Cat urinating around the house.

[Nuttypops]

Our cat, a 5 year old male, suddenly had a blocked bladder about 3 weeks ago when we returned from a weekend away. Friends had been looking after him as they often do.

It took a week of vet stays, and two uses of a catheter to get it cleared for him. He is understandably distressed about all of this. The vet things it has all been caused by stress of some form.

Since he got home however, he has been urinating in places around the house. The main favourites seem to be the washing basket, DS's infant car seat and DD's toy cradle although he is also doing it in other places. He is not deterred by us being nearby, and is doing it very deliberately. I fully appreciate that he is stressed and this is a resulting behaviour. He is on calming medication, has 2 litter trays which are cleaned daily, is the only pet in our house and is much loved.

However, with 2 year old DD and 6 month old DS at home with me all day, his behaviour is causing issues and I am concerned about the kids being affected by it, mainly DS mouthing something the cat has weed on if I haven't noticed it in time.

We are at a loss as to what to do to stop the behaviour. Does anyone have any suggestions please?

[Nuttypops]

I should add that he has never had any issues with UTIs etc before, and never out of his litter box previously. He does go out during the day, and is allowed to do that again now.

[reallyanotherone]

Bless him.

When you say "calming medication" what do you mean? I had one that sprayed due to stress and all the feliway and herbal stuff made no difference. I eventually asked the vet for a proper course of anti depressants and that fixed it.

It's only been 3 weeks though. Does he use his tray at all? he could now associate it with pain and discomfort. You could try changing it completely- new tray, different place, different litter.

Can you confine him to the kitchen or somewhere for a while until he figures it out? It can be less stressful for them to be in small spaces as it's less territory to defend and they can relax more.

How are you cleaning it up? use biological washing powder as that breaks down the enzymes and smell- bleach and cleaning fluids can smell like urine and they continue to pee there.

[Ikillpotplants]

Our cat did this when stressed when we had renovation work done and continued for quite some time after. In the end it just needed more time and she stopped eventually but we were also stressed due to small children around. I agree with confining to one room with easy clean floor e.g. Kitchen. It felt mean but I think she was less stressed in just the one space and we were less stressed about the cleaning up.

[Toddlerteaplease]

One of mine is doing this on the sofa at the moment. She does it occasionally. I suspect she's probably stressed as her and her sister have both had a rough few months health wise. Tried all the sprays going, to stop it but they don't work. Only thing that stops it is blocking access to her favourite spots.

[Atasteofcreme]

Toddler, mine is doing it on the sofa too. Exact same spot. It stinks now no matter what I do.

I've blocked her from the room but she goes mental scratching at the door

[WeirdAndPissedOff]

I think the above Pps are right, however does there seem to be any urgency/discomfort when he urinates? He could still have some irritation/discomfort perhaps?

[Nuttypops]

Thanks for all of your replies. We can confine him to the kitchen, but with difficulty as his food isn't in there and whilst we can obviously put it in there, he gets upset at not being allowed out which I worry is stressing him more. For all of us though, I think this might need to be the short term answer.

As far as I am aware, there is no discomfort when he is urinating still. I did take him back to the vet yesterday for another check, and she prescribed more medication in case- metacam, zinc something or other which is the calming stuff and something else. Sorry, I had the names in my head earlier but they have now disappeared and I am stuck under a sleeping baby so can't check. But it is stuff prescribed by the vet rather than felaway etc. He is using both litter trays as normal alongside this.

I am concerned because he is supposed to be going into the cattery tomorrow until Monday which is only going to stress him out more. We have no alternative at this stage unfortunately, we are in the process of buying a house in another country to relocate there in Sept so have to go there this week to finalise things. We also live on a military base, so have constant noise, people moving in and out and renovation going on around us so it is no wonder the poor cat is stressed!

It sounds like it is hopefully a matter of time and keeping him away from things. We are moving his favourite spots out of access as much as possible, but that is difficult when some of them are DD's toys. We will give it a bit of time to see how he settles before seeing if he might need other medication to help.

Thanks for all of the insight. All suggestions are gratefully received!

[Nuttypops]

Reallyanotherone, thanks, good point about washing and smells. I have used non-bio on the car seat and fabric contents of DD's toys, washing basket etc but bleach followed by a lemon spray on the other stuff so that is useful, thank you!