Potent urine smell!

Since I moved from PA to baltimore, MD my cats urine has been getting increasingly potent smelling. I can't tell if its coming from 1 year old Drusilla or 6 year old Tara or both. I added a third box to the apartment figuring that the pee was just building up faster in the current two. I scoop them everyday and change them once a week. I scrubbed them out in case urine seeped into the scratch marks on the bottom. I changed their water from tap to bottled in case it was something in MD water. I even went as far as to buy three new litterboxes just in case it was the boxes that smelled. But in a single day, they can make the room reek with urine. I had them both tested for UTI's, they were negative. I made sure they were peeing in the box (verses the floor/furniture which would certainly smell) and covering it up, and they are. Still I come home everyday and need to open a window and spray air freshener because the cat pee smell is so bad. The vet just said to switch the water and tested them for UTI's. Is there anything in particular I should ask him to test for?

Anyone here have any ideas what I can do? They eat Felidae and have relatively unstinky poops and are acting perfectly normal and healthy otherwise. I use FreshStep cat litter, which has never given me a problem before. And they drink Deer Park bottled water as well now.

Thanks

First off I am making an assumption that the are both spayed.

Usually increased urine smell could be - concentrated Urine and possibly not enough water intake. Possibly adding wet to their diet if you don't already.

Next I would have a blood test done on both your cats checking for kidney problems.

Wishing you all the best..

My first thought is also not enough water intake. I have a Drinkwell fountain for my cats which seems to help stimulate them to drink more water and I also feed wet twice a day.
My MIL whose house is right behind ours feeds her cats the same thing I do since I buy it for both houses has a little girl whose urines seem to be stronger than my guys. I sttribute it to her not having a fountain to boost water drinking as well as her little girl not eating as much wet as mine do.

One other thing I saw on here was someone mentioning that lack of consistency of the Fresh Step litter which may not be containing the odor as well some times than others.

That is all of my pennys' worth on that subject.

Has their food changed since you moved? Could they be eating something new on their own (some kind of local plant)? Also, you might check to see whether one of them has started going outside the box.

Originally Posted by emmylou

Has their food changed since you moved? Could they be eating something new on their own (some kind of local plant)? Also, you might check to see whether one of them has started going outside the box.

Click to expand...

Definitely check to see if someone has peed outside the litterbox. If they have, both cats may continue to pee in that spot until it is cleaned up with an enzymatic cleaner. You can try to smell out the source of the odor, or you can use a visual test--cat urine glows under a black-light.

Another test you may have the vet run is a Urine Specific Gravity. It measures how concentrated the urine is and may tell you whether one of the cats is drinking less so their urine is more concentrated.

hope the smell is gone now! and ur pets and u enjoying hygiene!

I use Fresh Step, and it hasen't givin me any odor problems, BUT whose to say it wont...LOL...Anyways...My first thought was peeing outside the box as well. Maybe they're going in a spot you don't know about? Whatever the case maybe, keep us posted and I'm wishing you all the luck!