I have to give up my other cat

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Earlier this week, my mom and I had to give away one of our cats. They (or he) had been peeing on the carpet on an ongoing basis for months, and we tried everything to stop them. We hoped we had solved the problem.

We hadn’t. The remaining cat, Conan, has continued to pee on the carpet. I want to think it’s “stress peeing”, and that is will stop in a week or so, but I know I’m kidding myself. Conan has to go. Mom and I both have asthma, and Mom is being affected by the cat urine fumes. Eventually it will become a serious health problem for both of us.

I’m absolutely torn up by this. I’m still missing the other cat, Schrodinger, and now I have to give up my other baby, too. We thought about giving it another week or two, but I think the watching and waiting would be agony for both of us, and I think I’d probalby end up coming completely unglued. I’ve been a sobbing wreck for the last half hour.

How could Conan do this to me? How could he put me in a position where I would have to give him up? I love this cat like a child, and it’s tearing me up to have to let him go, but I have no choice anymore.

He’s meowing pitifully at me right now. I think he senses that something is up.

God, I can’t deal with this.

2

Aw, geez, Asbestos. :frowning: :frowning: :frowning:

many, many, many hugs

3

I had to give up a much-loved kitty a couple of years ago. I am so sorry to hear about this. :frowning:

4

Awww. :frowning: I’m sorry, Mango.

I guess there is a bit of good news though. Chances are, O’Brien won’t be peeing on your carpet… I know, I’m sorry.

5

You’ve just added a bird to the household to which you are devoting most of your attention. Do you add pets frequently? That will really not help a cat’s attitude.

Rent a heavy duty carpet shampooer, and use it on the affected areas at least thrice. Try temporarily confining Conan to a small area of the house, perhaps a bedroom,or whatever room you are in, with a litter box. And food and water, of course. Keep a close eye on him, and shoot him with a water gun if you see him thinking about going.

6

No, we don’t add pets frequently, for nearly three years it was just Conan and Schrodinger, and I’ve been going out of my way to make sure Conan is getting plenty of love and cuddles so he won’t be jealous of the bird. We actually got the bird to console me for losing Schrodinger.

This has been a problem that has been going on for nearly a year, now. I’m working ( a rather unpredictable schedule) but Mom lost her job a few weeks ago so she’ll be home most of the time. I’ll bring the confinement idea up to her.

The peeing had been an ongoing problem with both cats for nearly a year. We own a good shampooer, and have cleaned the area where the cats peed several times, and it seems like as soon as we clean the area, the cats would re-mark.

OK, I just stopped typing mid-post, and she’s willing to try the confinement idea. When I’m not working (I work 3-4 days a week now) he’ll be in my room the rest of the time, he’ll have to be in Mom’s.

Somebody say a prayer for me that this will work. I don’t want to have to give up another pet.

7

Has eitehr cat ben checked for a urinary infection? I know some cats can be at the vet’s office the week before for something unrelated, pass the exam with flying colors, and in the next week develop an infection and begin peeing inappropriately.

Have you talked to a vet about this? That is always the first step with pee problems.

8

I’m in a similar boat. Both cats are 16+ years old, one is a habitual pee’r and the other pukes on a daily basis.

Since they’re my wife’s (of 7.5 years) and I’ve known them more than half their life, we can’t bear to part with them.

I’m also thinking on a Karmic level that I’m treating them the way I want to be treated when I can’t hold my pee.

So, about once a week, the Simple Solution (enzyme treatment) comes out, the Rug Shampooer comes out, and this plastic floor wrap that’s used for painting or high traffic areas gets put down in the problem areas.

There’s also the plan to replace the carpet with hardwood floors after the cats ‘shuffle off this mortal coil’.

The above treatment works pretty good (Hoover makes better shampooers than Bissel, and the cheaper Hoover works just fine), at least well enough for now.

9

I have talked to a couple of different vets and they seem to think it’s behavioral. There are certain areas where the cats were peeing, it wasn’t all over the apartment. We’re going to call tomorrow and make an appointment to check him for a UTI, but I really think it’s behavioral. Maybe the vet can give us some advice on how to re-introduce the cat to the rest of the apartment (assuming he doesn’t start peeing on the bedroom floor.

10

OMG.

My mom has been smelling fermented pee on a continual basis i n an area of the apartment around the foyer (I haven’t been able to smell it, but then I smell stuff she swears I’m imagining, too) and opened a storage chest where we keep seldom-to-never used bedding and an air mattress and found the odor was very strong there. An inspection revealed urine stains on both matress and bedding.

A bit over a year ago, my sister and her boyfriend stayed with us while they were househunting. They slept on the air mattress, and my sister folded up the mattress and bedding to be put away. Apparently, between the stress of having strangers living in the apartment and the oh-so-attractive smell of plastic (Conan especially has a propensity for peeing on plastic and vinyl), they had peed on the air bed and bedding, and Sis failed to notice it.

The area where the storage chest is is fairly near to the area where the cats had been peeing, and since we didn’t know that that was where the smell was coming from, (we’ve been cleaning and cleaning the carpet…) we never got rid of it. Mom has been walking past where the bedding is piled near the trash can, and she says the smell is really strong.

Well, I’m off to dump some bedding in the garbage. Wish me luck.

God, if this was the reason for the problem all along, I’m going to feel guilty as hell about giving Schrodinger away.

11

i would suggest keeping the cat in a bathroom. things are easier to clean up in there. then reintroducing the kitty to the rest of the house.

i’ve had to replace my mattress 3 times due to a cat peeing on it. i would not recommend bedroom confinement. matresses are rather expensive.

perhaps if the items in the closet are the problem, you could get schrodinger back?

12

Well, I have a Tempur-Pedic mattress, and it came with a moisture-proof cover, so if Conan were to pee on the bed, it would be a matter of throwing the cover in the washing machine. Besides, Conan sleeps on my bed, (I think he actually thinks it’s his bed, and he just allows me to sleep there with him) and I doubt that he would want to pee in the bed he sleeps on.

I’ve been doing a periodic floor crawl and so far haven’t found any pee in my room, outside the litterbox. There may be hope for this kitty yet.

As for getting Schro back, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Schrodinger we think is a bit retarded and probably would not be able to be retrained.

Any suggestions on how long we should keep him confined before we reintroduce him to the rest of the apartment? Mom thinks we should keep him locked up until he forgets what it’s like to be out in the rest of the house, however long that will take. I think a week or two, then start letting him come out only when he will be closely supervised.

13

I should think a week would be plenty, and, y’know, maybe not even that long now that you’ve found that bedding. I’m delighted to hear that - I think it explains a lot. I’d be more optimistic now if I were you. Make sure you scrub the chest like crazy!

14

my vet said about a month to retrain kitty to litter box.

it sounds like your problem isn’t retraining but stoping one place from being visited. if this is the case try moving a food dish to the spot. they won’t pee in food or water.

winken the wonderful had kidney problems during the matress incident. she would sleep where she peed.

15

Well I can’t offer advice, but only similar situations. Except it’s not w/my cat, it’s with one of my dogs :frowning:

He pees on everything when we’re not home. Couches, chairs, anything. Plus he’s male so he can point that sucker everywhere.

Fortunately we have no health problems, and we do try to keep the smell down (thankfully no carpet) by washing the cover on the couches and mopping the wood floors.

Unfortunately however, we bought some brand new furniture we want to bring home, and I’m afraid to. This will be our first brand new furniture ever and I think I’d have to beat some sense into him (no i wouldn’t really beat him) if he peed on them. Everyone tells me I should get rid of him, but we’ve had him for almost two years and he’s our sickly “child.”

Soooo we’re going to get his balls chopped, and find some sort of miracle spray and see if that works on the old furniture first before bringing home the new stuff.

Good luck with your cat. I know how you feel, I don’t think I could part w/any of my babies :frowning:

16

Well, thanks for the assorted advice and commisseration, gang.

Conan is just finishing his second full day of confinement, and so far, so good. I havein’t yet found any pee on the carpet, and I have seen him go to the litterbox to pee a couple of different times. I’ve taken to praising him when I see him pee in the litterbox. Don’t know if this actually works with cats, but it makes me feel better. I’ve also been giving him lots of love and cuddles. I feel sad for him when he meows at my bedroom door, but so far I’ve held firm and not let him out. He does manage to escape now and then, and we have to grab him and shove him back in the room.

Today I went out for a couple of hours, and I put O’Brien’s cage on my dresser to keep Conan company while I was out. I know there is a potential terrorization factor here, but I figure Conan won’t injure himself trying to run away from a caged bird the way he might if the O’Brien was loose.

Wednesday will be my first day back at work since we imprisoned Conan. Mom has said she’ll go in and hang out with him for a little while. I’ve basically been couping myself up with him so he won’t be lonely. I hope he manages a full day without his person OK.

17

.I kept Conan locked in my room for three weeks. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I started letting him out under close supervision when I was home. It seemed to go well at first, I kept a super soaker handy at all times, but quit gettinng it out of the closet after several days of watching him like a hawk and not seeing him squat. I also saw him head for my bathroom to pee in the litterbox.

But we could never quite get rid of the smell…

No matter how much enzyme cleaner we dumped in the problem areas, it seemed like the smell would resurface. But we hadn’t seen him go into the corner to pee, so we just figured it was old smell coming back, because surely if he was peeing in the corners, we would have caught him. Wouldn’t we?

But we couldn’t watch him every second.

Yesterday, I saw him go into the corner behind an end table, and I got a sinking feeling. I went over, and there he was. peeing. Even if I had my supersoaker handy, I don’t think I could have got there in time to squirt him with it. Something in me deflated as I realized that there was no hope of rehabilitating the cat.

I told my mom, blotted the pee up with a rag, poured Pet-zyme on the area. Then I put him in his carrier, packed up all the cans of food in a bag, and Mom took him to the shelter. I didn’t go with. I didn’t want to be standing there crying while they took him from me.

I spent the afternooon altenating between sniffling and sobbing my guts out.

I didn’t sing my stupid cat-brushing song while I brushed Conan before I went to bed last night. He didn’t curl up next to my legs to go to sleep. He didn’t wake me up in the middle of the night wanting me to get up and play with him. This morning, when I woke up much too early, I didn’t put my feet up against him and absorb warm kitty vibes. He didn’t attack the end of my yoga mat while I was doing yoga this morning. He didn’t make those sweet little “pet me” squeaks while I was getting ready for work. When I came home, he didn’t meow intensely to be let out of the room, and rub against my legs because he was so happy to see me. He didn’t beg for his kitty supper.

Stupid cat.

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{{{{{{{{{{{{Mango}}}}}}}}}}}}

19

My roommate was sad when he had to give up his cat. He was sadder when his cat literally jumped into the laps of the adopting couple. They walked out of the house with that cat purring.

20

Asbestos Mango, I’m late to this thread, it’s the first time I saw it. All I can say is that I truly understand what you are going through. I recently had one of my beloved cats put down, for exactly the same reason. I chose that solution because he was probably unadoptable anyway.

I’m so sorry for the pain you are going through. I feel a little teary now just thinking about the Road Warrior, my own cat. What you said about “How could you do this to me?” is spot on what I thought, as I tried every trick in the book to get him to stop.

No other cat will ever replace your own in your heart, but take comfort in that you did the absolute best you could for them. Someday, when the air has cleared, another kitty may find it’s way to your place, someday, when there’s need.

Take care of yourself. Don’t feel ashamed to cry. I read a quote “tears are the lubricant of the soul”. Email if you feel like it, it’s in my profile.