Cat peeing around house - advice urgently needed
Hi everyone,
I really desperately need advice about my cat who has stopped using the litter tray and is peeing everywhere and anywhere.
He is a 2 year old tom cat and is neutered. We have had him since he was 10 weeks old.
He was litter trained and had used the litter tray religiously......... until about 3/4 months ago.
Ill cut a long story short - I have spent £££££s getting him tested for urine infections/diabetes/thyroid problems etc. All tests are clear. I have tried re-training him. I first of all confined him to a small room for a few days (with the blessing of the vet) and he spent a week there, did well so I put him in our kitchen/diner.
I stopped him having free reign of the house as he was doing the toilet in bedrooms, living room etc and he has been confined to my kitchen/diner for a few weeks now.
All was going well and he was using the litter tray until I went out today for a few hours, came home and he had done a pee on my kitchen surround right next to my cooker!!??!?
Nothing has changed, no new cats, no new litter, nothing.
I told my children I would need to re home him if we couldn't get him retrained.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I can try next, if anything??
I have two other cats who use the litter trays with no problems - even when i have accidentally moved the litter trays after cleaning, my other two cats still use them.
I am almost ready to re-home my tom cat so any advice welcome.
Thank you in advance!
I really desperately need advice about my cat who has stopped using the litter tray and is peeing everywhere and anywhere.
He is a 2 year old tom cat and is neutered. We have had him since he was 10 weeks old.
He was litter trained and had used the litter tray religiously......... until about 3/4 months ago.
Ill cut a long story short - I have spent £££££s getting him tested for urine infections/diabetes/thyroid problems etc. All tests are clear. I have tried re-training him. I first of all confined him to a small room for a few days (with the blessing of the vet) and he spent a week there, did well so I put him in our kitchen/diner.
I stopped him having free reign of the house as he was doing the toilet in bedrooms, living room etc and he has been confined to my kitchen/diner for a few weeks now.
All was going well and he was using the litter tray until I went out today for a few hours, came home and he had done a pee on my kitchen surround right next to my cooker!!??!?
Nothing has changed, no new cats, no new litter, nothing.
I told my children I would need to re home him if we couldn't get him retrained.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I can try next, if anything??
I have two other cats who use the litter trays with no problems - even when i have accidentally moved the litter trays after cleaning, my other two cats still use them.
I am almost ready to re-home my tom cat so any advice welcome.
Thank you in advance!
0
Comments
Would his toilet habits change so quickly and so dramatically?
My tom cat was always the dominant one in my house - in fact, he still is. He definitely rules the roost with my other two cats.
is there any way i can retrain him if it is another local cat causing him to urinate other places?
Yes could change him over night. Personally I would keep him in if he isn't happy with something outside. Unless you can work out what it is and deal with it for him.
They're both very easy-going cats and do not cause us any problems at all.
@Molliepops - thanks. I'll keep him inside the next few days then and see if that makes a difference. I'll let you know.
Is there one that your 'Tom' prefers to use (when he does use it) or is there one spot in the house that he uses more than others?
Have you got a covered litter tray or is it just a litter tray? If so, can you get a large cardboard box, big enough to cover the litter tray and tall enough for him to go safely in and out? Cut a couple of catflap sized holes at either end so he can go in and out. This sort of thing (scroll down the page).
http://www.catchat.org/urination.html
Then keep him in for a few days and see whether he'll consistently use the litter tray.
I'm guessing that the problem relates to a new, possibly un-neutered tom - who has moved to the area and is spraying around outside and challenging for Tom's territory. Tom is therefore moving his boundaries to inside and marking by peeing to establish his patch. The girl cats won't be challenged in the same way so are probably going about their business as before.
If you can help your Tom feel as safe as possible inside, he may not feel the need to scent mark. However, unless you want him to become a house cat - and he's happy to become one - this is only a temporary fix.
How are you cleaning up his pee? Don't use anything with ammonia in it as that will tend to mimic a cat's scent marking and as the smell of ammonia diminishes, so the cat will want to top up the scent by spraying / peeing. Use something like a solution of Biotex followed by a solution of a biological detergent as the enzymes break down the proteins in pee which stop the areas smelling. Rinse well.
He doesn't pee in one particular place, and since he has been confined to the kitchen he has varied the places he does it.
I never knew that an un-neutered Tom would stress my Tom cat out, so thank you for that info.
I live in a 3 level house and I have 2 litter trays on the bottom floor and 1 each on the other two levels.
Is there a cat flap? Or does he come in and out through the kitchen door? Your Tom may have felt safe when you were in but when you went out, felt exposed so peed near where he comes in to make it obvious to an incomer that he lives there.
Cats are really very complex but I have noticed that when one has died, the territory of the other/s changes. I had one pair of brothers years ago who, despite loving each other dearly, had quit different territories (we lived in the country with woods and fields outside) and I would never see one in the other's territory. When one died, the other took over his brother's area.
E2a: Having re-read your first post, it occurs to me that if your cat peed near the cooker - actually on the worksurface if I'm now understanding correctly - have you changed your home cleaning product recently? Are you using one with ammonia as one of the active ingredients?
I really really appreciate your input.... Thank you
It's quite distressing to have your home turned into a smelly tip: there is NO smell like cat pee! It sounds as if you have already put in a lot of work / money with trying to get to the bottom of this, and re-train you cat, and as always the DS folks here have been brilliant.
I've never actually thought about that... Is it significant that he uses the litter tray for pooing in ?
And I agree, the advice on here has been brilliant.
Just to add, I got up this morning and went to feed the cats and discovered he had peed AGAIN on my kitchen work top. A different part this time.
My cleaning products don't have ammonia in them as far as it could see from the label.
Is your cat quite elderly?
I'm afraid in the end we had to restrict our cats to the kitchen and outdoors (they've always been outdoor cats). They now have a very snug and cosy plastic, raised cat kennel outside, lined with cardboard and a self-heating pad and I have an odour-free, faeces-free home! I realise that this may horrify some of the good folks here but you really can't have a cat pooing and peeing all over the house. They love their kennel - of course they come in, but only under supervision
He only gets in the kitchen and outside.
I do feel bad when I'm
Allowing my female cats to venture in to the main house and closing the door on my boy.
Hi Abigail, no he is 16 weeks old, wormed. He is getting a bit cleaner but still stinks the house out. We have another cat who is seven and she can be a mardy sod but she tolerates him. Almost like flirting, so I am wondering if it is a dominance thing with the kitten? Anyway he is booked in for neutering in the morning. Pray it helps or change of diet x
To me know how the cat is.
I found a spot under my stairs (storage area) that the cat had been going to do the toilet... I threw everything out, and thoroughly cleaned the area. The next day I watched him go back to that place, have a sniff about (but obviously couldn't smell his scent) and walked straight to the litter tray and do the toilet! I was ecstatic!
Touch wood - he hasn't done anything since..... I've changed my approach with him and as I've seen him using the tray I've been letting him back in the main house, I let him have his blanket on the couch and he sleeps there again.
So far so good.
Thank you so much for all the advice and feedback.
(I've put a litter tray at his preferred spot under the stairs as it's private and have a covered tray in the main litter tray area of the house. Seems he likes the privacy)
Mistygal - any improvement with your kitten?