Young nervous cat soiling on carpet repeatedly

[Goldensyrupissticky]

Hi,
This will be a bit of a tale but want to give full picture as have tried everything and researched as much as able.

We have young cat (one this month) who was born on a farm so lived outdoors for first 8 to 10 weeks of life. Was handled but basically lived in a pack.

We took her on after unexpected death of our beloved ex-feral cat. She was locked in a room set up with all she needed to get settled. We spent loads of time with her in there. We have another cat (just turned 3) who is a rescue with unknown background. Quite a feisty beast. Older cat has taken to the kitten. They get on quite well. Young cat follows her around and will sleep with her.

Anyway, kitten had the odd accident in her cat room but got hang of trays quite well. She now has run of the house and we have three litter trays (one extra than number of cats as recommended). We have cat friends plug ins as well to help with cat harmony and calmness.

Kitten doesn’t go outside. She is very anxious and scared of the outside. She will go out occasionally if supervised and if the neighbours aren’t out…she doesn’t seem to like the presence of others.

She hides when the cleaners come every two weeks, she hides from the hairdressers. Basically she is scared.

She has taken to peeing in my bedroom. Various places. We have washed with biological liquid, sprayed with enzyme sprays, washed, repeatedly. She has moved to different areas.

All seemed fine, then we went away for a week. Pet sitter came in. Kitten hid and turned out was peeing in our bedroom the entire time. Fortunately, onto a pvc tablecloth I had placed on an area she had soiled.

I have washed the area repeatedly and thought I had removed smell. But no, she pooed on the carpet today.

Am at wits end. Also should add both carpets she has soiled are long pile and both at least 16 years old…. I know nasty but that is a whole other story, I have a very pedantic DH.

What should I do? Think carpet is just a smelly sponge now as far as cat is concerned. Apologies for epic novel but I don’t know what else to do.

Have you tried a tray in your bedroom?
Have you tried a different litter or type of tray?

Get rid of the carpet - get Amtico or similar if you can afford it, otherwise vinyl, and yes a tray in the bedroom would be better than wee all over the bedroom I suppose. Another option would be to lay a few puppy training pads around - but that won't work while you still have wee-impregnated carpet.

Hopefully she will get better with time and, if not, with waterproof flooring it shouldn't be a massive problem.

Not put a tray in the bedroom as just seems an unpleasant way to sleep. They do suggest putting their food down where they have soiled which I would prefer over the cat potty.

Removing carpet is definitely the way forward. Need to persuade DH that he can cope with a non-carpeted surface…he could have a rug to put his feet on when he wakes up.

Waterproof flooring would be better as I suffer from allergies and the long pile really doesn’t help.

She is such a sweetheart apart from the peeing on carpets. It is only long pile carpets which she has soiled so far. No accidents where we have short pile carpets.

Try absolutely soaking the area with enzyme cleaner, not just spraying it on. Leave it for a while then remove excess with a carpet cleaner or towels. Seems like she doesn't feel safe going to her litter tray could she have one closer to your room, try a covered one if it's open. I'd put one on your room just now, once she uses it can then move it a few inches a day towards where it will end up. Are there perhaps other animal scents on the carpet she detects and is trying to cover, food there might help.

I do that with the enzyme spray and spray double the area. I follow the instructions religiously, completely with the rinsing with water 24 hours later. It’s such a pain. All the trays are covered and positioned so they can see if they are being approached. We may try the litter tray in the room or the food.

She is definitely unnerved by us being away as she has never been left since she came to live with us last autumn. Not even overnight.

The only other animal is my other cat, who hasn’t soiled on the floor. She went through a phase of soiling my bed 😳 when DH was away for business…I threw the bedding out. She also peed on the mattress which I wasn’t allowed to throw but we washed and slept on a futon for a month while it dried out. 😕 ….am not sure why I put myself through this sometimes 🤔 However, this cat hasn’t soiled since and certainly not our carpet.

To be fair it is a very hideous carpet. I think the long pile must be similar to the litter. We use wood pellets from Pets at home.

If she only toilets in your bedroom, can you not just keep her out of there?