats, but she's continued to do so with them there
• I've sat downstairs for hours at a time monitoring her while she's down with the air vents, but I haven't caught her yet - I just always find it later

So we're basically out of ideas now. We thought it was a reaction to us being gone, but we're home now and she won't stop. We really don't know what else to do. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

Have you tried spraying Nature's Miracle down the vents? As long as there is still some odor that she can smell, she will keep peeing down them. Have you thought about taking her for a checkup? What kind of litter are you using?

Welcome to TCS. Hopefully, we can come up with a solution for your problem.

Hey there! Thanks for the welcome. Yes, we're using Nature's Miracle, and we've been wiping down the vents as best we can with it. The problem is that it's lightly bleaching the hardwood floors (the vents are wood, too), so we're a little nervous to keep treating daily. She hasn't been to the vet in a while, but I looked at the symptoms for a UTI and eliminating outside of the litter box is the only symptom that matches what she's doing.

And we're using Scoop Away, the same litter we've used with them for years and years. 

Sometimes eliminating outside the box is the ONLY symptom of a UTI. She could also have stress-induced cystitis, which can cause inappropriate elimination. If she gets stressed out easily (from you being away or any other changes), this is definitely a possibility. I would take her in for a check-up.

I agree that if she can still smell the urine on or down the vent, then she'll keep wanting to go there. You may need to find a way to get down there to clean thoroughly.

Some cats do not like walking on aluminum foil. You could try putting crumpled aluminum foil around the vent to see if that deters her.

I agree that you should have her checked by a vet to rule out any medical reasons for this before trying to correct it as behavior problem.

IF she is cleared medically, you need to clean the vents again, and perhaps try putting out more litter boxes over the vents, with some cat attract litter sprinkled over the top of her regular litter. Available in almost any pet store. Have you changed litter brands lately? Are you using unscented?

Here is a thread with more that may help: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/9563/inappropriate-peeing-problems-answered

And welcome to TCS! Keep us posted.

I had this problem and managed to solve it. I have two cats - one older one and one younger. One or both of them (I believe the younger one) was urinating down the vents. One cat was still using a litter tray, but one was also pooping in the dining room. They had both used litter trays at some point. I tried putting a litter box over the vent they used the most often, but they would find another vent. I put pieces of wood with nails through it over the vents (made from the stuff they use to hold carpets down), but the cats still used the vents. I was also worried about a human or our dog stepping on the nails.

What worked was to make covers for the vents out of cereal box packets. See the images. I attached these with Scotch tape and it covers the vent so the cat can't pee down them. I put them on all the vents in the house (which meant eating a lot of cereal!). At the same time I got two litter trays and took the covers off of them (so it was just a tray with litter) so the cat wouldn't be afraid of going inside a small area. I left the tray which was being used where it was and put the other tray one the spot where the cat was pooping.

So far I've not had any problems (it's been a couple of weeks). My only concern with this solution is hot air from the vents coming through the vents and setting the cardboard on fire. You may want to get store bought cowels which do the same thing, or try doing this in the summer when hot air isn't coming out of the vents.

I hope this helps.

The vent covering is a great idea!  I'm just wondering, to get around the fire issue, whether it would be possible to make/find something made out of metal or plastic?

Not sure. I did a quick check at Home Depot when I was thinking about this and didn't find anything, but there may be something if you look for it online.

I can`t imagine that the warm air coming out of the vent is anywhere near hot enough to ignite the cardboard.   It really is not possible - otherwise it would be a hazard to ignite nearby furniture.   

What I did was get a can of spray deoderizer  like lysol or something similar, take off the vent cover and spray down into the ducts.

To get rid of the smell I used "Nature's Miracle" (which really is excellent stuff). I poured some down and reached in to get rid of what urine I could. However it is very hard and I still get a whiff of urine from time to time. I think the only way to really get rid of it would be to clean the ducts.

The Lysol spray did the trick for me and I never smelled urine afterward.   I sprayed generously into the ducts.

I honestly thought I was the only one with this problem. My male cat prefers to spray my vertical heater vents, and has nailed just about every one in the house. I don't think there is enough Nature's Miracle in the world to fix our problem.

Maybe they think the vents are for blow drying after they go. Lol.

Mani said:

 
The vent covering is a great idea!  I'm just wondering, to get around the fire issue, whether it would be possible to make/find something made out of metal or plastic?

Click to expand...

Yes, it is possible. Go to Amazon and search for 'floor vent deflectors'  There are 71 different kinds.

I am having same problem with my male cat peeing/spraying in 2 heat vents too.  I put filters in all to stop some of the pee (bought at Ace Hardware) -- you can cut to fit which also helps filter the air. Then put a cookie sheet over it to collect the pee.  Only thing is, he started doing the same thing on other vents in house.  I can't cover every one so I'm going to create what the guy did with the cereal boxes.  I thought the best thing to use is styrofoam box.  I think you can buy small styrofoam cooler boxes and then cut out bottom to place over the vents.  At least that's not a fire hazard.

By-the-way -- both my female and male cats were tested for everything.  My vet thinks its behavorial when male cat sees an animal outside when looking out window, he goes over to vent and marks his territory.  Good luck!  I've already closed off both bathrooms and one bedroom so no cat has access to those rooms.  I already replaced the carpet in one room with wood floors so they definitely aren't going in there.

Hi-

I have 10 inside cats. I started to have a peeing issue with one that included peeing down the vent. 10 cats...so...who was doing it??? I set up wireless web cams and found out it was the senior of the group (HUNNY now 22 years old). I used 2 shoe boxes to cover the vents. So far no more peeing down the vent. I was not concerned about fire as the hot air still goes mainly up.

Hope this helps....Peter

I have no idea how to stop this as my cat does it too, however to keep from choking her I came up with a sort of solution, I use a trifolded paper towel and 2 or 3 cheap maxi pads and tape them to the paper towel, it's usually heavy enough to hug the bottom of the vent while still allowing air flow, then just pull them out, rinse off vent with bleach water. At least it keeps it contained and makes clean up so much easier. Hope this helps

sheislisamarie said:

 
Hey there! Thanks for the welcome. Yes, we're using Nature's Miracle, and we've been wiping down the vents as best we can with it. The problem is that it's lightly bleaching the hardwood floors (the vents are wood, too), so we're a little nervous to keep treating daily. She hasn't been to the vet in a while, but I looked at the symptoms for a UTI and eliminating outside of the litter box is the only symptom that matches what she's doing.

And we're using Scoop Away, the same litter we've used with them for years and years. 

Click to expand...

One of my cats was treated for a UTI and the only symptom he had was peeing on our recliner in the den. He had never had any litter box issues before.  It took us a little longer than I would have liked to figure out who was peeing on the chair.  I called one of my friend's who has dealt with UTI's in her cats and asked her for her opinion.  She actually helped me get my cat to the vet the next day since I was off work.  My vet's office which is normally really easy to make appointments with was booked solid that day.  Sonny was my friend's former foster cat so she called and got him an appointment with her vet.  Once he was given an antibiotic for the UTI the problem went away pretty quickly.  One thing the vet and my friend advised me to do was to set up a new litter box in a different location.  I did this and at first her would only use the new litter box but over time he went back to using the litter boxes in other locations.