spraying-cats

Urinating and spraying by cats in the house is much undesired behavior and very nasty for their owners. But also for the cat himself it isn’t a good situation since this behavior is often caused by stress. Fortunately, we can often avoid the development of spraying behavior by having the cats castrated/sterilized when they are 6 months old. Sometimes this isn’t enough and the spraying behavior will arise again. If we want to get rid of this problem we must first find the cause of it. Before we conclude that it is indeed caused by stress, we must first exclude medical causes for frequently urinating. In case of bladder infection the cat is often in a state of urgency and small pees can be found in the house, possibly with a red color due to mixture with blood. There are also diseases which cause that the cat starts drinking more due to which he will logically start urinating more. In these cases it might occur that the cat cannot hold his water anymore and starts urinating on undesired spots in the house.

If above mentioned medical causes are excluded we can conclude that the disrupted urinating behavior is caused by stress of your cat. Stress feelings can have many causes. Many occurring causes are amongst others:

• Imbalance in relation to other cats in which another cat often dominates the “spraying cat”. The other, dominant cat, doesn’t need to live in the same house, he might also be a cat from the neighborhood. It also occurs that it is the dominant cat which sprays.

• Changes in the immediate surroundings like: move, rebuilding, new furniture, a baby in the house, new pets in the house, death of other pet or family member.

• Nervous character of the cat

The best solution for the cat of course is to remove the cause. But in many cases this isn’t possible.

Medicinal treatment possibilities concerning stress with cats:

•  Feliway-spray® or evaporator:
 
These products fight stress by means of smell, thanks to which the cat will feel more at ease. These are so-called “pheromones”, body’s own smells which the cat also leaves behind himself when he nuzzles.

• Clomicalm® :
 
A kind of antidepressant in tablet form, also called “Prozac” for pets. This is used as final remedy and might cause that the cat will become a bit listless. There are good experiences with this medication.

If the problem behavior arises by imbalance in the cat group in one household and doesn’t bring results with above mentioned medication, a transfer of the cat to another address might be a solution.