Please help! Cat soiling indoors

[Lomond19]

Hello, I've just posted another thread about some inter-cat aggression that happens occasionally despite my three cats all seemingly getting on well the rest of the time (they sit and sleep curled up together and groom each other a lot). All three cats are indoor cats and are neutered.

My other issue - and I'm really hoping someone can help as I'm so stressed out and desperate - is that our newest cat, Leo, is soiling inside. He is a male, two-year old neutered rescue cat. As such, we don't know his history but he had been living outdoors as a stray and wasn't neutered until around 18 months when they rescued him.

Leo still regularly uses the litter boxes for pee and poops. We have four litter boxes for them and they are different kinds (covered, uncovered, top entry) and they are all in the biggest size I could buy. We've tried different types of litter too. We originally had three litter boxes but increased it to four. These are scooped several times a day and cleaned out regularly too.

We used a baby camera to identify which can was soiling. My understanding is that it is toileting rather than spraying. It happened once, a couple of months after we adopted him, then nothing for over two months, but over the last month it's happened four times.

He has been with us six months and has urinated on our bed four times, and on one occasion there was also a small amount of poop along with the urine. He also sleeps on our bed every single night without fail (he likes the warmth I think!). He has also urinated on the couch once and once on a fluffy mat on the floor which attaches to their tunnel. He never had any issues when we took him to the vets on two previous occasions, but yesterday he urinated and defecated in his carrier on the way back (we walk as it's only 10mins away)

Each time I have used enzymatic cleaners etc and gone through a thorough process to remove the scent. We have waterproof mattress protectors on the bed and sofa but it's an endless cycle of cleaning!

We have Feliway and Pet Remedy diffusers plugged in.

I've been keeping a log and there seems to be no pattern to it other than it happens in the evening. It doesn't happen after any aggression between the cats and he doesn't seem to be spooked by anything beforehand.

Now that we've been able to identify which cat is doing it, the vet is running some tests to see if it's medical, but they think it's probably behavioural. He is a lovely friendly cat and good with people. Uses the litter box generally. He does have problems with scratching carpets and furniture which we're also trying to work on.

It's becoming really stressful and I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what we can try next?

Thank you very much

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Glad you are getting the medical possibilities checked out! Since you've noticed the pattern ties to the evening, is there a way for you to check outdoors to see if a new neighbor cat or a stray is roaming about - setting off Leo? Maybe some cameras? That might even explain some of the inter-aggression you've seen among all the cats. If so, it would just seem that Leo is more prone to being bothered by things like that than the others.

 

[Caspers Human]

Nine times out of ten, when a cat that knows how to use a litter box urinates or defecates outside of the box, it is likely because of some kind of territorial issue.

A little story to illustrate:
Way back in the day, when I had my first cat, K.C., I had to move to a new apartment where I wasn't allowed to have cats. My mom said it would be okay for K.C. to live in my family home. Everything went well for a while until he started pooping in my brother's bedroom closet. They couldn't figure out why. K.C. had always been a good litter box user when he lived in my apartment. He never went outside the box. Then, when he moved to my parents' home, he started going outside the box. It was frustrating!

I came home to visit for the holiday. It was great to visit my cat. I missed him. But, soon, the conversation turned to K.C.'s litter box avoidance.

It wasn't until a couple of days after I had been home until I discovered the reason...
We had a black Labrador Retriever that lived in his own pen, outdoors, but for some stupid reason, my brother thought it would be fun to bring the dog indoors so he could "play" with the cat.

The cat only had a little experience with dogs. Never did a dog come into his house like that. The dog had zero experience with cats. It was a no-brainer once I saw what was going on... Every time my brother brought the dog into the house, the cat would take a dump in his closet!

After I convinced (yelled at) my brother to keep the dog outside where he belongs, the cat stopped going outside the box. The problem went away.

I'm not trying to say that your situation is the same. What I'm getting at is that there is some issue that we don't understand that is contributing to your cat's litter box avoidance. Seeing as how you have other cats (and/or other animals) in the house, it's likely that your cat's problem has a similar root cause.

Make sure he has his own litter box that he can use, by himself, if he wants to. It's common to have at least one litter box per cat. (I know you already do that.)

Like I said, 90% of the time, when a cat goes out of the litter box it's because he's marking territory so you need to figure out some way to give him territory that he can rule over.

 

[Lomond19]

Hi both, thank you so much for the helpful replies - I really appreciate it!

There's a cat that we sometimes hear outside, who we believe lives down the street. Although this noise hasn't coincided with the soiling incidents, it could certainly still be the reason. We've been using Feliway and Pet Remedy diffusers, and I've been leaving the bedroom blinds closed so that he can't look outside and see the other cat. Our apartment is one floor up (with one other apartment on bottom floor). Our downstairs neighbour also has a cat - would it be possible that Leo could hear or smell him? They never see each other though. We also sometimes see the odd fox outside at night.

I've thought about getting sheets of temporary frosting stuff to cover the windows so he can't see outside, but I've been reluctant because closing the blinds didn't help, and also because Bella and Alfie (my other two cats) really love watching cat TV out of the windows (we have trees with lots of birds and squirrels to watch outside) and I feel it would be unfair to them.

We have four litter boxes for the three of them- I could introduce another but it would be difficult to keep it just for him, as the other cats will use it too, so I'm not sure how to go about that?

I'm not sure if it's worth mentioning but when he urinated on the bed most recently (when we caught him on the camera), it was actually in the middle of a play session! We often take the Da Bird wand across the whole home so they can chase it between rooms and like an obstacle course up the cat trees etc. My partner had been playing with him in our bedroom, left the room to take the wand to play in another room, and then when he returned, he saw the puddle of pee. In the meantime, it appears Leo did his business then ran straight through to continue playing. It's all so confusing!

Thank you again for your time and advice

 

[Caspers Human]

Yes, indoor cats can smell other cats that live outdoors even if they can’t see them... especially if the other cats aren’t neutered.

If you have any un-spayed females in your house, the outdoor males will spray around the outside of your house. Even if you cant see them, your cats can smell them, almost as if the walls aren’t even there.

We have outdoor cats that come up on our back patio and they sometimes cause our cat, Casper, to go crazy. He is neutered but the other cats are not. Luckily, Casper hasn’t peed outside his box because of them but I do try to scare off the interlopers as much as I can.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I wonder if he has some issues controlling his bladder - given the peeing when playing, or any other form of excitement (like smelling, sensing another cat outside). It could even somehow be tied to inflammation in his bladder, so maybe something will be identified with the tests the vet is running. Let us know what happens with vet and the tests!!

 

[Lomond19]

Thank you for taking the time to reply and sorry for the slow response!

I'll hopefully find out about his urine test results in the next few days - the vet's going to call me when the results are back. I'm also going to ask the vet if he could have any problems like the bladder control you mentioned, or nerve issues. He was injured when rescued and it looks like he was in a road traffic accident, although we'll never know for sure. He had past injuries which suggest an impact to his rear legs and hips etc.

The downstairs cat is definitely neutered as it's our landlady who lives there and she always wants to chat about the cats
The cat we sometimes see outside might not be neutered though, especially as we sometimes hear noises that sounds like a cat calling. The peeing incidents haven't coincided with these occasions though, and I thought that since we're one floor up, her might not have noticed the scents - but I'm now thinking that this might be the issue! Our landlady also told us that the same cat from down the street has come into her apartment, scared her cat and left a poop on her chair, now that I think about it...

Fortunately, we're moving house in May so it will be interesting to see if that makes difference - although I really hope I can find away to improve the situation before then!

Thanks again

 

[Caspers Human]

Our landlady also told us that the same cat from down the street has come into her apartment, scared her cat and left a poop on her chair, now that I think about it...

That could be contributing to your problem.

You and your cats being upstairs while the others are downstairs or outside probably helps but I don't think it eliminates the problem completely. If there has been an intruder in the downstairs apartment, you cats will likely notice.

If the interloper left a dookie inside your landlady's house, that's definitely a territorial behavior. It could be part of the cause of your cat's territorial behavior. It's a lot like the ways dogs pee on trees.

Like I said, above, we have a cat that comes up on our back patio and there's another that prowls around the front door. I know that the front door cat has left a dookie in the bushes. I don't know if the back door cat has left anything there but it's a female (calico) so I'm not too worried about that one.

My main concern is that the outdoor cats, prowling around the house, will cause Casper to start marking territory.
So far, scaring them off has been keeping the problem at bay. I just run outside, yell and make "monster noises" at them and stomp my feet whenever I see them.

If this does become a problem, I will call the local animal control people. There is an "Animals At Large" ordinance in my town and it specifically includes cats in the language. (I have looked it up and read it.)

I don't want to get the local constabulary involved unless it becomes necessary.