Need Immediate Help!!!!!-or My Kitty Is Gone!

[jesse_3]

I need help with one of my cats before my mom and dad get rid of her! It is Autumn, and she has decided that it is okay to pee, and recently poop in our CLEAN laundry!
My parents are SOOOOOOO mad at her, and we have given her several chances. She has even pee'd on our carpet right in front of us! Please, what can we do to stop this behavior. We really want this cat, but cannot have the peeing and pooping continue. That is all our house smells like! We even had our carpet professionallly cleaned, but the smell is still there.

PLEASE help us!
Steph and Jes

[Karen]

Has she been to the vet and checked to see if she has a urinary tract infection or anything?

How old is she?

Have you tried, for example, keeping her in one room - where the litter box is? Even shutting her overnight in the bathroom, with a few toys ...

There's stuff you can buy at any pet supply place that cleans carpet better - it has enzymes that break down the stuff that causes the smell. Until the smell is gone, she may continue to think that's a fine spot to do it.

[jesse_3]

Has she been to the vet and checked to see if she has a urinary tract infection or anything?

We talked to them on the phone, and they said that it sounds like she is just being disobediant (sp?)
We have brought her in though too, and they said nothing os wrong.

How old is she?

She is a little over 1 yr. old

Have you tried, for example, keeping her in one room - where the litter box is? Even shutting her overnight in the bathroom, with a few toys ...

We have tried that several times. Leaving her in there one day, stay in there at night, and letting her out when we wake up. It has no effect on her

We have brought her by the spot, not shove her face in it, just sat her down, and toold her NO!- when we have caught her in the act of doing this. She just won't stop. I have begged my parentss and said everything I possibly could have. They just told me to ask everyone on PT (which I was doing anyways) and now here I am.

My parents didn't know if those pet odor solutions really worked and were afraid to spend too much money after a $100 cleaning on it. I will tell them about it though...

Thanks Karen,
Steph and Jes

[Shady]

She needs to be taken and tested to rule out (or in) a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). It cant be dismissed with a phone call and that answer doesnt sound like it came from a veterinary doctor.

If it's not that it could be some other medical condition, if it's not that it could be behavioural.

My guess is the obvious (a UTI)

Something else you may not realize, once a cat defacates in a spot it will keep coming back to those spots over and over again, because no matter what you do, unless you get a cleaner specifically for that, they will pee there repeatedly. It's a cycle.

[jesse_3]

OKay, I will tell my parents that a phone convorsation is NOT enough! We should take her in just to make sure.

She never pee's in the same spots? It is anywhere and everywhere. We can't figure it out? She can't be spraying, she isn't a he. I watched her get spayed so.....

Could it be because of her sister Peek-a-Boo? Like a war of who owns this house? Boo has never EVER been caught, and it is out of her personality to do this. I guess it seems that way for Autumn too though.

Thanks, we will get her checked out for a UTI.

Steph and Jes

[Lightning SuperCat]

Is her litterbox in her own, private, space? I heard of cats doing that if thier litterbox space doesn't have enough privacy. Also, do Peek-a-boo and Autumn have different litterboxes? Of all these things, I agree with everyone else and she probbaly has a UTI. If she does, after she is cured you should feed her UTI prevention food. That's what I feed Lightning.

[BigCharles]

I agree with LSC. We have two cats and when we got the second one she wanted to "rule the roost". We had covered litter boxes. (I have leared better.) Fifi would wait for Lamoni to get into the litter box. She would jump on top of the box and then bat at the front door to make sure that he was all the way in. Then she would pee as hard as she could down through the filter in the top of the box.

OK, shorten the story here. Lamoni took to marking and he had never done that. We went through lots of things. Wound up with one litter box in the garage and one by the back door.

I know that we should have three but we don't have room in the house due to remodling. I know the fomula: CB=NC+1 where CB is the number of cat boxes and NC is the number of cats. So that would be one box per cat plus one. One cat, two boxes. Two cats, three boxes. And so on.

By The Way: Cats HATE change. Has there been any changes in the cats environment or the household schedule? This can trigger it.

Best of luck Jesse.

[Barbara]

Peeing in many different spots sounds to me like an UTI. Most cats who just do it behaviorally prefer certain spots. Like the laundry basket

[jesse_3]

There has been one MAJOR change, but she was peeing before that too. Her sister Boo dissapeared and was gone for a week. But she pee'd before and after this, she pee'd when Boo was gone too. There we have pretty much all proof of it is Autumn.

Don't they pee blood with a UTI too? Don't they howl and moan? That is what happened to our other cat (Soxs) who we no longer have. We all most had to put him down because of one particular infection.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I will let you know how the visit with the vet goes.

Steph and Jes

[spalacios]

I have had experience with this in the past. Like everyone else said, there could be several reasons for this. The first thing that came to my mind was the litterbox. The second was a UTI. My last cat I had this problem with was horrible. We were told by the vet it probably was behavioral and to try and seclude her to stop. Unfortunately, by the time I took her in to have her checked out it was too late. She had infection so bad in her tract that there was nothing they could do. And she ended up with kidney cancer too, and I was told by another vet that the lack of care could have progressed that. I'm not telling you to scare you into thinking your cat could possibly be very sick, I just want people to know that they can't let it go on too long without being checked out. You need to be firm with the vet and get them to test for UTI. If it comes back ok, then you know she is acting out. If not, you will then be able to treat the problem.

Good luck!

Stacy

[mruffruff]

UTIs don't always show blood in the urine. Please have your vet check her.

And those cleaners with enzymes really do work. Simple Solution and Nature's Miracle are two. Use enough to soak the spots and let it dry.

[pnance]

I agree you should check her for a UTI first. If medical is ruled out and your dealing with behavioural I had a similiar problem with Emma. She went in my laundry and the carpet, etc. Turned out she didn't like the litter box (I'd purchased one of the automatic ones), once I switched her back she was fine. She also had the problem when her litter box was dirtier than normal. I had a really bad 2 weeks and pretty much just came home to sleep, and feed/water them. I'd scoop out the poo, but was using pine litter at the time and didn't get the chance to change it out. My fault and not normal for me, but she let me know. Once it was back to regular cleaning again she was happy to go in it. My moms cat didn't like the new litter she got her once. So if you've changed litter, boxes, anything even small it may be the problem. Change it back to whatever it used to be. If it still continues I'd keep her locked in a smaller room (bathroom maybe) for a couple of days, and see if she goes in the litter box. 1 day may not be enough, she may just hold it so it doesn't really help. I also agree that the enzyme cleaners work well. We purchased natures miracle, put it in our steamcleaner and used that as the carpet shampoo. No smell left at all.

[Bogey]

Originally posted by Barbara
Peeing in many different spots sounds to me like an UTI. Most cats who just do it behaviorally prefer certain spots. Like the laundry basket

My beloved cat had crystals in her urine (had to be on a special diet) - she peed in the most unusual spots (horrible) until she was well.

[ratchet22]

Are they declawed? This can cause it as well, but to get them reprogrammed immediatly to a litter box you need to get a large dog cage and confine it there with its bed, food water and litter box. It may have picked up on a bad habit and needs to be broke of it, providing there is nothing medically wrong. Also help by keeping dirty laundy towels and any clothing lying around picked up. But the confinement will help retrain her, and then let her in a small are after 2 weeks with the littler box and then from there back to free roaming, again IF there is nothing wrong medically.....