My partner has a jet-black yellow-eyed (if those make a difference) desexed female burmese cat, now about 9 1/2 years old. At about 8 she started spraying vertical surfaces in the house; first our big screen TV (!) then when dissuaded from in places that all over the house. It always seems to be on some distinct item, like a cupboard door, chest of drawers or the BBQ, not just a random piece of wall.
We can’t identify any reason why it started when it did; no particular change in the house or its occupants, no other pets added to the household. We thought initially it might be to cover the smell of other cats or possums that used to sneak into the house at night, but there had been some of that happening for years before she started doing this, and we’ve stopped that occurring now and she still does it. The best we’ve come up with is that some feral cat sprayed the TV, she sprayed it to reclaim her territory, and after that it just became a habit with no trigger any more.
If we catch her at it we scold her, and she usually doesn’t do it on that spot again (eg the TV). But there are hundreds of places in the house so this doesn’t seem likely to stop it altogether any time soon. We also regularly clean up the areas she sprays with a spray’n’wipe type of cleaner, hoping that removing her smell (or the alien smell she’s trying to cover up) will dissuade her, but the behaviour is persisting.
Does anyone have any idea why she might have started this - especially being desexed and female, I would have though this was a male thing - and is there any strategy we can use to stop it? Thanks all.
Since you say BBQ, I assume the cat isn’t indoors-only. She could be reacting to aggression from other cats or animals outdoors.
A nearly 10yo cat is elderly… you probably need to have her checked out by a veterinarian, as spraying can be a sign of illness.
I also recommend an enzyme cleaner to completely remove all traces of the urine. Regular cleaners won’t do it. And if the urine has penetrated into wooden surfaces, she may keep marking it.
I agree with the vet suggestion as well as the enzyme cleaner.
Mine are inside only, but I do have a colony of ferals who depend on me for food. There was a new guy who liked to spray my front door. My fixed male who always had wonderful litterbox manners started spraying the inside of the door. I trapped the feral and had it fixed, but the spraying didn’t stop until I hosed the door, inside and out with an enzyme cleaner.
Good thing, too, cause if that hadn’t worked, my kitty was going to go get stuffed in a carrior and taken to the place where people do rude things to him.
Thanks very much for the replies. Yes, she spends around half her time outdoors, and can come and go at will. She has yearly checkups at the vet, and the last one was only a month or so ago - she’s perfectly healthy.
We will look into the enzyme cleaner thing, but my impression is that will only help if the reason she’s doing it is to cover other smells (of organic origin presumably?) and we clean off those smells … as it is we’d have to swab practically every item in the house as she seems to pee anywhere. And I’m sure everything isn’t pre-peed!
Absolutely they can. Some female dogs lift their legs to mark territory and do the scratching-kicking-back for emphasis thing afterwards, too.
Another ditto for taking the cat to the vet for a comprehensive wellness exam; she’s getting into “senior” age range. Did she have a blood panel done last time? Also wouldn’t hurt to get a urinalysis, I think the vet can check for both diabetes and UTIs with a urine sample.
Might be scary, but hardware stores sell black lights for about $10 that will show up urine, even if it’s dried and old. :eek: If you can find Odormute at local stores (or online) you’ll find it much cheaper than some of the ready-mixed enzyme cleaners. Powder, you mix it with warm water. Costs about a dollar per gallon, very effective.
Another vote for a trip to the vet. This is common in urinary infections, and elderly cats are prone to kidney disease.
I’d also make sure the litter box is absolutely clean. Some cats make political statements when the litter box does not meet their demands for fastidiousness.
If you’ve changed to a new cat litter, the cat might be (prepare yourself) pissed off.
~VOW
In my experience, once a cat starts marking, you can only hope to control, not cure. You may have one of the rare successes, like flatlined did, but I wouldn’t count on it.
It’s the best urine odor remover I’ve found, and trust me…I’ve tried a lot of them. I would have to go through that routine about every 3-4 months or so. If you love your cats, it’s really not that onerous.
If your vet did a UA and blood panel, s/he should have given you a fairly detailed copy of the results (any vet I’ve ever gone to has.) If not, they’ll have that information. I don’t know how fast diabetes will manifest, but a UTI can come on quickly.
Really the bottom line with any inappropriate peeing is: Rule out medical reasons first, because they’re often really easy to fix. And because they are very common; medical reasons are probably the most common reason for incontinence in dogs or cats. Otherwise you could be going in circles “correcting” her or trying to figure out some complex psycho-social issue when all you need is a short, inexpensive course of antibiotics.
Going by the updates, which include the time span and vet visits, I’m going for territorial issues. Perhaps a litterbox inside would be helpful. If someone else is using her favorite places outside, she might feel threatened so wants to mark the only other places she has. Cats are teh weird. I understand that the OP might not want to have a litterbox inside, but at least the output would stay in one place so he doesn’t have to clean the walls and electronics.
On re-reading some of the replies, including the above: the issue is not peeing per se, she urinates outside like she always has, in the usual female cat squat.
This is just what I call spraying, which is where she points her bum at some vertical surface, does a kind of butt-shiver, and squirts drops of scented urine out. Sometimes it’s just a few drops, sometimes enough to actually run down the surface, but clearly not enough to empty her bladder.
So would all the recommendations re kidney disease etc apply to that behaviour, as distinct from just ordinary peeing?
