Changes to bathroom habits since diagnosis

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JDsMom

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We really need some advice. Since his diagnosis our cat has been having “accidents” all over our house. At first, it was actually what we noticed that had us take him to the vet, he was saturating his litter box and peeing on the carpet and after just 2 days of this we knew something was wrong. However, his diabetes is fairly well controlled now and he is still peeing on our carpet 9 times out of 10. He sometimes uses his litter box but will still pee in the middle of our living room even though we have 4 accessible litter boxes in the room. Recently he’s also started pooping on our carpet. There aren’t particular spots, he’ll just do it anywhere. We made sure to buy low sided litter boxes that he could easily get into with his neuropathy he developed in his back legs. I am just going out of my mind. We spray ever spot with cat urine enzyme cleaner. We are constantly vacuuming and shampooing our carpet. I have 4 open litterboxes in my living room and he just won’t use them. I don’t know what to do at this point and it just makes me feel so gross. I feel like we can’t have people over and I am just so tired of my carpet being used as a toilet and shampooing it every week.
 
How long ago was he diagnosed? When was the last time he saw the vet for a blood work and urinalysis? I'm wondering if there's another issue at play.

Any other cats in the house? Or other changes? Litter box issues can be behavioural as well as medical reasons. It's a common question for vets, so it might be worth a visit if he hasn't been there for a while.

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Wendy&Neko said:
How long ago was he diagnosed?
He was diagnosed in February

When was the last time he saw the vet for a blood work and urinalysis? I'm wondering if there's another issue at play.
He went to the vet last week and we brought it up. His labs and physical came back normal and our vet did not offer any opinion.

Any other cats in the house? Or other changes?
No other cats, we have a dog he’s grown up with. We switched to pine pellets back when we got diagnosed because he was tracking litter and getting the pee litter in his toes because of his neuropathy, but he took to it quickly and uses it just fine. We switch out for fresh pellets daily, so they are never dirty.

Litter box issues can be behavioural as well as medical reasons. It's a common question for vets, so it might be worth a visit if he hasn't been there for a while.
Yeah he was their recently for an insulin check and blood work/physical and our vet didn’t notice any problems which makes me think it’s just a bad behavior and I have no idea how to remedy it.
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Update: we tried the litter attractant to no avail. The enzyme cleaner is from Petco it’s in a white bottle with a red lid. We are using enzyme cleaner and a pet urine carpet cleaner with our little green machine every day. Every single day. And still every day and night he will go on the floor unless we catch him about to go and physically put him in the box ourselves. It’s getting to be too much. We are going to try going back to regular little to see if that helps, but this can’t be how we live the rest of his life out. I worry he’s developed this habit and there’s no way to break him of it.
 
Has he been tested for a urinary tract infection? They can be common in a cat with high blood sugars, and can lead to accidents.

Also, are you home testing? Just wondering how you know his diabetes is well controlled. His neuropathy should be getting better if controlled. In the meantime, he might need a litter box with a low entry on one side to get in.
 
I don't have much to add to what Wendy said about the possible medical causes, but have a suggestion that a friend with a chronic territorial peeing cat used with success (her cat isn't diabetic, got a clean bill of health, has multiple litter boxes and not other pets in the house, but still pees on anything that's left on the floor): she used large pee pads, the kind used to train puppies, and rubbed one in one of the fresh pee spots before cleaning. Then left it in that spot after cleaning the floor (she's lucky to have hardwood floors which are immensely easier to clean than carpet, I feel your pain...), and placed others in strategic spots her cat would always pee on. He took to peeing on the pads, which is admittedly still pretty gross, but still better since they can be picked up and thrown away. I wonder if that might lighten your endless cleaning tasks while you try to figure out what might be going on?

Wishing you the best of luck and sending you patience, I would be losing my mind too :bighug:
 
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