Peeing in Bed
I just adopted my boy last month and have taken him to the vet within the first two weeks of owning him. He was surrendered from his home because of house-soiling due to a stressful household with other animals, his first foster home surrendered him for the same reason, and his second foster deemed him appropriate to adopt after seeing positive progress in a no-pet household with routine. I was fully 100% aware of all of this when I brought him home as I fell in love with him and am no stranger to litter-box issues. I was positive that he would thrive with me.
He was sent home with a prescription for anti-anxiety and the first couple of days went smooth, he had no issues using the litter box and I found no surprises while home with him. When I leave for work is a different story and I would come home to a few accidents which I had expected. I live in a one bedroom apartment and my bathroom is far too small to comfortably keep him in there, so I've been keeping him in my bedroom to help mitigate any stress from the larger areas of the apartment. Unfortunately this also means that the accidents are happening in my bed. Living in an apartment means that I have coin-operated laundry and it costs $4 per load which adds up really quickly when having to do bedsheets every other day; because of this I have also started stripping my bedding from my room to help lessen the amount of laundry I need to do during his healing period and have purchased a waterproof pet blanket which has worked wonders so far. With every accident I soak up the mess as best I can, add a drop of vinegar to the mattress, and spray it down with an enzyme cleaner and let it dry for as long as I can before adding the bedding back (I mention "as long as I can" because unfortunately if I am finding these messes late at night, I can't quite wait for it to completely dry as I need to be able to get to sleep to get to work the next morning).
I have taken him to the vet where we went over all of this and his medical records, and he was given a clean bill of health and a few suggestions on how to move forward and help curb his anxiety. We had talked about how it was believed that he had an aversion to using the litter box since his litter clumps were so large. His medical records noted a slightly higher urine protein sample but was excused for retention vs any kind of medical issue or alarm.
Post-vet visit I have purchased cat attract litter and a Feliway diffuser. I clean out his litter box every morning before I leave and give him treats and positive reinforcement when he does use the litter box. In the last 2 weeks I have noticed that he is using the litter box more frequently with smaller litter clumps and he is having less accidents while I am away at work.
However he has had 2 accidents in my bed while I am home and I am trying to understand where that behaviour is coming from. The first time it happened, I got home and made up my bed and then hung out with him in the living room. He spent 98% of his time with me there where we played and at some point while I was on my phone he must have disappeared and went on my bed. I don't know when this happened because I remember him following me to my bedroom later in the night so I could go to bed, only to find a puddle and ended up needed to do the laundry late at night.
The second time just happened tonight where I had made up my bed, he ate and we played until he was tired, but I noticed he was crying and leading me to his food bowl consistently. I had given him a slightly smaller than usual serving size of food and figured it wouldn't hurt to give him just a little more before I get to sleep. In the time it took me to dish him up more food, he had peed in my bed and I had to do an emergency load of laundry.
I understand healing is not linear, and I am noticing positive progress in him and his anxiety which I am beyond thrilled about, but I'm worried about these accidents happening when I am home and not in bed and not watching him. Especially when both moments seem to be when he is content and not doing it as an act of revenge or due to a litter box aversion or stress. It's slightly hard to trust him when I don't have eyes on him at all times.
I am still keeping him in my room when I leave the apartment for work and I am wondering if this is what's stressing him out more now and if this is some kind of retaliation? I am also wondering if stripping my bed as well is making it worse? My worry is him peeing elsewhere in the apartment (couch, clothes, etc) if I am gone and/or leaving my sheets on the bed to get ruined. I will already need a new mattress when this whole thing is over and done with.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. I am mostly just trying to get to the root cause of these specific bed accidents while I am home since they are different from the others. I am having trouble figuring out a correlation if there even is one. Could this be just a couple one-off things and is just another part of his lingering anxiety?
TLDR; Newly healthy adopted cat has house-soiling past due to stress, but has shown positive progress in the month I have owned him. However he has peed on the bed while I am home twice and I am uncertain as to what that problem is since he has no issues using the litter box when I am there and around him.