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In Part 1 of this article, I talked about the medical conditions that can cause cats to urinate outside of the litter box. In Part 2, I talked about preventative measures cat owners can take to help prevent the behavioral issues that can cause cats to urinate outside of the litter box. What can you do if you’ve got a cat who is urinating outside of the litter box, your veterinarian has ruled out a medical cause and you’ve made all the preventative changes discussed in last month’s article? Fluffy is still urinating on your husband’s side of the bed and on your kids’ backpacks and you’ve about had enough. What next?

Step one-it always comes back to odor. Cat’s noses are much more sensitive than ours. Even though we have wiped up the urine spot and can’t smell it anymore, she can. It is like a sign stating “It is OK to pee here.” Clean the area with lots of water. If you are working on carpet, clean with water and blot dry with towels repeatedly. You can also use a mixture of fifty percent water and fifty percent vinegar. This may make your house smell like pickles, but that is better than smelling like cat urine. Don’t use cleansers that have ammonia in them, such as some Windex® formulations. Urine has ammonia in it so cleaning with ammonia isn’t gaining you anything. Then use an enzymatic cleanser such as Nature’s Miracle®. The enzymes will break down the urine, further helping to decrease the odor.

Think about where your cat is peeing. Does she always pee in the same spot? Put a litter box there. Ok, I’ll admit that putting a litter box in the middle of the dining room floor probably isn’t something you’ll see in Interior Designs Monthly, but this is only the first step. If Fluffy starts using that litter box, then you can s-l-o-w-l-y move it, one inch a day, back toward where your would prefer it to be. Does your cat always pee in the sink and tub? Maybe that is her substrate preference. Try putting ceramic tiles in the litter boxes instead of litter. Does she use your houseplant pots as a litter box? Put aluminum foil over the dirt in the pots and use dirt in the litter boxes instead of litter.

It is important not to yell at her if you catch her urinating in the wrong spot. She already has a behavioral problem with eliminating. Yelling will just make it worse. (Sorry, cats are not small dogs, they are from Mars, remember?) Often a cat will urinate outside of the litter box right in front of you to tell you that something is wrong. The challenge is trying to think like a cat and figure it out. If you have multiple cats or dogs, watch how they interact. Is someone getting bullied or attacked near the litter boxes?

Often cats with these issues will be urinating in several places around the house. You can use an inexpensive black light or wood’s lamp (I got mine on eBay) and go through the house in the dark. Urine will glow in the dark. Note I said “urine”, not “cat urine”. If you’ve got dogs or young children too, you might be disheartened by the nocturnal splendor you discover. Clean all the spots. Put litter boxes over the ones you can. Put disturbing substrates over the others like aluminum foil or a plastic carpet runner turned upside-down (so the little plastic points stick up.) The carpet runner may not work if you have a cat that likes to pee on plastic. (I’ve got one of those. I also had one that liked paper. He made editorial comments on a rough draft of my article on hedgehogs.) You could also try putting a bar of mint scented soap in the spot. You might not want to do this if you have a dog however, as you might soon find that he has minty fresh breath and soap bubble drool. There is a litter additive called Cat Attract® that may encourage recalcitrant cats back to the litter box. There is another product called Feliway® that is a calming cat pheromone that may help decrease stress that is causing the elimination issue.

Sometimes indoor cats will start spraying or urinating in response to stray intact male cats outside spraying on the house. Clean the outside areas he is hitting. You can try sprinkling hot pepper spice in those areas. Close your downstairs window curtains or even paper the windows to keep your cats from seeing him outside. Take down bird feeders so he will be less likely to come to your yard to hunt. If he is a stray, you may be able to borrow a live trap from the animal shelter and catch him to adopt him as your next cat and neuter the guy! (Always test for Feline Leukemia before exposing him to your pets.)

Sometimes, just like people, cats may need some medical assistance for mental health. Yes, cats take Prosac® too. At this point, you may feel like asking for a prescription for yourself! There are several different mediations that can be tried for cats, when environmental changes haven’t helped.
One of the most common reasons adult cats are put to sleep is because they aren’t using the litter box. The causes for this are numerous, but so are the potential solutions. Sadly, sometimes even with the best of efforts, we aren’t able to fix this problem. The best thing we can do is to try to prevent it from starting.