Question:
in the London area. Cat no. 2 is persistently peeing by the front door. There's nothing physically wrong with him; he's just being bloodyminded. Yesterday he peed in my cakemixing bowl, and in the evening he went into the garden and specifically peed in a tub of petunias. He's always had a tendency to be dirty; we've had him for 6 years, but it's only ever been the occasional incident before. He was a rescue cat and I suspect his previous family got rid of him for the same reason.
We have 7 cats and they all have access to the back garden via the catflap (apart from no. 5 who's currently confined to a bedroom with a broken leg); they all get plenty of love and affection. It's so bad we're thinking of getting rid of the carpet in the hall and putting down laminate flooring; we've scrubbed the floorboards, the front and back of the underlay, and the front and back of the carpet. The other option is to have a permanent litter tray in the hall, but I'm not sure I could stand that; I'm about to have surgery so DH would then have 2 litter trays and me to look after.
Various sprays including a £10 special one from the vet are not working, and DH won't let me rehome the cat. I estimate this started when we went away for 2 weeks on holiday, but it could have been going on for longer. The cat's been neutered, and it's at the point where I don't want to invite people to the house because I'm so embarrassed. I'm wondering if there's something we're overlooking in his mind which would explain it. Any suggestions or recommendations?
Answers:
He's definitely marking the territory if it's by the front door. Have you seen any foreign cats poking their noses around?
I've had and am occasionally still having the problem with my oldest cat. I put it down to delayed jealousy following acquiring 2 new kittens a few months ago then spotted new ( brave ) cat in the garden.
I got Feliway plug in infuser (edit: diffuser)but don't think it made any difference.
haven't really got a solution yet as when I think he's got over the phase, he surprises me and does it again.
Answers:
No, no other cats, although the oldest cat got attacked by a fox last week, and I've seen a cub in the kitchen in the past snaffling the cat food.
I'm wondering if he's missing Miss Broken Leg and hasn't realised she's home (once she came through the cat flap with a broken leg, she was in a cage in a nanosecond and whisked off to the vet). Maybe we'll start taking him into the bedroom with us whenever we feed her/fuss her.
Initially I put it down to a protest against us going away on holiday, but it's been several weeks since we got back.
Answers:
Have you considered thet he may have a urine infection? My cat weed on the rug one day having always been as good as gold all her life (apart from overshooting the litter tray which is REALLY annoying!). I took her to the vets as she is an OAP and I thought that maybe she was becoming incontinent but it turned out to be cystitis and was cured by a few days of antibiotics.
Answers:
I assumed from OP that nothing was physically wrong.
It is very important to rule out Urinary tract problems as it can be very serious in males. The cat I referred to had it when he was younger. The signs are usually clear though ( blood in urine and cat in obvious distress). Hope that is not the case.
It could be the foxes. I've seen very nasty fights round here (rural spot), luckily not with my cats.
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I'll take him to get him checked out by the vet, but he's been sporadically like this for 6 years; I'm inclined to think it's psychological but you're right, we need to rule out anything physical.
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Be prepared to take in a sample ( empty litter tray?). They will check for struvites in the urine.
Answers:
There could be something in your garden or surrounding area that is scareing him, it doesnt take much disruption to upset a cat. My cat did similar for a while, and we worked out that he was very scared of our neighbours big cat, he was intimidated by him and was too scared to go to his usual loo outside!! it stopped after a while tho - i read a really good book called "the cat dectective" (i think) - by a cat psychologist which was an interesting insight into why they do these kind of things for no obvious reason.