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I'm at my wit's end with this cat...
I have 9 year old male cat who has a history of urinary issues. We had him to the vet 2 weeks ago because he was straining to pee, but he had no blockages, no UTI, nothing. The vet basically thinks he is "stressed" probably because of my pregnancy hormone changes.
Since that vet appointment he has been peeing on my large area rug in the living room. The exact same spot every time. There is nothing wrong with him, he's just not using the box.
We clean with Nature's Miracle (which also includes a repellant that seems to only last for about 24 hours) and then with oxyclean. He continues to pee on the carpet and he's going to ruin my rug!
I don't know what to do. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm open to trying anything short of putting him down or giving him away.
ETA: I did just order a Feliway diffuser and some
repellant spray. We'll see if that works, but if anyone has additional
suggestions, I'm open to them
Re: I'm at my wit's end with this cat...
Please don't kill or abandon your cat. I know it's getting really frustrating cleaning up after him but when you decided to get a pet you made a life long commitment. Your cat may have many flaws but he is YOURS. You're his provider and care taker. He trusts you with his life. He depends on you for basic survival. Bringing an animal into your home only to abandon/kill it at your discretion is cruel. I hope you take that option off the table. Good luck to finding a solution though. I hope it all works out.
To be clear, that's exactly why I said "I'm open to trying anything short of putting him down or giving him away." Obviously I'm NOT going to put him down or give him away. Not options in my book and I judge anyone who takes that route.
Oh, the joys of peeing cats. I have two myself, and we've finally got them under control (knock on wood). Here's what we did:
Add an extra litter box
Try cat attract litter
Shut the cat in a cat friendly room to try to "retrain" him
Use the Feliway stuff you already mentioned
Rescue Remedy in the water
Try to minimize changes/stress
We also took out all the carpet in our house and put in laminate, wood, or tile. I realize not everyone can/will do that. lol
As a last resort, we now use prozac. It sounds funny, but it works and it's been a sanity saver.
Good luck! I hope something works for you--I know how frustrating it can be.
This pretty much covers everything I can think of too. I hope one of them works. I've been there too, but I'm glad I hung in there and things got better. GL!
"The hardest thing is to live richly in the present without letting it be tainted out of fear for the future or regret for the past." - Sylvia Plath
We have the same problem. The vet is now blaming it on the other cat saying he just doesnt like him so I need to send the other cat to a parents house or basically get rid of him. Needless to say I am looking for another vet.
Kitty could have been stressed from a move (moved in June to family while awaiting closing on house which we moved into house in Oct), but the problem continued. And he had two UTI's before the move. I put down laminate when I moved into the house so there was no carpet to worry about, but the urine still soaks through to the floor which isnt good.
I tried the feliway, it did nothing. Kitty started to pee on the other side of the litter box where it was located.
I tried moving the litter boxes to low traffic area, he started peeing in that new location. Originally put them in the back side of dinning room since they didnt roam far from the kitchen when we first moved in.
I got new litter boxes (cleaned the old but still smelt a little) but it didnt change anything.
I tried the special cleaners, they didnt seem to stop anything.
Tried aluminum foil, kitty would scratch at it to make it rip so he could hit the floor. Most times he would see me put the foil down and then within ten minutes I hear him go scratch it up (read shred) since he didnt like it in that spot. Picking up little peices of aluminum foil was fun!
(my cat is a character lol)
Oddly enough, we got a dog back in Feb.(we actually went to get a dog when we came home with kitty instead 1 1/2 years ago) and that seems to have stopped the behavior for the most part (have caught him going to his corner but it doesnt smell and its not wet...). He loves the dog, follows the dog around, tries to play with her, eats her food lol. Now he thinks he goes outside when she goes in the backyard... Also I used ammonia to clean his spot, read that should cover his scent so he wont go back there.. so far its working.
But I have been to 4 vets, all give different responses but the end result is the kitty prozac if nothing else will do.
Hope everything works out!