Why Is Cat Weeing Everywhere?

fleetingmind

My in laws bought 2 kittens several months back and one of them a grey female has had cat flu which she almost died of (better now) and rarely used the litter tray instead doing it around the house including on beds. The local vet says it could be stress due to the other animals they have (3 x English mastiffs, 1 x kitten, 1 x cat, 4 x roosters, 10 x chickens, ducks, geese etc).
So reluctantly they wanted a new home for her so we took her in.

First few days she was good as gold and used her litter tray and enjoyed being in a home with no stress. On the third night I agreed to leave the door open to the 3rd floor where all the bedrooms are and where we all sleep. This night the moment my wife and I got into bed she jumped on the bed and pi55ed on it - my side as well!!!
Now both my mother in law and sister in law work in a vets and say she did the same when she was at home. They think that it was due to my wife being on her monthly and was the cats way of protecting her.

Anyway she was put downstairs and door shut again. Now the cat never goes up stairs now even when the door is open during the day.

Yesterday morning I was going to work and the cat followed me down to the ground floor (3 floor townhouse). The litter tray is by the front door and while I was getting my coat on she scratched the door mat then done her business on the door mat.
The same night I was in the office (Which is right by her litter tray) and instead of doing it in her litter tray she jumped in our silver cross buggy and did it in there.

My wife has just told me that she has done it again in a wicker basket by the front door (litter tray is about a metre away).

Now there are allot of cats in the area and she has not been spaded yet (booked in on Monday as neighbour said she could be coming into season) we have two young children who can also be over friendly with her.

Is there a reason for her doing this? Do some cats just do it and won't change, Is she in season and not spaded, marking her territory, doesn't like to do it in litter tray if people are there.

Having her in our home was to see if having no 'stress' stopped her doing it and until yesterday she was doing great apart from on the bed. In laws said they would take her back if she continued to do it. I'm not the biggest cat lover but my wife and kids love her but I can't take her pi55ing everyday.

Any ideas or suggestions.

Sorry for the long rant but thought best to give all the facts.

hellokitty08

well if she is used to doing it, then she wont just stop magically. She will need to be trained. I imagine someone will come along with detailed advice, but she might need containing in one room whilst she gets used to using the litter tray, but this might take a while, especially at her age. I have never had any problems with getting my cats to use the litter tray. But I am sure she can be trained.

fleetingmind

I could understand it if she came in and did it from day one but apart from the bed inccident for a whole week she has used the litter tray everytime.

hellokitty08

ohh well she might just be trying it on then, testing her boundries. If nothing is wrong with her, i am not sure what would be best to let her know that this is not ok. Someone else will be able to give you some good advice I am sure.

loulou123

I had exactly this problem, my cat (a rescue) used to pee everywhere. For the 1st week or so she was fine and used the tray, but then she started misbehaving. Like your cat she used to do it mostly on the bed or sofa (to the extent we had to buy completely new bedding for us!)

We took her to the vets and she had no problem causing this (i believe kidney infections and similar things can cause this.) So we called up the rescue centre for advise.

We were told to provide more litter trays (we now have 3 in a small flat!) to make sure the trays are kept 100% clean and to clean any accidents up with that special cat odor remover (otherwise they will keep doing it in the same place.)

As the accidents mainly occured at night we were also recommended to keep her shut in 1 room at night time, along with her bed and the litter tray. I hated doing this as she miowed all night to come in with us. After a week (ish) of dry nights we let her back in with us, and she was dry all night. She did have some incidents in the early days and as soon as she did, she was back in the kitchen for the following couple of nights.

We've had her 4 years now and she is 99% accident free. Although we have learnt not to leave any clothing on the floor, as she will always still pee on this for some reason. And we did get a new sofa a few weeks ago and she peed on this within a few hours! Although i think this may have been marking her terriotry.

You can get through this, but you need to be very patient. Id definately recommend providing more trays, maybe one n each level of your house if this is do able. Good luck.

Raksha

How often is the litter tray cleaned out?

BitterAndTwisted

The most common reason for cats soiling is stress. If you've ruled out the possibility of an infection, like cystitis, then treat for stress.

I think you might have a combination of things going on: moving a cat from one home to another is stressful even to a kitten, also when they're small they need a litter-tray within very easy reach as they can forget where it is in a big house, plus once soiling has taken place they will return to those places once their scent is established there, so you need to address all of these at the same time.

What I'd do, if you can't cage-confine her, is to restrict kitty to only one room in the house with her bedding, food and litter-tray. In the meantime you need to eradicate the smell of cat-pee from everywhere the kitten has soiled or it will keep going back to the favourite spots. You can do this by washing the soiled areas with biological laundry detergent and once dry, wet down the areas with a spirit, like vodka.

Once kitten is used to using her tray in her room allow her limited access to other parts of your home very gradually. Most cat-experts recommend that you provide one litter-tray per cat and one extra so for a single cat you will need two but in a multi-floor house I would consider having one on each floor, maybe on the landing and those trays need to be emptied of solid matter every single day. Some cats will not go to number twos in the same tray they do number ones and some cats are extremely sensitive to changes of the cat-litter and a lot are sensitive to the postion of the tray. Cats need to feel safe and secure when toileting, so your cat might need covered trays.

If kitten transgresses once out of the single room, go back and confine her again and start from the beginning.

fleetingmind

Thanks for all the replies.

I have taken a few steps which has resulted in her not doing it again (so far!!). I shut the door of the office (one of the places she did it). After she eats I take her down to her litter tray and put her in it. A few times she has gone.
We have also let her go out the front door onto our drive and she likes to roam around. maybe by the front door was as close to outside as she could get to mark her territory (We have load sof cats in our road).

fleetingmind

Raksha wrote: »

How often is the litter tray cleaned out?

Every 2 days. We were given one of those corner ones which reduces weeing space to a rectangle one. Maybe we need to clean every day as cats won't go in the same soiled place again will they?

BitterAndTwisted

Mine will but there is a limit and I think it's truly unkind to exceed that limit. All cats are different and that's why we love them so

Raksha

fleetingmind wrote: »

Every 2 days. We were given one of those corner ones which reduces weeing space to a rectangle one. Maybe we need to clean every day as cats won't go in the same soiled place again will they?

In my experience, many cats dislike using a litter tray once it's been used once, let alone has a days worth of poo in it - 2 days worth really is encouraging her to go elsewhere - I think that could be your problem.......