Does anyone elses young cat ...................

Sometimes Urinate in places other than the litter box?

Simba is 7 months old now has been neutered and is fine health wise, however it is really getting to me that he urinates almost once every day in a strange spot.

He first did it on our bed whch soaked right through our entire mattress, since then it has been various places my daughters plastic school bag, her socks, toys, carpets, even his bed!
I dont know what to do , as i have kids i really like to keep things clean and hygienic for them but they mess up their toys alot and leave them lying around so the minute our backs turned simba has urinated on them, he has an enclosed litter box which he uses regular, and it gets cleaned throughly once a week, i need it to be enclosed as my youngest would mess with the litter......

Ive just had to remove the covers off my couch as ive been out and there is a yellow patch on one of the covers,,,, i dont know how to cope with it anymore!

No- that is not normal.

Have medical issues been ruled out yet?
First stop for inappropriate elimination is a vet visit.

When you say "he has an enclosed litter box which he uses regular, and it gets cleaned throughly once a week" does that mean that you scoop daily and wash the box once a week?
If not, and you are only changing litter weekly, then I would definitely start scooping once or twice a day. Enclosed boxes get smelly really quickly and cats do not like to use smelly boxes.

Also be sure that his litter box is not too near his food...

I agree. Bijou really doesn't like to use a dirty box. He'll sit and seems to hold it until I start cleaning his box and before I'm half through he's in there doing some business.

I scoop at least once per day and sometime 2 (depending if I'm at home during the day). We have 2 litter boxes and both get scooped daily with a cup or two of new litter being added every couple days.

Also, sometimes peeing outside the box is an indication of a urinary tract infection. Please have the vet rule out the UTI and scoop often. That should fix your problem.

As stated before the first stop would be to eliminate a urinary track infection.

2- Have you tried 2 litter boxes some cats do not like to poo and pee in the same box
3- Be sure to have clean litter boxes
4- Once health issues are illiminated you can look at behavioral issues
- such as terrirorial marking
- the help of Feliway plug in

and be sure to clean with a product that eliminated Pet odor ( just soap and water will not do)!!

hi yes i scoop daily (the poop gets scooped straight away as he always does this when im in), and clean it once a week,i scoop out what i can but the pee doesnt seem to be scoopable as its isnt clumping litter...but i take out as much soiled as possible.
He was last checked at vets a month ago, so ive booked him in tomorow for a check up just to be sure.
His litter box is not near his food,so far it seems anything that ive left lying on the floor he pees on, he did it on my daughters changing mat too when i was just about to change her,i do hope he stops doing it soon.

my cat does this too! Shawn thinks it is because she is a baby, but i dont know. we had her checked out and everything is healthy. However, our little one, Cocoa, is 3 months old and pees when she sleeps. She pees on our rug, on our bed, and on our couch. I thought it was oreo, our older cat, because she was angry we got a new kitten, but oreo sits and watches while Cocoa wakes up squats pees and goes back to sleep in the same spot! it is so weird.
we change her litter box everyday and have two litter boxes, but oreo wants to jump in both of them. i have no idea what going on with this one

There could be lots of reasons for him doing this. Yes, get him checked out, but it could be something completely aside from anything physical, and could just be a preference thing.

Some things that should help...

Sometimes kitties get very finicky about exactly how their litterbox is set up, and where. Sounds like that's the problem here.

Our boy, Hobbes, did the same thing, and it turned out he wanted one litterbox to poop in and one to pee in, he didn't like hooded litterboxes, and he liked it pristinely clean. I found a couple websites that helped me understand exactly what it was that I could try that would help, and it really did. One good thing is the fact that he's now outgrown his pickiness about wanting two and wanting them in such perfect condition, now that he's about a year old! Hopefully yours will do the same!

Here are a couple websites that should help:

http://www.larimerhumane.org/services/litterboxinfo.cfm

http://www.thepetprofessor.com/secA...es_and_cats.asp

http://www.heartlandhumane.org/pub/petcare_litterbox

A couple tips:

Cats don't usually like the plastic liners some people use in litterboxes.

Some cats don't like the hooded boxes.

Cats at times don't like the box to be anywhere that they also have to eat and drink.

Sometimes the problem is just that the box isn't somewhere private enough. They only like to "go" somewhere that is low-traffic, quiet, and very private.

Hope all that helps!

Let us know how it goes!

glad he is off to the vet

My cat did this too when she was little! It was awful. We'd watch her jump on our bed, and squat to pee. What a mess and a lot of laundry that situation created!

We found that she didn't like the rough gravel in her litter box, and we replaced it with a soft clumping sand. She also was afraid of the door on the covered litter box (I think it caught her tail one time... ouch!) so we removed that. I also suggest removing the lid because that might help him too.

Also, make sure that the litter box is in a quiet, safe place!

Come on, Simba! Pee in the potty!

Oh thanks everyone i feel much better knowing he is not the only one, and most importantly that i can do things to stop him.
I will try removing the hood and maybe changing the litter to a softer type if the vets confirm he is fine tomorow.

Thanks Again!

I had the same problem when Meowser was younger. I changed to a clumping litter and never had another problem.

Molly started peeing on mom and dad's bed a few weeks ago. Around that time, I'd added wood chips to the litter to see what happened. Nothing happened, so I added wood chips to all the boxes and shortly after, Molly peed on the bed. About a week after the first peeing incident, she went into heat, so that could also be it. Coincidently, Molly was also 7 months (or around that) when she went into heat, so maybe it's sort of the same with your male (Molly's not in heat anymore and she's stopped peeing)? He's becoming sexually active or something? Unless he's been neutered in which case it's probably something else, lol

Thanks aussie dog~

Yeah he has been neutered, oh i just love your kitties they are soo cute!

Try using on of the large plastic toy boxes that you get from wilkinsons as a litter box so theres plaenty of room to dig, pee and bury. and using Catsan litter (it has a fine, sandy texture.)

Hi just got back from the vets which was a complete waste of time and money imo, the vet didnt offer any good advice apart from giving him an hormone injection which i didnt know much about and felt slightly pushed into letting him give it to him, he said it may stop him urinating in strange places but not guarranteed, i went alone and it was being filmed for training purposes, and as this was the only thing they offered i said yes go ahead, but feel like i was a bit pushed now.The only known side effects are increased appetite and drinking for 2 days he said.
He observed it was unlikely that simba has got an infection although he didnt really look at him, and went onto say if this injection doesnt see any inprovement then i may just have to put up with it, which after great advice on this site isnt the case.....
Im glad hes fine but dissapointed with my trip to the vets which cost £30 altogether for what took 10 mins or less infact.

wont be rushing to the vets in future im afraid! ( unless its urgent matter of course)

forgot to say, he was injected with 'Tardak'

Do you have loyalty to this particular veterinarian? They don't sound concerned at all IMO and I absolutely do not like to be brushed off especially when I have noticed something wrong with one of my animals. You were worried enough (and rightly so) to take him to be seen- the least they can do is the most basic office procedure (urinalysis) to rule out the most common causes.

I would not let this put me off vets as a whole, but I would use this as a reason to look for a different one. They should make you feel secure with their competency, and I certainly don't feel as if Simba's problem was even addressed.

I am totally unfamiliar with Tardak but what little I am able to learn from Google just confuses me even more as it is listed as a chemical castration type hormone? Simba is neutered, right? Or I am just assuming so?

Duke has had a problem in the past few months. I think he thinks that he is in the box but ends up that his rear end is outside and pees on the mat. Duke is a big boy (25lbs) and if there is too much litter in the box he dosn't get turned around in there like he would if there was less litter. I now keep the litter at a 2-3 inch depth. Yes it is less fun for the digging but it saves me cleaning up the puddle in front of the box

Originally Posted by bengalsmum

Hi just got back from the vets which was a complete waste of time and money imo, the vet didnt offer any good advice apart from giving him an hormone injection which i didnt know much about and felt slightly pushed into letting him give it to him, he said it may stop him urinating in strange places but not guarranteed, i went alone and it was being filmed for training purposes, and as this was the only thing they offered i said yes go ahead, but feel like i was a bit pushed now.The only known side effects are increased appetite and drinking for 2 days he said.
He observed it was unlikely that simba has got an infection although he didnt really look at him, and went onto say if this injection doesnt see any inprovement then i may just have to put up with it, which after great advice on this site isnt the case.....
Im glad hes fine but dissapointed with my trip to the vets which cost £30 altogether for what took 10 mins or less infact.

wont be rushing to the vets in future im afraid! ( unless its urgent matter of course)

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Something I would like to post something about is the fact that I've had over 20 cats in the past fifteen years...and I've not had ONE case of them getting a urinary tract infection. Honestly, I would suggest that if you have a kitty that is refusing to go in the litterbox, it's more than likely because he/she is being picky about something to do with the box itself, or it's placement in the house.

Personally, I do what I posted (about such things as changing a few things to see what his preference is with it), and if the behavior continues, I would then wonder if a trip to the vet is needed.

I'm sorry you took him in and found nothing wrong, and feel like you wasted money. I'm not saying not to be concerned about kitties when they act strange, but I feel like there are an aweful lot of people that are quick to give the advice of taking Kitty in to the vet's office, having a blood panel done, and assuming that it's something that dire...when it could simply be that Kitty doesn't like something about his litterbox.

I'm not trying to start a whole discussion or argument about it, I just thought it worth mentioning. Sometimes the solution is something simple...not that something potentially fatal is occurring and you should pay out the bum for things that aren't necessary.

I hope no one takes offense that I've posted this. I just wish that "Kitty is dying" wouldn't be so quickly assumed with things like this.

Hey, maybe I've just been lucky with not having a kitty with a UTI, but it seems much less common than people assume.

Bottom line...I love you all...have nothing against anyone...but felt this needed to be said.