Bad Kitty

I understand you moved into a new home, but is the home newly built? If not it's possible she's doing this because there were other animals in the house prior. I have read that a mix of 16oz hydrogen peroxide, 1tbl. baking soda, 1tsp. dish soap works very well to get the stain out and the smell. Spay spots, scrub spot let dry and then vacuum.

We use Folex to get carpet stains out. It works amazingly well - the stains don't come back either. It was recommended to us by a professional carpet cleaner, so I feel confident that it is a good product. I buy it a Albertsons - white spray bottle with dark lettering.

Sorry I can't really help with the cat issue. I would say the 2nd litter box is a good idea. Maybe she just needs a little more love and attn too. Moves are stressful for animals, just like people.

If there were previous owners they may have owned a cat who used the basement as its litterbox. Your cat could think that it is ok to use the carpet because it smells like a litter box to her.

This could be happening if another animal has urinated in the basement before you moved in, since that is the only place the cat is going on the carpet. I would suggest new carpet there, or keeping the cat out of the basement. I am not sure there is anything to get cat urine smell out of the carpet, if you find out please share the trick with us.

Do you know if the previous owners had pets? Is the basement carpet and/or pad also from the previous owner? Could be that a previous pet did their business on the carpet downstairs, the owners had it cleaned but the smell still remains detectable to your cat. Animals tend to like to do their business where others have to mark their territory. Just a thought.

Sometimes, when a cat starts going on the floor it's because the carpet is already stained with animal urine. Unless you clean it completely, she'll always go there. I don't know how to get rid of it short of taking the old carpet out. Good luck!!!!

Nine years is a pretty ripe old age. We had to put our cat down because the vet said she was just too old to handle the move. Hopefully it's just prior cat stains as someone else mentioned. Check into that for sure.

Your cat may have a urinary tract infection.

S.

I can suggest the answer to only one of your questions, B.:
there was some animal in that basement before, and your can is marking the territory, to let any furry neighbors know that this IS HER territory now, and please not trespassing from now on!

#1 There are a lot of products out there, but in my experience the smells never goes completely away. We have even gone as far as pulling the carpet up, removing the pad, sealing the floor, have the carpets cleaned from the front and the back, and then getting new pad....it still smells on hot humid days.
2. A 9 year old cat could be going through several things. Usually if it is a medically issue, she will be diabetic, have kidney disease or a UTI. If it isn't medical, then it is probably due to the move. YOu should definitely put a litter box in the basement, but also look at where the other one is. If it is too near their food, they will often not want to use it. Also, if it is close to the washer, or any other appliance that makes a lot of noise,they can quit using it as well.
3. She may be very upset about the baby too. He's what, about 8 mos? That means he's active, which is a big change for a kitty that hasn't had kids before.
4. Is she your only cat? You should have one litter box for each cat, plus one more.
5. If the carpet is light in color, you should be able to tell what color the uring is. Is it bloody? Dilute or very concentrated? Bloody would lead me to think UTI...Dilute would lean towards both diabetes or kidney disease. Does she drink a lot of water?
5. IF she is really picky about a clean box, then I would suggest that you also try the litter miad. It cleans itself after every potty break, and it traps the smell inside a canister as well. We had a cat that was picky, and only wanted her litter box in the basement, where we never spent any time, so it was often forgotten, but she was also a very shy/nervous cat, and I was afraid that a robot tiolet might scare the heck out of her, but I finally broke down and bought one, and she LOVED it!! Fot the first week, she would go to the bathroom, watch it get cleaned, and then hop right back in a go again. IT was so nice!! Adn then you just have to toss and replace the canister about once a week..

You are right---getting her checked out by the doctor is the first step. Is it possible that there were cats there with the previous owners? If so, there may be urine stains down to the floorboards possibly necessitating removal of the boards in addition to the pad and carpet.

For urine removal I would recommend using Anti-Icky Poo or Nature's Miracle. Don't use vinegar, as some sites recommend it just perpetuates the odor. Talk to your veterinarian about a product called Feliway as well.

Best wishes.

Hi B.,
I would have your cat checked for a urinary tract infection but would guess that the place your cat is going has been urinated on by another animal previously. My suggestion would be to use oxyclean, the powder kind used with laundry, mix with water to make it a thinner than paste but not complete liquid and pour on the affected area, let sit for 1/2 hour and wipe up then vacuum. If there is any residue rent one of the inexpensive wet vacuums from home depot or local grocery store and go over the area. The oxyclean gets rid of animal odors and stains completely and does not leave a cover up cleaner odor. My animals ignore the area after it has been cleaned.
Good luck,
SarahMM

She's getting old, mad at the new move, lazy, or she smells urine from another cat that lived there before. Shampoo the carpet, and get some urine be gone or comparable product to take the smell away. It's in the carpet, the padding and the cement. Make sure to saturate all three and them let them dry. Then, if it's not too blatant, put her litter box where she's going anyway. Good luck!

I think everyone so far has had great suggestions.
-get her checked by the vet
-increase the number of litter boxes
-make sure they are clean

I've done all three of these things for our cat problem (including spending hundreds of dollars on "automatic" ones that seem to always eventually break), and one of mine (I THINK I know which of the two) STILL is going in other places.

I think for her, it's a dominance thing. It started on the bed when we moved into my husband's house. ON HIS SIDE OF THE BED! Still happens periodically so now we have to keep our door closed to keep the cats out of the bedroom.

It also happens on the dog's beds. She doesn't like the dog. She doesn't like my husband.

Very occasionally she also goes in other spots in the house, (The guest room bed, the carpet under the dining table). Usually though, it's not urine - just poop.

I wish I could get her some emotional counselling. We're about to have our first child, and I don't know what I'm going to do next. Everyone is saying I'll have to "get rid of her" but she's declawed (so I can't just put her outside - the de-clawing being part of the agreement I made when I got married) and who's going to want a cat that poops places to make a point??? I absolutely adore my pets and I hate to think of euthenizing her.

So...I sympathize! If anyone reading this has ideas, let me know.

:)
J.
____@____.com

B.,
I have had a smimlar situation and called the Dumb Friends League Help line who gave me some great ideas. You might want to try them.
I use Nature's Miracle for the smell (cover with non-printed plastic and weight it down to let the enzymes work). If there is still a stain after this has been completed (about one week to dry) I use Spot Shot to remove the rest of the stain.
Good luck!

I'm not sure about the stains, but if there's any odor, I used this stuff called Urine Trouble. Ha ha! Funny name, great stuff. We moved into a new place the boys' room smelled STRONGLY like pet urine, and I actually put that stuff in my Kirby and used it in my shampooer and the smell came right out. The carpet is dark, so I don't know if it removed stains or not.

Hi B.,

I think the first step is to get her checked by the vet. The vet should check both her blood and urine. Our cat suddenly started urinating on the carpet when she was 7. We took her to the vet and found out that her kidneys were failing. Is your cat sleeping more or drinking more water than usual? Kidney failure is very common in cats, especially as they get older.

Hopefully, it's just the stress of the move, but I would definitely get her checked out as soon as possible.

By the way, our cat has been on fluid therapy now for almost 7 years (she's 14) and hasn't urinated on the carpet since she was first diagnosed. She's our little miracle kitty!

Good luck to you and your cat.

We had the same problem with our 10 year old cat when we moved into our home 3 years ago. After spending a lot of money on special cat attract litter and countless carpet products we were talking to a neighbor about it and he told us the man who originally owned the house had several pets and they were not as well trained as ours. The lady who lived in the house before us had no pets so never had a problem. It ended up that the carpet and pad had the scent of the other animals urine and our cat was trying to cover the scent. It as several (10+ years) old so we could not smell it, but my cat could. We ended up ripping up all the carpet and pad using clorox on the floor and then replacing with new. I know it is an expensive fix, but it worked. You amy want to see if you can find out any info about previous owners. Good luck. We have tried every carpet cleaner for pets and did not find one to be any better than the others. We also tried having the carpet professionally cleaned and that helped the stains, but did not stop the behavior.

well i would try arm and hammer pet remover, to get the staines out. as far as the kitty, i dont know if your new home is brand new or if others have lived there before. if others have been there before, the kitty maybe going in that area because another animal has gone there. the onlything i can think of is to remove the carpeting or try something that will remove the odor. then the kitty should stop.

We found that our cat only did her business outside of the litter box when we had more than one. Once we got down to one cat, we were fine. However, we did have to replace the carpet because of smells and because she was still looking for the other kitties. Little turkey!!! Once the house was hers, we were fine. Maybe your home's previous owner had a cat and she is looking for it....I know a carpet replacement is drastic, but we tried everything else first and that finally took care of it. Good Luck!!

hello I used to work as a vet tech and would get asked questions similar to this all the time.
-take kitty to the vet to make shure there is nothing going on first otherwise everything else will be a waste of time
- I would suggest putting a litterbox in every level of the house
-make shure the littlerbox is not in a high traffic area
-next time you move just put the cat in a bathroom with the littler box when you are not home for the first day
-try natures miracle for the stains
and actually 9 is not that old for a cat they have the genetics to live into their 30's I was told that by an awesome vet at CSU when I was going through my rotations there

you should have her checked for uti, bladder stone or something of that nature. I had an older cat who'd always been good, but started going all over the house, so I read up on it on the internet and found out the reason she's doing it is because she associates her little box with pain. My cat had a stone the size of a pea in her bladder. Hopefully you can afford to have a vet check it out