Cat urinating on everything - house move

[Ionop]

My cat is 12 yo female and we have a 2yo female dog. Cat and dog aren’t friends but dog doesn’t pester cat, in fact cat seeks out dog to stare at her. Dog is well trained with verbal commands and kept out of cat zones. Up till now it’s plodded along kind of ok

The cat belongs to my DD from a small child and the dog was owned by my DP. We cannot afford to move separately from DP to move the cat away from the dog permanently it is not an option.

We are moving house and in the process of packing, cat has started urinating and pooping everywhere outside of the litter tray. It is so stressful and we are trying to keep the cat calm. Cat is healthy, no UTI it’s behavioural. I have bought a feliway plug in but any other advice? Everyone else is sick of the cat but I know DD would be heartbroken to rehome her so that’s not an option either

I suspect the cat is aware of the unrest if you are starting to pack up the house and is feeling anxious and unsettled. How much longer until the move? Can you keep her confined to one room for a while - eg bathroom which is easier to clean?

How long till you move? I am delaying packing till I have a date and will then try and get my cat into a cattery as he hates any change in his environment.

You could try a feliway plug in.

Can you put the cat into a cattery until the move is over? Her behaviour is a classic stress reaction and very common when big changes happen in a household. Cats are very territorial and can be incredibly sensitive to changes in their environment.

Did you do a bonding room for a few days with all her stuff? (Scent soakers, good, litter box, bed etc) you can do this now if you didn't. Once base camp is settled for a few days, give her access to go explore and add more scent soakers so you can add them around the places you want her to go so it smells familiar. I bet the previous owners had pets (scent) and it's causing her territorial anxiety hence the marking.
It's her way of asking for help.
A really good CO2 cleaner could help this as well.

100% Jackson Galaxy the Cat Daddy. He is a behavioral genius! Got lots of videos, resources etc I'm obsessed with my cat from hell 😜😼

Please, please don't rehome your cat just cos she's stressed 😪 when you move make sure you take a bag of her used cat litter to pop in her clean tray when you arrive. I'd also shut her in a small room with everything she needs and basically just leave her alone to acclimatise. without carpet might be best if she's going to make a mess. or big sheets of cardboard flat on the floor/,puppy pads etc. I'm using a calming food supplement for one of my foster cats atm - she's horrendously car sick - it's working a bit. It's called zyklene. a bathroom/ensuite can work well if you're short on spare rooms. Don't wash her beds and blankets before you move/pack. she needs to have familiar smells at your new house. Good luck!

i would keep the cat in a room when you are packing or moving stuff to bring down stress. Spray their bed in such room with feliway to give them a safe space

use a urine eliminator spray to clean up pee

Also - when you are busy packing maybe shut the cat away in a spare room so she doesn't get stressed watching you pack. Keep her in overnight for a number of days before you leave too. You don't want to be searching for her when the removal van arrives. A dog crate in your current house might be a good idea so she can't run off as you pack the house up on moving day too. How far is the new place? take supplies in the car in case she wees/poos/vomits in cat carrier. bin bags, gloves, kitchen roll, puppy pads. Better to be over prepared in my opinion.

Peeing everywhere is a classic stress indicator.
Get her checked by the vet for a uti first but it’s almost certainly stress. Cats are really sensitive to change.
I run a cattery and lots of people put their cats in for house moves. Although a cattery can cause an element of stress that’s often easier to cope with than the stress of their usual environment at home becoming very different.
Once you move try and get things straight before you bring her home. Confine her to one room with all her usual things around her for familiarity - bed, blankets, scratch post, hidey holes, litter tray etc etc. Once she’s very settled in there then introduce her to the rest of the house. Use a feliway or pet remedy spray or plug in. Be gentle and kind.

Poor cat. She’s obviously stressed. Have you had her checked by a vet just to be on the safe side. Think how stressed and unhappy she would be if you rehomed her. Pets are for life - not until they become an inconvenience. You have had some good advice from other posters

Buy new litter trays that are different from the ones using already and try a different litter. Once they associate a tray with a stress or pain they remember it and won’t use it again.
urine destroyer serveral times over the stains then use lemon 1001 to take the smell away.
always have several litter trays and keep them spotless. Go to vet to check for stress cisitus. There’s a capsule you can buy for that they helps which you sprinkle in there food.

My cat would always toilet inappropriately on Christmas day or birthdays as the boxes, wrapping paper and general excitement was stressful for her. She hated change! Maybe ask your vet for something stronger than feliway to calm her while you move?

Ok thanks so I got feliway and did all the things suggested and we have now moved house.

Cat isn’t using litter trays properly at all for either poo or pee. going near them or on carpets

i did all the things you should do including using litter from an old tray for the smell

we tried to put her in one room but she was crying constantly and trying to escape.

I’ve spent £££ on beds, shelves, hiding holes, trays, bowls, posts, toys, blankets, feliway and nothing is making much impact.

crying all the time especially at night

I think she’s really unhappy but she is healthy the vet wasn’t really concerned said give it time to settle down but I don’t know what to do. I am starting to lose my mind with the cat and don’t like to see her unhappy either. No one is happy

I think the cat needs to go out of the house so I have been letting them into the garden for short periods but DD is very afraid of something happening to the cat so doesn’t like letting her out, but I think being an indoor cat is making her miserable

I have bought the capsule sprinkle stuff but I know my cat and any single tiny change she will likely just now reject the food but we will see

its really affecting my feelings towards her. She’s an animal, and this is my responsibility and my fault not hers but I don’t know how much more I can cope with it’s a full time job stopping her ruining the house, keeping her calm, supervising her

There is an excellent book about this very thing. Hold on, I’ll find it.

She isn’t the friendliest animal and will maim you without warning so most people are afraid of her. I feel bad, she has always been this way but getting worse in old age. She has never really been a particularly happy cat. I’ve had lots of cats before and not had one like this of this temperament

It’s not dislike for the litter or tray. Your cat is stressed. Cats hate change of any kind and soiling around the house is a manifestation of this. She will settle down but it might take a while. When we got a dog one of our cats peed all over the house for six months. We tried to keep doors shut to bedrooms and living room to protect beds and sofas, although the kids forgot a lot and we had to replace a mattress. I did lots of cleaning up and used odour eliminator spray. It drove me crazy but eventually it stopped. Sorry but that’s cats for you.

I’m a firm believer in cats going outside - you can’t keep a hunter and a roamer locked up inside four walls and expect it to be happy.

CST has urinated on DD’s bed, mattress is ruined. Also noticed she is losing insane amounts of fur and it’s everywhere. I will be changing vet’s on Tuesday and getting another opinion. Cat and I cannot go on like this anymore. I think the cat needs to be medicated (anti depressant/anti anxiety) and I refuse to leave until they listen to me. This is clearly extreme stress that a feliway isn’t going to solve

Cat needs free access to the outdoors. You can give medication and you can try plug-ins but ultimately cats are not designed to be kept inside.

Ask the vet about anti anxiety medication. I had a cat on Prozac once, it may help.

The cat can go out, DD doesn’t like it but that’s not an issue. It’s not solving the issue though. I agree I think cat needs medicating

The thing is, if the cat has been fine until recently, medication is likely to just mask the problem and you will potentially end up with a new issue.

Does the cat have plenty of permanent spaces away from the dog?

Get the vet to check her bloods and for diabetes, she's stressed, marking her territory and every time you wash off the wee she does it again the smell. She's getting old now so maybe finds getting in and out of the tray difficult. If she's never been happy maybe she'd be happier elsewhere without children and a dog.

The dog is confined to the downstairs and the cat has multiple floors above this included trees, shelves etc. However as the cat keeps messing on floors and beds they have not much room space in the house in terms of our bedrooms. The cat can access the bathrooms, one bedroom, all the halls, living room etc and the outside. Currently cat is outside in the back WITH DOG - of her own choice. One is on the grass one is on the table. They are calm. The cat could go over the fence, go out front etc but has chosen to hang out in back garden with the dog. I don’t think the dog is the problem as this was a problem before the dog came along it was just less frequent

However the cat just pooped on the hallway carpet before they went out. Despite 3 x litter trays and a garden… and beyond.

The issue seems to be the urge to go on soft furnishings. The crying is cat looking for places to defacate. I have even taken the litter out of one tray in case it’s the litter (not changed brand for 10 years!) but still not using it. I’m sure if I added our duvets to a corner of the room she would happily piss on them for the rest of her life. Now our brand new house stinks of cat mess. I am struggling to overcome the urge to rehome the cat today

I don’t know if it’s relevant but the cat lived with our old dog for many years until he died. There was a small gap between dogs. So she has lived with a dog many years. This dog is much more tolerant of her than our previous dog. The dog is afraid of the cat and doesn’t approach her, keeps distance and the dog is fully house trained so no issues with that

When we moved house we found weeks worth of dried up cat poo under the bed at the old house. So the cat has been doing this for god knows how long. And why she is banned from everyone else’s bedroom. DD was crying last night she had to sleep on a cat urine mattress (it was 1am when she found it and tried to clean it but nowhere else to sleep I’ve cleaned it up today) but still will not talk to me about rehoming her