Sensible cheap ideas for dealing with cat who sprays in the house?

Gingham_Ribbon

We have 3 cats. Two are toms and one feral female. All were neutered as kittens.

One of the toms has started spraying in the house. It wasn't much of a problem at first as it was a tiny amount, always on the door. But when we went away on Saturday night, he soaked both the couches and I've had to throw one out and order a steam cleaner to sort out the other one. There was also cat poo in the middle of the floor.

He's 9 and has always been very settled. There's been no very recent change though we have a 15 month old who gets on much better with the other tom, who plays with him a lot. Since the kids came along, he has been pushed off his top cat perch by the other tom, who loves the kids and asserted himself as the boss. The kids don't hassle the cats or chase them/pull their tails.

I CAN'T have that sort of mess in the house. It stinks, it's disgusting and I don't want the little one putting his hands in it.

SO I've locked the cat flap during the day, put the food and water outside and I'm letting the cats in at night and when it's raining only, into the kitchen, and there's a blanket down for them to snuggle on.

But I've seen the 2 toms trying to get into 3 of the neighbours' houses today, even though the cat flap was open because it's raining.

Any suggestions? I can't be throwing away any more furniture. The vet couldn't find anything physically wrong. Letting him back into the house while he's doing that isn't an option. But they're all refusing to come in and are sitting in the rain rather than sit in the (admittedly tiny) kitchen. :rolleyes:

hk_chick

It's a sign of stress when cats mess indoors. Your best option is to work with a behaviourist who can help you come up with a plan to stop the problem. It won't happen overnight though as it onvolves gradually altering his 'perception' of what;s happening (i.e he feels insecure and threatened about changes to his territory and the size of it)

in the meantime, clean up messes with biological washing powder solution. Don't go anywhere near it with any kinf of bleach based product, as when it dries it leaves an ammonia residue (which we can't smell) but to the cat it smells like another cat has also been marking, so he'll do it even more !

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

I agree with hk_chick it's a sure sign of stress when a cat starts to do this.
This happened with my cat after 13 years of being non other than perfect.The reason we found out was because we had changed our kitchen bin,from a plain bin to a stainless steel one.Our cat we realised (after we saw him spraying on the bin and growling at it),could see his reflection and thought it was another strange cat.We removed the bin and he stopped spraying everywhere.
I have never known a "dirty" cat they are such clean animals.Good luck.

angel_whip

Hi,
We're having a similar problem. Our 11 year old cat (whom we only took in a year ago) has started peeing inside.
It's not one specific area, but more-so one room, which is the little extension bit of our bedroom where our wardrobes are. She's had previously (and very occassionally) pee'ed in our shower in the ensuite next to this area, doing it in the middle of the night and we thought it was because she was leaving it too late to get downstairs to her litter tray. But now she is shunning the shower (which was a little gross but dealable with) and going for the carpet. I am really worried.
She has had mishaps before, but it's usually been if there has been a box on the floor or something she can scratch in.
I'll try the bio powder, but what else? She's seems her normal self in all other ways.
Any advice or help would be much appreciated!

Gingham_Ribbon

I'm afraid our finances won't stretch to pet behaviourist. Thanks for the bleach tip.

angel-whip, I had an old female cat years ago who did the same - she had a urine infection. It's worth getting her checked out.

spookylukey

Have you tried feliway? It's a plug in that releases calming cat pheromones, you can get it from your vet but it's much cheaper from an online pet pharmacy. I got mine from vetuk http://www.vetuk.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=334 £14.49 with free delivery.

I haven't used it for spraying but when my kitten went through a very nervous stage of being petrified by the slightest unusual noise. It really seemed to work for him and it's actually designed to prevent stress related urine spraying. Once you have the diffuser unit which comes with the one I linked to you can buy the refills vialls a bit cheaper than the whole unit but you might not need to use it continuously. I used it for about 3 months which also coincided with me moving house, my scaredy cat kitten is now Mr Confident and took moving house in his stride thanks to the Feliway

Krystaltips

Do you think the feliway would work on my cat? She is afraid of everything... and now licking herself bald from underneath... She has no fleas, no rashes or anything but will sit there actually pulling the fur out... Aside from putting a collar on her (which I don't want to do because it makes her even more jumpy!) I really don't know what else to do...

ajb69

Hello there,

We've had a few problems with this in the past; we've got it sorted, but I completely understand how stressful it is...it's so difficult not to shout at the poor soul and just make the problem worse. Owning cats can be such a pleasure, and I hope this will not ruin it for you. Of the 10 cats we've owned, three have had similar issues...here's what we did, I hope it helps you.

Anyway, first thing I would do is to get the cat checked by a vet for cystitis. I know it's a trip to the vet but if this is the issue, a short course of cheap pills will do the trick (trust me, this is from experience). Cystitis is rather like kidney stones in humans - the urine is full of small crystals, which make it incredibly painful to wee, so the cat resorts to going anywhere but the litter as it has such painful memories. It particularly affects male cats (they have a long urinary tract) and also cats fed on dried food (as it makes their urine salty, so more likely to form crystals).

The vet can test for cystitis by a simple urine test (you can get a special non-absorbent litter and syringe from them for free most times - just ring up and ask before you see them) so it's not an expensive illness - we had to give our cat pills for a week, and move to wet food from dried.

The trick here is if you see you cat in the litter a lot, or straining, or if you can see blood in the litter - then cystitis is the most likely cause.

Having said that, you said the top cat has changed recently, which means the entire hieirachy may have reshuffled - which can cause all sorts of stress and therefore spraying. This is not simple to sort - you need to learn to think like a cat to understand their behaviour - but it can be done and without needing an expensive behaviourist (except in extreme cases). Don't get me wrong, a behaviourist is a very good thing to have - they have seen it before and can help you far quicker than you can help yourself - but you *can* often do it yourself with a bit of reading and stubborness.

So - first of all, get this book "Cat vs Cat" by Pam Johnson-Bennett - which covers multi-cat housholds and how to make them live in peace. The author is well published, and her advice worked for us - so I hope it will work for you. I can't summarise a few hundred pages in one go, but key key points we took away are:

* Make sure there are enough clean litters. This means (1) change them *completely* on a regular basis - even once a day - and (2) make sure they are accessible - that is, that the new top cat cannot block access to all litters simply by lounging in a key doorway. We had to put litters in different rooms for a few weeks, but then could put them all back together once things had settled.

* Cat trees / levels. Cats, apparently, don't need horizontal space like a human - they need vertical space. They won't like being a few inches apart horizontally, but have no issue with being stacked one above each other - so give them lots of space to climb, be it bookcases, wardrobes, or a proper full size cat tree - have a look at the Athena cat tree from zooplus.com. If you have space, you'd be amazed at the difference it makes!

The last isue is one I've hesitated to mention, but feel I ought to. The first of our three cats with this issue had bladder cancer, which eventually killed her - the vet can again usually tell from a urine sample. Now, the urination here is *very* extreme (we needed a new carpet and underlay) and the cancer itself is *very* rare - Summer was about 20 years old (rescue cat) and suffered from a host of other issues such as deafness. But I guess there's a very small chance it could be a cause, so I'd still say go the the vet first; at least that way - if all urine tests are negative - you know the cause is probably 90% behavioural.

I hope this helps - and sorry for the long post. Do let us know how it goes.

d

FrugalFriend

I think you've done the right thing, by putting them out of the areas you don't want soiled. I think that's the only solution. As well as being around when they're in the house. You could discourage this behavior, by buying a spray water bottle, (about a £1 in a £1 Shop), fill with cold water. Turn nozzle to squirt (test in sink), then squirt near offending cat(s) when necessary. Always have bottle ready to hand the minute you see the unwanted behavior. Of course they'll probably run, so leave a door open like the kitchen/back door, where you don't mind them soiling or where there's a liter tray. Also consider that you may have to re-adjust your realtionship with this cat, i.e. that you can no longer have him indoors with you. Perhaps a happy half-way house would be a comfy box in the back garden, garden shed or on the patio. He might be happier there too, and you'd be less worried about your furniture.

ajb69

FrugalFriend wrote: »

I think you've done the right thing, by putting them out of the areas you don't want soiled. I think that's the only solution. As well as being around when they're in the house. You could discourage this behavior, by buying a spray water bottle, (about a £1 in a £1 Shop), fill with cold water. Turn nozzle to squirt (test in sink), then squirt near offending cat(s) when necessary

Sorry FrugalFriend, I'm afraid I have to disagree with you here. Squirting them with water is only going reinforce the behaviour and make things worse - cat's aren't little humans, they don't spray out of malice but out of fear and upset. Squirting them with water or yelling at them just makes them more upset and more likely to leave home/spray even more.

I know it may not seem obvious, but I used to yell and spray and I have seen it just makes things ten times worse...

FrugalFriend wrote: »

Also consider that you may have to re-adjust your realtionship with this cat, i.e. that you can no longer have him indoors with you. Perhaps a happy half-way house would be a comfy box in the back garden, garden shed or on the patio. He might be happier there too, and you'd be less worried about your furniture.

This bit I do actually with agree with you, in a funny way. If you cannot or will not make the time to solve the issue, then you either have to rehome that cat or leave him permanently outside.

Now the OP has, I think, a multi-cat household which makes the latter difficult, and I personally think it is cruel to force a cat to live on a patio (unless it's feral); if it's any sense, it will just leave and rehome itself - which is what the OP seems, I think, to suggest their cats are doing. But then I am rather cat-mad so I can understand if you have different view.

All I can say is: I spent £7-odd on a cat behaviour book, read it and did as it suggested and it stopped my cat spraying within a week; it now lives happily as part of a group of six. I may have been lucky, it may have been totally unrelated, and it may not work for you - but I'm glad I tried!

d

mk_wotsit

ajb69 wrote: »

, and I personally think it is cruel to force a cat to live on a patio (unless it's feral); if it's any sense, it will just leave and rehome itself - which is what the OP seems, I think, to suggest their cats are doing. But then I am rather cat-mad so I can understand if you have different view.


d

I have a cat who hasn't come in the house since we got a dog. It's his choice to stay outside. He sleeps in the summerhouse or greenhouse and only raises his head to miaow for his dinner...i want to come back as a cat!
He hasn't left home so how can it be cruel? Maybe OP should shut the cat out for the summer at least, just to break the cycle?