Female, neutered cat peeing on kitchen counters

[catownerireland]

Hi all,

I was the owner of a 4 year old male, neutered male cat and a small dog. I took in a pair of neutered 2-3 year old cats - one male, one female - last year in May. Around Christmas time the female peed on the counter top in the kitchen. Its been happening intermittently since with no pattern. Im at a loss what to do. She doesnt get on with yhe exisiting tom, he has stopped fully grooming himself also. Is it stress? I thought I was helping a friend by rehoming the two cats but the female is inbearable at the moment - i fear he couldnt handle her and wanted rid of them. She is, for the most part, a friendly cat and very affectionate but the attacking of my exisiting cat and the peeing on the counters is too much to take. Please help, i just wat her to be happy and content

 

[pusheen]

Is she spraying or peeing? If she squats over the counter, it's peeing.

 

[catownerireland]

She is peeing as she squatting.

 

[miss ellie]

Hi, if she is spraying then she is exhibiting exactly the same behaviour as our cat.  We took in two female kittens that were dumped at about the age of three weeks.  All was fine although they both were extremely nervous around strangers.  At about two/three years old one of them (Roxie) started spraying on the kitchen counter and beating up an older cat.  I had no idea what was going on and even considered rehoming her.  Eventually, however, I took her to the vet who discovered (through an x-ray) that her bladder was full of  Calcium Oxalate and Struvite crystals and she had a bladder infection.  She had to immediately go onto urinary tract food and antibiotics which cleared the symptoms up.  Every so often, however, the condition would flare up again and she was put back on the urinary tract food and antibiotics.  Two weeks ago I took her to another vet as she had quite a bit of blood in her urine.  This vet, as chance would have it, specialises in cat medicinary things.  He has diagnosed that the cat has FIS which affects the bladder and flares up whenever she is stressed.  We also have two dogs and I have worked out that whenever they give a warning bark (which is quite often as we live very close to a road) she will run away and shortly afterwards starting spraying and beating up the other cat.  So now is permanently on the urinary tract food and whenever the condition flares up she goes back onto the painkillers.  We have also been advised to place a number of bowls with fresh water around the place (away from the food) together with a few litter trays.  We have also been advised to place Feliway everywhere but that isn't practical for a number of reasons.  We are, however, going to try her on another food that has some sort of calming agent in it. 

I hope this helps and that I haven't bored the life out of you!

Good luck.

 

[pusheen]

Spraying is a territorial issue, which would mean she's fighting with the other cats over space. But if she is peeing, then I would probably take her to the vet to get checked for a UTI. Peeing outside of the litter box is very strange behavior, and isn't usually caused by stress or nervousness.

 

[StefanZ]

Mine reaction is too, a vet visit to see if its an urine/kidney problem,  and also, to have some Feliway diffusers...

Cats in pain dont have the same patience as healthy cats, so her quarrels with another cat can have at least two different causes.

Feliway should help if there are stress problems.  There are surely also other tricks along this way, if they still arent friends, or at least, peacefully coeexisting...

For example, each of the opponents shall have its own safe corner including sleeping/hiding  place,  food, water litter in different places, so they dont need to meet, if they dont wish so...

 

[miss ellie]

I totally agree with you Stefanz and would like to add that, when Roxie is not in pain, she and the older cat get on fine and will actually sleep fairly close to each other!  A website I found to be really useful in explaining the condition and what you can do to help the sufferer is www.Icatcare.org under the sub section Feline Idiopathetic Cystitis. 

 

[Columbine]

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