Inappropriate Peeing

"Sara" wrote in message
...

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
I've been owned by cats all my life and have never had this problem
before now.

The problem started when we rescued Hunter and he was kept in the upper
three bedrooms, bathroom and hall (we installed a door at the end of the
hall to keep him in and the other cats out). He was an intact tom for
the first week and a half we had him until his "snip" could be scheduled.
I wasn't surprised when he started marking his territory (even though our
current clowder, 2 girls and 2 boys, were already desexed) - that was
pretty standard behavior for a tom being placed in new digs. We cleaned
up with "Nature's Miracle" whenever we found a new marking (we bought a
black light to look for stains not noticeable to the naked eye).

As most of you know, Hunter died suddenly, after we'd had him for only 5
weeks, from a blood clot "thrown" to his lungs - we had no idea
beforehand that he'd had myocardiopathy, 3 vet visits by two different
vets didn't detect it.

Even though we thought we'd cleaned thoroughly, apparently we didn't.
Somebody started peeing first in the guest bedroom where Hunter had spent
most of his time, then in DH's office which was Hunter's second favored
spot. We cleaned again, thoroughly (I think I'm supporting the stock
holders of "Nature's Miracle" by now), but it continued. So then we
cleaned yet again and closed off those two rooms (our house is big enough
that the clowder still has lots of room to roam despite that).

For a while that seemed to have solved the problem, but yesterday when we
got home somebody had peed all over the stair landing. I know for a fact
nobody, not even Hunter, had sprayed there previously, so this couldn't
be somebody trying to overlay a scent mark. DH thinks somebody may have
been playing, gotten too excited, or too involved, to make it the rest of
the way downstairs and into the garage to the litter boxes.

I'm now pretty much at my wit's end and don't know what else to do.
There is absolutely *ZERO* tension in the clowder - everyone is great
friends with each other and they groom and play and sleep together, so I
don't think a Feliway diffuser will help (it didn't keep Hunter from
spraying to begin with when we were using it then). Cleaning with
"Nature's Miracle" doesn't seem to help - they keep finding new places to
pee.

DH caught both Archer (male) and Sammy (female) in the act of peeing in
his office, and I found Ozzy with a wet butt once, so it is different
cats spraying in different places. This makes me think it's a behavioral
issue rather than a health issue like a UTI. Archer, Demi and Sammy have
all been to the vet within the last couple of months and checked out just
fine. Jessie and Ozzy haven't, but haven't had any changes in eating or
playing.

I really don't know what else to do at this point, so any other advice
anyone may have would be greatly appreciated.

Hugs,

CatNipped


you mention the litter boxes being in the garage, any chance of adding a
few boxes throughout the house? maybe if they have more places to go
they'll use the new litter boxes?

Even after we opened the cat door, they were still peeing inappropriately.
I think the boxes being in the garage next to the noisy door (which is what
startled Archer and made him break his leg) were traumatizing all of them.
Sammy got startled the other morning when I was leaving for work when she
didn't get finished with her toilet early enough.

So what we did was to buy a few gallons of Nature's Miracle and another
enzyme cleaner, rented a steam cleaner, and cleaned the carpets with it
(moving every stick of furniture to make sure we got all the spots that had
been peed on). Then I went all along the baseboards and other non-carpeted
flooring with a second dose of NM.

Then we put two of the litterboxes in the upstairs bathroom - but I hated
having a ton of litter all over the floor in there (my cats are *VERY* messy
diggers, which didn't matter in the garage, but does matter anywhere else).
So we went to Wal-Mart and bought three large, 52 gallon, plastic storage
bins. The sides of the bins are about 2.5 feet tall. All of the cats are
still very nimble and they don't have any problem getting in or out of
these. We put two in the upstairs bathroom, one in the downstairs sitting
room, and left the last litterbox in the garage.

So far (*KNOCK WOOD REALLY HARD*) this has worked (since Saturday) - and
there's not much scattered litter in the bathroom (just a bit that sticks to
their paws when they jump out).

Chin Skritches,

CatNipped


Sara