Cat Pee - Dunlap,IL

your carpet & pad are probably ruined & you need to take it up. Carpet is also really toxic & off-gasses like crazy, so good riddins. It's most likely soaked into the pad underneath so it's almost impossible to get the smell out, I've tried. But the best treatment for smaller urine accidents is a mix of half peroxide & water, works great. Try a urinary tincture for your cat also, they sell good ones at the pet store across from Fred Meyer (hawthorne & 39th). Good luck with kitty.

I work in animal rescue, and I'm sorry to say that your case is not unique. In fact, I own a cat that we have never been able to train to use just the litterbox (no health problems, just emotional ones), and I understand how, after a while, it just becomes such a stressful situation! When it comes to cleaning the carpets, if the cats have just peed in small spots, invest in a blacklight (petstores sell them) and find the spots. Then apply an enzyme-cleaner (I highly recommend - and no, I'm not kidding - Anti-Ickypoo http://www.antiickypoo.com/ as a strong enzyme cleaner). If you cat has really soaked the area, though, there isn't much you can do besides ripping up the carpet and pad and starting again.

However, before you give your cat up, please realize that no one else wants a cat that pees in their house, either - cats that pee in the house are usually put down if they end up in shelters. Instead, I recently sent an email to another woman, and so I have copied the advice I sent to her. There are a couple of things I have learned about this:

Try taking your cat to a specialist or going to a cat-only vet (someone who runs a cat hospital or specializes in just cats) in your area and talking to them about different types of antibiotics and kitty prozacs. With my cat, we were able to put her on something called amatryptaline (I'm sure I've spelled that wrong), which was just a cream to rub into her ears, and it made a HUGE difference! She was like a different cat! It actually solved the peeing problem for several years, until my son was born, and then it didn't work any longer.

I also recommend http://www.catsinternational.org/ which is not only a helpful website, but they also have a free "cat behavior hotline" that you can call, leave your phone number, and they will call you back and help you address your problems. I found them very helpful, and really, it is completely free.

As a final ditch effort, we bought a large cat crate (do a search on amazon.com for cat crates - there are several good-sized ones for a decent price - I purchased one that is 3-tiers high!) and we keep my cat in it when we cannot be in the room with her to supervise her. She has her own litterbox, food, and water, and a nice, soft bed. At first, I felt very guilty about crating a cat permanently (we often crate them in rescue for a couple of months, but the intention is that they will eventually have run of a home), but perhaps because of her age, she really doesn't seem to mind it. In fact, during the hours when we let her out, about half the time she still chooses to remain in the crate. I think this is a last resort for a cat owner, but I will admit that my own relationship with the cat has improved because I am no longer stressing and sniffing at rooms when I enter them. And as my vet put it, not only is it effective litterbox training, but it sure beats taking her to the shelter! It is also a lot less expensive than repeatedly replacing the carpet (I had to replace the carpets in two rooms of my new house, and I know that it is both expensive and really irritating).

I hope this has been helpful. A cat peeing in the house is extremely stressful. I am glad you are doing your best to find a solution instead of trying to find the cat a new home. Just know that there are solutions out there, even if nothing is ideal. Good luck.

I am sorry to hear your cat is peeing. Poor baby has a UTI and it is your responsibility to keep having him tested and pay for medications until he is better. Are there crystals in his urine? Has he had blood work done to check for kidney issues? Sometimes prescription food can help the problem. I know it can be financially daunting to keep returning to the vet, but be glad it is medical because that is much easier to fix then behavioral... Also, make sure not to punish him for peeing - it will not teach him to stop, rather it can create a behavioral problem. PLEASE understand that if your cat has a UTI, he cannot help it.

To completely get rid of the cat smell/ stain, I would rip up that part of the carpet and replace it after he is better. In the meantime, you may want to put a material that cats don't like over the area, like tin foil. They also sell plastic at Home Depot that you can put over carpet (has a tape on it) that may work as well.

As for the money, hang in there. I believe that when we take on a pet, we take on all that comes with it... I know it can be a hardship, but figure it out somehow. Most vets will let you do a payment plan if need be... Just make sure you are aggressively trying to fix the problem by giving the cat lots of affection and alone time, never missing a single dose of the medicine and rechecking to make sure the UTI is gone.

My suggestion is to put a litterbox right at the area where he has been peeing, since it's confined to a few areas. This way he will not keep having the idea that he can/should pee outside of his litter box. When his infection has cleared up, you can remove the extra litter boxes. For carpet, I have not had luck truly getting the smell out, because it permeates the carpet pad. For hard surfaces, I use bleach.

We had a cat who had a UTI, which we cleared up, but he kept peeing in inappropriate areas of the house anyway. He became an outdoor cat. (We live in California and it doesn't really get cold here, so I didn't feel too badly about it.) Then even as an outdoor cat, he decided to mark the outside of our house! You could see the pee on the stucco. He was neutered, so I couldn't figure out why he was doing it. That was that, I have a friend who has a cattle ranch and needed a barn cat to catch mice, so off Felix went to the ranch. He has been there ever since catching mice to his heart's content, and apparently he doesn't spray anything at his new home. Had that option not been available, I think he'd have gone to the SPCA, sorry to say. There's only so much cat pee I could scrub up in one lifetime.

Put a litter box or plastic sheeting on the places where he pees.

Odo-Ban from Sam's Club totally removes the pee smell! It worked on our carpet...but be sure to soak the whole thing or you'll still have the smell in the pad.

You could also try feliway. It's a scent that relaxes the cat and they are less likely to pee there. It's expensive, but it worked for us as well.

If the antibiotics don't work, you could try Miracle Mineral Supplement. Look it up on the internet, it's cheap! We couldn't get rid of my cat's eye infection, we tried antibiotics three times. I finally used Miracle Mineral Supplement and it was gone in a week permanently.

I used baking soda and vinegar to get dog pee out once- it worked like a dream.
Look up some formulas for it- google should give you plenty of results.
Good luck!

There is no way to get it out completely, trust me, I wish there was. We have finally given up on our couch set and are taking it to the dumps. We have tried every urine out/enzime cleaner we can get our hands on. We even injected the stuff into the seat cushion to get to all of the urine. I haven't been able to sit in my part of the couch (as luck would have it) for well over a year now. Bye bye $1600 couch set.

I like the recommendation of putting a cat box where he is going, that doesn't always work with small kids though.

You could pull up the carpet and clean it thoroughly and then just replace the padding underneath. There is no easy way to get it out of the padding.

If the baseboard is swollen then that will need to be replaced too.

I will speak from experience, it really never comes out. My mother in law had a cat that missed the cat box as it got older and got the wall, baseboard, and tile and grout. I has been bleached, enzymed, base replaced and room painted and I can still smell it, though not nearly how bad it was when Peaches was still with us. Good luck.