Tonka’s lifestyle has changed over the last couple of months. After five years of roaming the neighbourhood during the daytime, Mrs. L.A. decided he would be an indoor cat. Then we adopted Goo. I did convert the patio into a catio, but Tonka is still cooped up. He and Goo get along well, but he’s no longer the Only Cat. We reassure him that he’s still a much-loved part of the family, but he has been urinating inappropriately – or even spraying (though he’s been neutered).
I thought about getting one of those ultraviolet flashlights to see if I can find the offensive spots, but one item description says ‘Not work well on cat urine’, while similar products say they do work for dried cat urine.
Have any of you used one of these UV flashlights as a cat urine detector? Did it work? If so, which one did you get?
Oh yeah, they work. I think we just bought one with decent reviews off of Amazon. It helped us find the urine. It was also depressing to see just how much there was once we looked.
Jackson Galaxy (my cat from hell, show host) mentions the feral cats outside. He says they often cause bad cat behaviour indoors. Keep that in mind. It’s not Tonkas fault. I think I remember you saying there was a feral colony near you. Maybe you could contact an organisation that traps, neuters and releases. It could reduce the hormones/pheromones floating around. Tonkas behaviours may settle down. Good luck.
The feral cats live 1/10 mile away. The ‘mama cat’ would come into the yard, and Tonka would chase her if he was out. Last time he was allowed out, a neighbor said it looked like they were on an adventure together; i.e., not adversarial. But the ‘colony’ doesn’t come down this way. Tonka would go up there.
The woman who complained Tonka was growling at her feral cats did contact WeSNIP last year. The cats were trapped, neutered or spayed, and returned.
I used the escolite, the one that is 12 bucks on Amazon at the moment. And, yes, with it you can easily see the urine. And the little dribbles from the cat peeing against the wall.
Do you have covered catboxes or open??
My male (neutered) won’t use an open box. He regulary uses the actual toilet in the downstairs guest 1/2 bath. (Sorry visitors).
I noticed him spraying a few times early on in his adulthood. So I got covered boxes. I also have 3 down stairs and 1 upstairs (rarerly used). Oh, and make sure he’s ok with type of litter. My 2 do not like the light weight stuff.
When I’ve had a cat that began to pee inappropriately, I’ve moved the litter box over to where it’s been peeing so it’ll use the box instead of the floor/wall. Then gradually move it back to its original location. It worked with 1 cat, who was peeing for the same reasons Tonka seems to, but not so much with another, who was an old cat and may have had other issues going on.
I put a litter box on the catio, and neither cat used it. Living in the catio is not an option. He actually does like his hoomans. Also, it snows up here.
Around the same time Mrs. L.A. confined Tonka and we adopted Goo, she also changed litter. The A&H Slide didn’t control the smell well enough, so she asked me to get pine litter. We’d used Feline Pine before, and it was OK. The pine litter I bought wasn’t Feline Pine; it was the only one they had that day at PetSmart. It didn’t control the smell as well as we remember Feline Pine doing. Mrs. L.A. asked me to buy Fresh Step Crystal, since she saw a commercial that said it reduced the aroma. It came in the mail, and she put that in the box. Tonka seemed to like it.
I really think Tonka’s inappropriate peeing is an emotional issue brought on by the several recent changes. I went ahead and ordered a UV light similar to the one SamuelA mentioned, and took Sunny Daze’s advice to find one with decent reviews. I also ordered a gallon of Biokleen Bac-Out enzymatic cleaner. I’ll find the urine, clean the area, and block off the areas if possible. I hope that will dissuade Tonka from his actions.
I only bring this up because this seems like the obvious solution if you can have a catio. Cats like it outside. They like to use the restroom outside. Cats like excreting in sand - they are presumably distant descendants of kitties that would bury their waste in the sand.
Furthermore, in the open air, a catbox sandbox would have almost no odor, and you would only need to rake the poop and then scoop it into a composter or bury or something once a month or so. So much less work, and less smell.
I figure if I ever own a house, the entire backyard will be fenced with cat contaiment (cat-tainment) fencing. And there would be a huge sandbox catbox, and the kitties would be able to go in and out freely. Maybe double cat-doors to reduce the air leakage.
