Cat Urination Problem, have some ideas, looking for more suggestions/advice.

Hey guys

Dakota, Montana and I moved in with a friend of mine into her condo where she has a 4 year old Russian Blue named Twiggy. Now, Montana and Twiggy have never really gotten along, they don't fight, but my roommate and I know they are still trying to figure out the Alpha spot.

However, recently, Twiggy has begun urinating outside of her litterbox and also urinating on my roommate's dirty clothes. Basically, she would come home from work, change and Twiggy would litterally scrape all the clothes together and soak 'em. Then my roommate procedes to flip out, which isn't the right thing to do, because it scares the cat even more.

We've had the cat to the vet and she's received a clean bill of health. We have 3 total cats, but only 2 boxes. I had 2 with mine, but they never used the second one. For the first couple months this hasn't been a problem. However, recently, I've noticed that my cats' litter box downstairs in my living area remains relatively empty. So it's my belief that my cats are using the upstairs box, which is the box that Twiggy has always used. So I thought that maybe the box just filled up too quickly for her cat's liking.

I've read through some of the posts here about peeing problems, including the sticky, but I haven't seen anyting regarding urination on clothing.

My roommate did change the litter to a different brand, but we have since changed it back. Both boxes contain the same litter.

My first inclination from reading through is stress and to purchase a couple of Feliway room defusers. I've also suggested locking my cats up when I'm not home. I work 12 hour nights, 3 or 4 days a week. My cats go where people are, so my 2 cats trying to sleep with her combined with her cat who doesn't like my 2 sleeping with her mommy leads to problems and her usually kicking my 2 out of her room. If we locked up my two, they would still have plenty of space, food, water, and their own box.

So basically, I guess I'm looking for more suggestions on possible course of actions. My attack plan looks like this:

1. Double efforts to make sure upstairs box is clean.
2. 2 Feliway Room Defusers, 1 for upstairs, 1 for down.
3. Lock up my cats when I'm not home.
4. Replace roommate's litter box with a new one.

Maybe 5. Add a 3rd box.

Am I missing anything? Or anyone have anythign else to add?

It's kinda wierd. If my roommate locks up my cats, her cat goes to the door and taunts mine through it. The other thing is that her cat will do the urination thing while my roommate is staring right at her, almost like she's doing it on purpose (but I'm smarter than that. ), for the most part.

In my experience, when a cat deliberately urines where it knows it shouldn't and in front of you, it means it's (I'm using it so as not to he or she) trying to tell you something is wrong. If it's health is OK it may be that it's feeling stressed about something, or there's something it doesn't like...

I`d try all the things you have mentioned (esp the extra little box (or 2) and if it stops then you might be able to start trying them not loked up and see what happens.
It won`t hurt to have the extra box(s)...but i`ll bet it`s just stressful for her with the new move etc. I hope the Feliway defusers will be helpful also....and hopefully they will figure out the alpha thing soon too.
Linda

Adding a new box or two is an excellent idea.

Just in case you didn't see this quote in the sticky, here is information on why cats pee on clothing:

Here is how it works: Cat has an UTI. It is painful to urinate (anywhere). It is less painful to urinate in a soft, WARM pile of laundry. Cat potties in the fresh warm pile of clothes. Cat does this for some time before human figures out that cat has UTI. Cat either battles UTI or human figures it out and takes cat to vet. Cat is better. Cat continues to urinate on fresh pile of laundry. Aargh! Why? Because the cat has developed a substrate preference based on conditioning. The cat is avoiding painful elimination, even when the cat no longer has the UTI. The cat has developed an association with the old litter box and pain. To fix this problem, take a small, freshly laundered rag and place it in the cat’s box. Encourage the cat to use her box again by limiting her access to anywhere away from her box. A laundry room – keeping all fresh laundry away from the cat – or low traffic bathroom is good for this training). She can only come out of her training room when she is being supervised. Do this for about 3 or 4 days. She will be retrained to use her box. Of course you will be cleaning her box frequently (at LEAST once a day) as cats hate messy boxes.

With all of the above being said (and true for many cats), some cats will just decide that the fresh laundry has odors that need to be modified. There are mixed theories that try to explain this behavior. Here is the one I most agree is correct. We humans secrete ammonias through our sweat. We also try to modify these odors in our garments with detergents and perfumes. These detergents and perfumes mask the odors effectively for our mere human noses.

However, the perfumed detergents do NOT mask the ammonias from our cats. As a matter of fact, these odors need further modification by the cat, because we have been ineffectual at modifying it ourselves. Cats are so helpful. I wish they could modify used car salespeople. Could you imagine shopping for a car armed with your cat? “Could you knock a couple thousand off that price, I have a cat!”

Click to expand...

Well my cats do tend to do "things" on my clothes, preferebally dirty, but they're not picky. But it's normally a reaction to "Hey our box is dirty. Clean it... NOW"

i have a problem with my cat peeing on our new couch

so after the first time we got it cleaned by a professional, and she was fine for 6 days after, and shes using her litter box, but she is drinking more so the first time maybe she was pissed off as us..and now maybe shes trying to tell me something?

can anyone help me?

Found some litter box info for you, hope it helps:
http://www.tcnnews.com/content/view/361/2/

thanks for posting and replying

Pink Daisy,

Please take your cat to the vet to be tested for a urinary tract infection. Inappropriate urination is almost always caused by infection or illness. The vet will need to test the cat's urine (a typical check-up won't work) to look for signs of infection or crystals.

If the vet finds no sign of infection, follow the advice in the sticky thread at the top of the Behavior Forum titled Ideas for stopping Inappropriate Urination.

Also, remember that this is a bulletin board, so you are unlikely to get immediate responses to your posts (especially since yesterday was a holiday in the USA -- most of us weren't on line because we were with family).

Hi guys. I know that I'm new and I originally came here for a problem of my own but seeing all this takes me back a year ago... I don't want anyone to be scared but if your kitty is having any kind of litterbox problems like that they need to see a vet and the vet needs to look at the urine for crystals. Gabby is my little one and she had a UTI about every 3 weeks. We finally ended up finding out that she is diabetic and she was in bad shape... I am not trying to scare up anything but I don't want anyone to go through what I had to.

Well, I've had my cats locked up for the last 3 days and my roommate caught her trying to pull one of her pullovers off a chair to pee on it. So I think that eliminates my cats as a catalyst for the peeing. So I'm inclined to think that at one point, her cat Twiggy had an UTI that cleared before the Vet visit and then all that stuff about peeing on clothes. So we're going to add a new box and some Feliway and see how that goes.

Hello everyone. I'm cat mommy, Lyn, to the infamous Twiggy, who keeps making Buckeye 23's and my life difficult. I've noticed a change in her behavior since his cats have been locked up. She has gone back to the goofy cat that she was before they arrived. (Jumping around, playing with toys, and attacking my feet in bed.) When his cats are out, she reverts to a more quiet cat, constantly on the offensive.

I don't know if her change in behavior has anything to do with the peeing problem or not.

I'm at such a loss. Buckeye 23 and I both agree at this point, the little diva has to go back to the vet. At her visit two weeks ago, the vet had suggested that she gets "stressed" and needs pills to keep from peeing. But, he told me to try other things first.

I honestly don't know what to do. I guess this could be an answer...but does anyone else have any other suggestions?

What gets me is that this is not the first time I've had a peeing problem with her. The first time was 1.5 years ago when my former roommate was here (with her cat,) and I went on vacation. I was gone for a week, and during that entire time, she peed and pooped at the bottom of the stairs. At one point, my roommate caught her in the act, and Wendy said Twiggs just kept doing it.

We got her, her OWN box, and she eventually stopped.

Could my absence have something to do with this behavior?

This time, the peeing began when I went out of a town overnight.

I don't know, I'm just trying to give ALL the facts, and see anyone else has any suggestions.

Thanks!!

-Cat mommy, Lyn