Feliway

[AlleyCat]

I know I've seen this topic already, so I apologize for the repetitiveness of this subject ..

Onyx, our 12 year old cat, had a bout of bladder infections all through January and February. We had her on antibiotics and repeated urine testing so we think it's all cleared up now. However, during this, she had many accidents and she STILL continues to have many accidents, all in the same places where she had during her bladder infections. My steam-vac has taken a life of it's own lately!

Anyhow, how effective is the Feliway? How is it best used? In places we want to encourage Onyx to use the litterbox, or in rooms we want to DIScourage her from having accidents? We live in a split-entry house and there is no litterbox upstairs, but there are 3 downstairs. Our upstairs is entirely carpeted except for kitchen and bathroom and my hubby refuses to have the litterbox in either of these 2 rooms hence why the litterboxes are downstairs.

Any suggestions would be really, really welcomed! Starting today, we are confining Onyx to the downstairs now so she is either near the litterbox or if she has an accident, it's on concrete flooring. I hate to not let her have any social interaction, though.

(We have 2 other cats.)

[catmandu]

I have sent some,to Koxka,they say,that it works 96%of the time,but I Wonder,if it would work,if you Cat,had a bladder infection,not a Behavior Problem

[jazzcat]

I've been using Feliway to help Ripley stay calm and not spray. I think it helps a little but it won't take care of the problem by itself. He's shown behavioral problems because of changes in the house but just recently he developed a bladder infection. My vet prescribed Valium for him to take along with his antibiotics so he may 'chill out' and forget about spraying and go back to litter box only. He never sprayed much and he always seemed to do it in front of us. So far he's much better. The vet said to give him one valium a day but that made him drunk so I cut them in half so he's been on them twice as long. He runs out this week so I'm thinking of talking to the vet about keeping him on them a little longer. As far as I can tell he hasn't sprayed anywhere and he's such a sweet mellow boy now. This is the nicest he's ever been in his 13 years of life.

I wonder if he could take Valium indefinitely?

Probably the most important thing is to try to remove all the urine smell so she won't continue to consider those area's bathroom spots. Good luck with that, I know it's hard. I've tried Nature's Miracle and I never felt it did the job it claimed for removing urine smell. I've had some luck with a product called Capture. Also, after I've cleaned the spots several times I spray with Febreeze to help neutralize the odor.

[jenluckenbach]

Feliway is suppose to curb the need to SPRAY MARK territory. But that is based on a need for others to smell their scent. Just accidentally urinating outside the box, or going to a place out of habit, would probably not be effected by the feliway hormones.

And I can't even agree that it works. I have tried it and I did not see much difference.

[AlleyCat]

Jen, that's what I was kind of thinking too.

But that's also an interesting idea about the Valium .. I think I'll be calling my vet tomorrow to see if they'll prescribe some! Onyx has been there frequently as of late so they know what's been happening with her.

Thanks for the suggestions so far!