What To Do With My Cat's ""Marking"" Constantly?

Question

My female cat, who is 4 yrs old, has been urinating on our carpet for some time now. We have done everything imaginable to ward her off this, but it continues. We had her to the Vet, and he said she had a urinary infection. We treated her with antibiotics, and she has continued to urinate. Their litter box is in the basement, but she continues to go behind our chairs, couch etc. All this is after the antibiotics. We recently had her & her sister declawed. Her sister has never caused us any problems. Last night, we even brought the litter box upstairs, and put it next to where she has been going, and still used the spots she has always used. We even found solid waste this morning. And it was next to the litter box. I really don't think she is doing well. We are considering putting her down, and doing the next humane thing. We can't take her to the humane society because of her problem. Plus, she has no front or back claws. I would like to receive some suggestions. Thank You!!...Mike

Answer 1

I am a 3rd year veterinary medical student. There could be a number of things wrong with your cat.

A few questions... when did this start? is your cat spayed? andy other pets in the household? was there any event that happened around the time the problem started, like new furniture, new visitor to the house, something in the cat's environment change? Did the vet do any diagnostics tests prior to dispensing antibiotics?

It could have been a urinary tract infection. However, my best guess is that now it could be a behavioral problem. After urinating in one spot, your cat's "mark" is now there. This will increase the chances of your cat urinating and/or deficating in this same spot again. The smell, pheromones, and other chemical triggers are probably still in those spots, in the carpet, despite how well you think you cleaned those areas. You could try changing the litter. Declawing at an adult age is much more painful during recovery. Standard litter is very irritating. There are other types of litter you could try, other brands. Sometimes cats are finiky about smells and textures of litter, and their "preference" might change after events like this. A brand called "yesterday's news" is not as irritating of a litter. Clean, clean clean! the areas where your cat urinated. If you want to keep the cat, replacing the carpets is a good option (you wouldn't belive what gets trapped in the carpet that can trigger the behavioral things...). You could try certain pet cleaning products from Petsmart or Petco, or try placing products that "smell bad" to the cat, in those areas.

You could take your cat to another vet, get a second opinion. There are other urinary and/or reproductive tract diseases that could be triggering this innapropriate urination, other than a UTI. The antibiotics could have not taken care of the initial infection (if that was the original problem). Also, the vet could consult you on behavioral modifications, and give you advise on other things you could try.

Don't put her down because of this, it's not humane, since most likely it is NOT a medical issue causing the innappropriate urination (after the antibiotics were done). There are humane societies (maybe not near you) that will take in any animal (no kill shelters...) despite this kind of problem. Yes, with that history, she might not adopt out sooner than other pets... I would not advise to "dump" your cat on any humane society. They do have an over population of adult cats without issues as it is. My best recommendation, is to consult your vet for trying to find the root to the problem.

I hope this helps, good luck!!

PS, its unfortunate that the animal shelter vet tech had to take a cheap shot at my advise. I understand the frustrations of shelter medicine, and have learned a great deal about it through classes, mentors, veterinarians, other technicians... I was trying to give advice dealing with medical versus behavioral reasons for inappropriate urination. No need to defend myself, I am better than that. Just trying to share my knowledge.

Answer 2

I work at a cat shelter and I can tell you we get a LOT of cats dumped on us that do this AFTER being declawed!!!!!! Many will be fine, but there is a number of cats that will forever have littterbox issues.

Thanks for at least not dumping her on a shelter.

Great...a third year vet student that want you to dump a cat with behavioral elimination issues on a shelter!!!!!!

Where are all the homes that are in line to adopt cats that don't use a litterbox??????? I have worked at a shelter for years, and I have not found them.
No kill shelters have limited resounces. They do not get state and federal funding BECAUSE they are no kill. They can take in and care for about 50 other cats for the resources that this cat will consume. Is that fair??? As caretakes, should we declaw and then when the cat stops using the box, dump it on a donation funded shelter??? Then the shelter is in the position of housing the cat for years, or euthanizing the cat...which many NO KILL shelters will do with cats like this.
I hope the fourth year of vet school covers some shelter medicine!!!!!

vet student...not a CHEAP shot, a correct shot. Vets who do not wnat to euthanize these cats when they are brought in by the owners FREQUENTLY tell them to take the to a shelter. Happens all the time. Vet too big of a wuss to just say it needs to be put down if the owner can't or won't deal with it anymore. So, send it to a shelter where it will live the life of a warehoused cat. There are not enough homes for all the ADOPTABLE cats out there, why should we fill shelters with unadoptable cats??? Most shelters have a few cats just like this one and get calls about more of them all the time. As a vet, you have to be able to euthanize when necessary. If it is not a cat YOU would take into your home, don't expect a shelter to take it either.

And if you didn't feel the need to "defend" yourself, you wouldn't have added the last part about not "dumping" the cat on a humane society.

Answer 3

Such a long standing problem will be hard to fix.

You've got two things against you--she's declawed which likely started this problem, and you had a box way out of her reach when she needed it.

Put a box upstairs as well. Put something in it that she'll not have pain issues about with her feet. Clumping litter is a good one. Something that feels soft on her feet.

A shallow pan with possibly a doggie pee pad in it may entice her. Something like the lid off a plastic sweater box, something wide and spacious enough but with an edge to keep any urine contained. Maybe offering something non-litterboxy like this may get her to go in it.

Answer 4

Is she spayed? Sometimes that helps control those kind of problems...

Also, I would suggest getting your carpet deep cleaned by professionals... when I moved into a new house my animals starting going to the bathroom on the carpet and I didnt understand why... come to find out, it was because pet urine was in the carpet and they continued to go to the bathroom in those spots to mark their teritory... even if you are cleaning with a home carpet cleaner, it probably isnt getting up the full scent of the urine which makes your cat want to continue to urinate in the same area... (ever noticed that animals usually go to the bathroom in the same spot even outside?)...

You could also move something into that spot to keep your cat from going to the bathroom on that portion of the carpet. Usually cats HATE sticky substances, so try getting some double-sided tape and put it on that portion of the floor... when your cat goes to step in that area to use the bathroom, she will most likely hate the sticky feeling and move away from that area

Hope these tips help!

Good luck!