Peeing cat????

Hello, I am new here and wasnt sure where I would post a question about peeing cats, I hope this is the right spot.

Well my 8 year old grey tabby cat named Oreo, has always been the best cat never peed anywhere but her litter box. The last couple months she will scratch the floor just in front of her litter box and pee there instead, I mean one more step and she is in the litter box!!!! Also sometimes she will now pee in our front entrance. Her box is clean and there is no litter in front of it where she is peeing. Its getting bad because she is doing it lots now.

But get this we went away for x-mas for a week and took the dog (a small dog) and the 2 other cats that live here with us, we left Oreo at home here since she does not travel well. We had someone watching her and they came everyday to see her, we were gone for 6 days and she DIDNT pee once anywhere but her litter box. So she must be upset about one of the animals liveing with us but which one and why, she has lived with them for years so why now? She didnt pee while we were all gone but the night we got back she peed on the floor!

Ok I have had cats for so long I should know what to do, but I am stumped on this one.

Whats going on with her and what can I do????

THANKS MELINDA

Please have your kitty checked for an UTI. The vet will need a sample of her urine to make a diagnosis.

Welcome to TCS.

Whats a UTI. If she has something wrong with her why would she not pee on the floor the whole week we are gone and she was alone? Does that have something to do with it?

thank you

A urinary tract infection. It may just be a coincidience that it started when you got home.

Stress causes some cats to develop crystals in their urine. She may have been less stressed when she was home alone and then when you came back her stress level went back up and back came the crystals. She needs to be seen by a vet for a diagnosis. Fortunately in most cats, changing to an all canned food diet will increase their fluid intake enough that their urine is dilute enough that the crystals don't form. However, a low grade infection may be a factor and that needs to be ruled out too. Behavior problems that may affect things would be things like one of the other animals scaring her away from the litter box. Sometimes one cat will be territorial and not want another cat to use the litterbox. Providing one more box than you have cats and placing them in several places can help with this type of problem. But the first place to start is with a vet assessment, including a urine analysis. Becky

I will make a vet appointment for her tommorow. I have to rule that out for sure, and I read the stuff on cat pages about cat peeing, and unfortunatly have tried all that stuff and it didnt work! Mabee the vet will have some ideas too, if its not UTI.

Now that I think back we had a male cat years and years ago and he had UTI, but he couldnt pee, so when he would pee some where it would be little drips. The vet said it was UTI and he had to be on low ash food the rest of his life.

Oreo my cat that pees outside the litter box, has big pees she always has and she drinks way more water than any cat I have ever known. But shouldnt she be not peeing very much if she has UTI. She still pees lots like normal.

Cats can get so many crystals, in combination with mucous, that leads to a blockage and they can't pee. But other cats, more often females, don't get a blockage, but the crystals in the urine irritate the bladder and cause pain and peeing outside the box. Rarely cats get actual bladder infections which also cause pain. If your vet finds no cause for the behavior, there are medications that help cats relax that sometimes help. Anafranil and Elavil are used for this. Becky

Thanks! I made the appointment she goes in monday! I am pretty sure she is stressed on and my mom did metion that I should take her to the vet and get some pills to relax her. I hope she doesnt have an infection poor girl. But either way hopefully the vet will have some ideas if she doesnt have an infection.

thanks