Cat won't stop peeing and pooing on rug and I'm going mad

[colonolthirteen]

My gorgeous cat, a few months ago, decided to do her morning wee and poo on the hallway rug instead of in her litter tray. We cleaned it up and chalked it up to a momentary lapse in judgement! However, after that time it just kept happening to the point where we just removed the rug.

I have tried absolutely everything - every cleaner I can find on the internet that destroys the smell of urine (because I know that's what keeps attracting her to go back to it), every home remedy (bicarbonate of soda) but to no avail.

At the moment, after the most recent chemical treatment that I inflicted up on it, the poor rug is shut away in the dining room but I know that the treatment didn't work because whilst she hasn't had the opportunity to pee on it again, if she ends up in the room with the rug she immediately goes to it and starts sniffing around her usual patch (she only does it at one particular end) and pulling at it with her claws.

Some background:

1. If we remove the rug and close it in another room, she always goes in the litter tray, no issue at all. She has never peed or pooed anywhere else.

1. I am very attached to the rug; we have a long slim hallway and to find the kind of rug we wanted was going to be prohibitively expensive in the size we needed. We have relatives abroad and when we went to visit we found a place that does incredibly lovely oriental rugs at a fraction of the price we'd pay here in the U.K., and we could buy it by the meter, so we were able to bring one back that was cheap and perfect. If we got rid of it it would be really expensive to replace and what if she does it again with a new one?! The hallway really looks naked without it.

I am totally at my wits' end, any advice would be so gratefully received!

I think I would just have no rug for a few months then try again to see if she's out of the habit. I'm not sure what else to suggest.

I am sympathetic. Cat wee is horrible and makes you resent your pets! My cat wee'd repeatedly in an expensive and very cosy cat bed. I'd hot wash it and sometime even put it away for a few weeks but she could obviously still smell her urine and would just wee in it again. I had to throw it away in the end.

Oh graveyardkate im sorry to hear that - doesn't bode well does it! Gamerchick ill give that a go, have you had experience of that having good results?

No when mine started on the bairns rug I got some stuff from a pal that they use to clean urinals in the workplace. It kills off any bacteria, viruses and smells. I just diluted some and used it on the spot after cleaning. She took one sniff and hasn't been back to it.

I don't know if you can buy it though over the counter and I don't even know if I should recommend it for safety reasons. I just wanted to stop that shit before it became a habit. Worked pretty good though.

Interesting, I shall investigate. Thank you for the replies.

My cat started doing this on our play room rug. We now always shut her out if the playroom so she started doing it in the dining room. Arrghh. Always the same space (a weird gap in the carpet where she's wees into bare boards but it seeps outward into the carpet too. Am so fed up. Trying to keep her in one room with a cat flap and litter tray most of the time but she bursts through when you open a door makes a beeline for her stinky patches and does it all over again. We've spend hundred of pounds on "urine off" spray which works ok but is v expensive

My cat started doing this a few years ago in response to another cat coming in through the cat flap. We tried literally everything but only these worked:

1. Get a microchip cat flap so only your cat can come in. A lot of spraying is in response to feeling that their territory has been invaded.
2. Clean thoroughly with biological washing powder. If they can still smell a trace of urine they will re-spray the area.
3. Buy a feliway spray and target the places your cat sprays. We tried the plug in - it was rubbish. this was the most effective.

Hope this helps. You have my full sympathy.