Kitten Randomly Peeing On The Bed And Bath Mat

[Ambition9]

I have a 8 month old kitten who we took in as a stray.
She was very feral for the first month, which we completely expected, she started to grow into a very lovely little cat, with no problems. She is sometimes a little aggressive during play but that’s the only noteable behaviour “issues” (if you like) with her.
From a young age she would pee in the plant pot, which we put down to her being a stray and obviously had only ever used soil till this point, spraying water and moving her from the pot before peeing accrued got her to stop this habit - now she barely goes near the plant at all!
When she was around 6 months old she had an instant where she peed on our bed while we were out, we first put this down to us not being home or perhaps a one-off, she than did it again while we were in the bed asleep.
Both times we deep cleaned the sheets and the duvet etc.
When it happened a third time I started to get concerned.
We stopped her from coming into the room for a few weeks, sprayed some “pee away” stuff, and used citrus washing powder and softener for the sheets.
She was fine for a few weeks - no trouble at all.
We got into the routine of only letting her in the room if we were in there,
She had another instance a few weeks later, so once again we banned her from the room.
The whole time this was happening she was still using her litter box for both poos and wees and we were cleaning it every day, she has not had a problem with using the box at all.

So for a few months it was all going well keeping her out the room, until I then descoversd she had been peeing on the footstool (poof) in the living room. I got very annoyed and cleaned the footstool - she has not peed on this since!

She managed to sneak into the room one day when I was opening the door to get in myself, she jumped straight on the bed and started to pee before I could even get to her.

More recently, I woke up to find she has peed on the bathroom mat.

I have had her checked at the vets for any urine problems, but that was a few months ago before the most recent bed and mat

Should I get her checked again? Or is this a behaviour issue?

I’m at the end of my ideas, we have been started to re-introduce her to outdoor the past few weeks also.

 

[susanm9006]

She may prefer peeing on softer things. I would try a fine grained litter something like SWheat or similar. If that doesn’t work, try a very thin layer of fine litter over a puppy pad.

 

[Brian007]

Where is her litter box located? When you say she has no litter box issues, does she pee in her litter daily? Is she an only cat? How old was she when you got her? Do you have other pets? Is she neutered? Has the peeing coincided with your introducing her to the outside? Are there any other cats nearby outside? Is there anything new in her environment? New people? Where does she spend most of her time? Do you leave her alone for long periods each day? Is she lonely? For starters, heehee!

You'll probably need to clean everything again with an enzyme cleaner, and then I recommend spraying the areas with vinegar, which will kill any smell-trapping bacteria and act as a odour neutraliser. Clean your mattress also, then turn it over. You may want to get rid of your bath mats.

Try putting some treats down on the urine sites (after you've recleaned & vinegar sprayed) as cats tend not to want to eat (or drink) near their toilet. Make sure not to have her food and water stations near her litter.

Look into getting a Feliway Classic diffuser plug-in, which emits cat-calming synthetic pheromones and also some spray. And valerian in any 'cat-calming' treatment that you can find or in tea-bags, etc will also reduce her anxiety levels.

Play with her next to the urine sites to disassociate these areas with weeing.

It sounds behavioural to me but I'd probably take her to the vet anyway to get her checked out. She might have a spot of cystitis brought on by anxiety.

Don't shout at her, she won't get it and it won't do anyone any good. She's trying to tell you something is wrong in her environment or life-style and it's up to you (or, now, us) to figure it out and put things right for her.

 

[Ambition9]

Thanks for the replies!!
Her Litter box is the the middle downstairs room by the bottom of the stairs, She does pee in her litter daily, if not a few times a day. She is an only cat and only pet, she isn’t neutered so we’ve barely let her outside, (we have a high fenced garden that she’s had a wonder round once or twice but hasn’t gone any further), we have seen one or two local pet cats wondering around but that’s all, they haven’t come in our garden or to the windows that we’ve seen. The house and people haven’t changed since we’ve had her, so no environmental changes, She spends most her time in the living room, or wherever we are at the time, she sleeps in the living room or on the stairs or sometimes on the bed with us (when we’ve let her in). I work from home so she’s rarely alone for long periods on her own.

Her food and drink is in a separate room to her littler box and we have tried sprays, I’ve always played with her on the bed, even before and after the incident.

I have taken her to the vets again and they have given her some pain killers but didn’t run any major tests - they said based on a general physical test she’s perfect. Since the pain killers she has been wonderful, peeing in her littler just fine until I went to get into bed today and noticed she had peed there again!

She only seems to do it once every few weeks...

 

[Brian007]

I reckon it's a cut and dry case of hormonal urine marking to attract a mate when she's in heat, which will be every two to three weeks. Spay her asap. And, don't let her outside until you do.

 

[Ambition9]

It’s gotten worse now, we took her back to the vets and they gave her some painkillers but said that there isn’t anything wrong with her
She’s constantly peeing everywhere now, rugs, mats, towels, washing... I have tried everything you guys have already suggested.
We have bought a diffuser but they take a few weeks to start working and I’m so close to loosing it, she’s even peed on my parters lap.
She’s obviously trying to tell us something but I can’t figure it out
We’ve changed her litter type too, to see if that was the problem, but nope.

I’m really worried and angry and it’s stressing me out

 

[Ambition9]

Just to add - we haven’t had her spayed as we wanted her to have a litter, but if you think this is the only way to solve this we will have to have it done

 

[lre17]

I honestly think your best bet at this point is to have her spayed

 

[Brian007]

Your vet should really have discussed the benefits of spaying with you. Please, give it some serious thought and research.

TheCatSite is pro-neutering and you won't find anyone here who advocates allowing cats to have litters willynilly. There are literally thousands of unwanted baby kittens needing rescuing in shelters all across the world. In the US, many of these teenyweeny babies will be in 'kill-shelters' where they are at risk of being euthanised (killed) but even in a 'no-kill-shelter' their little lives are pretty miserable, awaiting loving furever homes, behind a cage. Please, consider saving the life of one of these furbabies - you would be able to choose what colour, what fur type, and how friendly or playful your new bundle(s) of joy would be.

Newborn kittens are a HUGE responsibility and require exact care in order for them to be healthy and sane. Plus, they are an expensive enterprise as they need vet checks, worming, equipment, etc. And, your poor stressed-out, peeing pussycat would fall down on her paws and kiss your feet in gratitude, if you spared her from the excruciating ordeal that is feline mating.

Oh, and she'd stop peeing outside her litter tray.

I wish you and your cat all the well in the world. This means getting her spayed.