Hello! Our 8 month old female Bengal Yuki will not stop peeing on the couch and love seat. She doesn't pee anywhere else in the house. She seems to pee on them about once a day. I have read every single post on here, tried all of the different suggestions. We have put a litter box near the couches, we have used pet stain removers (odour), etc. I need help! We do have another cat and have 3 litter boxes for the 2 cats which we clean out 2-3 times a day (don't want to take any chances as we think she started doing it anytime boxes werent' clean enough)

She only pees on the love seat and couch in the living room. There is also a chaise lounge in the same room which she loves to be on and has never peed on.

I know there are two issues, the first being why is she peeing on the couches (not medical we have checked into that) and the second once the smell is in the couches she may never stop until the couches are gone.

My dilemma is do we get rid of the couches so she will stop or wait until she stops then get new couches? Like the chicken or the egg...

We don't know what caused her to start doing it we can't find anything that seems to be stressing her out, nothing that fits all of the other great suggestions on here etc. We also don't know if she is still doing it only because the smell is there.

It is making the only sitting area in our little house unliveable - I supercleaned the couches again and put blankets on them. That seemed to do the trick for about a week we think but then last night we were trying to watch a movie with the kids and discovered that she had been peeing under the blankets so we all ended up sitting on the floor after the poor kids all changed out of their smelly clothes. We all ADORE her however are feeling very frustrated.

We are terrified if we take away the couches she will just pee on new ones or find somewhere else to pee. We can't keep these smelly couches in the house but the kids need somewhere to sit and on the flipside if we replace them before she is "cured". Our house is very open concept so to keep her permanently from the living room and couches we would have to banish her to the upstairs.

She has not been spayed which could be all/part of it maybe? She has an upper respiratory thing (months now) with goopy eyes and sneezing. Our vet has tried antibiotics, eye drops, and we are now on supplements too. Otherwise she is very healthy, he feels it may be allergies but is reluctant to fix her until it clears up due to potentially compromised immune system. She started doing this at about age 6 months though hasn't shown any signs of being in heat yet. I know she still could be.

Forgive me for the long post!! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Danielle

Please get her spayed, then re-evaluate this. There really is no point in all this worry and hand-ringing until you've at least done that, otherwise you are just wasting time, money, and effort. 8 months is certainly old enough to be spayed, in fact most owners do it long before this.

If the problem is that she is "marking" the couch, then this problem will likely to away once she is spayed. If the problem is that she really does feel that it is the best place in the house to relieve herself, then you need to try other things: try different types of litter, add more boxes, get larger boxes, get uncovered boxes if yours are covered. If you are worried about her peeing on a new couch after you replace the old one, then you might want to try things like making a point of restricting her access to the room with the couch for awhile until you are convinced her litterbox use is rock-solid.

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The little monsters 3

Thanks. The vet wanted to wait until her sneezing, coughing and eyes clear up before spaying her however her lungs are clear and she is healthy otherwise. She had another type of antibiotic shot 3 weeks ago which hasn't helped. I will call my vet and see if okay to spay her now.
Appreciate the advice.

When did this peeing on the couches start? Were the couches brand new? Had the respiratory infection just started? If you have read through the posts here, you have seen what we recommend. I agree with Brian -- get her spayed and see if that changes the behavior. Know that cats need to feel GOOD in order to do a proper job in the litter box. A cat who is not feeling well will go wherever. Know that the cause is usually stress if anything medical has been ruled out! Are your kids unusually noisy? Does she get along with your other kitty okay? There are a million scenarios here that could be causing this. Something "changed." Nobody likes their furniture ruined by a cat and we had someone post recently with this same problem. There is something about that area -- my first inkling is that there is another cat outside roaming around in the area that you may or may not be seeing that she can smell and/or see. Urine is a powerful marking tool for territory and it doesn't necessarily have to be "sprayed." The first thing is to have her spayed and see if that takes care of the problem. Next, evaluate the perimeter of that room outside. Can other outdoor cats access that area? Next, has your household been turned upside down by something? If your children are younger, they are energetic and rowdy -- and they get more so as they get older. You really have to think back to when this first started. You need to get the upper respiratory infection cleared up and her fixed! At that point, once she has recovered, the behavior will, hopefully, stop! In the mean time, I'd restrict her access to that area. Move a cat tree into the room or add two litter boxes in the area of the couches. You try anything and everything until you hit on something. I know this is the most irritating thing in the whole world. Good luck and keep us informed.

Thanks. We purchased a cat tree tonight and put it near the couches,and added a second litter box in the area. I agree about her infection and spaying! We are having her spayed in a couple weeks provided her blood work and lungs etc sound good that day.
The respiratory infection has been a tricky one. She got it a few weeks after we got her, our other cat got it then too but was better in a few days. Our vet gave her eye drops, it did help her eyes but the sneezing and coughing still almost a daily thing. She has had antibiotics twice and is now on a supplement. We are back at the vet tomorrow. Her blood work, urine, and pooh all looks good. Not sure why the sneezing etc won't go away. The vet said personalized anti-vitals a possible road to try but also very pricey so we will take it as it comes.

As for the time line, her illness started before the litter issues. We can't figure out the trigger. When it started we only had two litter boxes for two cats so may be what started it (now have 4). Also clean litter 2-3 times a day now. My husband also went back to work fulltime but we think that was the week after it started. The kids are fairly calm, she gets along with our tabby. There are stray cats in the neighbourhood so it is very possible another cat is the cause.
We have been reluctant to spay her yet as the vet is concerned her immune system is compromised somehow which is why she isn't shaking the respiratory infection. Her eyes goopy daily, sneezing and coughing almost once a day. She is getting pretty old to wait much longer though. Want peeing to stop but not at risk to her life. Hopefully the vet will say tomorrow okay to spay her now but will see what he says.
Thanks for the advice!

Hopefully, allergies are not a problem as well. Adding the cat tree and the additional litter boxes should help! She is such a cutie pie.

Thanks :)

Hope it's going better for you!

I would ask the vet about allergies. Try l-lysine for the goopy eyes. You can buy treats that are made with it. Get her spayed and keep her restricted to one room with a box and food until you get the litter box issue fixed. Then get new couches and let her into more of the house.

I can totally sympathise, our cat would keep using the armchair as a toilet and continued after spaying (we got her spayed quite late). We even got a 2nd litter box and had to cover the chair in newspaper and plastic sheets (we tend to just use the sofa). We washed the chair covers a few times to try and get rid of the smell, I think putting the plastic sheeting and newspaper made the situation worse as it probably made it even more like a toilet. I think it may have been more spraying in the beginning I can't remember, she's mostly in the living room and the chair is in the corner so possibly it was the corner of what she saw as her territory.
We thought we'd try making the chair somewhere she'd associate with eating or sleeping and put her playcube on there but I think she still used it as a toilet. More recently we've lightened the covering on it and she's now regularly sleeping on top of the chair so possibly the smell is not as strong and she's using it more as a resting place than a toilet.
She still tries to spray things even though nothing comes out, she was a nightmare for spraying before she got spayed though.
Just hoping now her view towards the chair has changed for the better, not sure if any of that might help with your situation. Hope yours starts leaving the furniture alone soon and her allergies don't get too bad.

It is a fact that females can spray -- and even spayed females and neutered males spray! Mine is 8 years old, was neutered at 12 weeks and sprays every tree and shrub on our daily walks. At least he does it outside and not inside the house. It's the worst situation when a cat decides to pee outside of the litter box. They always seem to find the one place they should not use! There is always a reason -- cats don't just change like that. Something caused it. Takes a while to figure out what it was, correct the situation, and get the cat back to using the litter box.

Hello,

I just wanted to give you an update on Yuki. The peeing on couches has stopped.. YAY!!! A friend was getting rid of her leather couches from her pet-free home so we decided to take those and see what would happen. Our couches were not really salvageable and we figured this was a good way to test out if the couches were the problem because of the lingering smell. It has been over 6 weeks and not one incident of peeing outside of the litter box.

As for her allergies/ upper respiratory infection/ it still hasn't cleared up. She seems unaffected by it in every way however it still bothers us a lot. We have her on lysine now as well. Her left eye is always watery, a little bit closed, and often has discharge. She also still sneezes often. I have made an appointment with a different vet for tomorrow to try and get a second opinion.

The vet still doesn't want to spay her yet until this clears up either.

Fingers crossed we will get her healthy!
Danielle

That's great news about the sofa! Yeah, leather isn't absorbent, so much less inviting to pee on I imagine. Getting rid of the old sofa was a good idea as it was a constant reminder to the cat to pee there.

As far as the eye thing...ask the vet if it could possibly be a herpes lesion on the eye. Years ago I got a cat that had that condition. I had to take him to a cat ophthalmologist and it was treatable with special eye drops. It was pretty bad before the treatment though. Good luck with the new vet and finding a solution.

Happy to hear things are going well. I am going to investigate L-Lysine as the neighbor's cat that I'm taking care of has very watery eyes which she says is allergies. I'll try anything to help him out. He doesn't sneeze, but his eyes are goopy!