cat has started weeing on the carpet...any tips?

[hatwoman]

until recently the cat used her litter tray. however (non pet owners may be advised to stop reading at this point)I recently bought a covered litter tray in order to stop the dog from, ahem, snacking on any presents the cat had left him that we had failed to spot and flush away. she carried on pooing in the new tray but not weeing. instead she was weeing all over the house. yuck yuck yuck. we've put the old tray back. she is neither weeing or pooing in it. we are assuming the poo is happening in the garden (I'd rather it was in a tray but am just thankful she's not leaving them around the house) but she's still weeing inside.

I've trawled the internet and will try all the usual stuff - which seems to amount to using vinegar/baking soda to get rid of smells, making sure the litter isn't near her food, is in a safe corner etc etc.

we've also taken her to the vets to check for infection...but the problem is the vet gave us some weird litter stuff to catch the wee in to test it. the irony is that if we could control where she wees (and get her to wee in/on this weird litter stuff) then we wouldn;t have a reason to think she might have an infection.

[FlightHattendant]

Ours is doing this lately as well. I think she does it when there is another cat on her territory...there's a new kitten next door and a bit fat grey thing that prowls and isn't afraid of her. She's so scared she won't go out, she'll just use my bedroom carpet. I took to shutting her in the dining room/kitchen at night, it stopped obviously during the night but she was doing it in the day at times

She does get stress related cystitis, got some metacam from vets which I add to her food when she's having trouble and it seems to go by itself after a while.

Hope you get it sorted. I know how distressing it is.

[hatwoman]

I have seen another cat in the garden - and the favoured spots for weeing are by the doors, so I do wonder if that might be part of it. maybe I should make an effort to deter the other cat from hanging around?

[2greatboys]

Our elderly cat recently weed on our sofa . I read somewhere to use Simple Solution which you can buy from pet shops. There are several different size bottles at Pets at Home. It was worth every penny and completely removed the awful smell. I completely soaked the area with the stuff, and the instructions say if you can still smell odour it hasn't got to the route of where it is.

[vonsudenfedhatespauldacre]

It probably is a result of being bullied outside - my old cat did this. The good news is that it did stop.

The main thing was to remove any stains - I was told biological washing liquid then surgical spirit/vodka to clean any remnants off. Otherwise she can still smell it and comes back.

But the magic ingredient is Feliway - either a spray or a diffuser from the vet (or both!). Spray it where she wees, put the diffuser in the plug and it should help her stress and so the weeing.

HTH

[shootfromthehip]

Yip- it's usually another cat. In the house if she has favourite places to pee, put down some tin foil (will look to others as though you have joined some weird cult but will deter her). Lemons also deter them.

[hatwoman]

thanks everyone. dh has ordered some spray so let's hope that deters her. we also now have 3 litter trays around the house! in the hope that she starts to take to one of them (right now I don;t care which...). and thanks for the sympathy. I was half expecting to get a bit of stick for somehow being neglectful...which I really don't think we have.

[hatwoman]

if it's another cat might it make sense to not let her out? she's only really ventured out at all in the last few months - she does seem to like it - lies in the sun (when it deigns to show iself) in the day and likes an early evening prowl. and in light of recent weeing activity I've actively being encouraging her - in the posibly mistaken belief that she'll wee out there. the thought of keeping a pee-happy cat indoors seems counter-intuitive - but perhaps not?

[NorbertDentressangle]

If this started when you bought the new litter tray, does the new litter tray with a lid have a cat-flap style door to it by any chance?

Ours does and our cat refused to use it -now we have the door on it permanently propped open using clothes pegs and she'll happily use it.

Just a thought.

[hatwoman]

it did come with a cat flap - but I suspected she wouldn;t like it so never used it (You could remove it and just leave a gap). the weird thing is that she was pooing in it but not weeing. wish I'd never bought the blummin thing.

[NorbertDentressangle]

Its frustrating isn't it?

If it make you feel better our cat is weeing in the neighbours house at the moment -imagine the embarrassment of that.

We think its in retalliation for her cats coming in our house despite the fact that they're pretty amicable face to face.

[floatyjosmum]

i think ive used the same stuff as 2greatboys and it def works.

out cat poppy hates the cat basket and weed whilst it was on the passenger seat of the car - beleive me no-one sat on that seat for a while and we drove with the windows down.

carpet cleaner doesnt seem to get rid of the smell but the stuff from pets at home def did the job - just pour on enough to get to through all the layers the wee went through!

[vonsudenfedhatespauldacre]

Oh - and I've just remembered another thing. Ask the vet about treatments for stress. There is quite a new thing which is some kind of milk protein which helps them calm down - I know this because when my daft cat gets stressed she gets cystitis and they were suggesting this. But I think it's quite expensive, so perhaps try the Feliway first.

[Joolsiam]

I posted loads of tips on an old thread, with links etc

take a look here for my posts - hth

The milk product de-stresser is Zylkene and it definitely works, but it sounds to me like you might need the vet check for cystitis (if you can't catch the wee, they will keep her in till she "goes") or the litter I recommended on that thread - Cat Attract - which is fabulous stuff for retraining litter box habits.

Good luck !

[Wiggletastic]

Our cat started doing this not long after we moved to a new house and for ages it was put down to stress etc. by us and the vet but in the end it turned out she had a bladder stone! Poor little thing was in horrible pain and desperate to wee anywhere. We felt so awful when the vet found out and it was only because she kept being sick too and he did an x-ray of her abdomen. Saying all that, its very likely it is the stress thing but may be worth checking out. Our cat had an operation to remove the stone and is completely cured although she has special food to stop it happening again.