Cat incontinence: Need some advice! Please?

[Westegg]

We have two cats, male and female, both about ten years old. They were, and remain, somewhat feral, as my wife rescued them from abandonment in a city park. They won't be held, and getting them to a vet is a week-long effort, involving strategies comparable to what to Ike employed for D-Day. The male has taken to urinating and defecating outside the box. He tends to do it on our antique rugs and furniture. We recently had a small rug cleaned at considerable expense ($200!) because he peed on it. Within two days of putting it back on the floor, he peed on it again. It's so frustrating! I know he's not doing it on purpose. Could he be diabetic? A kidney problem? I've heard that if even one part in a million of cat urine remains, the cat will go there again. (Damn their sense of smell!) So perhaps no cleaning can fix that. I won't put the rug down again, which is a shame, because I love the rug and it was a gift from my late mother. And I'd whisk my little man off to the vet today if I could, but he really can't be picked up. Any advice? Thanks.

[malta blue]

1. I can offer you nothing but my sympathy....

I am in the same boat right now. Ahhh... F(&%ing cat - pees on my Tabriz carpet. :nuke::nuke:

[Westegg]

2. So what's your take on it, malta blue?....

...I appreciate your sympathy, by the way. Are you suggesting I'm doomed to a rug-less future? Why does it cost so much to clean carpets, anyway? Why can't I just throw 'em in the bathtub and scrub? I know the answer. The rugs I love are hand-woven, beautiful, and I consider them works of art. They are. Sadly, they're works of art my cat pisses on.

[malta blue]

7. I was told by

newbie DUer Jabulani (he has yet to make a post) that you can do the rugs yourself if you have a place to lay them out to dry.

He told me to use Woolite and scrub them and them let them dry - our problem is that cat urine permeates everything and therefore the cat will return again and again unless you completely saturate with an enzyme cleaner and you may have to do it several times.

I don't have space to lay out my Tabriz so I had someone come clean it with enzyme cleanser this week - and I have barricaded the cat upstairs for now. He was peeing all over my basement too - completely turned my bomb shelter into a litter box when it got flooded and developed a layer of sediment over the concrete.

I shop-vac'd that up which was a chore and a half, and then just poured a bleach solution over the concrete and mopped for about an hour.

My bomb shelter is now my pretty wine cellar :D

My rug that I brought from Turkey is in the bedroom and he has not tagged that yet, thankfully. Good quality rugs are easier to clean because the colors should be more stable.

I am going to give my Tabriz to my mom - I am doomed to a cheap rug in the living room.

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. Sometimes when there is more than one cat

one of the cats will stop using the shared litter box, and needs to have a box of his own in a separate space.

Here's a google search for you to check things out, but were I you, I would begin the D-Day tactics and get the cat to the vet for a check up :hi:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&as_q=cat+not+using+litter+box&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&num=10&lr=&as_filetype=&ft=i&as_sitesearch=&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images

[Westegg]

4. Thanks! A lot.

[Polly Hennessey]

5. Cat Problems

I sympathize with you. I have an orange female tabby that started urinating on one of our sofas. I was clueless as to what to do until I discovered two products that work for me. One is Feliway.
Feliway is a substance that mimics the pheromones of cats. It duplicates the smell of a cat's natural scent glands. They will not urinate or defacate in areas where it has been sprayed. I can only tell you it really works for me. I also use it to spray inside the carriers when I am transportating one of our semi-feral cats to the Vet, it helps to calm them down. The other product is called Fon and this truly, truly eliminates any urine or fecal odor, including tom cat spray. My household is now calm again and I don't need to worry about inappropriate behavior from my cats.

I order both of my products from EntirelyPets.com. I have ordered from them for about two years and they get the product to you really quickly. Both Feliway and Fon are usually carried by Vets and there are other online sites too.

Good Luck.

[Westegg]

10. Thanks for the advice. Truly.

[marzipanni]

6. My late, great cat, Mr. Ticket,

urinated in the bathtub a couple of times once, and he didn't even have a litter box because he could access my back yard from my balcony via a tree. Since the bathtub was white I could see that his urine was tinged with pink...uh-oh... blood. I thought it was very intelligent of him to let me know something was wrong (though it was probably urinary urgency that caused him to do that) I figured that he had crystals in his urinary tract from a diet with too much ash, so started feeding him low ash food. I can't remember if I took him to the vet, it was more than 25 years ago. The problem cleared up.
Enzyme cleaners are the only way to get rid of the odor that attracts them to the same spot.

[Westegg]

14. Appreciate your help, marzipanni.

[latebloomer]

8. There's a pricey cat litter called "Cat Attract"

which helped us with this problem. It has some kind of herb in it which they're drawn to.

He pretty much stopped peeing on the floors after we started using it. And now he never does, but we think that may have to do with our losing our other male cat- it might have been an alpha male thing.

The Feliway did not work with him at all.

You definitely should try to get him to a vet and make sure there's no physical cause.

[Westegg]

12. Thanks, latebloomer.

[spinbaby]

9. Nature's Miracle and puppy pads

One of our elderly cats had failing kidneys and was also getting rather senile. These weren't problems we could really do anything about, but they were making him pee in all kinds of places--rugs, slippers, flower pots, books. We bought Nature's Miracle by the gallon and had a litter box in every room. We also discovered that he would use puppy pads if they were around, so in his last months our house was more or less covered in puppy pads.

[Westegg]

13. I can relate. "Nature's Miracle" sounds like a smart move. Thanks.

[stuntcat]

11. my only suggestion you did already

I was gonna say pull up any rugs, and it won't be forever, just a few kitty years. I hope you can find an answer, I'm glad you've got the patience with him.

[Westegg]

15. I've learned patience, stuntcat. It didn't come natural!

[moriah]

16. Territoriality, medical, doesn't like the litter?

The clue to me is that he's also defecating outside the box. My cat who is now in the vet hospital for stones would go outside of the box to pee, but always pooped in the box. It's possible it's a medical issue and I'd get him checked first, but these are a few things that might help.

If you have two cats, they recommend three litter trays -- one for each cat and a spare. Some cats don't like to pee and poo in the same box, and some cats don't like to pee or poo where another cat has.

Boxes HAVE to be clean. If you have to clean them twice a day, better that than skipping a day. If you can afford it, a Littermaid and extra premium litter can help to keep it clean enough.

Feliway can help if they're spraying. It did nothing for my kitty, because his was not spraying/middening but was just that he couldn't get to the box in time and associated the box with pain.

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Have you been able to observe the cat that's having issues? Is he spraying (they can squat or not to spray, but it's usually only a tiny bit of urine and their tail twitches furiously) or just squatting and trying to cover it after? When he poos, is he doing it in walkways or other high-traffic areas, or going off into a corner and trying to cover it up? Middening usually is them pooing in very obvious places, trying to assert their territory.

If it's spraying/middening, the Feliway may help a great deal.

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It's also possible he just had something bad happen to him while in the litterbox that makes him avoid it (another kitty jumping on him playing, a loud noise, etc).

If the vet clears him, and it doesn't seem to be spraying/middening but more confusion about where he's supposed to go, you may have to retrain him to the box. It may not be easy on you, but my vet recommends the following to retrain an adult cat to a litterbox:

1) Set up a new litterbox in a room that has no carpet or soft surfaces that could be appealing or would retain scent -- bathroom, laundry room, bedroom with hardwood or tile floors with no upholstered furniture.

2) Confine cat in room, after putting his food and toys and a place for him to sleep that's soft -- they usually won't pee in their bed, but a few towels works and they can be washed if he does. We had a cat tree that would fit in our laundry room when we did this, so he slept in the cat tree.

3) Keep litterbox very, very clean, and he will likely use the box as it is the most pleasant alternative compared to the floor or their bed. The longer he's been inappropriately toileting, the longer you may have to confine him. We kept our cat confined for a month since he'd had pretty severe issues, the first two weeks of that month were while he was still recovering from a possible UTI. Spend an hour or two in the room with him a day and perhaps set up a TV or a radio so that he has some stimulation.

4) When he is using the box exclusively for awhile, you can start letting him out of the room for supervised visitation, but make sure when you leave the house that he is back in his room. If he toilets inappropraitely during the visitation time, you may need to confine him longer.

Gradually you can let them out for longer and longer periods. I would still keep doors to carpeted rooms shut until you feel confident -- we didn't let him in any carpeted room for six months.

Make sure you get vet clearance and if he has a UTI or any other problems, make sure they are resolved. It may be best to keep him confined if he does have a UTI until you're sure it's healed to keep your furniture/carpets okay.

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Also, is he an indoor/outdoor cat? He was feral you said, so he may be more comfortable being an indoor-outdoor cat, and may simply want to toilet outside.

Good luck!

[leftyclimber]

17. Is he a fastidious kitty?

He may want a spotless litter box. I had a cat who would express her displeasure (e.g. a single prior litterbox use) by peeing on my bed. Only when the litter box was not to her taste, meaning that it had been used once.

If he's an ex-feral, you might also want to try one of the natural litters, like the pine-based stuff, to see if he's more comfortable with the smell. My cats won't have anything to do with scented litter, and they're in mortal terror of that Fresh Step stuff -- they step in it, then recoil in horror like it's alive!

He may also be expressing displeasure about some sort of change. Have you done anything new/different lately that might have upset him? Cats are very routine-oriented creatures.