Cat is peeing everywhere

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ryanms3030

ryanms3030

Member Since 2013
A little off topic but I am desperate for help. I recently moved myself and 2 cats into my fiance's house with her 1 cat. My diabetic cat has been peeing everywhere all over the house for a month an I don't know what to do to stop him. I believe his is marking because he backs up and his tail quivers when I have seen him. He is fixed but I think he was fixed as an adult because he was rescued off the street and was already about 4 when I got him and he's about 10 right now. I am sure it's stress related from all the change. I have tried Felineaway spray. We have 4 litter boxes and we clean them 1-2 times per day. I can deal with it but my fiance is at her wits end and she smells urine everywhere. I was thinking about trying a Thundershirt but I don't know if that will do anything since the spray has done nothing to relax him. I should take him to the vet to check for UTI but it started as soon as we moved so I am 99% sure it is behavioral.
 
I have a civie that was doing that after adding a new member to the household...Our vet prescribed a low dose of prozac for her and it has help greatly so that might be one solution to look into with your vet.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
It absolutely sounds territorial to me, however, I would invest in a black light because many cats will urinate were previous cats have done it already. Fiances cat OR previous cat that lived there, may have marked it. Did you do a slow introduction with the kitties?
 
Thanks for all the advice. I really botched the introduction. I let my cats out of the carriers into the house immediately after arriving. My fiance cat is tiny but she was very territorial. She hissed at them for days. Now she has mellowed. She is fine with my female, but she still hisses and swats at the male who is the one peeing. I read about drugs but I wanted to wait as a last resort. I'm going to buy a Thundershirt today and see if that works any miracles. For $40 it will be cheaper than a vet and meds. If he doesn't stop, I'll be at the vet next week. Definitely will get a black light
 
When I used to run a cafe I had a customer who had a cat that would mark and pee all over the house and so she took the cat to a behavioral therapist, and the woman said to put swatches of different kinds of fabric, material and pattern, but mix it up, wool, cotton, silk, what ever you can find and place them near areas of where she was peeing. It had something to do with cats being extremely tactile. The woman said it worked. I'm sure there's more to it but its worth a try before trying meds.
sending no pee/no med vines to lil kitty
 
options in this post
There's a bunch of ideas in a list in this thread.

Stress from new cats may trigger infection, so although the behavior looks like marking, an infection could still be present; always rule out the medical causes before assuming its only behavioral.

You may need to reintroduce the marking cat; have you got a room the marker may be confined in? If so, lay tarps, spray Feliway, and confine in there. Give a few days for things to calm down. And then do the introduction more gradually this time, with counterconditioning by treats/food gradually more close to the other cat.
 
All cats (even females) can mark and/or spray, however, they usually do so specifically in defense or to defend their territory and not so much out of vengeance or retaliation. First, as BJM suggested, be absolutely positive that there is nothing else that could be contributing to this: it could be a coincidental infection because of the move, it could be the stress of the move causing infection, it could be parasites, worms, mites, etc... that he picked up from your fiance's cat, or you're (probably) right: it could be behavioral/territorial.

Wendy&Tiggy said:
You could try the introductions again... http://www.petfinder.com/cats/bringing-a-cat-home/cat-to-cat-introductions/
Click to expand...

I agree. Easiest way to get rid of the territorial spraying is to get at the root of why he needs to spray; he's feeling threatened.
  • First, get rid of pent-up energy which results in aggressive behavior. Maybe get them some new toys to play with and spend a bit more time playing with them for the next few weeks. A secondary side-effect is that you'll get your two cats playing with the fiance's cat, which is great for bonding.
  • Watch their eating behavior. Are you feeding all three together? From the same dish? At the same time? Is there a pecking order? Do any of them wait to eat till another is done? You want him to not feel like his food is going to be taken away by another cat, so you might need to feed him separately. If you're already feeding them separately, you might want to try feeding them together (starting out as far apart as necessary and working their way closer to each other). This helps to associate "new cat smell" with "food smell," which reduces adversarial cattitudes.
  • Mix and swap scents. If there are particular toys your boy likes, use them to play with your fiance's kitty and vis versa. You can also take one of your (or your fiance's) recently worn shirts and rub them both down in it. It's another scent association technique and you'll want to do this frequently as you "re-introduce" them.
  • Find him his own special spot. Cats have their favorite places, but now he's in a new place so his favorite spot is gone. Try to recreate that spot in his new environment. Maybe even buy him his own special cat bed that the other cats can't use (be consistent on kicking them out of it so they know it's his). Sprinkle it with his favorite treats and/or catnip to entice him to use it. Put another of your shirts in there and maybe even his favorite toy.

These are just some general ideas, so let me know if you need more. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
 
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