My fiancee’s cat has “adopted” one piece of carpet and decided it makes a good urinal. She (the cat) uses the litter box for her other needs, but we can’t keep her away from that one spot of carpet. We’ve tried spraying something from the pet store that’s supposed to keep pets away, but no luck. Right now we’ve put a litter pan there to keep the carpet from being ruined, but I’m sure that we’re just teaching her “peeing in this corner is OK.”
Any suggestions from the Teeming Millions?
More details: the cat is around 10 years old (I think; she came from a shelter), and we do have a litter box easily accessible on a patio through a pet door.
Show the cat a regular old spring-loaded mousetrap and snap it a couple of times to demonstrate that it is, indeed, a scary piece of equipment. Then place the mousetrap in the area you want the cat to avoid, but do not set the trap - that would be cruel. I think you would find that the cat would not even go near the area with the mousetrap. The problem may manifest itself in another of the house, however… The image of several dozen mousetraps around your house is just too bizarre for me comment on…
Have you taken the cat to the vet since she started doing this? It’s possible she has a urinary tract infection, or is otherwise ill. Cats will sometimes take to urinating in the wrong place to give their owners a signal that something’s wrong.
While I certainly wouldn’t dismiss Astraeus’ answer as a possibility, I suspect it is the typical ‘cat being an asshole’ behavior.
Please don’t get me wrong because we have a cat that we really love, but if you travel too much, are gone for too long, or pay too much attention to anything else other than her, you can bet you’ll find the cat’s turd laid neatly outside the litter box on the kitchen floor. Our cat has yet to take a whiz outside the box, but it’s my understanding that once they do, they keep returning to that same spot out of habit, which could explain the continuing problems.
I would first rule out any medical problems. A vet told me that a cat will not shit or piss where it eats. His suggestion to someone with your problem was to put the cat’s food and water dish where she’s been doing her business.
And good luck geeting that stench out of your rug.
I’d think that (after ruling out medical problems of course), a 9-volt battery or two would do it. Had a friend who used a similar technique to keep his dog from urinating on certain parts of the lawn.
Before the problem can be solved, you first must know why she’s doing it. First of all, I must echo others–get her to a vet. It’s likely nothing, but UTIs are common, as are kidney/bladder stones, in cats of her age. We had a cat develop kidney stones who started using the living room carpet in the corner–it’s psychological, really. The cat associates the pain with the litter box, and so tried elsewhere.
If its behavioral, there are any number of causes…new cat/pet/baby/person living in house? New furniture? Rearranging? Is the cat left alone more than usual? Cats are very sensitive to routine and can be a bit anxious at its disruption. If possible, remove/alter whatever is upsetting her; if not, try these below (I used them on my 12yro siamese who started spraying when we moved into a new apartment):
Remove the scent immediately. The cat will be drawn to the odor and reminded, “Ooh, yes, this is where I pee.” Pet stores and even grocery stores carry a carpet treatment that neutralizes the scent.
Put down plastic sheeting, or a plastic carpet mat. Cats do not like its feel. Double-sided tape, or anything sticky, is even more effective.
Change litter brands to an unscented variety. Move the litter box to a new location if necessary.
Finally, if you ever catch her in the act–is she spraying or urinating? If she squats, she is simply urinating. But, if she stands upright with her butt to the wall, tail erect and flickering, she is spraying (this is what my Siamese was doing). That’s basically marking territory; she could feel threatened, or (as was the case in my situation) smell the faded scent of a previous cat and is attempting to cover it up with her own. (MINE!)
Good luck! I know how miserable it can be living with the scent of cat piss…
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It is the absolute best stuff there is- bar none. I have used it in steam cleaners, sprayed it right on the spot, and sponged it on to problems.
If you have a specific spot, I suggest soaking a sponge or towel in the stuff, spray the area with it, and lay the towel on top of the spot overnight. That ought to do it!
Zette
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First remove the smell of the urine. Do this by spraying the area with alcohol, swab it down, then use white vinegar to further dissolve the proteins. This ought to remove the smell.
Next place bowls of cat food around the area where the cat is urinating. As they will not stain an area where the food is, this should do it.
You also need to take the cat to the vet, it sounds like it could have an urinary tract infection, and the vet can cure this easily.
Thank you all for your suggestions! You guys are the best. (Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor, your suggestion is not an acceptable solution, by the way. My fiancee and I have rejected it out of hand.)
The cat has already seen the vet, who says that she (the cat) is fine. We have covered the area with a plastic carpet runner and put food there. Tonight I will try some of the scent removal suggestions. If anything happens in the near future, I will let you know.
RonaldBarnhardt: A vet told me that a cat will not shit or piss where it eats. His suggestion to someone with your problem was to put the cat’s food and water dish where she’s been doing her business.
And good luck geeting that stench out of your rug.
I put a water dishes where my oldest male cat was spraying. One worked, the other did not.
We got a pheromone spray from our vet that seems to work for a week or so.
To clean up the smell, we got something called Anti-Ickypoo (sp?). It has an enzyme that breaks down the proteins that cause the smell.
Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.
Beyond making sure your cat does not have any sort of medical problem (as you seem to already have taken care of)you might want to try this:
Our cat was VERY upset with us and continually peed on our expensive drapes - we tried all of the above and finally had to go to a pet therapist (behavior specialist). This guy suggested keeping the cat locked up in the bathroom (or anohter large room) with food and a litter box until the cat re-learned to use the box.
I don’t know if it will help - our cat got help fromt he outside - our second cat learned to let her out of the bathroom so she never learned.
Hope this works out for you! (to rid yourself of the odor you might want to also try to use Febreeze after you break downt he urine sent - it smells good, it works and is safe to use around pets).
If your cat is declawed, there might not be anything you can do.
Declaws have a much higher rate of being pee’ers. I volenteer for a cat shelter and get this alot.
besides the vet, you can try the following:
Keep him in a cage with a litter box for a while maby up to 1 month - this might retrain him to use it.
keep his litterbox clean
try diffrent litter
clean all pee sopts ASAP with Nature’s Mericle
give him his own litterbox if other use it
radar ralf, I’m not against the mousetrap idea, but we’re going to try the plastic first. The squirt gun idea is impractical because we’ve never caught the cat in the act.
Oh, and to respond to other posters, it’s the only cat we have. Of course, since the litter box is on the patio, some other cats might be sneaking in to use it, but I absolutely refuse to have the litter box in the house, unless it’s a life-or-death (of the cat) situation.
