What do you mean they ruined it? Spraying, clawing?

Are they all spayed/neutered? If not, spaying and neutering and having adequate litter boxes should stop inappropriate urination or spraying.

If it's clawing, having various scratchers and possibly a cat tree would help immensely. Cats need furniture that they feel is theirs and need areas to get their scratching urges out on. Cheap cardboard scratchers like these come in a variety of styles, shapes and sizes and my are kitties favorites! I also have two cat trees. Ever since I got enough scratchers, my cat hasn't touched my furniture.

Also, it's so important to have windows they can look out of and possibly a cat tree or other high furniture they can perch on and look out from. It keeps their confidence high and still lets them see the outdoors.

Sorry, no advice on covering the room up... but I feel like eliminating the destructive behavior would be better than covering the entire room.

 

I have 3 kitties in a two bedroom apartment with wall to walk carpet and painted walls. When I have company they don't know I have cats until they see them. No stench or destruction....

I have no idea what smell you think they give off.

No offense meant here, but perhaps it would be best if you found them a proper home where their choice is more than a plastic bubble or living outside....

 

Waffle,
How old are these cats and have they been spayed or neutered??
That's #1 to do, if they haven't been yet.
How many kitties are you talking about??
You will need to keep litter boxes cleaned! At least twice a day, to get good "Box" training in place!
A cat tree would be a Very good investment, so they can look out a window, and watch the world outside!
It does sound like you're thinking along these lines...
Several of mine, started as outside stray kittens, and two adult ones as well, they all adjusted well to indoor only!!
Sharon

 

I'm going to just ignore the comment about giving them to a "proper" home but will elaborate a bit more on my idea so as to avoid any confusion.

This is NOT a "plastic bubble" idea. It's an extra bedroom, 12 feet x 12 feet. It has a window. I have shelves and cubes to hang on the walls and I saw an idea for a stairway built onto the wall attached to a kitty walk that goes around the room. It will also have an old sofa that used to be in the living room and various cat trees, as well as different "toys". It's a pretty elaborate setup actually. It will mostly be used when we are asleep or at work.

They are 13, 12, and 12. They are all fixed, but the male still sprays and it seeps into the hardwood floor. My ex-husband put them all outside because the hardwood floor was ruined by the spraying. They seemed to prefer being outside and kept to the backyard so it seemed to be working well. It is no longer safe in our neighborhood for them to be indoor/outdoor cats and the ex-husband is gone, so I want to give them a really special place to hang out when their humans aren't around, but at the same time, I don't want to be replacing a hardwood floor again.

While I was typing this, I thought of an idea though so I'm going to check into it. I'm thinking about using cheap linoleum. It's light enough that I could put it on the bottom half of the wall.

 

Waffle,
Silly me, but is that years, months or weeks old??!!
Get some Natures Miracle, and soak any areas down well with it, where the cats have pee'd or sprayed, it WILL smell worse for a while, as the enzymes do their thing! Once dried tho' there should be no odor left! You may have to invest in a good blacklight, to see spots that may have been missed!
Cats have incredible smell and will keep marking over old pee areas...
The cat room you are talking about sounds good!
And, who knows, maybe once they've settled in, and realize the "ex" isn't there...some of the issues resolve themselves! (You never know!)
Sharon

 

Very true!! Maybe it was him they didn't like.

They are 13 years, 12 years, and 12 years old. A mama and her "babies".

 

How do your three kitties get along? Are there other cats around the neighborhood? I'm just wondering if the male's spraying has to do with your other cats, or whether it has to do with another cat in the area.

On Jackson Galaxy's show last night, there was a kitty who was peeing on the walls. As part of the solution, he recommended putting litterboxes along the wall where he was peeing, and also blocking the view out of the window in the room. Those two things really helped. Maybe you could try the same? But as 10cats said, cleaning the peed-on areas with an enzymatic cleaner first is really important. My outdoor-only kitty sprayed all the doors and the walls in some places when I let him in. I wasn't sure how Nature's Miracle would work on paint, but it seems to have really gotten rid of odor and stain without ruining the paint.

Otherwise, I can't think of anything you could put on the walls...tape pee pads there, at least as a stop-gap measure??

 

Is the spraying the same as an unneutered male cat would do to mark his territory? If that is it I would ask a vet if there is something they could do about it surgically. If he is just lifting his butt too high and peeing, then get high sided boxes (or make them out of storage bins). 3 cats can live very nicely in a room that size with a number of places to go like you envision and snooze and window watch the hours away. They don't like being indoors but will eventually get used to the idea and settle in. It usually takes a few weeks to settle down into a new routine like this.

1. You could paint the walls with a very good quality paint that will be able to be scrubbed. There are a wide variety of scrubbable paints on the market. Home improvement stores can help you pick one out. You will probably need 2 gallons.

You could drizzle Nature's Miracle on the floor places he already has sprayed and let it soak in. Once it is THOROUGHLY dried (give it a couple weeks to allow the subfloor to dry too) you can put heavy plastic sheeting, linoleum or even plexiglass on the walls. You can buy the plastic sheeting from a fabric store by the yard.

 

A spraying male cat who has been neutered is a sign that he's under stress. You definitely need to get some enzymatic cleaner to really clean those spots he's soiled (you may need to get a black light to find them if they're old) and I'd invest in a Feliway diffuser to hopefully calm them down.

Spraying is territorial and is the home is harmonious and "safe" for him then he shouldn't feel the need to do it. I would put a diffuser in the room and use the spray to supplement (anywhere he's sprayed would be a good start). Also take a look at where he's spraying, as that could give you clues to what is stressing him out. If it's around doors it could be a cat or dog he's seeing outside; if it's around your bedroom it may be the other cats- for that you can add more vertical space to your house like you said you're planning on.

I'd address the underlying issues before I'd cover my house in linoleum!

Some cats who were neutered too late just develop spraying as a habit, but like I said, if he felt comfortable with his territory he shouldn't feel the need to be doing it.

 

We neuter dozens of cats a week and then put them in the colony (in most cases right after surgery)! Talk about stress!! We have one Fel-I-Way diffuser in a room that is about 20 x 15 feet. It has up to 14 males in there at any given time. STRESS FACTOR THROUGH THE ROOF, but we almost never get spraying within a week after neutering. Try the Fel-I-way but my guess is he was not properly neutered if he is still spraying.

 

Thanks for the ideas. He seemed to do a lot better this weekend after LOTS of one-on-one time, so maybe it's just going to take him a little more time to adjust to being indoors again. He's definitely spraying though. He backs up to the wall and raises his tail, all the while looking at me to see if I'm going to fuss on him.

He knew my ex didn't like cats so I have to wonder if that was part of the problem before. He sat in the windowsill for a while yesterday. It was rainy and stormy all day, so I think he may have a new appreciation for the indoors.

 

Can you actually SMELL urine on the walls?? He may be going through the motions and producing nothing. Get a black light and in a dark room shine it on all the walls and see if anything glows. OR get down on your hands and knees after being outside (freshens up the nostrils) and SNIFF those spaces. No smell or blacklight glow = no urine spraying. Cats wiggle their tails when happy too.

 

I don't have a sense of smell but I can see it and hear it. When he does it, there is a stream of urine running down the wall. Of course, I clean it right away when I catch him doing it, but it's not possible to watch him 100% of the time. He seems to not be doing it as much as he was before, so hopefully once he gets adjusted to being back inside he will stop.