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Urination Problem

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Tim Harden - 05 Feb 2005 18:31 GMT
I have an 8-9 year old fixed female calico cat.  We've lived in several
apartments with her and this is our second house with her.  We have never
had a problem with her urinating outside of the litter box until we moved
into our current home.

This has been an ongoing struggle with her for over 2 years now.  She
deficates in the box just fine, but chooses to urinate right outside of the
box.  She does this even when the litter box is clean.

We did move into this home knowing that the previous owner had a pet problem
as well, and the carpets have not been replaced since then.  There are
definitely some pre-existing pet odors in the carpets that we have tried to
wipe out repeatedly with Simple Solution by www.bramton.com.

We have 3 litter boxes located throughout the house - one in our bedroom,
one in our dining room and one in the living room.  It's the living room one
that she urinates next to.  We've brought in professional steam cleaners in
to try to remove all the odor and stains in that area.  We only have one
other cat, she's friendly and older and they get along very well.

I know that I've probably left out more details that people will probably
ask for.  So I appreciate any and all suggestions about our dillema.  We're
really at our wits end.  If we didn't love her so much, we would have given
her away a long time ago over this.

Thanks,

Tim...
Amur_ - 05 Feb 2005 20:05 GMT
> We have 3 litter boxes located throughout the house - one in our bedroom,
> one in our dining room and one in the living room.  It's the living room one
> that she urinates next to.  We've brought in professional steam cleaners in
> to try to remove all the odor and stains in that area.  We only have one
> other cat, she's friendly and older and they get along very well.

  Just a thought - have you tried removing the living room litter box
and seeing what she does?

  That aside, 3 litter boxes for two cats seems like overkill...

ttyl,
Amur_
Ivor Jones - 05 Feb 2005 22:45 GMT
>> We have 3 litter boxes located throughout the house - one in our
>> bedroom, one in our dining room and one in the living room.  It's
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
>   That aside, 3 litter boxes for two cats seems like overkill...

No, that's about right. One per cat plus one extra is good.

Ivor
Gee - 05 Feb 2005 20:28 GMT
> I have an 8-9 year old fixed female calico cat.  We've lived in several
> apartments with her and this is our second house with her.  We have never
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> deficates in the box just fine, but chooses to urinate right outside of the
> box.  She does this even when the litter box is clean.

Ok, does she stand inside the box while weeing outside, or is she standing
NEXT to the box? If  she is standing inside the box with bum out, perhaps
buy a taller box,or enclosed one and see if that works.

Is she always weeing at  the same spot? Did you try moving the box to the
spot she prefers?

If its been 2 years, it has become a habit now,and the area around the box
could be smelling like a bathroom still to her, even tho you may think its
clean.Remember the cats noses are much better then hours, and they use smell
as a primary sense, not sight. So you need to work on two things, breaking
da smell and the habit. I don't know the product you mentioned, but you
could try method I find works well:

Wash that carpet (box,don't forget outside the box, and wall) thoroughly
with a biological washing powder, or some specialised shampoo that contains
enzymes which would munch up the
parts of urine. We are talking serious scrubbing here, because even though
we can;t smell it, cats, believe, can. After this has been done, take
vinegar (in colour matching your carpet :)- probably clear malt one would be
the best and strongest. Yes that stinks, but it works wonders as cats hate
that smell. I am not
certain if it neutralises the urine in some way as well or not, but you must
definitely put the vinegar on the spot. Let the carpet dry. Perhaps speed up
drying with some hairdryer treatment. Lastly, when dry, you
could use some Downy fabric conditioner to kill any residual smell left.This
one is for you really.

Now, buy/borrow another (enclosed) litter trey and place it in that spot.

OR, get a dish with dry food and place it on that spot. Cats are clean
animals and will not urinate near their food. Even wipe the carpet with some
dry food to gain the smell of food. I know this works as my friends done it
on their cat/carpet.

Finally, you may need to consider replacing the carpets,but the flooring
underneath could be soaked sothey will need treatment as well,before the new
carpet.

Lastly the other poster has asked a fair question,do you really need a 3rd
tray there as well? Perhaps move it all together in another location,and
start putting the dry food down in this room.

Good luck,

Gee
Sherry - 06 Feb 2005 01:59 GMT
>Wash that carpet (box,don't forget outside the box, and wall) thoroughly
>with a biological washing powder, or some specialised shampoo that contains
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>could use some Downy fabric conditioner to kill any residual smell left.This
>one is for you really.

Enzyme cleaners are designed to work alone. They have to be applied properly,
and the area kept moist and at the proper temperature for 24 hours, then
allowed to dry naturally. Adding crap like vinegar and Downy will render the
enzyme action ineffective. Downy isn't designed for use on carpets *or* odors
anyway, and is no more effective on cat urine than pouring straight perfume on
it.
To the OP: I've tried Simple Solutions, Nature's Miracle, and about every other
enzyme cleaner available. The one that out-performs, in my opinion, by far, is
ODOKLEEN. It was recommended to me by another poster months ago. If you can't
find it near you, call them at 1-800-262-9366, and they'll ship to you. After
cleaning with ODOKLEEN, you treat the area with ODOKILL, another product. Works
better than anything I've tried so far.
Sherry
M.C. Mullen - 06 Feb 2005 04:26 GMT
What happens if you remove the living room box altogether?
Can you place something underneath the boxes which is easier to clean like a
rubber mat?

Carola

|I have an 8-9 year old fixed female calico cat.  We've lived in several
| apartments with her and this is our second house with her.  We have never
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
|
| Tim...
Jason Allen McPeak - 16 Feb 2005 06:42 GMT
Try using a carpet extractor with 1/2 cup of BORAX, adn 1/2 cup of Washing  
Soda (both available in the laundry detergent aisle at the grocery store).  
Don
't use any more soaps on the carpet, just the borax and washing soda  
solution with hot water in the clean water tank on the extractor, go over  
the carpet in the affected areas several times, this will remove old soap,  
and leave a coating of borax behind wich will inhibit mold growth, and  
also kill fleas, and other insects that travel in the carpet without the  
use of strong poisons. The borax and Sodium carbonate (washing soda) will  
kill and remove most odor causing agents without leaving any perfumes  
behind, and is non toxic to you and your cats, it's probably the best  
solution to clean carpets with, because it doesn't leave soap residue  
behind, wich will pick up more dirt anyway. If you have a particularly bad  
spot of carpet soiling, spot treat that area with a spray on carpet  
cleaner and a scrub brush, then go over it with the borax/washing soda  
mix. The alkalinity of the mixture makes the soaps more soluable, and they  
will work better.

> I have an 8-9 year old fixed female calico cat.  We've lived in several
> apartments with her and this is our second house with her.  We have never
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
>
> Tim...

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