Hi everyone, my Lucy has been peeing where she shouldn't for almost a year now, and it is getting worse and worse.
I adopted her in April 2011, when she was exactly a year old. She had always lived with other cats, and I had fostered her for 3 months before I adopted her with no pee issues. In August or September of last year, she started peeing on all sorts of things. We took her to the vet, and she had a UTI. This was treated and her urine has been checked multiple times since, always comes back clear of any problems.
At that point, we'd find something once in a while that had been peed on--the dustpan, rugs, piles of laundry. Since then the problem has increased dramatically; everyday our washer is filled with load after load of clothes, pillows, blankets/bedspreads, etc etc. She will pee on just about anything--furniture, our beds, the top of the dining room table...anything. She will also pee on things standing up--like boys do when they spray, which I thought was really weird.
I have tried everything I can think of. I clean the litter more often, I use bleach to try and remove the scent, I even bought the expensive 'Cat Attract' litter. The thing is, she uses the litter too. Often when I clean the litter, she comes in and pees in it as I'm cleaning it. And sometimes, if I catch her about to go on something else, I can tell her 'come with me' and we'll go to the litter box, and she'll get in and go there instead.
I should mention I have 6 other cats. At about the same time Lucy had the UTI, one of my other cats, Maxie, started bullying her and trying to take possession of my room, where Lucy likes to sleep. I thought this may be at least part of the cause of the peeing, so I have been closing off the upstairs at night and only letting Lucy in (this leaves her my room and 2 other rooms to sleep in as she chooses). I haven't seen any decrease in peeing from doing this, though.
I am out of ideas and have no idea what to do. If anyone has any suggestions for things I could try, I would really appreciate it. The vet's only other suggestions were putting her on Prozac (!) or using the Comfort Zone plug-ins--but she said they only really work in small, enclosed spaces.
Sorry for the novel!!
I adopted her in April 2011, when she was exactly a year old. She had always lived with other cats, and I had fostered her for 3 months before I adopted her with no pee issues. In August or September of last year, she started peeing on all sorts of things. We took her to the vet, and she had a UTI. This was treated and her urine has been checked multiple times since, always comes back clear of any problems.
At that point, we'd find something once in a while that had been peed on--the dustpan, rugs, piles of laundry. Since then the problem has increased dramatically; everyday our washer is filled with load after load of clothes, pillows, blankets/bedspreads, etc etc. She will pee on just about anything--furniture, our beds, the top of the dining room table...anything. She will also pee on things standing up--like boys do when they spray, which I thought was really weird.
I have tried everything I can think of. I clean the litter more often, I use bleach to try and remove the scent, I even bought the expensive 'Cat Attract' litter. The thing is, she uses the litter too. Often when I clean the litter, she comes in and pees in it as I'm cleaning it. And sometimes, if I catch her about to go on something else, I can tell her 'come with me' and we'll go to the litter box, and she'll get in and go there instead.
I should mention I have 6 other cats. At about the same time Lucy had the UTI, one of my other cats, Maxie, started bullying her and trying to take possession of my room, where Lucy likes to sleep. I thought this may be at least part of the cause of the peeing, so I have been closing off the upstairs at night and only letting Lucy in (this leaves her my room and 2 other rooms to sleep in as she chooses). I haven't seen any decrease in peeing from doing this, though.
I am out of ideas and have no idea what to do. If anyone has any suggestions for things I could try, I would really appreciate it. The vet's only other suggestions were putting her on Prozac (!) or using the Comfort Zone plug-ins--but she said they only really work in small, enclosed spaces.
Sorry for the novel!!