My cat keeps peeing on the carpet!

kings981

She is now 9 months old, she is littered trained and was fine until 6 weeks ago. She does go outside when we are around e.g in the evenings and weekends (our last cat was run over so we don't want her to stray too far). She has a perfectly good litter tray which I keep as clean as I can. Removing solids each day and giving it a complete clean out every 4-5 days. We have never changed the make of cat litter she has.

For some reason (and I'm suspecting terrotorial) she likes to pee in the corner of our sitting room _ and only in this one spot. If I catch her doing it I give her a good telling off and she knows it is wrong. But will still do it again a day or two later. Rather embarassingly we went on holiday and left her with a friend (who has had her on a couple of occasions previously) and she too went to the toliet in the corner of a room.

I can't seem to stop her doing it, if anyone can suggest any deterant. I have tried to absorb all the odours with bicarb and hoover that up - she just tried to go on the bicarb!! I have also tried spraying the area with essential oils - peppermint and tea tree don't seem to work!

Any suggestions gratefully received.

cuddlymarm

Hi

If you douse the area with white vinager it will kill the smell then if you cover it with something for now or put something there so she forgets about that area and then make sure her tray is inviting and praise when she uses it. Oh and also you haven't put her tray near her food have you. She won't like that.

I hope this helps
Cuddles:rotfl:

pamelab21

we did have a prob at one point last year with our 7 year old Lhasa Apso dog, she had just been a walk etc and ended up going when we got her back in the house, took her to the vets as very out of character and she suspected a possible urine infection, one week of antibiotics later it never happened again.
Unsure if this is a possibilty or if your could be behavioural issues?

ajb69

You have my sympathy, as I have suffered from this, and trying to get inside your cat's mind is not an easy thing, especially without knowing what sort of life it leads.

There are lots of potential reasons why this could happen; rather than list them here, please go and read this, it's fantastic:

http://www.fabcats.org/behaviour/spraying/info.html

If you've not come across them, FAB are a major cat charity, and sponsor vets/research posts in universities, so they do know what they are talking about.

However, for what it's worth, these are the first steps I would take:

* Is the cat spraying, or urinating - i.e. is it marking territory, or losing control of its bladder? The first is psychological - they are stressed or upset or feel unable to use their litter for some reason. The second is medical - they need to see a vet.

* I would clean the area following FAB's instructions - I'm told some cleaning agents may actually make the problem worse, I'm sorry to say

* I would try my best not to yell - I know how difficult it is, but it actually makes the cat *more* likely to pee in a corner.

* I'd look at the current litter position/cleaning routine to try and work out how to make it more appealing to her - e.g. for a week or two, you may need to change it every day and also perhaps move it to a less exposed position/where she is peeing and then gradually move it back. Also perhaps try a different type of litter or a covered litter tray (that's what worked for me once)

* Get a Feliway diffuser from your vet / online - much cheaper - if you haven't already, and plug it into the room.

Again, and as someone who's lived through this, I'm sorry I've not found any magic bullet; but some reason - stress or illness - has caused this behaviour, and we have to play guessing games until we find it out. It would be so much simpler if they could talk :rolleyes:

Cheers

Drew

Cullumpster

you can also use biological soap powder - i done it with mine she's a nightmare and it stinks :eek: biological soap powder hot water a good scrub and she hasn't been back since, has been at least a month now

BitterAndTwisted

Clever Collumpster. I've read about the biological washing powder before and I've also read that some people wet the carpet with something volatile like vodka to remove all traces once the bio solution has dried.

The truth is, once a pusscat has soiled in an area they will keep going back to it if you don't remove all traces of the smell. Never forget that cats sense of smell is hundreds of time more sensitive than ours.

Some cats stop using their litter tray if it's not private enough. Cats are at their most vulnerable when toileting, so it needs to be somewhere as private and quiet as possible. Or try one of those with a hood and cat-flap.

But first I'd take puss to the vet to rule out cystitis or any other medical problem.

BeenieCat

Some cats are fussy maybe she just decided that she doesn't like the type of litter you're using anymore.

Controversially, my mother used to rub their nose in it, which was effective but i'm not saying i endorse it. :rotfl:

BitterAndTwisted

Rubbing a cat's nose in it will only make it frightened and confused and who would want to do that to their darling?

Slim4Summer

When we brought our 2 eldest cats home from the rescue centre (aged 6 months) I had the house all ready with a couple of litter trays. My son aged 3 asked what they were and I explained they were cat toilets. Unfortunately he decided he would try one out - he peed in the tray! The cats took one sniff and immediately went and peed in the dining room instead.
As others have said they keep going back to the same spot, no matter how much you clean, what sprays you put down - we ended up having to chuck the carpet and get wooden flooring instead!! (Much nicer anyway LOL!)