Cat weeing on the floor - at the end of my tether!

[Amy326]

We’ve had 2 cats for about 5.5 years and one has always gone outside to the toilet and the other uses a litter tray, which is kept clean and changed regularly. However for about the last 2 years she has been weeing on the floor instead. It goes in phases, sometimes it happens every day (2-3 times a day even) sometimes it stops for a few weeks, sometimes it’s maybe a couple of times a week. It’s driving us mad!! We’ve tried all sorts to stop it - changing the location of the tray, introducing an extra tray, feliway plug in, spent £500+ on vets trips (numerous trips to see if something is wrong, painkillers and anti inflammatory medicine in case she had a UTI, dental treatment in case teeth were causing her distress). Nothing works. I’ve got 2 young children at home and I just can’t cope with it anymore. Our house stinks of cat wee and I’m fed up of cleaning it up all the time. My dh wants to have her re-homed and I’m inclined to agree but I feel guilty and who would want her anyway? I’d also worry about what would happen to her down the line if she was still doing it at a new home and they got fed up.

Has anyone had this problem and successfully resolved it?! It really is driving me mad now!

What are you using in the areas she has been to clean it? As you say your house smells... You need to use an enzyme cleaner or otherwise her scent will remain and she will be going back to the same spots.

Other than that, you could try to retrain her by putting her in one room with the litter tray for a few days or a week to see if she will start using her tray when when her other favourite spots are not available. I have also heard of someone taking their cat to a cattery for a week and the change of environment helped the cat to snap out of the behaviour.

You could also try some of the calming remedies as an extra in case it's stress release - Zylkene capsules in food, Pet Remedy plug-in etc.

Thanks yes I have got an enzyme cleaner (admittedly don’t use it every time because it doesn’t seem to stop her doing it) we clean it all up every time but when she’s doing it repeatedly it’s hard to eradicate the smell sometimes. I’m constantly paranoid that my house smells! Plus if she does it while we’re out it can be sat there for hours and that’s when it’s hard to get rid of the smell.

Tried all the calming things and I do think they’re useful (they calm any tension between our 2 cats) they sadly don’t seem to stop this issue. I even plugged a feliway in RIGHT next to where she wees and she still kept doing it!

Has anyone tried a hooded litter tray and had success with that?? That’s my next thing to try.... not sure it’ll make much difference but you never know

Following out of interest, I’ve got the same situation with one of mine. Tried everything from specialist cleaners to chilli powder, nothing works, I put her out nearly all the time now as she has ruined flooring in 3 rooms which is going to cost me £100s to replace.

Flooring is being replaced in April am hoping it breaks the habit? If not I’m also going to consider rehoming, not sure what else to do! Good luck!

I tried hooded litter tray she was too scared of it to use it.

Reigning maybe the only answer if there is stress between your cats and you have small children it can be too much for some cats.

Have you dried different litter in the tray.
Short term - don't let her into areas you don't want her peeing on.

Keep her in the kitchen with free access to outside if possible.

I have a catnip spray which we use to change the idea of what waters are for.

Do you have different food and water bowls for all your cats? The needs to be no competition between them.

Re homing not resigning!

God! I need to proof read before I press send!!!

Change the idea of areas use from toilet to play area with catnip

I have exactly the same thing with one of my cats. We've had her over a year now. She's a rescue cat from a multi cat household, who was forced into giving up some of their pets. I wonder if she never learnt to use a litter tray, but it's driving me crazy.
I don't know what to do.

One of my boys pees when he is stressed. We have two brothers and they get on well.
One was peeing on duvets, every day even if you were under it!

Shut him out of bedrooms, extra litter tray upstairs so they have 1 each but they both use both.
If either is a little dirty we can have wee somewhere else so they are cleaned all the time.
Two feliways upstairs and downstairs.
When he had been out of the danger zones(bedrooms) for a month we reintroduced him with catnip spray and play on the beds but we didn't leave him alone for a good few months.

He peed last week in the corner of a bedroom, doing a quick audit of stressors - we'd had friend with a small child stay for the weekend, my kids had been picking him up more than usual just before, litter tray had two uncleared wees in it.

Ok, I got this one! Especially as it's not all the time.

In your area, a d prob near your house/flat there is a/are stray or feral cat/s.

This is causing your cat to pee to mark it's torritory. There's nothing write g with your cat, it's just scared.

If you're feeding the stray, stop doing it, your cat is unnerved by it.

Alternatively, they don't like the cat litter you use, or the litter tray... May want a covered, or open version.

Different situation, but our cat went through a phase of flat out refusing to use her tray. She mainly goes in the garden anyway, but is a princess and won’t if it’s too cold/wet, and then she was using the bath instead of the tray.

We tried a new kind of litter every week (no thanks) plus moved the tray to the bathroom (no), and then into the hall - finally, success. We also knew the signs she needed to go, and would pick her up and put her in the tray. Lots of praise and treats after. Like training a puppy, basically.

It was really weird as we’d always used the same litter, the tray in the same place, and while she always preferred going outdoors, she’d have used it at a push. Fickle beast. (She’s five, no health issues other than a recent dental.)

I would re-home, no way would I put a cat out for weeing in the house though.

If not to do with my earlier answer, then..

Hooded, self cleaning, larger, litter trays
Or
Different litter
However, for these to be an issue, they'll go next to the litter tray.

One thing it could be... Thinking outside the box!

Have you got older kids, as in teenage, particular a boy/boys? I ask, cos I know what sods they can be (I was a real shit at that age... 😇👼)... Now calm down....

Could one of them for a joke frightened the cat while it was in the litter tray, and now only goes outside, when that child is about? Or a nephew or cousin?

It's just a thought.

I knew some kids who (with no malice) out tape along a stray cats back, to watch it run around trying to get it off. The boys after a few mins, did pick it up n remove the tape.
When I found out I told them off (while trying not to laugh... It was the description they gave) and told them it wasn't nice, and that cat would have found that really stressful (I was only a couple years older than the boys).

If the cat has never wanted to go out then that could be linked. Scary cats nearby? Conflict with sibling?
In all honestly you will struggle to rehome a cat that pees everywhere.

You might struggle to find a rescue place as all charities know a cat like this is likely to be hard to home (understandably...) although quite often a change of environment does seem to be what it takes to make the cat snap out of the behaviour.

It is pretty much right by her litter tray that she wees, it’s not in other rooms of the house. I can’t keep her out of the room she does it in because it’s the kitchen diner and it’s where her food is and access to cat flap! Thankfully at least it is hard flooring and not carpet...

We’ve tried different litter, doesn’t seem to make a difference. I think it is likely to be stress related, I think she doesn’t like living with children to be fair although they have never done anything to hurt her but I’ve no idea what happened to her before we got her from a rescue so she may have had bad experiences with children in the past. It’s so difficult. I just want her to be happy and stop weeing on the bloody floor when she’s got a perfectly good tray on offer!! 🙈

I’m thinking of moving her tray into the garage but she’d have to go through a cat flap in the door to get to it but at least she would have privacy / quiet in there.... maybe she dislikes the room her tray is in as it’s close to her food / the cat flap to outside / it can be busy with people in and out. But there’s really nowhere else in the house it can go!

If she’s going next to it I would consider why she isn’t going in. Older cats don’t like the spikier litter apparently. Smells? Plastic absorbs it. High tray? Older cats can struggle to get in. Feeling trapped with a hood or exposed without one?
She may well not like it next to her food. That’s very common. And it needs to be in a quiet spot. My kids know to be quiet around our naughty tortie cats and they have lots of quiet and high places to escape to. Maybe she just needs her own space?

You keep the litter tray in the same room where you also feed her? Please take the litter tray to a different room or garage as you suggested in your last post; cats hate having it close to their food bowls. Also, it should be in a quiet area; it stresses them if they have to pee/poop in busy places.
So placing it in your garage might well work. If she tends to wee next to the litter tray; at worst, she will continue to wee there but at least it will be in the garage and not in your kitchen.

Thanks for all the responses, I’m definitely going to try moving her trays to the garage (just not sure she’ll be happy going through a cat flap to go in there but we’ll try...) I’ve also ordered something called Cystease to try her on, hoping it helps. For what it’s worth in the past she used her litter tray near to her food with no problems and at one point the tray has been in another area of the house away from food but she still weed on the floor next to it, so I’m not convinced that’s the problem really but appreciate it might upset some cats

Has she had her kidney function tested? Maia started weeing in the hall when her kidneys went.

Just updating this in case it helps anyone else... I bought Feliway Cystease capsules which you add to their food once a day. She’s been on the capsules one week and in that time we’ve only had 2 wees on the floor in total, whereas before it was 2-3 times every day. Nothing at all for the past 3/4 days now. So the capsules seem to be working for her! She seems happier as well. They were only about £6 from amazon so much cheaper than yet another vets trip.

Oh well done, mine takes them.

Amy - stop pissing spamming!