My cat is peeing on the floor - new UPDATE in OP

[regentrude]

And I am so done cleaning up several times a day. 

22 year old cat. Not incontinent- she deliberately pees in front of her litter box and in the air vents.

Had her checked out by the vet. Bloodwork,  urine analysis. No UTI, no kidney disease, super healthy despite her age. She has enough mobility to jump on chairs,  so getting in the box is not the problem. 

Same litter as for the past years. No new pets in the home.

I am sick of my day beginning with cat pee and the smell ( Yes, I know about enzyme cleaners). I would like to be able to be away overnight- I can't ask anybody to catsit with this mess.

Anything I can do? She's an indoor/outdoor,  but with winter, leaving her outside seems cruel. 

UPDATE:
Following y'all's suggestions, I bought new litter box. Cut out a low entry. Cat goes in the box a few times a day and also pees on the floor next to the box (or in the middle of the hallway floor) several times a day, and always first thing in the morning - she wakes me up at 4:45am and I start my day with cleaning up cat pee. HELP!!!

NEW update:

Cat attract litter does not attract the cat. Today she peed on the floor six times. 

Edited December 12, 2020 by regentrude

[Alicia64]

22?! You should be so proud. (And I agree with you re: not leaving her outside).

I would wonder if her activity has more to do with dementia rather than she's being a brat.

Seriously, if I were in your shoes I would take her back to the vet and ask what dementia meds are out there for cats (I've never needed this med for a cat, but they definitely have dementia meds for dogs).

Hang in there, being a pet-parent to an elderly animal is painful in so many different ways.

Hugs to you,

Wendy

Edited November 23, 2020 by Alicia64
Typo.

[regentrude]

5 minutes ago, Alicia64 said:

Seriously, if I were in your shoes I would take her back to the vet and ask what dementia meds are out there for cats (I've never needed this med for a cat, but they definitely have dementia meds for dogs).

This cat cannot be medicated unless the vet gives her shots. Pills are impossible. The vet has mentioned the possibility of dementia, but has not suggested treatment options. 

Edited November 23, 2020 by regentrude

[Selkie]

Try leaving puppy pads in the places where she is peeing. It makes the cleanup much easier.

[regentrude]

Just now, Selkie said:

Try leaving puppy pads in the places where she is peeing. It makes the cleanup much easier.

Been doing that. She now pees in front of the pad, or on the corner of the pad so it runs next to the pad.

[Ausmumof3]

We ended up with an outdoor cat after a year or two of dealing with that.  However our cat is most likely quite a bit younger and our climate is more mild.  I wanted her to be indoors more for environmental reasons.  I probably won’t have another cat for that reason - I can’t stand the smell of cat pee and it didn’t matter how thoroughly I cleaned I still felt like the house smelt like it.  She does have an insulated shed to sleep in (which now smells 😬).  But I don’t like outdoor cats because of the damage to wildlife.  

[regentrude]

13 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

A Greenies pill pocket treat for cats? If the pill is tiny or broken in two? Wonder if you could give pills that way. My cat is the same about taking meds and I worry what it will be like when she’s really old.

Pill pocket worked exactly once. She is very smart. Has never since accepted a treat. Refused wet food after attempt to hide pill.

Edited November 23, 2020 by regentrude

[Tree Frog]

Take this from a non cat family, so I may be completely off. My understanding is that cats like to hide when they pass away. If he was at one time an outdoor cat, he may need to go outside. Could you provide a shelter outside for him to stay warm? Could the cat be nearing his end of life and want to go outside to die?

Edited November 23, 2020 by wilrunner
Does the cat even want to go outside?

[regentrude]

1 minute ago, Wilrunner3 said:

Take this from a non cat family, so I may be completely off. My understanding is that cats like to hide when they pass away. If he was at one time an outdoor cat, he may need to go outside. Could you provide a shelter outside for him to stay warm? Could the cat be nearing his end of life and want to go outside to die?

Nope. When I put her outside,  she sits on the door mat and meows and comes inside as soon as I open the door. 

When she wants to go outside,  she will sit by the door and make her wishes abundantly clear. 

Edited November 23, 2020 by regentrude

[Tree Frog]

Just now, regentrude said:

Nope. When I put her outside,  she sits on the door mat and meows and comes inside as soon as I open the door. 

Poor kitty! I hope you're able to figure something out!

[sangtarah]

Our cat started peeing on things, and what worked for her was re-training. She was about 10. We had to limit her to one room for a week or two and then to one floor of the house for another few weeks. She is 16 now and we’ve moved several times since then but she has been good. 

I don’t know if that’s possible in your situation, obviously. I’m so sorry she’s being a snot. 

[regentrude]

1 minute ago, sangtarah said:

Our cat started peeing on things, and what worked for her was re-training. She was about 10. We had to limit her to one room for a week or two and then to one floor of the house for another few weeks. She is 16 now and we’ve moved several times since then but she has been good. 

I don’t know if that’s possible in your situation, obviously. I’m so sorry she’s being a snot. 

She is not peeing randomly all over the place.  She pees near her litter box. 

[Pawz4me]

Some medications can be compounded into transdermal creams or ointments. I don't know if that's possible for any of the medications that might help with inappropriate elimination, though.

[regentrude]

5 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

Some medications can be compounded into transdermal creams or ointments. I don't know if that's possible for any of the medications that might help with inappropriate elimination, though.

What medication would help with this? Vet didn't mention any.

[J-rap]

With one of our cats as she got older, we had to clean the litter box much more often or she wouldn't use it.  I don't know why that changed.  But I began cleaning it out quickly after she used it, and then sprinkled a little fresh litter on top, and that seemed to help a lot.

[regentrude]

5 minutes ago, J-rap said:

With one of our cats as she got older, we had to clean the litter box much more often or she wouldn't use it.  I don't know why that changed.  But I began cleaning it out quickly after she used it, and then sprinkled a little fresh litter on top, and that seemed to help a lot.

Tried that. She pees in front of a fresh pristine box 

Keep the suggestions coming, y'all. I still have hope there could be a solution we haven't tried

[J-rap]

Have you ever tried a hooded litter box?  

[Guest]

I have a cat on transdermal prosac because of going outside the box, but in her case, it seems to be due to anxiety, so an anxiety med helps. She was born outdoors and is just plain scared of everything, except DD, who she loves. 
 

[Kanin]

What about one of those trays you can put under wet winter boots? They have 1 inch sides. If you got a huge one (hopefully they exist?), you could put the litter box in it completely. It wouldn't solve the peeing problem, but cleanup would be easier...? 

My elderly cat is driving me crazy, too. Different issues, daily stress. 

[Starr]

I have older cats with some different issues. I keeping reading illness and behaviors can be caused by environmental stress. Tell her next year will be better. lol I hope someone here has some more advice. It's interesting that she's in the area but will avoid the box and the pad. Have you tried covering a larger area that you could later make smaller again, a small tablecloth, the heavier plastic kind with the backing ? I get you though, a nursing home for cats in absolutely exhausting.

[OH_Homeschooler]

I'm sorry you're going through this. My 16 year old cat has now resorted to peeing in front of the litter boxes as well, but she usually pees on the puppy pad. When she misses, it really puts me in a bad mood, to put it mildly. I hope you get something figured out. 

[sangtarah]

What kind of pee pad do you use? We bought washable ones for our bunnies from Amazon. They are cloth on the top side and plastic on the bottom with a filler in between. I wonder if she would pee on that instead of a disposable pad? 

[Katy]

Mine started doing that just before the test showed kidney disease.  If you give it a month you might find that's what's going on.

[Pawz4me]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

What medication would help with this? Vet didn't mention any.

This article lists some of the medications that can help.

[Carrie12345]

If there’s a pill for a different problem that can be found...

My 14yo cat will not fall for anything that gets an actual pill in his mouth.  I did devise a towel wrapping system for liquid meds (he sometimes needs an appetite stimulant) and his 2x/dy thyroid pills get crushed and put into a tiny portion of his regular wet food as an appetizer before each meal.  I have to make sure they always give us the plain white tablet because they once gave us a coated pill that doesn’t crush well enough to work the way we’ve managed for over a year now.

ETA: Of course, because of this, traditional housepet sitting is not an option. Our guy would require boarding, and at a special rate due to meds.

Edited November 23, 2020 by Carrie12345

[jen3kids]

I'm sorry you are dealing with this - cat pee is nasty!!!! 

 

We had to transition our indoor/outdoor cats to be full outdoor cats when this happened - they were much younger and not happy with each other, so they started to pee to mark their 'spots' in the house.  My husband built insulated cat houses for each of them (one lives in the backyard, one in the front yard)  They each have a heating pad in their box and it's very cozy in there.  The 'front yard' cat actually has a kitty door into the garage and she spends the coldest days/nights there.  She has a chip on her collar that allows her to open the cat door and nothing else can get in.  She would love to be allowed inside again, and we do allow her in, but only when 100% supervised.  The backyard cat is happiest outside and usually refuses to come in.   She's still very affectionate with us, but she loves the outside, even in cold snowy weather. 

[katilac]

3 hours ago, regentrude said:

She has enough mobility to jump on chairs,  so getting in the box is not the problem. 

Being able to jump absolutely does not mean she doesn't have trouble getting into her litter box! My senior cat can make certain jumps but not others, and most definitely started having problems getting into her high-sided litter box. It's like my dad, who can still walk and drive and climb stairs and garden, but started having trouble getting seated in a certain chair. 

We changed it, and things vastly improved. The litter box and the chair both, lol. 

I'm guessing some of the differences in making jumps is angle and so forth, possibly vision. And they don't jump into their litterbox, they step into it, which is a different type of motion. 

When cats deliberately pee in the wrong place, like in front of the pad you put down for them, it almost always means they are unhappy about something. I call it revenge peeing, lol. As there are no new pets and no new litter, the litterbox itself is a likely candidate, plus cheap and easy to try changing. iirc, we put the new box next to her old one to start. 

[katilac]

3 hours ago, regentrude said:

I would like to be able to be away overnight- I can't ask anybody to catsit with this mess.

Sure you can, you just have to throw money at them. Been there, done that 😄

Can you kennel her? We don't kennel our senior cat anymore, she gets too stressed out, but you might have better luck with a cat that still goes in and out regularly. 

 

[klmama]

In a cat that old, I would suspect the onset of kidney disease is imminent.  Cat Attract litter is helpful, as is replacing the litterbox completely.  They absorb odor, and washing doesn't completely eliminate it.  

[regentrude]

Thank you all so much! I will try a different litterbox. Covering a larger area with pads just shifted her peeing further away from the box, to the periphery of the covered area. Revenge peeing sounds right 

 

[Terabith]

1 hour ago, klmama said:

In a cat that old, I would suspect the onset of kidney disease is imminent.  Cat Attract litter is helpful, as is replacing the litterbox completely.  They absorb odor, and washing doesn't completely eliminate it.  

Yes, we have had this issue.  Replacing the litter box entirely helped.  I would also ponder experimenting with litter box in an entirely new room, with cat confined to said room.  

I'm sorry.  Cat pee issues are awful.  

[Familia]

I’m sorry you are going though this.

[City Mouse]

When my cat started exhibiting signs of possible dementia, I used a play yard something like this. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Evenflo-Versatile-Playspace-Indoor-Outdoor-Gate-Cool-Gray/55976223 (I think ours was a bit larger) with both his litter and food inside. By that time he couldn’t jump out.

What made us think dementia? Well, he would get “stuck” in places and cry - places like an open book shelf or behind the bed or an empty box. He seemed to have forgotten how to turn around or back out of things. He had litter box issues, but it was like he forgot where the box was. Keeping him contained in a small area seemed to be less confusing for him.

Edited November 24, 2020 by City Mouse

[prairiewindmomma]

That sounds miserable for everyone.  I hope you can find a solution that works!

[Wildcat]

7 hours ago, regentrude said:

Thank you all so much! I will try a different litterbox. Covering a larger area with pads just shifted her peeing further away from the box, to the periphery of the covered area. Revenge peeing sounds right 

 

I was going to suggest trying a new box, as others have suggested. It might not be revenge peeing in the normal sense, but something about the box itself combined with a dislike of the puppy pads (mine won't step on them, so I think he doesn't like the way they feel or smell). Even something as minor as her stumbling when getting in/out and twisting a toe or breaking a claw might have led her to associate the box with pain. For covered boxes with the door flaps, sometimes their tails get caught in the flaps and get pinched so they won't use the box because box = pain.  Or, it's simply old and it smells bad to her. Or, she feels it's too small and she can no longer get comfy in it if she feels stiff. It could be any number of things. The fact that she's still going to the box but not getting in indicates to me that she's trying to do what's right but something is scaring her away or is painful about the box.

Also, elderly cats often have fused vertebrae near their tails that cause pain when stepping up/down a few inches like going in/out of a litter box, but they can still jump in certain ways. We didn't know our cat had this issue until he had an x-ray for a different reason and the vet discovered it by accident. He was still climbing up our 6 foot privacy fence and jumping down but had trouble with regular stairs.

Not that your cat needs meds now, but does she eat any of those pureed treats (like Delectables treats?   Here is one such variety:  https://www.amazon.com/Hartz-Delectables-Bisque-Lickable-Chicken/dp/B00T76GKIY/ref=sr_1_7?crid=250OM3JPUBNQ6&dchild=1&keywords=delectables+bisque&qid=1606182050&sprefix=Delactables+%2Caps%2C231&sr=8-7  )   We're able to hide powdered meds in there and our elderly cat just laps it up. It took a few tries, though, as he can smell the meds, but he eventually accepted it with the meds mixed in.

I do wish you luck. Like many others, I feel your pain and have been there.

 

 

[regentrude]

I also put this in the OP: 
Following y'all's suggestions, I bought new litter box. Cut out a low entry. Cat goes in the box a few times a day and also pees on the floor next to the box (or in the middle of the hallway floor) several times a day, and always first thing in the morning - she wakes me up at 4:45am and I start my day with cleaning up cat pee. HELP!!!

[El...]

Has she been checked by the vet? I wonder if she's ill.

[Ausmumof3]

After posting in this thread just the other day we lost our cat to snakebite today. 😞 

[regentrude]

18 minutes ago, elroisees said:

Has she been checked by the vet? I wonder if she's ill.

Yes. See OP. 

Quote

Had her checked out by the vet. Bloodwork,  urine analysis. No UTI, no kidney disease, super healthy despite her age. 

 

[Pippen]

I don't hav e time to read the thread but try this:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CKFL93K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[wintermom]

Sorry you're going through this. I assume that this is new behaviour for her in the span of her life-time. I had this happen with our aging dogs. I just contained them in an area where cleaning the floor was easier and did less damage. They weren't moving around much anyway by age 14. 

[regentrude]

26 minutes ago, Pippen said:

I don't hav e time to read the thread but try this:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CKFL93K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

thanks - I know how to clean up the cat pee. I am just sick of doing so numerous times a day and would like it to stop.

Edited November 30, 2020 by regentrude

[ktgrok]

I'd try cat attract litter as others said, or adding an attractant to the litter. 

If that doesn't work and kitty is 22 and you can't find a solution, medicating would traumatize her, etc it may be time to put her to sleep. At some point if she is peeing in air vents it becomes a health/hygiene issue

[regentrude]

51 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

If that doesn't work and kitty is 22 and you can't find a solution, medicating would traumatize her, etc it may be time to put her to sleep. At some point if she is peeing in air vents it becomes a health/hygiene issue

But it feels wrong to do that just because she is inconveniencing me and isn't in any discomfort. 

Will research the litter attractant, thanks.

 

[jen3kids]

Just now, regentrude said:

But it feels wrong to do that just because she is inconveniencing me and isn't in any discomfort. 

Will research the litter attractant, thanks.

 

I totally understand that, and I agree.  I suggest transitioning her to being a full-time outdoor cat and only allowed inside under 100% supervision.  Our one cat is only allowed inside while she sleeps on the couch in my husband's office, with the door closed and while he is in there.  Of course, he's a bit of a softie, and let her stay in one night.  Thankfully, no pee (that we know of), but I still don't trust her.

[regentrude]

2 minutes ago, jen3kids said:

 I suggest transitioning her to being a full-time outdoor cat and only allowed inside under 100% supervision. 

But... winter. Old cat with arthritis outside in subfreezing temps overnight is just cruel. She'd cry by the door. I could not do that.

[rdj2027]

How about cat diapers?  She may or may not keep them on but it might be worth a try.

[jen3kids]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

But... winter. Old cat with arthritis outside in subfreezing temps overnight is just cruel. She'd cry by the door. I could not do that.

 

Build her a cat house.  You can even put a heater in it.  It's what we have done with our 2 previously indoor cats.

 

https://alleycatadvocates.org/communitycat-care-center/creating-winter-shelters/

 

https://smile.amazon.com/PET-PRODUCTS-Extreme-Weather-Outdoor/dp/B07PFYLYW8/ref=sr_1_5?crid=38JURI8MF3I1J&dchild=1&keywords=pet+heating+pad+outdoor+winter&qid=1606755582&sprefix=pet+heating+pad%2Caps%2C1507&sr=8-5

[Pippen]

4 hours ago, regentrude said:

thanks - I know how to clean up the cat pee. I am just sick of doing so numerous times a day and would like it to stop.

I mention this because I had one that kept returning to the same spot until I cleaned it with this. The Nature's Miracle I had been using wasn't working.

My current male sometimes stands up and pees--marking--while in his box. It's often in response to cats that visit our yard or other stress.  I've put tall tubs around which is trapping the spray. It's a pain but it's not constant. 

I had thought to use an oversize tray we had under the cage of a very large rabbit hutch--setting it under the litter box. Or cutting out a  wide, tall storage tub and filling it with litter so he has a large tall space.

Good luck--I hope you find a solution.

 

[ktgrok]

2 hours ago, regentrude said:

But it feels wrong to do that just because she is inconveniencing me and isn't in any discomfort. 

Will research the litter attractant, thanks.

 

Well, my guess is that there IS some discomfort, it just isn't clear what it is. Be that mental or physical. 

Have they tried a trial of pain meds, just to see if it helps?