About at my wits end!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-22-2004
About at my wits end!
7
Fri, 10-22-2004 - 2:53pm

Hi all!

I hope you don't mind me barging in on you all, but I need some help with my kitties! As you will see, I've tried everything I can think of, with no luck. So please, any and all advice would be appreciated!!

I'll try to make this as short as possible. I have several kitties (most rescues), including one who is on special food for the rest of her life for UTI's, so I am rather familiar with peeing issues (unfortunately), but I'm stumped on this.

In any case, I have a spare bedroom that I keep litter boxes in, closed off to the rest of the house with a babygate (otherwise, my dog gets into the boxes for Kitty Crunchies...blecch!). Maybe once every few months or so, I would find that someone peed on the pillows on one of the beds. I would attribute it to my failure of keeping the boxes as clean as I should have, clean the litter boxes, clean everything (including use NM or Petzime, whichever I had), remake the bed, and things would be fine for a while. I did end up getting one of those vinyl/waterproof bed cover thingies they sell to cover the mattress.

Fast forward to about 2-3 weeks ago. Someone had peed again, so I went through the cleaning routine. Set everything back up. Pee again a few days in a row. I attributed it to the fact that I hadn't put the sheets back on the bed, and someone thought the vinyl thing was a wonderful texture to pee on. Blamed myself, cleaned everything thoroughly (for the 100th day in a row...sigh...) and shut the room off. My folks were coming into town, and while they're here they stay in that room and keep the door shut (so as not to have all the kitties/doggies crawling through their stuff :) ). My mom is a champion pee-er-sniffer-outer (she has one cat who is...well, certifiable...pees on things all the time), and not once did she make any "My bed smells" comments, so I'm 99% sure I've gotten all of the pee out.

Anyway, it was last Thursday that i had closed the room off. I opened it back up yesterday. NOT ONCE while the door was shut did anyone pee where they weren't supposed to. But between opening the room back up last night and, oh, about two hours ago, someone peed on the @#$^^@$#@!$ bed again!

I'll try to wrap this up now.... :) As I said, I'm kinda familiar with urinary problems due to my one baby (well, two of them have suffered from infections, but the other one isn't chronic), and being as though I'm not seeing any other signs of problems, I truly believe this is behavioral. (ie: same general place, no inappropriate elimination for a week, no straining in the litter box, etc.) What else can I do? I really don't want to keep the room blocked off, as my house is small already. Just some other factors that may be important:

-I know that there is the occasional scuffle involving the litter box (they like to pick on each other while one is in the box). I have one less box than I have cats; i just don't have room for another. Would changing location help? (I need to keep the majority somewhere the dog can't get to them, but moving one might not be bad
-Is it possible that I haven't gotten all the pee smell out (which seems impossible to me, with the amount of Petzime I've used....)?
-The bed is under a window, and we do have some people who let theie cats roam around (grrrrrr). Could this be an issue? even though there are tons of other windows and no pee

Anyway, thanks for letter me ramble/vent/whine, and i truly look forward to any words of wisdom! -Amanda

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-10-2003
Fri, 10-22-2004 - 3:10pm

Hi Amanda,
You will get advice on this board, but I'd strongly recommend also posting on the Think Like a Cat with Pam Johnson-Bennett board, also on ivillage. She and the CLs have a great deal of expertise in cat behaviour and psychology. In fact, Pam is a cat behaviourist with many years of experience.

In the meantime, how many cats do you actually have? It is important that cats feel they have a safe place to use the litter pan, where they won't be ambushed by another cat. It is recommended that you place litter pans in different locations, with easy escape, i.e. not in a corner. I realize that it is more convenient for you to keep them in one room, but if, as you said, you can set up at least one elsewhere, this is very important. When you post on the Think Like a Cat board, do include info. about the number of cats, and perhaps how many are male and how many female. Also, how many rooms do you have? People on that board will really work with you step by step and help you work this out.
Cynthia

Avatar for rhawk4
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-30-2001
Fri, 10-22-2004 - 3:15pm

Urinary issues are not only medically related. I am going to assume you spoke to your vet on this and brought the cats in for a checkup and collected a sample of the urine from the bed to have the vet check as well…



Something could be upsetting one of the cats. Perhaps it happens most frequently AFTER you closed off the room for any length of time? Someone may not like that. Is the bed further from the door than the bed? Perhaps the dog comes to the gate when the cat has to use the box, but the box is too close to the door? Do you generally clean the room before this happens? Could be the scent of the cleaner. Are the sheets freshly washed each time? Is there an animal that comes around outside and upsets one of the cats?



There is a board on iVillage called “Think like a cat” that deals with cat behavior. They would also be able to offer much input.


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Avatar for cl_lcni
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Fri, 10-22-2004 - 6:30pm

Hi Amanda.


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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-01-2003
Fri, 10-22-2004 - 7:03pm
Please let us know if anything helped!


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-22-2004
Wed, 10-27-2004 - 4:07pm
Hi again everyone!

Sorry it's taken me a couple of days to get back to you. I spend all week on a computer, so I refuse to turn one on over the weekend, and the last couple of days have been nutty at work.

But, ::crossing fingers:: I think I figured out what the problem was, as I haven't had pee since Monday. In the mornings, I have to feed my UTI prone kitty seperately, and I do that by locking her in my bedroom with me while i get ready for work. The only litterbox that isn't in the "offending" room is also in my bedroom (well, in my bathroom). I guessed that the pee-er was doing it sometime during the morning, and the past two days i've been keeping the door open...and no pee! It's amazing how the little things in life make you happy :)

I am going to keep an eye on everyone, and make sure that there aren't any other changes, but I think the problem has resolved. (is two days too soon to say that? :) )

Thanks again for all the advice, and mainly just for listening. It's hard to vent about these kinds of things with non-animal people. Thanks again!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-01-2003
Wed, 10-27-2004 - 4:13pm
Is it not funny when one of our pets go potty where they are suppose to that it makes us so happy!LOL!


^Dusty^,^Tiger^ ,Scooby and Ellie’s Mom
Rachael and Jordan‘s Mom
Visit Our Website!
Email Me!

Avatar for cl_lcni
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Sat, 10-30-2004 - 11:05am

I'm glad you solved the problem.


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