need help for cat that wee's all over!!

[glaskhamhasoneintheoven]

Hi, i have 3 cats, older 2 are about 5.5yo and the youngest nearly 3yo... all are normally very good around the house, use litter trays etc and will go out when they ask to
(ie meow at the door)

However one of the older ones has a weeing problem... when we first bought him (stupidly from a pet shop- but we didn't know the downfall at the time) was told he was fully litter trained etc and got him home to find he definatley wasn't... he had a territorail thing about anything that smelt of Dh and would pee on DH's side of the bed daily, and on DH's clothing, even climbing on the washing tub to do it... after about 6mths we'd sorted him out fully and he was brilliant. Exept when i'm pregnant it seems he reverts back to weeing on anything he can to make it smell of him!!

I've been pregnant 3x (currently pregnant for the 3rd time) in the time we've had him and everytime i have been pregnant we've found he'll pull towels off radiators to wee on them, will scrape the bathroom mats into a heap to wee on it, will wee on any of DH's clothing that is left in the way where he can climb onto it....

I'm at my wits end with it now... i'm nearly 6mths pg and am having to clean up after him a few times a week... I keep saying he's on his last warning or he goes, but becasue we've had him so long and he's part of the family i dont think i can actually do it... I'm scared that if i took him ro RSPCA or something then he'd then there's a chance he'd go from one home to another for the rest of his life... and i really dont want that for him. All of us love him, and hopefully if the other 2 pregnancies were anything to go by he'll stop once the baby arrives and i'm not pregnant any more... but part of me doesn't want to run the risk of it continuing after the baby arrives!!

Has anyone else had this sort of problem? did you manage to sort it? Anyone willing to give me help/advise or tell me what to do??

DH is just as attached to the cat as me and the kids are so its not like i can just get DH to take him to ease the pain on us seeing him go....

You don't say if the cat is castrated - if he isn't then that should be your first step. This now sounds like a behavioural issue though.

I would take him to the vets, or at least get a urine sample to rule out cystitis - cats are brilliant at holding on to wee because they are too bone idle to go out in the cold then they get cystitis.

There is a product called feliway, you can buy a diffuser (works like those air freshener things that you plug in) and this helps the cat feel more secure in its environment and prevent the wetting. This might particularly help as he might be reacting to your change in hormones.

It is also important to really clean the area that he goes in. Especially if he is returning to the same place - the way to do this is use BIOLOGICAL washing up powder and when dry, dab the area with methylated spirits - this will help to stop him returning to places he has scented.

There are lots of things you can try. Good luck. Definately worth a visit to your vet i think.

He is castrated, was done at the earliest piint he possibly could be. He's the one cat that doesn't really go out in the winter, so i really dont think it's holding on because of the cold outside.

I took him to the vets when pg with DS over 4.5years ago and we paid £120 for a behavioural person to come and see him... we were told to 're-train' him like a kitten and keep his tray clean which we do anyway having 3 cats... imagine the pong if we didn't- Yuk!! they have a failry new cat litter tray (igloo sort) which DH thinks isn't helping him but i've taken the door off so they can get used to it for a few weeks and he's using it sometimes as i've seen him... just overnight he's finding things to wee on.... argh!! i'm pulling my hair out... think it may be another trip to the vets but i refuse to pay £120 for someone to tell me what i can work out for myself!!

oh should say the weeing had started before the new tray came into the house so thats another reason i dont think its that!! But am wondering if i should still put one of the old trays out aswell...

Have more or less the same problem. We haven't found a solution. We have tried everything. Sorry. Our cat does this when stressed (guests, dog et...) It's hell.

at £120 for a behaviourist and at your vet for even suggesting it. This is a common problem and the vet should be able to offer advice. I would suggest another vet!

One thing you can try, although it might not work if he has always been a cat litter cat, is to put mud in the litter tray, that sometimes works.

Give the vets a ring and ask about the feliway, its about £20 for the set up, which is a lot less than £120!!!!(i still can't believe that - thinking i might set myself up as a behaviorist! - ive been ripped off by one in the past with regards my dog) This is really worth it as it might be a hormonal thing for puss.

It IS a common problem, but unfortunately, commonly difficult to solve.

Have you tried changing his litter? Some cats are very fussy and prefer the earth - type litters you can get?

As he's weeing on clean towels and things it doesn't seem to be that he's attracted back to the smell of old wee. Seems to be more of a territorial/stress marking behaviour, perhaps exacerbated by you being pregnant.

The feliway diffusers are good - I always notice a difference in my cats when I plug mine in - they all just loll around in front of it with a dazed but happy expression It releases cat appeasing pheromones which help them chill out.

Best of luck.

Can you keep him to one area of the house? The kitchen, for example?

My cats used to spray their scent everywhere in the house and now they're kept to the kitchen and the back office where it's warm but no soft furnishings to piddle on! They have their own bed but they don't feel the need to wee on that.

bella, i would pay good money for something that had that effect on children (and mummies!).

I have just thought of this, its a bit of a long shot - but is it still your DH things he is doing it on? If so, a drastic but simple change - get a new DH , or less drastic but slightly more hassle - completely change your washing powder, get DH to change his deodorant and bath stuff, aftershave etc. That way it might disguise his smell - i am wondering if the cat thinks that he is the man of the house and is pissing on your DHs stuff to keep him in his place. Maybe if DH asserts himself around the cat, pushing him away if he demands attention, eating in front of and before the cat, always pushing the cat off the furniture and such like. If all else fails, get your hubby to piss on th cat! (ok so the last bit was a joke!) I am totally clasping at straws now, but this is what i would do if it were a dog.

pmsl lucyellensmummy

That's it - we will all swap our dh's for Daniel Craig/Sean Bean /whatever takes your fancy and get comfy in front of the feliway diffuser....

No, seriously, it must be a nightmare for you, Glaskham. I took on a cat once which the owners could no longer cope with because he did this, although fortunately he never did it with me. One of my own cats will pee on the food bowls if I feed her with the others, so she has to be kept separate

All joking aside, still think the feliway would be worth a try.

I was breastdeefing earlier on so I couldn't elaborate but I have spent hundreds of Pounds on this problem in the last few years, including onFeliway in all its different formats. I have 2 cats so I have tried adding trays, changing it every day etc etc... Nothing worked. The only thing that made it stopped was moving house, but it starts again when we have guests around or if there are dogs in the area. And the sypmtoms are very similar to your situation: weeing on cushions, beds, clothes, towels etc... I really do sympathise!

I would def put his old trays out too...the more the better..i have them round the house, hidden behind door, under beds etc. Yiou need at LEAST 4 trays (one for every cat you have plus one more) but in a problem wee-er I would say 6 trays, 3 upstairs and 3 downstairs.

And use biological washing powder to wash the clothes/towels with as well, and to remove smell of wee from carpet use a biological washing powder/warm water sprayed onto areas like carpet.

Get a RFeliway plug in and buy the Feliway spray too and use it daily.

that should do it.
If not, once you have baby he will stop!
Its common in cats, they get stressed with impending change. Mine used to wee in the linen basket and in the baby's car seat!

Sorry i didn't get back on yesterday... ended up falling asleep before going out for tea... Have read everything and taken it all in... DH said we'll try the feliway diffuser on the landing as he normally pee's upstairs, normally on anything on the landing and in the bathroom. This morning i've woken up to find he's pee'd on the DC's (clean, but spare) towel which i'd only put on the bathroom floor for me to sit on while i bathed them... it was over the side of the bath, and it was wet in 2 area's. Have thrown him out for the morning!!

It's not always on things that smell of DH, but if there is something in reach, or 'pulling' distance for him he'll prefer to wee on that over anything else. I saw him weeing on DH's coat that had been put in the washing basket just a couple of weeks ago, in daylight hours which he doesn't normally do!!

We already have 3 large litter trays, in all rooms that the cats have access to that isn't the living room (bathroom, dining room and kitchen) We have to keep bedroom doors shut at all times as if they were open he'd wee on our bed guarrenteed!! I seriously am at my wits end... sat crying for 20mins when i found the towel he'd wet on this morning!! (blame the hormones for the massive reaction, but i've been trying to deal with this for the last 5mths now and he's not changing whichever way i've dealt with it so far!!

Poor you - can you try to keep him away from the washing basket etc until you have the baby?

Here's a link that might help:

here

we have the same problem! Nothing has helped us, apart from keeping the litter scrupulously (sp?) clean. It is stress related in our cat, and she does seem to wee on our youngest daughter's bed (her biggest tormentor) more. In our case, the weeing cat is also the less dominant one - the other cat stops her eating and hisses at her, and this upsets her too. Feliway hasn't helped us.

I really sympathise with you - I would love to be able to leave the bedroom doors open too. We have just been away for a few days, and I forgot to close our dd3s door - and sure enough...

He's unable to get into the one on the landing as it has a full lid, but the one i have in the kitchen, (for things that require going into the next washing load) i dont have a lid, its just plain and simple a laundry basket, the sort to carry washing to and from the washing line etc...

If we put a towel on the bathroom radiator to dry, or over the landing bannister he'll use his claws to pull it down and then wee on it... We do try and keep most towels etc over radiators in the bedrooms so he can't get to them, but with 4 of us in the house there's a lot of towels sometimes so we need the bathroom one... and i dont feel i should have to make sure every bit of laundry should have to be taken out becasue of the cat... if there's no towle to pull down he'll go on the bathroom mat (the one on the floor in front of the bath) and has once even pulled the handtowel off the ring to wee on it, and managed to somehow get the other handtowel from the bach of the door (which meant standing on the sides of the bath to reach it with his claws!!

thanks for the link- just having a look now... I'm glad i'm not the only one with a peeing cat!! I feel horrid when i know there's been something with cat wee on it where the kids could have got to it before me!!...

Wierd thing is all the cats seem to be equals in this house... he's the one we had first, so i'd have expected him to be the more dominant one but he doesn't assert himself on the other 2... he's more assertive with DH though, will alwasy sit on his knee as long as DH isn't sat next to me... but i dont think its a territorail thing over me (which is what has been suggested to me in the past) as he doesn't come anywhere near me except for food time, or if he wants to go out and i'm the only one in!!

Have just read the link- trays are cleaned twice a week, and soiled litter is removed daily... i clean it the same way i did before being pregnant, which he seemed to use it perfectly fine before!! There are 3 trays in the house, one fully enclosed, 2 open trays so he has a choice of either type... His trays aren't anywhere near his food, ie tray at one end of kitchen, food at the other... i can't see anything in that link that i haven't already tried or anything i dont already do... Argh!! I text DH this morning when i'd found offending towel and he's just phoned me... i ended up crying again because of the damn cat!!!

I know - it does sound stress related rather than anything else.

If it's any consolation re your dc touching soiled things, then cat urine is normally sterile (if the cat doesn't have an infection), but I know it's not what you would ideally want your dc's to be touching.

Unfortunately it sounds like it may be a bit of a vicious circle now - you get stressed (understandably) over cat peeing - cat gets more stressed - cat pees more

Not sure what to suggest - best option is probably ocnfining him to an area with nothing to wee on except a litter tray and working up from there, trying to stay calm (easier said than done!).

That should be confining, of course

I sympathise so much. It really made me cry many times too.

This is a long shot but what about working with him here rather fighting what he wants..which is to wee on material?

I would place a small litter tray where he commits his most crimes (landing/bathroom?) and line it with a puppy wee pad or even easier and cheaper a few layers of kitchen towel. He will be able to tread it and it will feel better on his paws than litter. He may decide that is good enough and it will also begin to smell of him so will attract him more?

He is teling you what he likes to wee on so the next best thing to towels is this, its worth a try.

Of course if this is not about him smply LIKING towels over litter, and it is a stress/behavioual thing, then doing this will not work, he will still wee on your stuff. But the stretching up on legs to get to the towel, says he wanted it to wee on it because there was nothing else he liked the feel of.

Keep us updated!

Lovesdogs- I'm pretty certain he's 'normally' happy with the litter we use... other than when i've been pregnant he's always used the tray since about 8mths old... we use the wodden litter that disolves, both other cats have never had a wee elsewhere, just him, and only when we first got him and when i've been pregnant...

DH said we can do one tray with a towel for him for a week and even thoguh it'll mean washing another towel each day it may be better than him weeing on the other towels etc around the house. And we will also get an appointment with the vet on DH's day off next week for the diffuser thing, and to check he's not got anything 'wrong' with him (which i'm 110% certain he hasn't). If we find he's still weeing elsewhere then we will have to make the decision of wether to just stick it out until the baby arrives and if it stops like both other times then fair enough, and if it carries on he goes.... or wether to just give up....

Hi. I have just posted about a very similar situation. I am also pregnant but have had this problem at other times as well, but worse when pregnant if anything. I am with you as to how stressfull it is.

On a silver lining though - we would love her to do it on towels instead of everything else! She keeps doing it on the carpet which is a nightmare as even after pulling it up and cleaning underneath etc the smell doesn't go. It is a nightmare.

We also have 3 cats like you.

Is your cat a particular breed? Ours is persian.

Chloe- he's just a shorthair domestic... nothing special in the way of breed etc.

fingers crossed he hasn't wee'd on anything last night... dont know what's changed last night as i haven't put anything into practice yet!! but that's the first night in about 3 months that he's not wee'd on something!!