I wanna stop my cats from suddenly weeing in the house

stormCat99

Hope this is on the right board, I wasn't sure where to put it.

In the 3 years we have had our 2 cats, they have never weed in the house. Suddenly they seem to have started and it smells awful! We have 2 problems:

1. We don't know where they are doing it. The whole of the kitchen and hall smells really strongly, and despite going round everywhere trying to work out the source, we have been unable to do so as of yet.

2. We want to know why they are doing it. Now we had gone away for 4 nights, and rather than putting them in the cattery, we had someone come in to top up their food. After just 2 nights away (we have been away for 2 nights and left them plenty of times before) it smelt awful and it was obvious they had been weeing. I am pretty sure it's nothing to do with us going away, as they have never bothered before.

For the last 3 months, we keep catching this other cat trying to get in the catflap. It used to be once every few weeks, but now it seems almost daily. It can't get in because it is magnet operated, but our cats are always cowering at the top of the stairs when we see this happen, and of course always chase off the other cat but it doesn't stop it coming back.

Both our cats have been neutered, so whilst we are wondering about the possibility of 'marking their territory' because of this other cat trying to get in, I thought that was probably less likely as it is more the behaviour of non-neutered cats but I am not sure?

Any help would be great, as the smell is awful and difficult to mask. And they've picked the worst possible time as we have just put the house on the market so potential buyers will be looking around

Nile

Hello boots_babe

I'll move your thread to the 'In my home' board.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]!!!!!![/EMAIL].

Regards

Nile

floyd

I have a similar problem with my cat who started marking the back and front doormats after my friend brought her cat to stay for a few days.
We tried cleaning with stuff from a pet shop which didn't touch it so I asked a friend of mine who is a vet who said that if you can locate the source, wash it with biological washing liquid (stuff for washing machine but must be biological) then wash with surgical spirit (do a patch test first) as the bio liquid neutralizes the urea which causes the smell, then the surgical spirit gets rid of the smell of washing stuff.
She also recommended something called a Feliway diffuser, its like a glade plugin but it emits pheremones which reduce stress in your cats so they are useful for territorial marking, inapproprite toilet activities or even agression between a number of cats. I read a few reviews on Ciao and they are all 4/5 star saying it stops them doing it altogether.
Cats are strange creatures, they can suddenly decide you have betrayed them by leaving them alone and letting a 'stranger' in their house. Even though they have been neutered it won't stop the stress caused by an intruder in their house, be it feline or human so they will still show marking tendencies.
I bought a spray called Urine Off from QVC that gets rid of the smell really well, its expensive so I would try the washing liquid first.

Good luck and hope this helps

maisy-mai

I suggest you do the above
( using ordinary cleaner will not take the smell out you need a product that will get rid of the smell as it will smell ok to you but your cats will still smell it we bought something from the vets which neutralised it but expect your pet shop will stock it too.)
then leave small bowls of food around in the places they are spraying as hopefully they will not spray where food is .
the downside is that this may attract the other cat is there a way of stopping him coming in?

we had this problem at one point and it unsettled our 5 cats!!! .
A new cat in the neighbourhood especially a tom can unsettle them as its a fight for territory and dominancy.

Suggest you brew strong coffee if anyone comes to look round

good luck

never_enough

I can recommend the Feliway diffuser, I've been using one for about a week & it has turned my wreck of a cat into a chilled out purr machine, which she has *never* been before & I've had her for 10 years. It's supposed to last for about 6 weeks & costs £33 ish (but from vet). You can prob buy it cheaper online than at the vets.
Sounds like your cats have been unsettled by you being away & then this other cat being around. Cats can stress out even if you move furniture or decorate according to the feliway leaflet. I'd try to get rid of the other cat first as yours will just carry on being stressed until it goes. There's a long thread on here somewhere about keeping cats out of your garden, some useful stuff...some not so useful as you don't want to stop your cats from returning!
My cat, who rarely goes out, has been freaked out because there has been a stray living in my log store since just after christmas. She has been able to watch this cat from the dining room & it has really disturbed her. Goodness knows what she would've done had it tried to move in! The response of my cat was to go into a grooming frenzy & the poor thing is bald down one leg & most of her tum :eek: but no marking, thankfully. Neutered cats can, if under pressure (which I didn't know until reading the feliway leaflet), but are you absolutely certain it's not the outside cat marking its new territory? You could smell it from outside if the other cat was doing it there. Oh, btw, it could be vertical marking (ie on wallpaper) not necessarily a puddle on the floor.
I think I may've recycled the leaflet, but I'm sure there's loads of info about feliway online.
Agree with previous poster, use biological washing powder, *never* bleach (it encourages them!).
Hope that helps & they calm soon.

floyd

Glad to hear the Feliway works so well, I ordered one yesterday online from Vet Uk Ltd, it cost £30 for one diffuser plus an extra refil (£16.79 for one unit with a cartridge in it plus £11.79 for a refil) . They also sell a spray made by the same people so you can specifically target things like wallpaper if they have been vertical spraying as never enough mentioned

mbizmom

I have a similiar problem and would welcome any advice. I have four young cats, they are all indoor cats and one of them refuses to use the litterbox. This is driving me insane since he urinates in laundry baskets and anything plastic and keeps doing number two in my sinks. I have no problems with any of the other cats and they are all from the same family. Help, please!

floyd

Sounds like another Feliway job. Its possible that the other three are more dominant over him so he won't use a litter box that the others have been in as he is submissive. The Feliway difusser is supposed to pacify cats so they are more tolerant of each other and it is also useful for cats who have toilet 'problems'

AbbieCadabra

we had a real problem with this a while ago, started with 1 cat then the other started too. a visit to the vets is needed 1st to rule out any medical problems.

we tried, feliway plug-ins & sprays, bowls of food in the places they were going, litter boxes with lids & without, plastic taped over the places - nothing worked, until i changed the cat litter.

they'd been using worlds best cat litter succesfully for ages, or so i thought at the time! i now know this wasn't the case. when i changed over to a smaller granule, fullers earth type litter - hey presto, immediate result

i think the stresser was the combination of a new cat, building works & new furniture, it just proved too much for them & they took their dislike of the litter, which they were probably just putting up with before, to a whole new level!

hope you all get sorted - just remember, it's not their fault & they don't do it to annoy you, they are just stressed out moggies! (i know that's not your 1st thought when you've just had your new leather sofa christened!! i should know!)

stormCat99

Thanks for all the replies. This Feliway diffuser sounds extremely promising - our one cat is always on the grumpy side so we would be amazed if it chilled her out a bit even if it doesn't help with this particular problem!

Someone said about stopping the other cat coming in - it isn't actually getting in as we have a magnetic catflap so it can't open the door, but it tries very hard to rattle the door to get in which is what scares our poor cats. They cower at the top of the stairs when it happens.

Last night he tried to get in another couple of times, but by the time we'd sprung out of bed to chase him off he'd run away when he heard us coming.

The comment about not bleaching is interesting; we have a wood laminate floor in the kitchen so although we didn't know where the smell was coming from we have cleaned this with bleach which perhaps was a bad move. I might get some bio washing liquid and surgical spirit as suggested.

We still have the problem that we cannot locate where the smell comes from - the whole of the kitchen and hall smells very strongly but despite our best efforts we can't locate it.

Well, got the Feliway ordered yesterday, only £17 including dispenser and 48ml liquid refill so hopefully that will come on Tuesday...fingers crossed it works :rolleyes:

never_enough

If you could bear to do it, how about giving your cats a litter tray for a week or so, locking the cat flap so they can't get out. You could then booby trap the outside of the door by the catflap. Obviously I don't mean anything that would actually harm the other cat, but something to just discourage it from coming knocking. I have used cuttings from my holly, berberis etc to discourage cats from newly dug/planted areas of the garden for example! Or rig up a box & a bowl of water so it would have to go through it to get to the catflap-would have to be sturdy so it couldn't get in from the side (they being devious creatures). Anything to break the habit of coming to see if it can get in. I'm not sure how long it would take, maybe a week or two would do it? A friend (confirmed dog lover) has a spray (like a water pistol) that she uses to shoot any cats that come in her garden...mind you it's probably better for them then getting eaten by her hellhounds :rolleyes: