Re-educating the neurotic cat
As mentioned the cat is very stress-sensitive. If something upsets him, he will express this by abnormal behavior like uncleanliness, excessive sharpening of his nails, excessive cleaning himself, excessive eating, depressed behavior or aggression. Situations that might bring stress are for example: move, a new baby, a new pet, and for the mega-sensitive cat: a new couch, new cat’s box filling etc.
Re-educating the neurotic cat requires a lot of cat psychology knowledge, a lot of patience and perseverance.
A. Firstly :
Try to find the cause and if possible, eliminate it. If it concerns a new cat’s box grit brandor a new cleansing agent…..no problem. But a new home or a new baby………you need to deal with your cat roughly. You should always give your cat extra attention and involve him in everything: For example: if your baby takes a bath with you, have the cat observe this quietly. If you move, make sure you spread many (unwashed !) blankets, on which your cat has lied, in the new house etc. It’s a hopeless task to mention what you can do to reassure your cat; after all this depends on the situation, but these basis rules might help you:
1. Give the cat a lot of attention
2. A cat and familiar smells are very important: Let the cat smell new things and let her mark her smells (nuzzling, licking)
3. Try to imitate the old situation as good as possible (Food/playing on the same time, same blanket, cat’s box etc…)
B. More about uncleanliness:
You must first check if uncleanliness isn’t a consequence of the fact that the (not castrated) tomcat or female cat grows up sexually or suffers from for example a bladder infection or problem in the gastrointestinal tract.
If not, you deal with a real stress-uncleanliness.
What you shouldn’t do is rubbing your cat with his nose through the urine or droppings: This is the worst humiliation which your, already stressed, cat can have. He will not understand that this is a punishment for his “uncleanliness”.
Since your cat will seldom urinate outside his box while you are present, it might be very hard to catch him red-handed and punish him.
That is why there are two therapies:
1. You bring your cat to a cat kennel, in a space where more cats live together.
The stressed cat will have to adjust himself to the group’s rules and despite of the fact that this is a stress-situation on its own, the cat’s psyche must be restored.
You must leave your cat in the kennel at least 2-3 weeks. In the meantime you must clean you house well. Not with ammonia because this only attracks the cat to pee there. You must sprinkle the urinated places with eau de cologne twice a day during your cat’s absence: You use this to perfectly camouflage the urine smell (which a human being cannot smell anymore). Besides eau de cologne is an unpleasant smell stimulant for the cat. Sprays are also available for this, amongst others Feliway (available at your veterinarian).
2. The cat’s box training in the house
You lock your cat up in a small room which has enough space for the cat’s box, trough, water bowl and pillow of the cat. The cat will not dirty his nest anymore and is obligated to use the box.
The animal should at least stay two weeks in the small room, which might sometimes be hard for the owner. The choice, however, is simple: either two weeks training or a stressed cat which dirties the house? During the training you must treat the urinated spots as mentioned above.