My cat keeps peeing at the front door. What's wrong and what to do?

Hello and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Inappropriate elimination (peeing or pooping outside the litter box) in cats can be frustrating and difficult to treat. The first step you should take is scheduling an appointment for Udang to see a veterinarian. A lot of times a cat will start going outside of the litter box due to health problems like urinating tract infections, pain, urinary tract inflammation and digestive problems. Once you have established that there aren't any medical reasons for inappropriate elimination the following may be helpful: 1. Cats will urinate or defecate outside of the litter box for stress related reasons. Therefore it is best to keep the litter boxes in several different, quiet areas of the household. 2. A pheromone diffuser like Feliway can be quite helpful. 3. Ensure you have at least one litter box in the household per cat plus one. For example, if you have 3 cats, then 4 litter boxes are recommended. 4. Feeding an all canned food diet can help if there is inflammation in the bladder. There are also prescription diets available to help with bladder inflammation or digestive issues. Your veterinarian can help you choose the best one for your cat. 5. The litter boxes should be cleaned once to twice daily and completely emptied and washed weekly. Most cats prefer litter to be the clumping type that is kept a few inches deep. Certain litter types like Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract litter may be helpful. 6. You can also place aluminum foil over the areas Udang normally likes to urinate to prevent him from going in that area. If you have done a lot of the above suggestions you may also want to talk to your veterinarian about behavioral medications that may help prevent inappropriate urination. Good luck!

It can be very difficult to know if inappropriate urination is due to a medical condition or not. I would recommend seeing a veterinarian to help rule out a medical problem first. While the urine test strips are the same, veterinarians will typically also perform a urine sediment exam. Veterinarians will also typically obtain a sterile urine sample directly from the bladder via cystocentesis.

She may be urinating outside the litter box if she has an infection or bladder stones. I would have your vet take a look at her. Your vet will be able to do a urinalysis to ensure everything is ok. They will be able to start her on antibiotics if needed. If everything is normal, then I would be more concerned with behavioral. I would definitely get of the drapes. As far as cleaning, I would try to use a deodorizer to help hide her scent. See link below. Clean the wall area the best you can. Unfortunately, you may not be able to get deep into those cracks. You can try q-tips although this may be a little tedious. Some things to try for her behavior is adding additional litter boxes throughout the house especially near where the drapes are that she likes to use. I would also add some feliway diffusers. This is a cat pheromone that will sometimes help calm cats.. It doesn't work on every cat though. Finally, if these don't work, I would talk to you vet about adding in an anti-anxiety medicine like amitryptilline. I have had good success with this to help with inappropriate urination. I hope this helps! One example of a deodorizing enzymatic cleaner:

Causes of urination outside the box can be urinary tract infection, crystals in the urine, stones in the urinary tract, trauma to the area, or difficulty getting into the litterbox due to pain, or other reasons. It is important that you make an appointment to have Moon seen by your veterinarian as soon as you can to help determine the cause of his behaviour and to start treatment. If you notice his straining to urinate/unable to produce urine, this is a medical emergency and she should be seen by a vet immediately. I highly recommend speaking to your vet about having Moon neutered, as this kind of behaviour can happen in male cats as a form of marking behaviour, and sometimes having them neutered can help reduce or eliminate the marking. It is also possible that Moon is exhibiting signs of stress in his home environment. You can do the following to help make sure Moon’s environmental needs are being met. Cats need at least one litterbox per cat plus one extra to help reduce stress associated with the litterbox. They should be placed in separate rooms, away from the food and water bowls, must be scooped at least daily (preferably multiple times a day)and washed out at least weekly with a mild soap, followed by thorough rinsing. Cats need a lot of space to explore, but keeping them indoors is much safer than letting them outside, due to the risk of injury from cars, wildlife, other animals, etc. The key is providing space (particularly vertical space for climbing, such as cat trees, ledges, and the like) inside the home. Visit http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=T&C=33&S=2 , healthcareforpets.com and https://indoorpet.osu.edu// for tips on stress reduction. Also look into Feliway, a synthetic pheromone that is available in a diffuser and spray form that promotes calm feelings in cats http://www.feliway.com.

It maybe a urinary infection. If this goes untreated it can lead to an obstruction and acute kidney failure. I would have your vet make sure there is no medical reason such as that causing it. If all is normal it is behavioral. Just because nothing new has happened inside, does not mean something new is not happening outside. There may a new cat or other animal that is stressing yours or scaring yours and you will have to look into identifying that and removing it

Have Meow Meow examined by your veterinarian to diagnose medical causes for the inappropriate urination. A urine sample can be collected and submitted for urinalysis and urine culture to rule out UTI or stones. Once medical causes are ruled out, you can focus on behavioral issues. Provide an additional litterbox in a neutral area of the home. Consider different brands, types and depths of litters. You can also use a litterbox attractant to get him back into the box. Thoroughly clean soiled areas with an enzymatic cleaner such as Nature's Miracle. To decrease any anxiety he may experience when other animals come over, you can try a pheromone product such as Feliway spray or plug in diffuser. A small animal repellant can also be used along the border of your property. You can buy a liquid or powder form in most hardware stores or home improvement stores.

Hello, thank you for your question. Inappropriate elimination can be a sign of few possible underlying conditions. One possibility is that your car has a UTI, this is more common in female cats but does occur in males. Another possibility is that your cat could have bladder stones. Stones are very irritating and cause discomfort especially when trying to urinate. A third possibility is that your cat has a stress condition called FLUTD (feline lower urinary tract disease). This condition is common in young male cats who live indoors. A stressful event in their environment leads to inflammation and the symptoms you are seeing. I would recommend having your cat seen by your veterinarian so that they can check for a UTI. They will likely collect a urine sample and look for signs of infection. If there are no signs of a UTI they can discuss FLUTD more with you and go through management options. Hope this helps, good luck!