Female cat urinating outside box

First, thank you for reading my post.

So, we had a kitten that passed away at only 4 months old due to an allergic reaction from the anaesthesia during her spaying procedure. Because of that experience, we have not gotten our current cat spayed yet. She is just shy of 2 years old. She is a wonderful cat, other than the fact that she goes through these random bouts of urinating outside her litterbox. She has peed on my bed, our spare bed, my clean linens in laundry baskets, and a bag of clothes I was going to donate to charity (prior to her peeing on them). She's never done this right before, during, or directly after a heat cycle, and her litterbox is never dirty either when she does this. The first few times, I took her to the vet thinking she may have a UTI or something else wrong.... Hundreds of dollars later, the results show no abnormalities. Every time, I have used enzyme cleaners to rid the urine smells. I am at my wits end with this cat. The only thing I can think of now is to have her spayed, which I'm not sure will solve the issue or not. I have made an appointment for this Friday. I really do love her; she's actually a really great cat otherwise. She's loving, very affectionate and playful, not afraid of the dogs at all and even plays with them. She's even great with my 6 year old daughter.

My question is, if getting her fixed doesn't solve the issue, does anyone have any other suggestions for what the problem could be? If I can't get her to stop peeing in my house, I'm going to have to get rid of her and none of us want that.

If you have any questions for me that may help, feel free to ask anything. I'm also not opposed to criticism, so if you feel I'm doing or have done anything wrong, feel free to tell me so. I honestly just want to find out what is wrong and correct it so we can continue to enjoy our kitty.

Thank you

Oh, she also peedin a box with books, as well as a box with electrical wiring in it.

Hi! I am having the same problem with one of my new kittens. So I read to add more litter boxes to the home. The rule is one per cat and then one more.

Have you tried adding new litter boxes around the house? Especially necessary if you have a big home.

Thanks! No, I haven't added anymore litterboxes. We only have the one cat, and our house is rather small and open. I'm not even sure where I could put another litterbox. But I will try to and see if that helps.

I'm so sorry you lost your kitten. I can't imagine how stressful that must have been for you all - your surviving cat included.

It sounds like you're dealing with a mixture of stress and hormones to me. Spaying by itself won't fix the problem, but its a start, and will at least remove the hormonal aspect. I fully understand your reluctance to go ahead with this spay in the circumstances. I can't give any guarantees, but I can tell you that that kind of allergic reaction is incredibly rare. Talk to your vet about your concerns, and see if its possible to test for an allergic reaction (maybe with you present) before booking her in for the spay. That should make you feel more at ease with going ahead with the operation.

Now for the practical stuff. You need to address her stress levels, and help her through the grieving process (if, indeed, that is part of the problem). Extra litterboxes could help, but the big thing in your case is really thorough cleaning along with de-stressing. Start with Feliway diffusers and Spirit Essences. In addition, give her daily interactive playtime - especially mimicking the hunt-kill-eat cycle. This will help her reclaim her territory in a positive way. You might also find it helps to saturate cloths with her scent (by stroking her all over with then, especially focusing on her cheeks/chin - where the 'friendly' pheremones are) and place them in the areas that she's been marking. That way, her scent will already be there waiting for her, so she may not feel the need to mark in an inappropriate way (peeing).
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Thank you Columbine.

She wasn't around for the loss of our kitten. The reason we adopted our current cat was because my daughter's kitten passed. Leia (our current kitty) was about 3 months old when we adopted her, and has been an only kitty since. We already had 3 dogs, and she has always been a part of the pack. But she's not mourning the loss of our other kitten. In fact, the only stressor I can think of for Leia would be that my daughter spends 4 weeks of the summer with her father. If these incidents mostly occurred during those 4 weeks, I would simply associate them with her being gone...but they don't. They're completely random. She won't do it for weeks or months on end, then suddenly I smell the cat urine and have to follow my nose to the source. It's never in the same spots back to back, and it's never on something new like a new couch she doesn't recognize or new rug. Just randomly on a bed or some clean laundry. Occasionally on a box..which is quite odd.

I havea feliway in the livingroom, which should cover most of the house, including the areas zhe has done this in. It doesn't seem to help.

She spends most of her day sleeping or cuddling and playing with us. She seems very happy, and none of us are stressing about anything right now. Life is good--but would be better without this issue.

I really like your idea of having them test her for an allergy. Thank you so much for that.

Ok, I misunderstood about the kitten situation   Sorry!

In that case, hormones are the most likely culprit - especially if there are cats (particularly toms) in the neighbourhood who could be marking outside the house.

Do bear in mind, though, that cats show stress in different ways. Sometimes inappropriate urination is the only sign they give us that they're stressed - and remember that 'Cat Logic' isn't the same as 'Human Logic'! 

No need to apologize, I didn't clarify that in my first post and understand why you would think that.

As far as pheromones, I doubt there's any Toms coming close to our house since the entire house and acre-yard are fenced in with two of our dogs outside most of the time. However, it's still possible. Even if there aren't, I'm sure she would still want there to be since she hasn't been spayed.

I'll try to pay closer attention to what is going on when if she has another episode. My thoughts were something is stressing her that I'm just not realizing. It could be anything... Maybe a scent I bring home from somewhere? Or leaving her home alone too long on those rare occasions we're all out for the day? As much as I hate her doing this, I'm more concerned with WHY she is...

Thank you again for your thoughts

It's great that you want to pin down the cause. The bad news is it could be anything, and short of setting up interior and exterior cctv cameras, you may never find the problem. Cats do like to make our lives difficult sometimes 

Do update and out us know how things are going, too 

Just thought I'd do a quick update. Leia was fixed on Friday and appears to be her normal loving, attention-seeking self. The only strange thing is that Friday and Saturday night she wet her bed. I woke up and checked on her only to find her sleeping in her own pee... Last night I didn't give her bed back and as far as I can tell, she didn't pee outside her box anywhere. She is still using her box like normal, so I'm hoping it was just a temporary side effect from the surgery. If she does it again, I will be contacting our vet.

Otherwise, she seems very happy to be back home and has been glued to either my stomach or my daughter's. We've been taking turns laying down so she can cuddle. Hopefully she no longer pees outside her box!

Great that you got her fixed Given that the 'accidents' happened so close to surgery, I'd be almost certain it was linked - maybe she was just feeling a bit woozy or sleeping sounder than usual after the aesthetic. Remember that pain meds (if she had them) can be doping too.

Great news that there's been no other peeing outside the box too It's lovely to have such a positive update.

Just another quick update

Leia had one more accident the Sunday following her surgery. It's now been over a week since her last accident and nearly 1.5 weeks since her surgery. She is still acting like her normal loving self. However, she is meowing ALL the time. I know siamese are vocal, I've grown up with them, and it makes sense with her being a siamese mix. It's just abnormal for her. She's 2 and has always been somewhat vocal, but this is at least 10 fold. She meows while walking, playing, cuddling... Everything except using her litterbox, sleeping, and eating. If I'm in bed, she will sit by the bedside or in the doorway and meow like she wants something, then run away. She'll do this 10-15 times before she gets up on the bed, rubs her face all over mine, and lays down on my chest... All while still meowing. She doesn't stop until she's been pet for several minutes and starts again as soon as the petting stops, unless she's nearly asleep. At first, I thought she wanted something so I checked all the water dishes, her food bowl, her sleeping spots, the doors and windows, the fish tank... Anything that might be messed up or missing from her favorite things--all normal. Then I thought she just wanted to play, so I got her favorite toy and tried that. Nope. Then I tried following her. She always led me to the dining room, then sit down. I'd pet her quickly and stop, and she`d just continue to meow and then go under the china cabinet. I checked under there and can't find anything and all she does under there is lay down. She's not acting fearful at all, ever. She seems perfectly happy, even her meow seems like her happy meow. She purrs non-stop (always has), her ears aren't back, her tail isn't wagging like she's irritated, and her meows aren't angry ones or even the long drawn out ones cats will do. They're her short, sweet, happy mews.

For the life of me, I can't seem to figure out why she's mewing so much. Could it simply just be because she's that happy to be home after her surgery? So confused... Lol

So great to hear that Leia is doing so well.

I love that she's being so vocal now. My girl is always extra vocal after she's had a bad time. I think its being happy that she's feeling better combined with relief about being back home and lots of thank you's too! Enjoy her extra cuteness while it lasts!

Lol thanks Columbine! It definitely adds to her cuteness during the day, just not so much in the middle of the night when she wakes me by smacking my nose and mewing in my face! Haha

But as long as she's happy and healthy, I'll listen to her constant mewing for her entire life!
[emoji]128513[/emoji]

This update made me smile so big!!! I love that she is so vocal with you! Glad everything has resolved itself.

My update is that we added another litter box for the kittens but she was still peering outside the boxes. So we decide that Miss Maisie was just particular on the scents so I changed from regular cat litter to the clumping kind with no dust and a clean scent. It worked!! She loves it and urinates in one box and poop in the other. She loves to watch me scoop them out, too.

We are all sharing happy updates. Yay!!

This will be my final update for this post (hopefully).

Leia is doing WONDERFULLY. She hasn't had any accidents and she has been super sweet and cuddly. I didn't think her strange random potty accidents could really be resolved simply by getting her fixed, but it was! I was so scared after what happened to our kitten...I'm really glad I went ahead with it though. She is PURRFECT!

Thanks for all your support and ideas, especially Columbine. [emoji]128513[/emoji]

That's such great news! I love happy endings!