Next Step: Feliway Diffuser (inappropriate Urination)

[Paradox]

Hello everyone!

First off, I'd like to thank all of you for reading this thread & my past threads in regards to the health of my kitties. It means a lot to me.

I posted a while back about my cat, Light, who has issues with inappropriate urination. We've tried a wide variety of things to help him to stop. Experiment with different litter substrates, different litter boxes, switched him to an all wet food diet (in which I've tried multiple higher quality brands and add water to them to make sure he gets a good amount of fluid intake,) a water fountain, multiple antibiotic treatments, Gabapentin, cleaning soiled spots with an enzymatic cleaner, the list goes on and on.

He especially likes to urinate on carpet. We recently moved to a large new house with all hardwood floors. We hadn't seen any inappropriate urination for this first month of living there. Then, the horror began. I'm not sure WHERE he peed, but our robotic Eufy vacuum ran over it and now I'm Googling things like "how to clean cat pee out of a Roomba." At first, I thought maybe he peed ON it, but he's showed no signs of distress towards the quiet little vacuum, and this was INSIDE of it so it had to have been sucked up. We didn't realize it until the next day when we went to empty out the container. The smell of the gunk in the waste bin of the robo-vac was undeniably cat pee.

So, after much stress and cleaning, I browsed the internet a bit and found that Feliway diffusers could be the solution to Light's problem. Along with inappropriate urination, he chews on plastic and meows a bit excessively--which all three could be stemmed from stress. I never really thought of him being stressed before, as he's a Siamese/Colorpoint mix and the meowing I always just chalked up to him being a chatterbox.

Have any of you had any good/bad experiences with Feliway diffusers? I read somewhere that a person was able to successfully put the diffuser on a timer to help with the monthly cost of refilling it and have a spare Smart Life plugin I could use it with.

Here's a snap of Light out with his little sister, Pascal. :3

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! Some cats don't respond to feliway, but there are a lot of other products, with a lot of different ingredients from CBD oil to valerian, chamomile, casein etc.
A timer is a great idea.
My boy didn't react at all to the feliway being used at one of my previous vets but he did seem somewhat more relaxed at the house with the comfort zone with feliway.
Be wary of fake feliway products and really look at the labelling.
Best of luck to you!!

 

[Paradox]

Hi! Some cats don't respond to feliway, but there are a lot of other products, with a lot of different ingredients from CBD oil to valerian, chamomile, casein etc.
A timer is a great idea.
My boy didn't react at all to the feliway being used at one of my previous vets but he did seem somewhat more relaxed at the house with the comfort zone with feliway.
Be wary of fake feliway products and really look at the labelling.
Best of luck to you!!

When you say Chamomile, do you mean essential oils? I've been researching which essential oils are safe to use around the house for cleaners and linen fresheners and found mixed reviews on their effects and which ones to steer clear of. Diffusing essential oils to calm *all* of us would be so much more ideal than the Feliway. I haven't ran across any success stories as of yet.

 

[Furballsmom]

No, I'm sorry, I should have clarified; chamomile tea, made from the little tea bags.
2-3 teaspoons a couple times a day.

 

[Furballsmom]

Let me give you this info of over the counter products;
There is Zylkene, Calming Care, Calm-o-mile, Sentry, Natures Miracle calming spray, Vetri-Science's Composure is another item to look at, Pet Remedy (it has valerian) is yet another, as is Essential Pet Pet-ease, Only Natural Pet (brand and website) has a calming product, Pet Naturals also has one I believe.
Also Thunderease has diffusers.
Lambert Vet Supply is a website to look at, and of course amazon and chewy, also there's Petwishpros, drsfostersmith, animaleo.

There are a couple of recent discussions about calming items, here's the link to one thread. Post #6 in this has a link to the second discussion.
Calming Treats?

 

[Paradox]

Let me give you this info of over the counter products;
There is Zylkene, Calming Care, Calm-o-mile, Sentry, Natures Miracle calming spray, Vetri-Science's Composure is another item to look at, Pet Remedy (it has valerian) is yet another, as is Essential Pet Pet-ease, Only Natural Pet (brand and website) has a calming product, Pet Naturals also has one I believe.
Also Thunderease has diffusers.
Lambert Vet Supply is a website to look at, and of course amazon and chewy, also there's Petwishpros, drsfostersmith, animaleo.

There are a couple of recent discussions about calming items, here's the link to one thread. Post #6 in this has a link to the second discussion.
Calming Treats?

Wow! Thank you SO much! I'll add this to my research repo & take a look at that thread & search for some others. You're the best.

 

[Furballsmom]

You're so welcome!

 

[Stinky15]

Hello everyone!

First off, I'd like to thank all of you for reading this thread & my past threads in regards to the health of my kitties. It means a lot to me.

I posted a while back about my cat, Light, who has issues with inappropriate urination. We've tried a wide variety of things to help him to stop. Experiment with different litter substrates, different litter boxes, switched him to an all wet food diet (in which I've tried multiple higher quality brands and add water to them to make sure he gets a good amount of fluid intake,) a water fountain, multiple antibiotic treatments, Gabapentin, cleaning soiled spots with an enzymatic cleaner, the list goes on and on.

He especially likes to urinate on carpet. We recently moved to a large new house with all hardwood floors. We hadn't seen any inappropriate urination for this first month of living there. Then, the horror began. I'm not sure WHERE he peed, but our robotic Eufy vacuum ran over it and now I'm Googling things like "how to clean cat pee out of a Roomba." At first, I thought maybe he peed ON it, but he's showed no signs of distress towards the quiet little vacuum, and this was INSIDE of it so it had to have been sucked up. We didn't realize it until the next day when we went to empty out the container. The smell of the gunk in the waste bin of the robo-vac was undeniably cat pee.

So, after much stress and cleaning, I browsed the internet a bit and found that Feliway diffusers could be the solution to Light's problem. Along with inappropriate urination, he chews on plastic and meows a bit excessively--which all three could be stemmed from stress. I never really thought of him being stressed before, as he's a Siamese/Colorpoint mix and the meowing I always just chalked up to him being a chatterbox.

Have any of you had any good/bad experiences with Feliway diffusers? I read somewhere that a person was able to successfully put the diffuser on a timer to help with the monthly cost of refilling it and have a spare Smart Life plugin I could use it with.

Here's a snap of Light out with his little sister, Pascal. :3

Are you using any ammonia or ammonia based cleaning products on the floors or elsewhere?

 

[Paradox]

Are you using any ammonia or ammonia based cleaning products on the floors or elsewhere?

Not that I'm aware of. We always try to clean around the litter boxes with enzyme cleaner and I use basic dish soap & water for any cleaning beyond that.

He seemed to be doing fine in the new house until a friend brought their toddler over, so I'm wondering if that pushed his anxiety over the edge or something cause both my kitties were trying to run away from his grabby hands. I'll have to put the cats up in a spare room before they come to visit next time. Or, for all we know, he's continued doing it since the move & this is just the first we've caught him. I'm hoping that's not the case though, coming across that awful urine smell & having to clean it after it's set is never fun.

 

[Stinky15]

Not that I'm aware of. We always try to clean around the litter boxes with enzyme cleaner and I use basic dish soap & water for any cleaning beyond that.

He seemed to be doing fine in the new house until a friend brought their toddler over, so I'm wondering if that pushed his anxiety over the edge or something cause both my kitties were trying to run away from his grabby hands. I'll have to put the cats up in a spare room before they come to visit next time. Or, for all we know, he's continued doing it since the move & this is just the first we've caught him. I'm hoping that's not the case though, coming across that awful urine smell & having to clean it after it's set is never fun.

Reason I asked was I either read or saw on TV that you shouldn't use ammonia with cats because urine contains ammonia and it might give them the wrong idea. I definitely would put cats up around a toddler.