Urinating Outside The Litter Box

Hi everyone,

I could really use some advice. My 4 year old spayed kitty has a vet appointment on Friday because she is urinating/spraying outside the litter box. A little background:

It started about 6 weeks ago and appears to have been triggered by the neighborhood (very friendly) semi-feral deciding he liked my front porch after ignoring us the whole time we’ve lived here. She would spray by the living room window and by the front door, and then added the dining room windows to her territory. At the same time, my daughter’s boyfriend came to stay with us for a week. A week or so later, there was another lost cat in my backyard (clearly a lost housecat) that I ended up feeding for 2 weeks–we found her owners, fortunately, so that threat has been removed. I bought Feliway and it helped somewhat, but with the male cat still hanging around it didn’t stop completely–but it did improve. To complicate matters, my mother lives with us and refuses to listen to my wishes when I asked her to keep the blinds on the first floor closed so she can’t see outside. It’s very frustrating.

Then about 2 weeks ago I bought her a calming collar and it worked wonders. By last weekend I was considering removing the plastic from my furniture. I even canceled her vet appointment for last Friday after talking to the vet about how well she was doing.

However, on Sunday, my daughter’s cat died very suddenly and it was very traumatic and stressful for everyone. This week, my poor kitty has been a demon and I feel so bad because there is no way for me to help her. She wasn’t particularly attached to my daughter’s cat but it is still a change for her. I don’t know if she’s picking up on our mood and reacting to that or what. She is spraying again and more–she peed all over my dining room table on Monday. Last night I noticed missing patches of fur on her paws, and after watching her, I realized that she is over-grooming, probably stress-related. I took the calming collar off because I thought she was having a skin reaction to it, but I don’t think that’s the case at all. So, off to the vet she goes. Medication might be inevitable at this point, I think. I just hope she is okay physically. The really odd thing is: she is using the litter box. I have seen her do it, as recently as last night. There are 6 litter boxes in this house, two on every floor.

Any advice or thoughts? I'm going to put the collar back on because that obviously isn't the cause of her missing fur. I just don't know what else to do for her. I feel awful.

I would agree that it is likely stress related. Sounds like a combination of factors all hitting her hard right now. It may be beneficial to ask the vet about some kind of anti-depressant or anti-anxiety. I think that a short term application of that may help her find her center again and get through this tough moment.

Other steps would be:

• Get motion sensor sprinklers around the perimeter of the yard. That would quickly teach the male cat to stay away and prevent others from coming around.
• Get more cat beds or cat trees. These provide scent anchors that reaffirm her connection to "this is safe. this is me. this is home." that can help her when she gets anxious about her placement.
• Set up more litter boxes. It would be a temporary measure, but additional litter boxes also provide that scent anchor that she is trying to create in a controlled manner. Once she has stabilized start marking the boxes with how often they are used and very slowly start reducing them back down. Removing the ones she doesn't use first. I know this one is a pain and unsightly but a short term compromise that gives her the obvious place to leave her scent while keeping it easy to clean for you.
• Since keeping the curtains closed isn't working, maybe plant some low bushes/hedges? Put up some Christmas decorations that block the lower part of the window? Dark tinting on the lower two feet of windows?

Thanks, Kieka. I've thought about setting up more boxes, at least near the windows, so I'll probably go ahead and do that, even if just temporarily.

There are low bushes and hedges all along the sides of the house already. But the Christmas decorations sounds like a great idea, I'll try that! Sometimes I want to scream at my mother--she thinks (rightly) that they love looking out the windows. But she also thinks it's not fair to deny that to my other cats. I can't get it through her head that when that's the trigger we need to resolve, I need some cooperation or we're just going to keep going around in circles.

The problem is, I think, is too many stray cats. That was the trigger. Besides the one who's camped out on the porch, there are at least 3 others that roam the neighborhood. They are true ferals, though, and just pass through. They don't stick around, probably because Mr. Camper is the King of the Neighborhood and runs them off, but he chases them through my backyard so it's not really helping LOL . I started a thread on him a few weeks back. I'd like to find him a home. The local Homeless Cat Management told me that if you can pet him, he can be adopted. But everyone is full and there is a 6-12 month waiting list at Animal Friends for placement.

As soon as she started spraying, I bought a new cat tree and she is the only one who uses it. She loves it. She's always been a climber. When she was a kitten, she jumped from the couch to the top of the curtain rod...and the whole thing came crashing down. Luckily she wasn't hurt. I'll find her on the bathroom curtain rod, too. She loves to be up high and I make sure she has enough high places to get to.

I make sure we get plenty of play time and one on one time every day. I'm trying everything I can think of to ease her stress. I didn't want to put her on meds, but if it has to be, it has to be.

If you do meds, definitely think of it as a short term bandage. Something to just get her out of the current head space and reset her. If you vet does advise it or agree to it set a defined time limit to wean her back off them. Probably at least two months to fully break the habits she has developed but not long enough for it to be a problem for her to stop them. I also am not a huge proponent of drugging cats, or humans for that matter, on psychological medications long term. But I do recognize that in some situations it can be a good tool to help normalize and get someone out of the cycle they are stuck in. I think your situation is the perfect example of a cat who has gotten into a spiral downward in behavior and needs a little bit of a boost to find her way back up.

Kieka said:

If you do meds, definitely think of it as a short term bandage. Something to just get her out of the current head space and reset her. If you vet does advise it or agree to it set a defined time limit to wean her back off them. Probably at least two months to fully break the habits she has developed but not long enough for it to be a problem for her to stop them. I also am not a huge proponent of drugging cats, or humans for that matter, on psychological medications long term. But I do recognize that in some situations it can be a good tool to help normalize and get someone out of the cycle they are stuck in. I think your situation is the perfect example of a cat who has gotten into a spiral downward in behavior and needs a little bit of a boost to find her way back up.

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I have to agree. It's very disappointing because the collar was working wonderfully. Within an hour of putting it on, she climbed into my lap for pets and snuggles. She hasn't done that in awhile.

Okay, well, I had Miss Magic to the vet on Friday. The very first question they asked when I explained what was happening was, "Are there any strays around?" Um, yeah. We're literally overrun with strays and outdoor cats in my neighborhood, and I've mentioned the semi-feral/very friendly cat that has taken up residence on my front porch. They were 99.9% sure this is behavioral, and they ran a urinalysis, which showed white and red cells but no bacteria. They gave her an antibiotic and prescribed Hill's Prescription Diet c/d Multicare Feline Stress formula. I haven't bought it yet. They didn't have any free samples and I can't see spending $70 on something she might not eat.

I did buy the Purina Pro Health urinary tract formulation, though. She seems to like that. After Christmas I'll probably get the Hill's and see what happens. She's eating and drinking normally and she never quit using the litter box.

I haven't seen her spray since Sunday, although she is marking stuff with her cheeks. I'll take that any day of the week. I put a new calming collar on her and am wearing her out playing. I emptied all the litter boxes, cleaned them, put fresh litter in them. I also set up another feeding station and another litter box on the 2nd floor.

She had been banned from my 21 year old daughter's room on the 3rd floor (she has the whole 3rd floor to herself), but my daughter opened the door and let her up. She was SO happy, you could see it on her face. I think that was her safe space, and not having that place to go might have upset her even more. My daughter says she's seen no sign of any spraying up there.

If all else fails, the vet suggested gabapentin or kitty Prozac. I really don't want to do that except as a last resort--I like my cat the way she is except for this spraying problem. I don't want her drugged and whacked out, although I do recognize that her brain and hormones might need to calm down a bit to make any behavioral modification effective.

So, that's where we are.

Definitely stress related, but you seem to be doing good. I'd only add: have a schedule for her, if doesn't have one already, and stick to it. That really helped my cat when she first came in, and like yours, started pulling her fur out. Lots of playtime too. Let her have safe spaces with her favorite cat trees, cat toys, and scratchers. Since scratching is also a way for cats to mark territory, they could help. How does she respond to catnip toys? Make they could help?

I'm sure the issue will resolve itself soon. It was just too much too soon for your cat. With the love and care you already seem to provide for her, she'll get better.

hypatia said:

Definitely stress related, but you seem to be doing good. I'd only add: have a schedule for her, if doesn't have one already, and stick to it. That really helped my cat when she first came in, and like yours, started pulling her fur out. Lots of playtime too. Let her have safe spaces with her favorite cat trees, cat toys, and scratchers. Since scratching is also a way for cats to mark territory, they could help. How does she respond to catnip toys? Make they could help?

I'm sure the issue will resolve itself soon. It was just too much too soon for your cat. With the love and care you already seem to provide for her, she'll get better.

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Thanks! And OMG she loves catnip. LOL All of my cats have been on a constant high! I didn't know scratching could be a marking behavior.

The vet said she thinks the missing fur is an allergy. I covered my bed with an old plastic shower curtain and the vet thinks she's allergic to that. So she's not pulling her fur out by overgrooming. She's doing it because it's itchy. It hasn't gotten any worse, though.

I think I need another cat tree for upstairs. The big one is in the dining room right now.

Rats, she sprayed on my comforter this morning. I guess once every 4 days is pretty good considering--still an improvement.