Expert: Tina - 5/17/2004

Question
We've had 2 sister cats for a little over half a year now. When we brought them home one of them had a problem of going to the bathroom in beds. She stopped that but now she has started going to the bathroom in the kitchen and in the laundry area. She looks for any type of laundry on the floor and goes there. She is really becoming a problem. We've kept laundry off the floor, but as soon as a piece hits the floor she's on it. She even started to venture into other rooms in search of laundry. My parents are getting really mad at her and are even thinking of finding a new home for her. I think they are just making threats, but I want to stop her before they are serious. Is there any way? She doesn't seem to care if anyone is in the room, in fact during her bed soiling stage she went in my parents bed while my dad was in it.

Answer
Hi April,

Inappropriate urination is one of the most common problems I address, and
in almost every case the owner is unawre that most inappropriate
elimination is due to a medical problem! The cause is usually a bladder infection or crystals in the urine. The cat experiences pain when urinating and trys to "tell" you something is wrong by going pee in places she knows she is not supposed to. Assuming your cat is spayed,
because un-spayed females often urinate around the home to mark territory. If she's not spayed, do that first!

There are several reasons cats may urinate outside the litter box.
1. The most common reason is a medical condition such as a bladder
infection or urinary tract crystals
2. Territorial marking
3. Stress, fear and other behavioral issues
4. Dislike of the type of litter, the box location, or scared of the box
5. Pain from declawing

In about 90% of cases when cats are peeing outside the box, it is due to a
medical problem such as a bladder infection or urinary tract crystals. The
first thing your should do is take the cat to the vet and ask them to run
a urinalysis to check for these problems. They may will find that he has a
bladder infection and prescribe a course of antibiotics. Make sure you
give her all the pills if they are prescribed - if you stop early the
infection can come back even worse! Also if left untreated a bladder
infection can spread to the kidneys and make her very ill and cause
permanent damage to the kidneys. Male cats are especially prone to urinary
tract crystals and blockages, which can often be treated with diet is
caught early. These conditions are very painful and your cat may be trying
to tell you he hurts.

The vet may also recommend a special food. If s/he doesn't give a
prescription diet then I recommend Wellness, Nutro Max Cat or Royal
Canin Adult formula for your cat. These foods are more expensive per bag
than cheaper ones but your cat doesn't need to eat as much of it since
it's high quality meat with less filler (that means less ends up in the
litter box as waste too!). These foods are shown to produce an acidic
urine which reduces the incidence or recurrence of bladder infections.

Even if the urinalysis does not detect problems, your vet may prescribe
antibiotics to try. Sometimes a bladder infection can be low-grade and
difficult to detect.

While your cat is recovering from the urinary problem, make sure you clean
all the soiled areas thoroughly with Nature's Miracle - an enzyme cleaner
available at many pet stores which breaks down cat urine at the molecular
level so cats can't smell it (and neither can you!). That's important
because if she smells urine there at all she will go there again. You need
to soak carpet or furniture with Nature's Miracle and leave it to dry. If
you are not sure where all the smells are coming from, try using a black
light (available at many pet stores for this reason) with the light out
scan the area with the black light and contaminated spots will glow.

After it's dry, spray the areas with a product called "Feliway", it is a
spray you apply to walls, floor and furniture to prevent territorial urine
urination. It also helps to calm stressed cats because it mimics the cheek
pheremones that cats give off when they rub their cheeks on something or
someone. It makes them feel like "everything is OK" and that is a place
they should mark with their cheeks not  urine.  It's available as a spray
and as a plug-in diffuser in most pet stores and online at
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=1&pCatId=1061

If the vet says there is nothing wrong your cat medically and the
antibiotics don't help, please write me again and I'll help you through
the behavioral problems. The Feliway should help stop the urinating if it
is territorial, but you have to remove the smell of the residual urine
first with the Nature's Miracle.

Your cat may also dislike the type of litter you are using. Stay away from
scented litter or pellet-textured litter like Feline Pine. Many cats are
repelled by the smell and strange texture. Instead stick to plain clay
litter or a clumping litter. I recommend World's Best Cat Litter (www.worldsbestcatllitter.com) or Cat Attract (www.preciouscat.com).

Never ever punish a cat in any way for going outside the box - cats do not
respond to negative reinforcement, and yor punishment will only cause
stress which leads to more litterbox problems. If you see him have an
accident, ignore him, clean up the mess immediately and pretend it didn't
happen.

Finally, if you ever observe the following symptoms in your cats now or
ever, suspect a urinary tract problem and see the vet right away (these
problems can be easily fixed if caught early but very painful and
life-threatening if left):
- straining in the litter box or making noises that sound like he's in
pain
- going to the litter box frequently but not passing very much when there
- blood in the urine
- licking frequently the genital area
- a cat who normally uses the litter box and is not new to the house
starts going outside the box

Good luck!

Tina