I have a one year old kitty. We recently had her spayed and her front claws clipped. The doctor gave us some recycled newspaper litter. Our kitty would not use that. Instead she would use do her business on the carpet in the living room. Well the doctor said it was okay to travel, and we already had plans to. About 4 days after her surgery, we had to leave for a week. She was being taken care of, but was not watched constantly. So the whole week we were gone, she did her business all over the living room. Needless to say, it stunk and there was a ton of clean up.
To get to the point, it has been three weeks since her surgeries. I have since replaced her litter with her normal litter. She DOES use her littler box, BUT she also still goes potty in the living room. She pees on the carpet but poos in the litter box. It is driving us crazy!!
We catch her in mid stream sometimes and put her in her litter box. But it is not helping. Our house smells like cat urine and I just can't take it anymore.
I have used things like Boundary... the spray you use for specific areas to help her not go on the carpet anymore. But after an hour, she is right back over there peeing again.
I don't know what to do. I honestly don't want to give her up... me and the kids love her so much. But I am tired of living in the smell. I can't take it anymore. I don't want anyone in my house it stinks so bad.
I have cleaned the carpet about 5 times since we have been back from our trip. But with her going on the carpet everyday, cleaning it does not help!!!
Do you have any suggestions? I have called the vets office. She did have a checkup and they said everything appears to be fine. But I have called them again to see what more I can do and I haven't heard back from them. I am desperate for help!
Thanks!!!!!
I'm sorry to say this, but even with deep cleaning, it's probably better to rip up the carpet and padding and get it replaced or put in tile or hardwood floors. In the meantime, I would put a litter box in the area of the living room she was peeing in. Then, see if you can gradually move the box, a little bit at a time, to another location that is more amenable to you.
Place her in the bathroom all day with her food/water and litter box. Hopefully you have more than one bathroom. Keep her there until she routinely uses her litter box.
As for the carpet... it may be best to take it up and replace it, because that cat urine is full of uric acid/ammonia and it doesn't all clean up well. Even just a remote scent of hers still there she will continue to pee there.
Definitely ask the vet on how to give her behavioral training to stop this. Most cat declawing isn't very painful or detrimental to an animal's behavior - but in your cat... that seemed to have been the trigger.
You could try Nature's Miracle, available at stores like Petsmart and Petco. It's not cheap, but it's worth every penny. Be generous - use enough of it on the carpet spot so that it soaks through the carpeting AND the pad. It has a funny smell of its own, but if you get all the "catted" places, then, once the NM dries, both its smell and the cat smell should be gone. (I have a little blacklight that will show me where the catted areas are exactly so that I can get every bit clean.)
Cats have more sensitive "smellers" and they will go back to a place that smells catty. It's just the way they are.
Another option: Professional carpet cleaners often have a pet odor/stain product that is stronger than what's sold on the market. But you know the cost of cleaning carpets.
I sympathize with your situation. We've had cats for years, and have been through it a lot. None of our cats ever had any use for newspaper litter - they were thoroughly offended by its being in their boxes! Some cats are picky about their litter, anyhow.
I use the NM first, and call the carpet cleaners if that doesn't work (and if I have enough money saved up to pay them). Once we had cat wars (major feudin' and fightin') and ended up having to replace the carpeting. If those kitties had received allowances, they would have had to pay for the damage themselves!
You will need to replace the sub floor under the carpet. The urine has soaked into it and the cat can still smell it. After that, put her in a small room to retrain her to use the box.
www.thecatsite.com is great for kitty questions.
Try this kitty litter:
feline pine (all natural litter)
<felinepine.com>
Works really well, it might help you kitty....best wishes.
Blessings.....
PLEASE take her in and have her checked for a urinary tract infection...that is the ONLY time my cats have ever not used the litter box.
Change her litter. Sounds like she hates it... I wouldn't want to be forced to use something I hated. You said it yourself she doesn't use it. If cats don't like their litter they won't use it. To me that is what was blinking in red lights for me... I have 2 cats and I'll tell you when they don't like something they let you know it... I don't care what people claim that cats don't get mad, they do and they are pretty vengeful lol. My cat was mad about my daughter sleeping in my bed cuz he used to sleep in my bed and he started peeing on her bed until I showed him a few times that he could still sleep in my bed too.
How did you clean the carpet? If you simply sprayed something on it (even the enzyme spray) it won't be enough. Did you have it professionally cleaned by a company that knows how to clean carpets with pet odor? Specifically urine?
It has soaked through the carpet and is IN the carpet PAD. That is why she keeps going back.
I hate to say it, but you may just have to rip out the carpet (and padding) and either replace it or put down hard flooring.
Cats are creatures of habit. They DON'T like change... AT ALL. So, needless to say, when you changed the litter temporarily after the spay/de-claw, she was unhappy. Some cats can also be vengeful (mine is). If something I do makes him upset, he seeks things out of mine to pee on. Unfortunately, the things the other two have said about the smell in the carpet are true. You're going to have to have a VERY thorough cleaning done by a professional service unless you're willing to just rip it all out and replace it. Once they go in a place (not their littler box) more than once, it's even harder to get the smell out. Since you were on vacation, the chemicals and smell have penetrated the carpet & your cat will keep going back. Even with behavior training (the bathroom idea) the cat will continue to pee in the carpet if you don't get it cleaned/replaced.
I love cats, but they are fickle little buggers... :)
I'm a little late on this, but yes as the others have said, cats hate change & cat pee is almost impossible to remove. The Nature's Miracle somone recommend was what I was going to recommend. I know PetsMart has it. You have to get a remover specified for cata that have an ENZYME remover in it. One way to tell if you have removed all of it is to us a black light. Traces of cat urine you cannot see are visible under a black light, then you know where you need to focus. You may have to move your kitty to an enclosed area with her litter box & food (make sure the food is NOT near the litter). Also, I would try going back to the original litter you were using (which you may have already tried) & if that doesn't work, maybe try a completely new litter box set up and using the old litter as the shemay still relate that box to the stuff she didn't like. Cats are tricky. I have one that is as easy as anything & another that will pee right next to me if I have made a change she does not like (this is not a habit of hers, but it has happened), such as a new animal in the house, changing litter because I couldn't get the store that had hers, etc. Please try not to give up on her as it sounds like she was once a "good" kitty.
