New, sudden onset of inappropriate urination... help!

[martymcjackson]

I have a ten month-old, neutered male, recovering-feral cat who has been living strictly indoors for six months.  He has always been absolutely perfect about using his litter box... until tonight!  It is extremely cold here (Ohio), so I placed a heating pad under my cat's bed on the floor.  He only uses the bed occasionally, but it seemed like this could help him stay warm for the evening while the house is so cold. 

He seemed hesitant about the bed, but was checking it out and looking like he might settle in.  So I turned my back for a few minutes and when I turned around to check on him, I found that he had urinated in his bed!  For the life of me I can't think why he would have done this, except maybe that the heating pad gives off a chemical smell that was unfamiliar and/or that he didn't like... or maybe the concentrated sensation of heat (which he had never felt before tonight - this was his first heating pad encounter) triggered this response somehow?

In any case... it soaked through his bed, through the heating pad, into the rug, and all the way through to the wood floor.  I have already discarded the bed and heating pad, and am currently working on the "crime scene" clean-up (haha).  But now I'm worried he is going to do this again.  I'm really hoping it was just a random happening b/c of the new stimuli that was introduced tonight (and obviously one that will never be introduced again!).  Does anyone have any insights or advice here?  What am I missing and why did he do this?  And how do I make sure he doesn't do it again?

 

Thanks a million!

 

[hexiesfriend]

It could be the smell of the heating pad. I don't think this will be a repeated thing. I learned with 2 of my formerly feral, male cats not to buy any carpet with a non skid rubber/ plastic bottom because they would always squat down and pee on them. There must be something with the way the rubber smells. It was done on repeated carpets. I would bet it was the smell of the heating pad plastic that made him do it.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

The strange smell is my guess too.  Be sure you clean the area thoroughly; with an enzyme cleaner if you have one, as if he can smell that he has gone there he is more likely to go there again.  Hopefully it's a one time thing though!

 

[martymcjackson]

Thanks, all, for your input in my hour of panic!  Lol!  I am happy to report that it was indeed a one-time thing, inspired by the smell from the heating pad.  I had to get rid of his bed and replace it with a new one of exactly the same type, and I put it in exactly the same place where it was before.  (He gets really upset when things change.)  Thanks to enzyme spray, no urine smell remained in the rug at all, and he has not bothered the spot again.  Yay!