Randomly urinating on carpet

One of our two cats has developed a habit over the past year of urinating outside the box on random occasions. She is seven years old and fixed. She does not do this all time; it has maybe been a month since she last did it. She always done it on the same type of brown carpet in our home (not on other types of carpet or rugs). I also observed that she always does it close to a wall or baseboard. Here are some other facts about our home:

- I have taken her to the vet. Twice they have said she had a UTI issue and gave us antibiotics. I cannot say for certain this behavior is related to when she is or is not taking the antibiotics.  
- We have three Scoopfree litter boxes for the two cats
- She appears to have no problem using the litter boxes we have. We see her on video using the litter boxes.
- Sometimes she will use a litter box and then shortly after urinate on the carpet
- After she urinates on the carpet, she starts pawing at the area as if she is trying to cover it up
- We have tried Feliway diffusers. They do not seem to have helped much.
- She eats, drinks and runs around normally

I'm just perplexed about what is causing her to do this. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I imagine we will soon need to replace this carpet that she seems to prefer.

Is it the same place on the carpet? My kitty pees on our blue shag rug. We replaced it with a new one and it mostly stopped. It's happened most recently because she sprained a leg and using the box probably hurts.
Anyway, with my baby if I clean the area really well, she goes back to the box. You have to make sure that the carpet doesn't smell like her, or she'll think that's where she should go

This morning it was a new spot (in a new room in the house but with the same type of carpet). In the past she would sometimes go back to a previous spot, or choose a new spot. I always clean the spot after she does this. 

It sounds UTI related to me, especially because she's urinating immediately after having just urinated. What kind of food does she eat? Wet food is the best prevention for urinary issues, because cats naturally rely on their food for most of their moisture intake and dry food is only about 5-10% water, whereas wet food is 70-80%.

Also, when you clean the area, make sure you use an enzymatic cleaner like Nature's Miracle because otherwise cats can still smell it even when we can't.

She eats mostly prescription dry food. The cats get wet food as a treat. Otherwise they free feed. When they do eat wet food, they mostly seem interested in eating the juice/gravy.

I am using Nature Miracle's now. In the past I used other "pet" cleaners but those didn't seem to keep her from returning.

CatDaddyx2 said:

 
She eats mostly prescription dry food. The cats get wet food as a treat. Otherwise they free feed. When they do eat wet food, they mostly seem interested in eating the juice/gravy.

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I'd really urge a diet change. Prescription dry food is very rarely helpful and usually has lots of unhealthy fillers anyway. Definitely not worth the cost. Like people, some cats are more prone to UTI's than others, but also like people, adequate water intake is the absolute best way to keep UTI's from recurring. Domestic cats' ancestors were desert animals, so they would rely on the animals the caught as prey, which are 70% water themselves, to give them the water they needed, so they don't have a high enough thirst drive to drink enough water from a bowl. Wet food can be fed exclusively, but even just increasing the amount of wet food in her diet would help. This page has very in depth explanation by a vet all about it: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

Some cats do prefer the gravy, so you might want to try experimenting with brands that have a pate-style texture which they might be more receptive to.

What kind of prescription food is she on? That is, why is she on it? Is it for the urinary issues? Cats do seem to prefer pates sometimes, so it's worth it to try those. And with urinary issues, wet really is better. Don't have to do wet exclusively (I don't) for it to help.

I would look into seeing if it's a UTI again, but if it's not, there are other things that may need to be considered / ruled out. My Sara ended up having FIC (feline idiopathic cystitis). Has the vet ever mentioned blood in her urine, and when she pees on the rug, is there blood in it that you can see?

You've gotten some very good advice above, so I only have one thing to add.   You might try Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract litter.  The texture of the litter itself, plus some herbal additives attract cats to the litter box.  Many of our readers have had a lot of success with it.   Several products are offered - check out their website for more info:  http://preciouscat.com/product   It might be that your girl associates her box with the pain of urinating with a UTI and so avoids it.  The article below might give you some insights.
[article="32366"]How To Solve Litterbox Problems In Cats The Ultimate Guide  [/article]

She is on Science Diet Digestive/Weight Management food. Two reasons: our other cat (a boy who's a year older) went through a big UTI scare last year and the vet recommended we put him on that food. This cat was also getting a bit chubby, so he said it would be fine to have both cats eat the same food.

When I have cleaned up after the cat, I have not seen any blood. Based on the advice here, I am going to:

#1 - Give her the remaining antibiotic and then contact vet 

#2 - Try to give her more wet food in the evening (they love the Gravy Lovers stuff)

#3 - Cut back a bit on the dry treats (which will be disappointing for her)

This morning she used the box as expected. I also noticed she drank a good amount of water yesterday from the fountain, which I believe is another sign of UTI. Thank you to everyone who replied. If anyone else has any comments, I'd appreciate them. 

CatDaddyx2 said:

She is on Science Diet Digestive/Weight Management food. Two reasons: our other cat (a boy who's a year older) went through a big UTI scare last year and the vet recommended we put him on that food. This cat was also getting a bit chubby, so he said it would be fine to have both cats eat the same food.

When I have cleaned up after the cat, I have not seen any blood. Based on the advice here, I am going to:
#1 - Give her the remaining antibiotic and then contact vet 
#2 - Try to give her more wet food in the evening (they love the Gravy Lovers stuff)
#3 - Cut back a bit on the dry treats (which will be disappointing for her)

This morning she used the box as expected. I also noticed she drank a good amount of water yesterday from the fountain, which I believe is another sign of UTI. Thank you to everyone who replied. If anyone else has any comments, I'd appreciate them. 

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That's interesting, never heard of giving Weight Management food for UTI issues, but then again they give g/d for kidney cats sometimes.

Drinking a lot is a sign of other things (like kidney disease), not sure about UTI though. How is the volume of her urine, would you say there's a lot? If so I would definitely mention both of those points to the vet. In fact, I'd mention drinking a lot regardless.

I would not say there is a lot of urine from when I've had to clean it off the carpet. Sometimes it has seemed like not much of all. 

And when it comes to drinking a lot, it seems like she drinks for longer than the other cat. She will stay at the fountain for 2 minutes drinking. But it's not like she's doing that several times per day (at least from what we capture on the webcam). The other cat drinks for less time but he seems to visit the fountain more often.

CatDaddyx2 said:

I would not say there is a lot of urine from when I've had to clean it off the carpet. Sometimes it has seemed like not much of all. 
And when it comes to drinking a lot, it seems like she drinks for longer than the other cat. She will stay at the fountain for 2 minutes drinking. But it's not like she's doing that several times per day (at least from what we capture on the webcam). The other cat drinks for less time but he seems to visit the fountain more often.

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Have you had her checked for Diabetes? Increased thirst is the most notable sign of diabetes in cats. Increased urination is also a symptom of diabetes. Also, has she lost weight recently? If she's been eating a lot and still losing weight I would definitely have her checked for diabetes.


I had a cat that got diabetes and he would drink a lot like your cat, and then he would go and pee outside the litter box. He used to pee in the floor vents or in tandom places on the carpet (when the littlebox was clean).

I don't think she's been checked for diabetes. The last couple times I've taken her to the vet following a carpet accident, they said she had a UTI and sent her home with antibiotics. I think her weight has not changed. I will probably end up taking her to the vet in the next week or so, certainly once the antibiotics are gone. 

CatDaddyx2, if you have to change the carpeting be prepared for floor damage if you have a house on piers with wood flooring/subfloor and not on a slab.  We had a very elderly cat for a while that was going here and there throughout the house in corners without us knowing, none of us noticed it until one day we caught her in the act (her pee didn't smell at all).  Her urine actually ate through the padding and rotted the wood underneath.  They pulled up that one corner and the wood underneath looked chewed up.  We had to have a section cut out and replaced because it had soaked through!  We got a black light and checked and found it in all the corners

Penny went to the vet today. The did an x-ray to make sure she didn't have kidney stones or a different worrisome condition. They did not find anything wrong. No blood in the urine or anything like. They did find that her bladder was inflamed so she was given a shot that should help with the inflammation over a longer period of time. If she does this again on the carpet, they plan to give her another oral medication and possibly try kitty prozac. She is a very sweet but anxious cat. The vet thought the bladder condition could be stress-related.

So at least we are trying something new. And my worries about it being a serious health issue are relieved. Thank you so much to everyone who replied. Penny and I really appreciate it.