What's a good cat repellant?...and how do you stop a cat's peeing?

Factual Questions
21

Deacons, sorry to not answer earlier, but I’ve had computer problems compounded by the previous slowness of the boards.

It certainly sounds like your cat is responding to the stray cats she can see outside. Some cats are more just more territorial than others. I’m not sure that there is a lot you can do with YOUR cat in this situation, as she is responding to instinct and doesn’t have much (if any) conscious control over that she is doing.

The best solution is to prevent the stray cats from wandering around on your property. I don’t know how practical that would be for you as I don’t know anything about your housing situation. Other possibilities include blocking her access to the windows, covering the windows so that she can’t see out, etc., but those are also hard to manage, plus deprive your cat of her pleasure in viewing the outside world.

However, since you now have a pretty good idea why and where she is doing this, you might consider trying a product called Feliway. Feliway comes in a small spray bottle and contains feline facial pheromones, which are another marker used by cats - they deposit these pheromones whenever they rub their cheeks against objects. Research indicates that cats will not urinate wherever they have placed facial pheromone markers. For some reason these pheromones also seem to reduce anxiety - since facial marking seems to be a ‘friendly’ gesture among cats, I suppose the pheromones trigger warm, fuzzy feelings rather than aggressive ones.

Feliway is, in my experience, at least somewhat effective in preventing urinary marking. It is just not practical in many cases, as it needs to be re-applied daily (not something you want to do to an entire room or house!); however, in your situation applying it in the areas she is targeting may solve the problem. I don’t know if continuous use will eventually ‘re-train’ her instinctive response, but its possible that the artificial ‘friendly pheromone’ stimulation she receives at these locations will permanently modify her attitude towards seeing strange cats in her territory. I would love to know if this does happen, as it would be nice to know if instinctive behavior can be permanently (or even semi-permanently) modified in this manner.

You might also try the Feliway at your basement door - the pheromones may confuse her enough that she will quit trying to tear up your carpet. The vinegar might also work if she is reacting to the smell of mice or something - I don’t know if it will help if she is reacting to the sound of something small skittering around. It’s worth a try!

Feliway can probably be found at most of the large pet-supply sites and/or stores. Revival Animal Health has it in their catalog, so I assume you can order it from their website at http://www.revivalanimal.com . The price has certainly come down from when I tried it! I paid $40.00 for a bottle several years ago, and the price was one reason I didn’t continue using it. Revival has it for $19.95, and the price should be similar elsewhere.

Anyway, this is what Revival says about Feliway:

“Feliway has some of the properties of feline facial pheromones. Pheromones are chemical substances secreted by animals to confirm their territory, to communicate with others & familiarize themselves with their environment. Facial pheromones will inhibit urinary markings when applied to an area. Feliway may be used to stop or prevent urinary marking by cats. Also useful in comforting a cat in an unknown or stressful environment (cage, car, boarding, new house). Will not stain or mark.”

FWIW, Feliway did stop one of my stud cats from spraying his inside enclosure, but I had to apply it to the lower 2 feet of all of the walls (of a 10’x12’ room), his door, the walls near his shelf perches, his climbing post . . . at $40 a bottle, it just wasn’t worth it. I decided it was easier and cheaper to build outside habitats where the boys can spray to their hearts’ content. It DID seem to work for the short time I used it.

Hope this helps!

22

Our vet recommended the Scat Mat to us because one of our two cats peed on our couch. Sporadically. For years. For no particular reason. We provided more boxes, cleaned them every day, tried feeding her on the couch, and went through three different couches. Nothing worked.

For a long time, we bought plastic couch covers from U-Haul and put tin foil on them. That cut down the frequency, but she’d still pee. With the covers, we coul at least wipe up the pee without much trouble.

The vet checked her out three different times, but never found any urinary problems. A different vet at the same clinic finally recommended the Scat Mat. We were a bit hesitant – because of the price – but it’s been great. Since we put that on the couch, we haven’t had any pee incidents. The best part is that she didn’t start peeing somewhere else, which was a mild concern.

So a Scat Mat, if all else fails, might take care of the single area where your cat is scratching.

23

Is it possible to catch your cats in the act? If it is - try filling an ordinary spray bottle (like Windex) with plain water and set it on “stream.” Get a couple of shots at her while she’s going, and although she’ll be pissed as hell at you (um, perhaps I should rephrase) it’ll be a pretty concrete reminder that she shouldn’t be doing that. Worked pretty well with our Dinah.

I’m assuming, of course, that your cats are normal and hate water.

This can also work for scratching.

24

I’m bumping this thread to get some help for a similar problem.
The cat in question has been forced to accept three new kittens in the house. (She was the youngest of 5.) She is now peeing on the beds and couch. No vet problems, no new litter, boxes cleaned several times a day. When confined to the bathroom, she uses the box. She goes for no more than a week without wetting on something. Is this temporary or the start of a lifelong problem? Scatmats won’t cover all of all the beds, and we are resistant to spray anything directly on the bedding…ideas???

25

We had a cat who did something similar to this… and nothing worked, and we never did figure out why he was doing it. Eventually, someone living in this house did the very thing she didn’t want me to do, namely, flinging his ass outside. She expected to let him back in, eventually, but this was not possible because he never came back. Very sad. He was just a kitten, too, poor thing.

But we live in a pleasant suburban neighborhood with little traffic and lots of kids and he was cute and well-fed and had no collar. He probably found a nice new family with new floors to pee on. I hope so; I was really kinda sad when he left. But the other cats were thrilled, even his mother, the heartless wretch. I kept my eyes open and saw no kittycat corpses on any nearby streets for a good while thereafter, so chances are good, I hope.

Man. Thanks for bringing back painful memories, Dragonlady!! :slight_smile:

Only useful info in entire long post: We used a product called “Simple Solution Cat Spray & Urine Stain & Odor Remover” ($9.99 a gallon) on our bedding and other items he peed on. You just add a bit in the washing machine and it works wonderfully. Good luck.

26

As a side note. It takes ALOT of that stuff on a spot or in the wash. I use about a cup of it in the wash. On the carpets I pour it straight on the spot on the floor making sure to cover it completely, let it soak for several minutes and then use the wet vac to vacuum it up.

And for the record the straw that broke the camel’s back was when he peed in the baby’s carseat. I tossed him out while I tried to salvage it, fully intending to let him back in after I had finished. I didn’t want to do physical harm to him and I was afriad that if I saw him wonder around whilst trying to disassemble the carseat I just might. So out he went. Alas, never to return. :frowning:

27

Do NOT use ammonia, even for cleaning, the ammonia smell of urine is what encourages the cat to return to the same place.

Much help and advice generally here .

28

Even better.

29

Thanks, I’m glad I asked!
Gotta wade through these sites and see what I can find!

30

The 2 things i’ve tried and worked for a cat i had years ago.Was spraying red wine vinegar in the spot or spreading out some crushed red pepper to keep the cat away.Don’t use vinegar in plants though.

31

Cats hate the smell of mothballs, but unfortunately so do most humans, so using them inside the house is probably out of the question. But they do work great outside to keep cats from the flowerbeds or other gardens. Our tractor barn has a dirt floor and we had terrible problems with cat dookie in there, moreso in the winter months than summer. It was probably the only place for miles around that wasn’t snow covered so it drew cats in from far and wide. They would also get under our deck and it would smell so bad in the spring that opening the front windows was out of the question. I bought a couple boxes of mothballs, scattered them in the flowers, under the deck, and in the tractor barn, and our cat dookie problems are over. We haven’t had squirrels or nearly as many mice out in the barn since then, either.

There is one caveat to the mothballs though…they are toxic to humans. They won’t damage the environment, but if you have small children that might pick one up and put it in their mouth you would have to take that into consideration.