Cat pee outside of litter box....

deastwood

Hello all, my boyfriend and I will be moving in together shortly into a brand new house.  My concern and question has to do with my cat Marlow.  He has had a couple of instances where I bought in a new pad for my papasan chair and he pees on it.  He's not done this with any other furniture in the house so I'm wondering if he is marking it since it is new?  All other furniture in the house was there pre-cat.  If he is marking, how can I prevent him from doing so when we move into the new house and we get new furniture?  Any ideas or suggestions is appreciated.

jennyjain

A few questions-

have you taken him to the vet? There could be something medically wrong.  He could have a UTI or something.

Is he declawed? Declawed cats have higher incidents of peeing outside of the box, because their paws are too sensitve for litter (thanks, Jason Galaxy!) 

Is he spayed? If not, get to it. 

 Is his litter box cleaned/scooped daily? If not he will find some other spot to use. 

Are you slowing moving your stuff into the new place? this could be confusing for him.  I'm not sure if he'd mark something, just becuase it was new, but I may be incorrect.

 I'd make sure to read up on moving with cats, so its less traumatic for him! There are lots of tips and tricks.  Congrats on the new place!

Hope any of that helps~!

Kaiene

The pp has some good suggestions.  I have been through a lot of pee issues with my 5.

It does sound like behavioral peeing, but I would still take him to the vet.

In addition I would:

- use an enzymatic cleaner like Nature's Miracle to thoroughly clean the areas where he pees.  You may need a backlight to help you find the spots.

- try cat attract litter or litter attractant, both made by Dr. Elsey.

- use Feliway diffusers or spray.  From what you are describing, I would get the spray and when you bring a new item in the home, spray it with the Feliway daily for several days.  This will make the item familiar to your kitty and he is less likely to pee on it.  We have done this when the cats were marking our bed when I was pregnant.  They have since stopped.

- try rescue remedy drops during the move.  They help calm your cat.  We use them with one of ours because she is a little stressed by DS.  We also used it on our non medicated cats during the hurricane.

- be open to medication.  This should be a last resort, after you have tried everything else.  We recently put 2 of our cats on antidepressants after episodes of peeing out of the box.  They were very anxious with the addition of DS and the medication is amazing.  We are thrilled and they are happy. 

toothpastechica

This might be a wierd question, but does this particular piece of furnature/fabric seem to absorb smells more? My friends cat pees on the bath mat when its been there a while (people with stinky sweaty feet getting into the shower etc...)..but if they wash it he doesn't...he also pees in his hockey bag...the vet told him that to cats sweat and pee smell the same so they feel like they need to mark anything that smells like sweat or salty.