Urination Issue

[VTWIN FARRIERS]

My wife owns two black shorthairs. They are 7 years old. She’s owned them since they were kittens. They have lived here in our marital home for the past three years, with no issues. Before that they lived with her at her home.

Our house is ~4K sq ft, 2 floors. For the most part, they live on the 2nd floor (I have a dog and while the dog tolerates them, when the dog is with us on the 1st floor they stay upstairs, as they’re afraid of the dog. When the dog is crated (at night, for instance, or when we’re at work) they roam the rest of the house. We have 2 litter boxes on the 2nd floor for them which are cleaned 3-4 times per week. They have water and food upstairs as well, cat tree, play toys, etc.

For the past several weeks, one or both of the cats has started urinating on our bed linens and living room sofa (both on 1st floor). We didn’t notice the sofa (we rarely use the living room, no kids) so it was a total loss by the time we discovered it. I had to remove the couch from the house and disinfect the floor in the room with pee-be-gone and simple green.

We added a third box on the 1st floor, that hasn’t helped. Tonight, we went to dinner and forgot to close the bedroom door, and came home again to a nice set of urine-fresh blankets (dog was in the crate at the time this happened — cat had to specifically come to the bedroom on the 1st floor to pee).

My wife is about at the end of her rope and not sure what else to do. The behavior is strange because the cats have been here for the past three years w/o an issue. So we’re not sure why it has started now. They have never peed upstairs anywhere other than their box. We do not know why they chose the sofa (in a relatively unused section of the house) and then our bed blankets to pee on.

Any thoughts on things to try, do, etc. would be appreciated. Unfortunately if we can’t get the behavior to stop, the cats are going to have to go to the shelter because we can’t have them destroy the house.

I should also add this does not seem to be a health issue, since the cats have not peed in other places (e.g. if they had a bladder or kidney issue you’d expect pee in random places as they move through the house) but my wife has made a vet appointment anyway for next week to rule out any potential health issues one or both may have.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi, I'm glad you're here.
1. clean the boxes daily, and actually wash the boxes and refresh the litter on some schedule, every 3-4 weeks or so.
2. Try a couple of different litters, there are a lot on the market, but Littermaid and Dr elseys are good brands. Also Fresh Step is good.
3. The cats are obviously fifth wheel individuals in your house. Change this.
4. Train your dog and work with all of them so the cats don't have to be afraid.
5. Obtain a calming product, and be aware that feliway is definitely not the only one on the market. There are sprays, collars, treats diffusers...
6.if you have security cameras check to see if there are feral/stray cats, raccoons or something wandering through your yards.
7. If there are animals going through your yards, set up motion activated sprinklers to deter them.
8. Please do not think of these cats as disposable. They are not.
9. Do you both interact with the cats, play with them, love on them, give them lap time? Please do so a whole lot more.

 

[5starcathotel]

Hmm, it's a bit odd that the behavior hasn't started until now...has something changed in you or your wife's schedule recently? Are the animals home alone more often?

A couple of thoughts:

- The cats "live" on the 2nd floor, but your bedroom is on the 1st floor. So the *majority* of time you and your wife are at home, you are in an area the cats are afraid to visit.

- How do the cats spend their days? Are they watching TV? Sitting in the windows?

- 2 cats, 2 litter boxes - should be cleaned daily, at least

- You say you added a third box to the 1st floor...where exactly? If it's not in your bedroom, it's in the wrong place. Excluding a health issue, your cats are telling you that the bedroom is a socially important area, and they want 'territory' there. Do they have a cat tree or two in your bedroom, or some place they can hang out up high, and be out of reach of the dog? And again, if you're concerned about smell, a regularly cleaned box will not stink.

 

[VTWIN FARRIERS]

Thanks for the replies. We we try some of the items mentioned here. We're a blended family I had a dog and she had cats when we got married.

Hi, I'm glad you're here.
1. clean the boxes daily, and actually wash the boxes and refresh the litter on some schedule, every 3-4 weeks or so.
2. Try a couple of different litters, there are a lot on the market, but Littermaid and Dr elseys are good brands. Also Fresh Step is good.
3. The cats are obviously fifth wheel individuals in your house. Change this.
4. Train your dog and work with all of them so the cats don't have to be afraid.
5. Obtain a calming product, and be aware that feliway is definitely not the only one on the market. There are sprays, collars, treats diffusers...
6.if you have security cameras check to see if there are feral/stray cats, raccoons or something wandering through your yards.
7. If there are animals going through your yards, set up motion activated sprinklers to deter them.
8. Please do not think of these cats as disposable. They are not.
9. Do you both interact with the cats, play with them, love on them, give them lap time? Please do so a whole lot more.

1. This is a good suggestion we will try, she's actually trying to do it 2x a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
2. We actually have tried different litters (can't think of them all) but littermaid and elseys do not sound familiar. I am pretty sure we have tried fresh step.
3. I disagree the cats are treated like a 5th wheel, although my post may have sounded like they were abandoned pets upstairs. My wife works from home so she spends a lot of time with the cats during the day. The dog is crated at various points during the day (breakfast, nap-time, etc.) during which the cats interact with her. The dog goes to bed about 9 and we go to bed about 11 so there is time between there were it is nothing but cat interaction when I am home too, although I'm not really a cat person.
4. We have attempted to socialize the cats with the dog but they won't have any part of it. For the most part the dog will just lay there without a care in the world, but the cats will not trust the dog. Keep in mind we've lived together now for 3 years so this isn't a "new" dog or "new" cat scenario... they have all lived together for 3 years now.
5. Wife is looking at amazon/petco today.
6. cats are indoor cats, they do not go outside. Also we live in the country, on several areas of land, so I'm certain we have animals around but I'm not sure a motion-activated sprinkler is feasible.
7. I do not consider any animal disposable, but my wife is at her wits end. The sofa the cat peed all over was an expensive sectional (I was looking to get rid of it anyway, so this gave me a good excuse ). Today she forgot to close the bedroom door when we went to dinner and we came home to freshly-urine-scented bed linen, at which point she started crying because she's incredibly frustrated by all this.
8. I'm not really a cat person, but I will interact with them when they're around. I was very allergic to cats as a kid (still am) but I am somewhat desensitized to her cats now and I do not get an allergic reaction. I do not ignore them, I will pet and play with them.

Hmm, it's a bit odd that the behavior hasn't started until now...has something changed in you or your wife's schedule recently? Are the animals home alone more often?

A couple of thoughts:

- The cats "live" on the 2nd floor, but your bedroom is on the 1st floor. So the *majority* of time you and your wife are at home, you are in an area the cats are afraid to visit.

- How do the cats spend their days? Are they watching TV? Sitting in the windows?

- 2 cats, 2 litter boxes - should be cleaned daily, at least

- You say you added a third box to the 1st floor...where exactly? If it's not in your bedroom, it's in the wrong place. Excluding a health issue, your cats are telling you that the bedroom is a socially important area, and they want 'territory' there. Do they have a cat tree or two in your bedroom, or some place they can hang out up high, and be out of reach of the dog? And again, if you're concerned about smell, a regularly cleaned box will not stink.

It is frustrating because the living situation hasn't changed in 3 years. Our lives resemble plate tectonics - not much changes daily

As I indicated in the above reply to furballsmom, my wife works at home (for the most part) but does occasionally have to go to client sites to do some work during the day. But again, this is not really any different than before, my wife's job hasn't changed. Yesterday, I was home all day.

The cats will not come downstairs if the dog is out. Well, this is not entirely true. One of them will (we have a large cat tree in the main room of the house where she will climb up and sleep in even if the dog is out.) The other will not come downstairs until the dog is either outside, in her crate, etc. We have tried to socialize them to the dog but they don't seem interested.

They sit in the window (we have cat hammocks in several windows). They do not watch TV (neither do we for that matter). They have numerous other gadgets and things to keep their brains occupied in addition to interacting with us. Occasionally they will catch a field mouse who unfortunately manages to make its way into the house.

Unfortunately our bedroom is small (we live in a 300 year old farmhouse, which has zero closets, so a 12x12 room has to have not only your typical dresser but also an armoire for each of us to store dresses/suits/etc. Add a queen bed and you're almost full. So, no, no cat tree in the bedroom (or litter box since floor space is pretty much limited to a U of walk space around the bed. We do have cat hammocks in the windows so the cats can watch the bids in the bird feeders outside the window. They could always go on top of the dressers if they felt threatened.

I am confused though why you would think the bedroom would be considered a 'socially important area', since dogs for instance will not pee in an area they consider their 'home' (e.g. why we crate-train dogs and eventually housebreak them). So I would think the cat(s) would consider the bedroom to not be part of their home if they are peeing there, no? Certainly not the living room, where to be honest I cannot recall the last time my wife and I spent time in there (there are a lot of (small!) rooms in this house).

Thanks for all the feedback thus far.

 

[Jem]

Your bedroom would be considered a socially important area, because it's the area that most smells like you and your wife. That is, if the cats are trying to blend their scents with you.
When it comes to the living room, maybe the couch they kept peeing on smelled a lot like the dog (to them, not that it stunk ) And they wanted to "take it over".
And their behavior could very well have started because of a stray or other animal who is coming around, possibly marking or peeing near an area where a draft is letting the smell in the house. (window, door, shrub, flowerbed......) There are animal deterrent sprays (safe, but effective) that you can use around the outside of your house, see if that helps.
Also, and this will sound really weird, but it has shown to be effective (including for myself), but if it is outside intruders, start drinking, and mark your own property. (close to the house, not the perimeter of your land) It helps to keep animals away, but your cats will then smell YOU and not an intruder, so they will not feel as threatened.
We (my husband) had to pee on and around our basement window because we had a stray marking on it, and our cats kept peeing all around that side of the basement on the floor. The stray stopped coming around after that.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
Bless your wife's heart, I know how frustrating, and scary, it is because a person doesn't know if it's health related and of course that can open up a whole 'nother "can of worms". I'm so keeping my fingers crossed that their vet checkups come back that the cats are top notch.

I meant to mention, if different litter --thats soft to the paws or something like that, doesn't help since it's possible the manufacturer of your usual litter changed it in some way to the point that one or both cats don't like it, you could try one of the Cat Attract type litters that are on the market now.

I apologise, but I had to chuckle a little bit about your thoughts on that couch...

One other thing, chamomile tea from the tea bags (not loose leaves, those are unsafe for cats) will help for calming effects as well. A couple cooled teaspoons a couple times a day for the cats and several cups for your wife.
Seriously though, the cats pick up on emotional stress, so if she can hang in there 'til this all gets worked out, that would be good.

 

[Jem]

Have you thought about making a "cat highway" with shelves so your cats feel comfortable moving around the 1st floor without having to walk on the same level as the dog? It might encourage the cats to come around more even when the dog is out.

 

[Furballsmom]

Oh, and while things are still getting worked out, in any areas that it's happening regularly puppy pee training pads can oftentimes help ease the cleanup/damage, or even towels over a tarp, something like that.
--I found out a couple weeks ago, since my boy was having some leakage, that (reusable) pee pads are a tad pricey

 

[maggiedemi]

Can you increase their canned food? This helped my cats. When they eat too much dry food, they get pee problems.

 

[Jem]

Furballsmom - I know you said they were pricey, but I've never seen reusable pee pads (well, I never looked either as I did not know they made them), where did you get them? We have to use pee pads for our cat who unfortunately has litter avoidance. We line the litter box with pee pads and not litter, he WILL NOT use ANY form of litter, but will use a pad lined box. In my situation, the reusable ones might be more cost effective.
V VTWIN FARRIERS - sorry for going off your topic, I'm just really interested in the reusable pee pads.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! Jem These are called Poochpad reusable potty pads. According to the original box they come in three different sizes.
This particular 3-pack was on a deep discount at Petco (I didn't know these were made either. I saw it totally accidentally while I was wandering and looking at food ), so I'm not sure they're carrying it/them any longer or if it was just that the box was somewhat smushed, but in any case I've washed them a couple times and they came out great. It looks like target has them. If a person orders them from Amazon do be careful of fake third party sellers

 

[Jem]

Thanks Furballsmom ! I will be looking into them! I'm in Canada, so I'll have to see which store carries them here (we don't have Target). Not a huge fan of online shopping of things that I've not purchased before, so Amazon will be my last resort. Thanks again!

 

[Furballsmom]

To the OP, I realize you have a door to your bedroom but just in case, heres a recent thread that talks about peeing on the bed, and a couple of temporary solutions;
My Cat Keeps Peeing On My Bed

 

[Hellenww]

If the bedroom and living room windows are on the same side of the house something outside may well be the problem.

Jem idea of marking your territory is ingenious.

Reusable incontinence underpads appear to be made of the same material as the reusable puppy pee pads. There are too many sizes and choice for me to figure out which is the better buy.

People have also used rug runners laid upside down to keep kitties off an area. It's not my favorite idea but easier to roll up before getting in bed and hopefully you'll be able to solve kittys issue.

Are you using an enzyme cleaner when washing the bedding? I'd run it through once with both detergent and enzyme, then a second time with detergent.

 

[MeganLLB]

The cats peed in your bedroom because they wanted to mark that as their territory. I think you need to "catify" your first floor. If they have a bed that smeels like them, put that on your bed and put a litterbox in your bedroom. Get more cat trees, beds, scratching posts, and put them downstairs. Those are all scent soakers. They use those things and it soaks up their scent so when they walk by they smell themselves on it.

Also up their play time. Get them panting and running. Play with them on the first floor.

 

[jen]

1. Have you mentioned when the last time the cats were at the vet? Specifically for a urinalysis, and ideally bloodwork?

2. I want to address your #4 point. You said you tried to introduce them to the dogs and they want nothing of it. What happened exactly? What I am wondering here is did they do anything similar to these:
a) flail, scream and run and hide and urinate and you didn't see them for days?
b) were they hissing, growling, cautious but still in the same vicinity as the dogs?
c) flat out attack the dogs