This question has been gone over before but I need to look for more advice.
One of my cats has recently started urinating at a certain spot on the carpet. It’s in the hallway, right outside the door where their boxes are. I have two cats, I’m *pretty * sure it’s the younger one,(2 1/2 yrs), as I’ve seen him pawing the carpet a couple of times.
They are both in good health, having had recent checkups. Their boxes are filled with fresh clumping litter, that I sift daily. There is plenty of food and fresh water.
I have tried three different kinds of carpet deodorizers and cleaners, and a spray(expensive) from the vet that is supposed to neutralize the stink. So far I’ve reduced the problem but not stopped it.
Is there anything else, short of getting rid of my babies, that I can do? I don’t want to invite anyone over until the place is fresh again.
Hard one. If the scent is there I’ve always found they will continue to use that one area.
For getting rid of the smell, I’ve found a black light is always useful. You can see just where the spots are which is helpful in knowing just where to clean… heh heh. I’ve used Oxyclean type products on the area first and followed up with “Orangeclean”. It seems to mask the smell and my cats HATE the smell Orangeclean so they stay away from that area.
Are they doing this while you are away? Asleep? Are they inside only cats?
You can try a different litter for the boxes. One of my cats hated clumping litter and he would do everything he could from touching it with his feet. He’d prop on the edge of the box when he did his thing.
I think it’s being done while I am away or asleep. I never catch him at it, except once or twice I’ve seen the one doing “covering up” motions on the carpet. I’ll look for some Orangeclean, thanks for the idea.
In addition to the things mentioned, you can move a litter box to right on top of the cat’s preferred spot. Once the cat gets used to using the litter box, you can gradually scoot it back to where you’d like it to be, and the cat will (hopefully) continue to move with it.
Even with recent check-ups, I 'd take him into the vet. Some conditions with male cats can develop fast (I found out the hard way), blockages are dangerous.
I have to echo Boscibo: get him checked out. Sometimes a cat will quit using a litterbox because he had an uncomfortable – or maybe downright painful – experience using it. He may well be fine, but it’s best to have him checked.
As far as curing the problem, I’m not sure what to suggest. With my old Ahab, we ended up getting another litter box; he used both of them. We still don’t really know what the deal was, but he was getting on in years at the time, so we figured he deserved a few more eccentricities.
The vet gave me some advice that worked for my cat. He said that, along with cleaning the area with that pet enzymatic cleaner, to block off access to the area where the cat peed so that she can’t get close enough to smell the area anymore. That might be tough to do in your hallway, but it might be worth a try.
My cat’s problem started with a bladder infection that we didn’t noticed because she seemed otherwise in good health–so I’ll echo the others recommending a checkup.
Unless you caught the problem early, meaning soaked up the urine before it soaked through the carpet, it is my opinion that you will never remove the odor without removing the carpet, pad and seriously cleaning the floor underneath. Anything else is just masking or hiding the odor.
I’ve had to tear out an enormous amount of carpet over the years in rentals. Each and every cat owning tenant swears that their family member ALWAYS uses the facilities, although I have found that is seldom the case.
If I do allow cats in a rental, I require a steep pet deposit on top of the regular security deposit, black light the carpets with the tenant on move-in and move-out and nearly always find new stains.
I’ve tried every product under the sun to remove odors and bottom line, folks that don’t own cats will still detect the odor of urine after a time unless you have followed the above recommendation.
Again, thanks to all of you who have replied. I think I will call the vet’s office again. As annoying as this problem is I just couldn’t get rid of the cat(s). I wa thinking of getting new carpet anyway, but I want to make further efforts to stop the problem or the new carpet might suffer too.