Cats peeing in the house - advice please!

begley

Evening all, and thanks for reading. I'll cut a long story as short as I can.....

We have 3 cats, age 20 (male), 12 (female) and 9ish (female). They're peeing all over the house and it's driving us mental!

It's mostly our old boy Dennis, he's 'marking' anywhere and everywhere. We've mopped with citrus smelling stuff, berated him, and have even now provided a litter tray, all to no avail. if you hang your coat on the back of the chair he's been known to spray up it, just cos it wasn't there before, if you see what I mean. We do have other cats from the neighbourhood come in sometimes, I reckon it's because they invade his territory, but the smell in the house is awful. Our middle cat was rehomed to us just a year ago, and she's following his lead; we had to get rid of a really nice rug the other day cos between them they'd drenched it. Our youngest cat is brilliant, and doesn't do it, but is the only one using the provided litter tray which she doesn't actually need!!!

If anyone has had a similar situation then I'd love some advice. All our cats are healthy, are 'fleaed' regularly and receive the medication they need (costs a bit, but we don't mind) so health issues can be ruled out. It's getting to the point when we're embarrassed to have people round; we're not ridiculously house proud but it really is offensive.

Anyhoo, thanks for reading!

Liz

Waterfalls

it sounds like they are showing signs of stress.
the rule of thumb is one litter tray per cat plus one and to be placed in a nice private area.
it may also be worth thinking about purchasing a feliway plug in

chelle230

one of my mum's cats started doing this in her old house, vet said it was stress, and also marking because of other cats, even though majority of the time he was indoors.
I'd do your best to keep the neighbourhood cats out as this may have contributed to it.
my mum never found a solution I'm afraid to say, and tried allsorts, the problem only stopped when she moved, although he does still try now and then.

begley

Thanks to both for the replies. I'm going to phone the vets tomorrow to see what they advise, and will keep you posted. Bloody cats!!

rita-rabbit

"We do have other cats from the neighbourhood come in sometimes, I reckon it's because they invade his territory" - cats do not like this - `going inapproriately' is their way of marking their territory

Fire_Fox

Is your female cat spraying or squatting to wee? Is your male cat neutered? Any chance any have cystitis? To get rid of the smell use bio washing powder. To keep out neighbouring cats consider a magnetic or microchip cat flap. For stress try a Feliway diffuser. To dilute their wee so it smells less consider wet only food and/ or a pet water fountain. Definitely one tray per cat plus one is less stressful, pop the tray anywhere that is wee'd on regularly.

shelly

As others have said your cats could be stressed due to other cats coming in.
Lily started peeing in the house when our neighbours cats realised they could get a free dinner by coming in the flap. We had her chipped and bought a microchip cat flap and the peeing in the house stopped when she realised they couldn't get in anymore. This only took a couple of days.
Wasn't so bad for us as she only peed on a tiled floor.

sallywoo

I also have the problem of a female spraying and peeing in other places than the litter tray already got the feliway in the house as for more litter trays well I dont have the space for a one. Hopefully all of this might calm down after the cats are dressed.

lolababy

Hi I had this problem with one of mine a female.It went on for months The problem with ours was A,not finding every place in the room she had wet ,which meant that she still thought it a toilet, B, that she felt pushed out by the other cats. We have four females.
I ordered a proff cleaner for urine and washed every part of the room plus furniture and rug. Removed the rug and put black pepper down all over the wooden floors. Not a problem as its a second livingroom. I then put white vinegar down on the worst spots even though Id cleaned there.
I also took her to the cat tray every hour and stood by her whilst she went. I spent a whole day doing that and also put her outside in the morning and evening. Another thing I noticed was that she was timid when around the feeding time. I stood by her and pushed the other cats away from her whilst she ate.
From what I could see it was down to not knowing her place in the pack and by giving her that extra attention it gave her back her confidence. Also the pepper stopped her going into the room to urinate. I also put tin foil in the entrance to the room which she did not like.
We did have a problem with her wetting on the kitchen surfaces but that has also stopped. Again I think it was a sighn that she was feeling stressed.
The up shot is that she is a more confident cat , no urine apart from the tray and now sits in the family room with the family and other animals. In fact it means Iv at least two asleep on my desk,lol.
Its about breaking the habit otherwise its just going to keep happening.

spike7451

Orbit started doing this & I rekon it was the start of his kidney troubles as his litter was sodden with wee when I got home from work.I then left 2 litter trays out for him & he stopped.Might be an idea for a check up to the vets?

Sarahjk21

once the deed has been done how do you get rid of the smell? ours went through a phase of this when we adopted a new cat its all settled down but despite vaxing etc etc I still think one corner is a bit whiffy!