the feral cat I let in now is peeing on my bed and my couch HELP!!!

I let this cat in because she wanted in.  Now she is peeing on everything.  I want to get her fixed before I let her back out.  She acts like she doesn't want outside.  She won't go by the door when I open it to feed the other feral cats that are outside.  But yet she is peeing on my furniture.  What if anything can I do to make her stop?

Hi Rena,

Thanks for trying to help this cat. Getting her fixed will make her life a lot better, whether she is an indoor or an outdoor cat.

Is she squatting and peeing on things or is she spraying? If she hasn't been fixed yet she might be spraying to let tom cats know she is available.

How many litter boxes do you have for her? It's a good idea to have one for each cat and then one extra one. Some cats are fussy about the kind of litter they use, whether it's a covered or uncovered box etc. If she has been an outdoor cat all her life earth from your garden will be more attractive to her than cat litter.

Do you have any other pets in the house? She could be trying to mark out a bit of territory for herself. Could you keep her confined to one room for now?

When you take her to be spayed ask the vet to check her for a UTI. This is the most common cause of inappropriate peeing. Once she's been spayed and you've ruled UTI out you can work on getting her litter trained.

In the meantime an enzyme cleaner will get rid of the smell and prevent staining

To add to the previous comment, Unscented Odormute is a powder that you mix up with warm water to put on cat or dog urine and the enzymes break down the urine so it doesn't stink anymore.  Use that before you use any cleaning products.  It's the cheapest one by far (e.g. compare to Nature's Miracle) and you can tell if you need to treat the surface again since there is no scent to confuse your nose. one box mixes up gallons and gallons of it and it has a shelf life of about 5 years (I write the date on the box).  It's difficult to treat furniture, because the urine goes way into the upholstery.  winter is the time for many of us to successfully treat a couch, because with the home heating on, the couch will dry out before it molds (in summer, you can't get it dry in a day or two). You may or may not save your furniture.  I agree with the previous advice about the peeing. There is a long thread about that topic on here someplace. I have a kitty that pees around really bad every few years and I've never figured it out. I had to put a scat mat on my couch, which I ordered off Amazon (along with the odormute).  Good luck!

Hi Norachan, and Iluvcats3, 

Thank you both for your quick response to my panic attack I was having.  I know most of the stuff that you told me Norachan, except I did not know that females spray. I thought it was just the males that sprayed. I not sure if it was spray or pee isn't it the samething?  I know it smells the same.  OMG I was so angry at her I felt so betrayed.  She was pregant and wanted to come in my 1 bedroom apartment, knowing it probable was a bad idea, I let her come in.  She really seemed like she was trying to adapt to the inside life.  Getting braver about being around me.  Let me tell ya the laser light works good for that.  she loves the little red dot.  Then she had her babys well things kind of went down hill for a while, after two weeks of having the babies,  one died and I had a rescue person come and look at them.  She ended up taking the kittens and telling me they would all die if she didn't take them to the vet.  She then told me she would not be bring them back to us.  The rescue would be keeping them.  After that sweetie got an infection in one of her tits and it blew before i knew anything was wrong with her.  By the way Sweetie is the cats name i gave her. I took her to the vet and they fixed her up but doing all that really blew the trust she was building for me.  It made her scared of me again.  We had to start all over again.  It was going well until this started.  My carpet is bad enough but my couch and now last night my bed?  OMG..... I have a steam cleaner and I used it on my mattress and the couch.  And before i did that I used Natures Miracle on both.  Did the laundry and got another cat litter box.  Took the lid off the other one and hopefully this will be good enough.  She is also in heat and I have a fixed male here also.  After reading your reply I'm thinking she might be trying to tell my male she is available.  He is not liking her in heat at all.  I didn't know  the female would go to that extreme.  Anyways I will let you know what happens in the next few days.  

thanks again for all your help...

Hi Rena,

How's it going with your cat now? You're lucky the vet caught her mammary infection in time. I went through the same thing with one of the feral cats I care for about 5 years ago. She lost her whole litter of kittens before I was able to trap them and then had the same thing happen to one of her teats. She disappeared for a few days and by the time I was able to trap her she had a horrible infection. She had to stay at the vets for over three weeks. Happy to say she made a full recovery and is one of our beloved indoor/outdoor cats now.

From what you've described it does sound like the reason for her peeing everywhere is because she is on heat. It will smell just as bad whether she is spraying or peeing, but if you know which you are dealing with it will be easier to get her to stop. I think you've got a full blown case of horny female on your hands. 

When is she going to be spayed? Once this has been done her heat cycles and spraying will stop, but if you're still having problems with her let us know and we can try and work out what is wrong.

Hi Rena and thanks for trying to care for this kitty. So sorry about her babies BUT I am glad that the rescue was willing to take them from you and will probably hand raise them. They will be adopted out quickly so not to worry about that. Thank goodness you took her in when you did otherwise those kittens would have had no chance outside without help since mom was getting that infection. I concur with Norachan on everything she said above. The sooner you get her spayed the better. Once she is spayed, she will stop feeling the need to spray and mark her territory and soon feel more secure.

There are a few reasons why she could be peeing on everything. One - she may have never used a litter box before so should be confined to a very small room or even a large cat cage until she is regularly using the litter box (try Dr. Elseys litter attractant - stray cats are drawn to the box with this additive . Two - she could have a serious Urinary Tract Infection that is causing her to pee everywhere and being pregnant and now in heat will make her need to pee more. Three - it could be stress, confusion and insecurity about what is going to happen to her as to why she is peeing other than the litter box. It could also be a combination of all three of those things together.

First, get her spayed and have her urine checked. She may need antibiotics anyway for the mammary infection so that may help with any possible UTI. Vet did prescribe an antibiotic, correct? Do you know the name of the antibiotic if he gave one? Maybe the vet wants her infection cleared before he can spay her and then in the meantime, I would confine her completely, if it were me. It is wonderful of you to have taken her in and we are very happy to help you through the process how ever we can.

Sweetie is not a feral cat since you have been able to handle her to some extent and she willing came inside. She could very well be an abandoned cat that has had to revert to her wild roots to survive but still has had human contact in her past. A feral has had no human contact whatsoever and is fiercely terrified of any human being. So, the good news is that Sweetie WILL be very easy to settle in once she is feeling better and feels safe/secure.

Please do keep us posted on Sweetie. You have a good heart to be helping this little girl.

Hi All

Things are really good with Sweetie,  I'm sorry Feralvr, Sweetie is Feral I have been feeding her mom now for about 2 years.  I put food out on my balcony once a day. The mom has been coming to my balcony to eat since she was a kitten.  The mom has her litter of kittens and when they are old enough she brings them to the balcony and teaches them how to eat solid food. And Sweetie was one of those kittens.  But she was born outside somewhere.  She really has adjusted remarkably.  I really think she wants to be indoors.   But for the longest time I couldn't touch her.  Finally with a lot of cocksing and a little help from my other cat that she just loves.  I have touched her and petted her a couple times.  She runs up to me when my alarm goes off in the morning before i get out of bed.  She smells my face and bugs me just like my other two cats do when they want their treats.  The extra cat box seems to have worked.  She is quite funny when i use the laser light to play with her.  She makes this chattering noise at it and chases it all over the place.