Nervous / stressed cat peeing

[Hildr]

My husband and I have noticed a trend with one of our cats (we think it's our orange one, Marmalade, since she's the more nervous of the two). Whenever we're gone for two or more nights, we always come back to kitty pee somewhere in the house. Usually on a rug which isn't too big of a deal except for the fact that it's urine on a rug, but sometimes on laundry, shoes or furniture.

We always make sure to clean their boxes before we leave with more litter, give them plenty of food and water, etc, and she's otherwise in perfect health, but I honestly think it's the stress of us being gone for so long that's causing this... She never pees outside of the box any other time except when we're gone for an extended period of time.

Any tips on how to help her cope with us being gone?
We don't go out of town very often, but when we do, I'd like to not have to clean up urine whenever we come home.

[Shanna66]

has anything in your house changed recently?

either way i would go to the vet and have her urine checked. peeing outside of the litterbox can be a cat's way of telling you that they are in pain and something is wrong

i have a sprayer who does is for behavioure reasons and we have to have her on meds. but before we put her on the meds we had to have her locked up in a large dog crate or a room when we were gone or sleeping because otherwise she would pee on stuff

[Flutter Fox]

It's stressful to be left alone for days not knowing when the people are coming back, maybe a friend could stop by once a day to check on them. And it could be she wants her box clean and by the end of second day rolls around it's too dirty, so an extra box could help with that.
3nodding
But when in doubt go to the vet, especially with litter box problems.

[Hildr]

Flutter Fox

It's stressful to be left alone for days not knowing when the people are coming back, maybe a friend could stop by once a day to check on them. And it could be she wants her box clean and by the end of second day rolls around it's too dirty, so an extra box could help with that.
3nodding
But when in doubt go to the vet, especially with litter box problems.

We've discovered it actually really bothers our cats to have people over when we're not there, especially Marmalade. We kind of... broke them?... when we first got them because we didn't know anyone in our new city and never had anyone over. They're super social with us, but absolutely terrified of anyone else. If we're gone for more than 3 nights, we do ask a friend who doesn't mind checking / cleaning their box to come over just to make sure everything is still alright, but our friend has never once seen our cats.

Even when we're home and have company over, Marmalade will hide under our bed, terrified. Once the company leaves, we have to pry her out and show her they're gone, otherwise she'll stay under there indefinitely. If the company stays, we have to put a bowl of food and water under our bed for her to make sure she doesn't starve herself and then whisk her to where one of the boxes is at to make sure she uses it. As soon as she's done, she zips right back under the bed.

Shanna66

has anything in your house changed recently?

either way i would go to the vet and have her urine checked. peeing outside of the litterbox can be a cat's way of telling you that they are in pain and something is wrong

i have a sprayer who does is for behavioure reasons and we have to have her on meds. but before we put her on the meds we had to have her locked up in a large dog crate or a room when we were gone or sleeping because otherwise she would pee on stuff

No recent changes and so far, we've only noticed her going outside of the box if we're gone for 2+ nights, so I really think it might be stress? I'm really not comfortable with crating her (or both the cats) if we're gone that long. If it were a daily occurrence or something that happened while we at work, I'd be more likely to do that.

[Shanna66]

if she only does it when you are gone for 2 days then its probably stress. i would still have her urine tested just to be on the safe side though but honestly its up to you and it really does sound like a stress issue

maybe look into boarding her? she wont like it but at least she will be well taken care of and your house wont smell like pee when you come back