At the end of my tether with my cat

[BeeBread]

One of my (two) cats is now 10 years' old, and for most of her life I have been cleaning up her piss.

It used not to get to me, but I am finding it harder and harder to appreciate her good points when she is ruining my house a corner at a time.

She used to do it just in the corner by the front door which was easy in some ways because it was a tiled floor which cleaned up quickly. But it was embarrassing if I had visitors and hadn't spotted that she had been there, as I would open the door to the smell of stinking pee.

Now she just pisses at will, in a few places. Other than the hallway, her favourite spots are against a cupboard in our dining room and in the other corner of the same room. We laid the most gorgeous flooring in that room when we moved in, and it is now warped and stinks permanently no matter what I do with it.

Having cleaned up a huge puddle in the dining room today, I could still smell something and realised that she had also pissed against the kitchen cabinets, which is a new spot.

We've also been doing some building work recently and have plastic sheeting laid on our stairs carpet. She's taken to pissing on that too.

This means that when I leave my bedroom in the morning, I have to be careful where I step in case there is a puddle. I then go round the hallway, dining room and now kitchen to track down the morning wee. I have a 2-year old, so have to be sure that it's cleared before he finds it.

Once a day is the norm, but 2-3 inside wees per day is pretty common. So I have to repeat the hunt-clean cycle every time I come back in the house.

It is just so utterly depressing (and embarrassing) having a beautiful house stinking of piss. I can't relax when she's in the room because I'm constantly wondering if she is about to spray.

It is destroying my affection for her. There have been stresses in her life (eg DS two years ago, recent building work) has been going on since she was a kitten regardless.

She has a catflap to go outside, a clean litter tray in the cellar (which she happily uses to defaecate). We had her checked by the vets a while back and she was in perfect health - it was said to be a behavioural issue.

Frankly I wish I didn't have her, but have always been of the "pet is for life" school of thought and could never rehome her. But it is a very unhappy coexistence at the moment.

Sorry, just ranting.

My cat shits under the kitchen cupboards if that makes you feel any better

That's an interesting bright side!

At least I only get the occasional shit.

do you have cat litter trays?

i have 2 and one of mine still chooses to wee in corners. if there is even a hint that it s been used she will find somewhere else, drives me mad.

neither of mine have ever toileted outside, but at least i dont get the neighbours backs up that way....

i am slowing filling my house with litter trays whenever i find a new spot...
i feel you pain with the flooring. snap.

You've tried the plug in pheromones and extra litter trays?

You're a better pet owner than me tbh.

Have you considered restricting the parts of the house she is allowed to go to? e.g. exclude her from the room with the nice flooring.

I feel your pain. One of my cats was like this. The only thing we could do was exclude him from certain places.

ooo that's miserable, my cat ruined a perfectly good rug earlier in the year as I could not get the stink out, I prefer poo to be honest, far easier to clean

Has anything changed to make her worse? The rug incident happened when I went back to work after maternity leave (the baby adjusted far better than the cat lol!) Otherwise it might just be her ages, 10 is quite old for a cat. have you tried the orange peel thing? not ideal or long term having orange peel scattered around the house, but it might re-train her?

www.cats.org.uk may have advice?

There's a school of thought you give them a whack, though in a non-cruel way, then direct them to their tray. But I'm sure people here won't like that.

I've tried the plug in pheromone thingy and have in the past had a second litter tray for her but it made no difference.

I could try all that again but all it meant last time was extra cleaning and no improvement. I guess it's possible that if I had them dotted around the house she'd use them rather than the floor. It's probably not better to have a house full of litter trays or puddles, particularly with a nosy 2-year old about (and I'm soon to have another).

I'm just resigning myself to another 5? 10? years of this. Fucking depressing.

mine tends to use the litter tray as long as its virgin litter and clean!

so the more i have, the more she will use. it is annoying have loads of them around the house, but on balance, id rather that than have cat pee everywhere.

one of them is ok, will use the litter, but the other wont. bloody good job she is cute at a bugs ear, or else!

That middle bit didn't make masses of sense. I meant that the trays around the house aren't better for me because of DS. And I wonder what guests - particularly non-cat lovers - would think.

The house isn't set up in excludable zones unfortunately - all a bit too open plan.

On the rare occasions I catch her mid-wee, I will push her away firmly and hiss a bit, but most of the time the deed is done by the time I get there.

Smithster - if only this were a new thing! It has happened, to a greater or lesser degree, for the last 10 years! There have been recent sources of stress and if I thought that were it, I'd be sympathetic and positively happy because I'd hope that it would go away when the stresses did.

I do appreciate all of the thoughts. Not expecting a solution but just need to get this off my chest. Most of my friends would be utterly disgusted if they knew what happens and wouldn't bat an eyelid at getting rid, so I just clean, clean, clean, over and over, and hope that they don't notice that the house stinks.

How happy is she to actually go outside?

One of my cats (now deceased) used to pee and shit in the house when she was stressed about going out, ie when we lived next door to a very big, scary looking cat and when we got a dog who wanted to be her friend.

I tried litter trays in the appropriate places, Feliway plug ins and putting her out myself then locking the cat flap. I think all three things helped.

You need two litter trays at least. Cats often like to wee and poo in different places. They don't like sharing trays either.

You need to be really fastidious with cleaning because cats pee where they have gone before so you need to eliminate the scent. When you clean up, be sure to use Urine Off or a solution of water and 10% biological washing powder or liquid. Never use bleach because it contains ammonia, as does cat wee.
This site is useful for cleaning tips. Then I would put a litter tray on her usual spot for a while and gradually move it to a more preferable place.

Cat flaps can actually exacerbate the problem as she may be feeling that her territory is insecure, so marks it by weeing everywhere. That is usually what peeing by the door is. It is usually best to completely block up the cat flap - not even just locking it as it still looks like an access point to your cat. Also, there may be a relationship problem between your two cats?

Does she have good hiding places? 'safe places'?

Cats don't like to eat and pee in the same place so you can put her food on her usual spot once it is cleaned but this doesn't solve the problem and it usually just moves to somewhere else.
I recommend the books by Vicky Halls, a cat behaviourist.

Good luck!

I'm sure that outside stresses have been a factor throughout - we are in London and there are always too many cats for the territory.

The pissing cat was the runt of the litter and scared of her shadow (but not people). Our other cat is top dog, so to speak, and so guards the territory pretty well. They have a love-hate relationship - curl up together to sleep, follow each other about, interspersed with some pretty noisy fighting. Without the bigger one, the little one would have a harder time I think.

The little one would probably always have been better on her own, in the middle of nowhere with no competition. But 10 years on I fear we are stuck.

Do you (collectively) really think that Feliway works?

This is a complex but curable issue. You need a consultation with a pet behaviourist after the vet has checked a urine sample. Your vet can take a urine sample from your cat at the surgery. If they can't they are not very cat orientated and you need a new vet. Cats are not dirty, there is either a behavioral or medical issue. Your vet CANNOT say it is behavioral without analysing a urine sample. Your first stop is your vet, then a consult with a veterinary behaviourist. Google Vicky halls (her books are also excellent) and Sarah Heath. Consult may be covered on insurance but if not then you may consider paying if it bothers you so much. If this is behavioural then your cat is also not happy. It will take work but these problems are the most common reason to see a behaviourist. Before you resign yourself to this issue forever get some treatment.

Cat attract, some herbal mix you can add to litter. Stick it in litter tray and out by favourite spot. It has been a huge help with my cat so far, but only at two weeks so hard to say if it will work longterm. giving some welcome respite for now though .

Given the chronicity feliway and or zylkene are unlikely to work without concurrent behavioural treatment.

www.vickyhalls.net/ (sorry not sure how to link) you will see you are not alone!

I did the Vicky Halls thing a few years back - well, bought the book, followed the recommendations etc etc. I can't quite remember everything we did but I really bought into it and made lots of effort but it had no effect at all, as far as I remember.

Vet (and again this was a while back) recommended Feliway, separate litter trays. I don't remember them taking a urine sample though but they asked lots of questions about behaviour patterns, relationships with us/other cats etc.

I haven't gone as far as booking a behaviourist but maybe I will.

I have too much going on at the moment which I need to sort out before this - this is more "final straw" territory than the be-all-and-end-all, but I'll definitely give some thought once I've had DC2 and things have calmed down to giving it another try.

Other than taking a urine sample, what should the vet be doing?

The urine sample is the crucial bit. If the urine is normal (particularly in terms of lack of inflammation and adequate concentrating ability) then it is a behavioural issue. You have seen from the vicky halls stuff it is really hard work and some cats just don't fit in some environments. Certainly not something to do when you have a new baby! Sarah Heath does a phone consult thing where you provide a map/video of your house and she talks it all through to save you traveling. At her current age and urinating several times a day the vet must exclude conditions causing polyuria (excess urine) that might be making the issue worse e.g kidney problems plus UTI. Likely the building work has exacerbated an existing issue. it is awful but cats are not always designed to live the way we want them too.
Are you cleaning each wee up in the right way? Biological washing powder, let it dry, then spray with surgical spirit (get from boots abd put in sprayer) and let dry before cat allowed into area. Also for cats with inappropriate urination you must have enough trays- one per cat plus one spare. Preferably in more than one location. No deep litter the trays must be emptied after each poo/pee. The other cat sounds dominant so there may be issues there.

Further tips on Feline Advisory Bureau website to. Fabcats.org

www.behavioural-referrals.co.uk/sarah-heath.php

10 years is along time for a cat to be weeing everywhere does it not have a litter tray , I would get a few and put it in the spots , I cant believe you have had 10 years of a pissing cat , mine does it sometimes but she is 17 so sometimes forgets ,