I have always felt like pets are a life time commitment. yet i am finding myself in a tough situation. This is the first time i have ever been faced with trying to deal with something like this and am very very upset.
I adopted a cat 3 years ago. he has never been friendly, it doesn't even feel as though he is a pet. We have left him before for an overnight on a weekend with extra food and water and he has been fine. Last month we did the same and came home to cat urnine in the upstairs hall. thinking it might be a different kind of litter problem( i am not able to find the kind we had been using although i feel as if we had swtiched brands before with no problem). I got the closest i could find a fragrance free litter and a brand new litter box. put it next to the old one. I left the old litter box intending to get rid of it once i noticed he was using the other new one. We had some emergencies and I wasn't able to dispose of the old one. he had been using both.
Just today right in front of me he peed in the living room..
There wasn't any signs of discomfort that would make me think bladder infection. and i've already provided plenty of litter. he has been neutered so isn't sprayign, and this was definite PEE.
i have a vet appointment set up but i am very very very upset.
if there is a medical reason or an emotional one that can be fixed i will do that, but to have no issue for 3 years and then be doing this is not ok with me. I keep tryign to think how much i would miss him if i could find someone to take him but i really wouldn't miss him at all.
Has anyone made the decision to give a way an aminal? could you live with yourself ? i never thought i could do that but if the vet doesn't have any suggestions, i am really at my limit. I have enough on my plate with many other situations in my life that this is the one stress i actually could have control over and remove from my life, if only i didn't feel so bad about doing it.
please is there something in this situation i am over looking?
It could be a medical issue. Usually cats are trying to tell you something when they pee right in front of you.
Our cat, years ago, had an accident, then a few more and after that it was like he had never heard of a litter box. We had to completely retrain him like he was a confused kitten. Started out with the litter box in a small room, we used the laundry room, where there was no other choice but the litter box. No we don't keep laundry in the laundry room.
For a week he was kept in the room at all times, no accidents. Then we opened the door, no accidents. Then we slowly moved the box back to where it was before. That was ten years ago and he has never had an accident since.
Sometimes you do have to rehome animals but I would never do it until I tried everything else first.
At first it sounded like kitty retaliation since he did it while you are away. I had a housemate in college who had a cat that would poop on her pillow if she stayed at her boyfriend's place.
Male cats are very prone to UTIs and can be cleared up pretty easily with antibiotics and then retraining.
Boy, I'm not going to have the popular vote on this one . . .
It's a cat. Yep, a cat. The natural order of things are kids/husband/family/yourself first, many other really important things like jobs and health second, even other important things like living in a cat piss free home and lowering stress third through eleventh, and then worrying about the cat can be number 12 (or 20, or 30, depending). That is NOT to say that an animal should be beaten, neglected, or dropped off in the middle of nowhere to fend for itself. However, based on a person's true priorities, getting rid of said cat to another family (with full disclosure) or even euthanizing it to ensure that it doesn't suffer a terrible fate (like being dropped off in the woods in the middle of winter) is an acceptable solution. Living with cat urine or dipping into the kids college fund to replace all the carpet in your home - unacceptable solution.
Do I have a cat? Yep. If the cat started peeing on the floor would I get rid of it (assuming no kidney infection)? Yep, in a minute. Would I feel bad about it? Yep. Would I get over it? Sure - the first time I came home after being gone for the weekend to a cat piss free home, you bet I would.
Good luck.
I'd try the medical route first. Then re-training route second. If that didn't work, I'd find him another home. I know that it's hard, but I wouldn't allow a cat or dog do that in my home. That and tearing up my furniture would be my last straw.
Cats often do not show pain or discomfort when they have a UTI or crystals, they simply begin peeing in inappropriate places. He needs to be seen by vet ASAP.
Because this has been going on for a month, he may not stop peeing in those areas if the carpet pad/subfloor has been soaked even after you take care of his medical issue. We had to replace the carpeting with hard flooring after our cat's UTI problem to remove the marked areas.
I have been in the same position. With a cat (male) the same age. He just started peeing.
We went away, and came back and he had used my oldest's new toddler bed as a litter box. My guess? He didn't like being left alone. Or he could have been not liking the changes going on in the house. I'm not sure.
In our case, the cat hadn't adjusted well overall to having little ones in the house. He wasn't happy. Usually when a cat isn't friendly, it's because they are not comfortable. Ours was not. So my husband searched high and low and found a place that took cats and placed him in a home (they had said they would look for a family without small kids or an older person). We had a guarantee he would not be put down.
We had another cat who had the pee issue. Turned out to be a kidney issue. She ended up being fine, but it was like an infection which made her pee on the spot. We took her to the vet and she was ok afterwards. So I would check that route first. Our vet said it was fairly common. We had to up the water, etc.
Later in life that same cat started having urinary issues and also poop. And that got messy and we had to retrain her. I think it was also mental (getting older) and it was upsetting her. But that's usually in much older cats. But the retraining, as Julie mentions, was something we had to try and had some success.
I'd take him to a vet and if it's not medical, I completely agree with Privacy's answer. There's a difference between being cruel to an animal and being practical and making sure no one suffers. Humans included.
Wow! Pets are not disposable! Something is obviously up with the cat. They can be re-trained if need be, but this is likely a medical issue.
When we go away, I close bedroom doors and put down an extra box for the cat. He likes it clean.
I would only re-home my pet if he was a danger to my children, not an inconvenience.
Good luck to you in whatever decision you make.
