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Letter of the Month: My Cat Urinates Everywhere

Hello, I have a ten-year-old calico cat named Megan I've had since she was five weeks old. She has never been one to want to be held and cuddled, and when we have company, she hides and WILL NOT come out until they are gone. Every little noise scares her. We are a military family, so we have moved a total of three times since we've had her. She has adjusted well each time, but really hates her kennel and the car. We have been at our current home a year now.

A month and a half ago, I noticed the rug in the kids' bathroom was wet with urine. I washed the rug, shut the bathroom door, and later put the freshly laundered rug back down and shut the door. The next morning, Megan tried to urinate on the rug again. When the kids ran her out, she went directly to the dining room and urinated on the wall-to-wall carpet.

That morning I took her to the vet and he diagnosed her with kidney stones. He gave antibiotics and pills to increase the acidity in her urine. He told me to keep her confined for a week so she would go to her litter box again and also to keep her from going to the places she had soiled already. So, I kept her in the laundry room.

A week later, I took her back for a check up and she still had blood in her urine, so he gave her a stronger antibiotic for another week. At the end of that week, I took her back for a re-check and all was well. He gave me more prescription food (Science Diet S/D). With the clean bill of health, I let her out of the laundry room and gave her free reign of the house. I picked up some Nature's Recipe Urinary food, but she developed diarrhea from this so bad that I woke up on Mother's Day to five different places of diarrhea on the carpet!

I put her back in the laundry room and called the vet. He said her stomach was upset and to hold all food for 24 hours and come get some sensitive food from him the next day. I did this and mixed it with the still S/D wet food. She started having normal stools again, but she urinated in her bed right in front of me one morning. Later that day, I opened the laundry room door and she darted out and ran to my room, and urinated on the dog's rug.

All this time, Megan had been using her litter box with no problem. Her litter box has always been in the laundry room and her food bowls are in there as well. I called the vet and he seemed to think that she was just mad from being in the laundry room. So, I let her out, but shut the doors to the bedrooms and the kid's bathroom. All week everything went well. Then, the other night, the kid's forgot to close the door to their bathroom before they went to bed. When I got up the next morning, I noticed the door open and immediately went to the rug in the bathroom and sure enough, it was wet again.

I laundered the rug and cleaned up the floor with Simple Green, then shut the door. The vet gave me a plug-in called Feliway to try, so I did as the instructions said, and introduced her to the bathroom after not one, but 3 hours after having it plugged in. I watched her and she went to the other rug and urinated on it! I said "NO" and she ran.

This morning, after feeding her, she went to the bathroom door and saw it closed, then she traveled through the house and went to the dining room and was sniffing around a spot she had had diarrhea in before, and started to urinate there. I said "NO" and she ran away. I caught her and put her back in the laundry room for the day.

I can't tell you how frustrated I am. I have cried my eyes out over this! We have had her for 10 years and love her to death! I have spent already $300 in the past two months on her and can't afford anymore. This all started April 17th, and she has spent that entire time in the laundry room except for one week. This is no life for a cat, but what can I do? I can't have her urinating throughout the house on the carpet. I can't just pick them up and put them in the washing machine.

I have read the suggestions about putting aluminum foil on the areas, and can try that. I am at my wits end and feel like I need to be medicated mentally! I truly love my animals, and feel like I have done all I know how to do. I really don't want to have her put to sleep, but when you look at the quality of life she has now and I'll NEVER let her out of the laundry room knowing she will urinate on the carpet, what choice do I have?

She is declawed in the front, and has been spayed. She is playful at times, but others, like when she can't get in the kid's bathroom and I have her in the laundry room, there is a look that comes over her...cold eyes.

I know this is a long email, but I would really appreciate any insight you may have. I have two children that love her and would really be hurt if we have to get rid of her. I can't afford a cat shrink, nor the shrink meds to put her on if that is the problem. I just don't know what else to do. Thank you, Denise

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