pee on old carpet, pee on new carpet

**4 feline house** · 01-24-2001, 09:50 PM

So many things to touch on and weigh in on-I hope I get to everything:

Wolflady: Stress is the cause of alot of sparying/inappropriate peeing. So if Scooter does not like being caged or left alone in a closed bedroom, you may be making the problem worse. Also, has your vet suggested Ovaban? It's been a number of years since I worked in a vet clinic, but my boss used to use it for behavior problems of all sorts in males and females. Also, I haven't had need of it, but alot of people in this forum swear by Feliway. If Scooter is indeed peeing as opposed to spraying, I would tend to think it might have been the balloons, especially since it started soon after.

Pam: Declawed cats that later develop pee problems usually do so because while they were healing the litter irritates their wounds. And you are correct in your assumption that neutering at an older age increases the chances that spraying will begin/continue. But, like people, cats' sex hormones do not originate strictly in the gonads, so removing the gonads does not cause cessation of the production all sex hormones. So it doesn't have anything to do with whether they mated first. This explains why some cats continue to spray, and even mount, after neutering. And yes, chinning, scratching and kneading are also ways to mark. I'm very lucky, I have never had a cat with spray/pee problems (unless you count one foster who liked to sleep in the litter box!), but they ALL have chinned alot!

Everyone: Spraying is erroneously associated solely with sex. It is simply a way to communicate. As is peeing (after all, it is urine that is being sprayed). This may be for the purpose of advertising one's sexual maturity (or season) but it is used just as often for non-sexual reasons such as marking territory or exhibiting dominance. Non-neutered males will almost certainly spray, even if not in the house, and cats who were neutered late will often retain the habit. But if an altered cat is spraying or inappropriately peeing, especially if it is a recent or lately acquired habit, it is almost always caused by stress/distress or a medical condition. This means aversion to the litter box, jealousy, UTI's or a myriad of causes. This is why it is so difficult to alleviate, because there is no way to see inside your cat's mind and see what has him upset. They feel like they are out of control of something and try to retain dominance by spraying.

That said, I have no solutions other than those already offered to Casmeow! I guess because I've been lucky enough to not have had the problem! Spencer is the "search engineer" of the forum, I'm sure he can offer some links if he weighs in on this topic again! In the meantime, maybe this information will explain spraying since there seems to be some confusion and questions.

**Pam** · 01-25-2001, 06:24 AM

4 Feline House.....Thank you so much for the note which covered so many aspects to this issue! It certainly helps me understand what makes a cat "tick" a little better.

I know that stress played a part in my sister-in-law's kitties' litterbox problems when they first got their german shepherd puppy. They were actually afraid to go downstairs to their litter box location for fear of running into the dog. They added a second litterbox upstairs and over time, as the cats have learned that she was not an enemy ready to gobble them up, they have stopped their inappropriate peeing.

I know we have gotten away from Casmeow's original question, but in the meantime I think this topic has turned into a very informative one and has probably helped others as well as me!