so… frustrating…!
We put the first coat of sealer on the floor in the den yesterday, and today I went to check how it turned out. In the corner, I found a wet spot – cat pee. Argh!
My cats are driving me nuts right now. They are constantly peeing in the den, and we are nervous about how to get them to stop. We don’t want them peeing on our new carpet!
I think they are peeing in other areas of the house, too. I just haven’t found out where yet.
Everything has changed since Savannah was born. Before, they were my everything. Now I just don’t have the time or interest to take dote over them like I used to. However, getting rid of them is not an option. When I adopted them, I committed to taking care of them for their entire lives. They are only 5 years old, so they are not old and sickly.
I have been considering letting my cats outside. They desperately want to go. They stand at the door and cry. They will jump out of 2nd story windows to get outside. I wonder if that will help with the whole peeing thing. Maybe if they are bored being inside all the time? We’ve always had a porch for them and we don’t have one anymore.
I don’t know. They are driving me nuts, though.
6 thoughts on “so… frustrating…!”
Okay, I actually have some experience with all of this. Calvin had the same behaviors (jumping out of windows, crying at the door). We let him out when we moved here. Bad move. He loved it, but he got into some trouble. I caught him pottying in a neighbor’s yard, he got into fights with other cats, he has a BB lodged in his butt (found that in an x-ray last year) and it very possibly happened back in his outside days. I felt soooo guilty over that! A trip to the ER vet on a Sunday afternoon to treat his cuts from a cat fight, and outside was over. That brought on 2 years of cat hell, as he begged, cried, and screamed at the back door every single day. It’s a VERY hard habit to break.
He also used to spray in the house. (Yes, he’s neutered. We figure it’s a leftover behavior from his pre-adoption days.) We tried everything we could. What ultimately worked was a complete accident. I switched from a dusty clay litter to Feline Pine. The pine litter turns to sawdust with urine, so it has to be dumped out every week. Once we switched, he stopped spraying. Turns out, he was upset with the state of his litterbox. Steven is the litterbox cleaner, and apparently, he would just dump clean litter on top of the dirty. He never actually changed it out.
One thing that helped a bit before we figured out the problem was Feliway. It’s this ridiculously expensive little spray (I think it was $35 or $40 for a tiny bottle, but you can also get it in a plug-in form), and it’s supposed to calm cats down with pheremones. It did help.
So, here’s my advice before you resort to letting them out:
1. Make sure there aren’t any litterbox issues. Switch litter if you think it might help. Get another litterbox, too. That solved our current problem with Calvin, who was peeing on stuff because he’s sick.
2. Try Feliway.
3. Wash down all surfaces in your den with some sort of enzymatic cleaner. (For an entire room, oxy-clean mixed with water is probably your best bet.) Do that just in case your animal theory is correct, which I assume is also the case. It could also be that they’re smelling traces of their own urine. They will go back to their old spots.
4. Give them some extra attention. I know it’s a lot harder with a baby, but cats can be very vindictive.
5. Put a litterbox down there if necessary.
6. Take them in to the vet to make sure it’s not a bladder infection.
Good luck! I know all too well the frustration of having a cat who pees in the house.
Thank you so much for your thoughts… they are really helpful.
– We have two litter boxes already, and we have been keeping one in the den. I wonder about changing litter… I just don’t like the thought of spending more money! :-) I think I’ll go to Petsmart and check out kinds of litter though, and see if it helps. How much do you spend on litter on average?
– We used to have Feliway. It’s ridiculously expensive! It was like $45. And then a friend watched our cats at her house one time, and I accidentally left the Feliway there. And she has since moved out of the country. I should just buy some more.
I’ll try your suggestions and see if it helps.
Well, our litter costs are usually high because of Calvin’s kidney disease. Also because we added a new type of litter into the mix. His second litterbox has something called Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat Senior, and it’s $16 for a little bag. Yikes! But we can make that last approx. 1 month. We go through approx. 2 bags of Feline Pine each month… So I’d estimate that we’re spending $35-$40 each month on litter. I KNOW! It’s ridiculous! But kidney cats pee constantly.
Sometimes I can find Feline Pine on sale at Target for about $7.50 for a 20-lb. bag. It’s somewhere around $9 at Kroger. And I usually pay about $11 at Petsmart, which admittedly, I do far too often because sometimes that’s just more convenient.
Knowing that they already have more than 1 litterbox, I’m leaning more towards the previous-owners-had-pets theory. I’d give that entire room, walls included, a serious scrub down with enzymes. Oh, and I’ve found a cleaner I like even better than Nature’s Miracle for cleaning up cat urine. I can’t remember the exact name, but it’s Arm & Hammer brand, and I found it in the pet aisle at Target. It’s specifically for cleaning up pet messes. It smells much better than NM, and when I sprayed it on an iced tea stain that I haven’t been able to remove from the carpet, it disappeared before my eyes!
But yeah, definitely try some Feliway down there. It may help to subdue their animal instincts.
Anne Marie: I just ordered the Feliway from Amazon… it will get here next week, the same day they’re installing the carpet.
Scrub down walls, huh? Will that hurt the paint? You’re making we want use this to justify ripping out the paneling and putting up drywall… :-D
Honestly, I don’t know how it will affect paint. So, use my advice there with caution. But at least do the baseboards. I know it’s all a major hassle, but I just worry your cats will mess up your new carpet. How is Lewis, by the way? Is he still losing weight?
Anne Marie: We’re actually getting completely new baseboards, because of the whole smell issue. The walls don’t go all the way to the floor, as we discovered when we removed the baseboards. I have painted the walls recently; I don’t know if that makes a difference. We also wiped them down with bleach when we moved in because there was some mildew, and we put 2 layers of Kilz before we painted. I hope that’s enough!
Lewis seems the same. He hasn’t lost any more weight that I know of, but they are due for their annual checkup soon. He seems to be eating better, so that’s good.
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