Cats and marking/spraying

Re: Cats and marking/spraying

funkyfish — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:59:59 GMT

Right I will dig out notes and re read them incase I got it wrong! May be posting an apology later...

Re: Cats and marking/spraying

Lucy Brett — Wed, 30 May 2012 10:20:30 GMT

Oh, thanks for letting me know. I will investigate. Very odd. Feliway was invented as a treatment for urine spraying and has been used for such for over 20 years. I was aware that cats occasional spray on the unit, but this is fairly unusual and I was always lead to believe this is due to the fact that when you first plug it in (i.e. before it starts releasing Feliway) it is just an new electrical devise. There is lots of evidence that some cats don't like electrical devices and will also spray toasters, DVD players etc. I know this has not been seen in any of the trails. I will investigate further and let you know. As Feliway is sold on a money back guarantee we would hope we would hear about cats spraying on the unit regularly if it was a problem and having just had a look at my records I have not heard about a cat spraying a diffuser since December 2010. However, if anyone has seen this please let me know. Thank you Lucy

Re: Cats and marking/spraying

funkyfish — Tue, 29 May 2012 22:00:18 GMT

Came from recent Langford feline CPD, unless I completely miss understood my notes. Use feliway for urine marking ie territory marking but this is different to stress spraying. Ie cat who sprays on sofa cos something scary happened there will get confused if feliway applied there as it knows it doesn't like the sofa. That's why some cats spray on a feliway plug in to highlight the fact that they are not happy in that room. If I have misunderstood my notes I appologise! But it did kind of make sense.

Re: Cats and marking/spraying

Lucy Brett — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:58:37 GMT

Hello,

I am Lucy from CEVA. I'm their resident pheromone geek. I have an e-mail that someone wanted feliway / urine spraying info. Just thought you might like to look at the links below. The first gives a link to a summary of all the Feliway papers including the 9 which look at using it to reduce urine spraying and the second is from the Feline Advisory Bureau website which gives some more info on using feliway, making changes to the environment.... etc. Hope this helps.

https://publicationsystem.secure-zone.net/v2/index.jsp?id=2054/2505/6605&lng=en

http://www.fabcats.org/behaviour/spraying/info.html

I have to admit I have not heard of Feliway setting up emotional conflict in urine spraying cats. Are you thinking of Felifriend FF? Whilst rare there have been some reports of this causing problems if used incorrectly, but this is not usually used for urine spraying.

Shout if I can help.

Lucy

Re: Cats and marking/spraying

Louise B — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:05:40 GMT

[quote user="funkyfish"]

DONT USE FELIWAY FOR SPRAYING!!!!

Spraying and face rubbing are the cat leaving post it notes saying, I don't like this (spraying) and I like this (face rubbing), if you put feliway where they don't like they will get more stressed as they are confused by the mixed signals.

[/quote]

Just curious becuase you have bolded it to make your point - but where did this information / idea about 'mixed signals - confusion - increased stress' originate?

Cheers

Re: Cats and marking/spraying

funkyfish — Mon, 28 May 2012 10:41:50 GMT

DONT USE FELIWAY FOR SPRAYING!!!!

Also is it spraying or is it inappropriate urination?

Is there any chronic cystitis?

Re: Cats and marking/spraying

meep_ kitten — Sun, 20 May 2012 21:20:03 GMT

I think stress is largely due to the newest arrival cat from last year. Although we always had fosters and she wasn't bothered before. And she has a heart condition so that might make her a bit anxious too. Have multiple litter trays, feed them separately, keep them apart as much as possible to stop them scrapping. The other cats seem happy and contented (despite the occassional scrap with this girl!) but yes, I really am starting to think she would be happier in an only-cat household. It breaks my heart that she seems miserable - I guess weeing everywhere is her only outlet for her discontent

Re: Cats and marking/spraying

Katy — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:08:14 GMT

Lionel my rescue cat will pee on the floor in front of me if I am cleaning out his litter trays!!! He also is a "use the litter tray once" cat and if his tray has a poop in it, he poops on the carpet!!!

I've got 3 trays and 3 cats.Cleo toilets outside, but if it is raining, the lazy madam uses the tray!

I am hoping once the weather gets better and the cats spend more time outside, they will stop using the trays.

I'd say get a feliway diffuser first, or try and work out why she has suddenly become stressed.

Re: Cats and marking/spraying

Sal the 1st — Sun, 20 May 2012 09:47:24 GMT

I played by the 1 tray each rules plus one extra for ages with the two cats I have now - and always ended up with 1 tray that never ever got used, and I swapped them around a bit so it was never the same tray but still the same result. I suppose I was lucky I always had a tray that never got used and didnt need changing

Re: Cats and marking/spraying

Julie-Anne Wilson — Sun, 20 May 2012 09:20:33 GMT

[quote user="Mark Hedberg"]

Do you have at least as many litter boxes as you do cats? (Yes, I'm sure they can go outside if they like, but the answer should be "one for every cat".

[/quote]

Plus an extra one so there's never any fighting over space. My vets also tell all cat owners to have different sizes of litter trays in different colours with different types of litter in them.

Re: Cats and marking/spraying

Mark Hedberg — Sun, 20 May 2012 06:37:43 GMT

Do you have at least as many litter boxes as you do cats? (Yes, I'm sure they can go outside if they like, but the answer should be "one for every cat".

Re: Cats and marking/spraying

Steph Worsley — Sun, 20 May 2012 01:19:03 GMT

I would suggest feliway in the first instance while awaiting a behavioural consult. Unfortunately cats are hard ones to assess without actually seeing what is going on in the home environment so suggestions that may work for one house may not work for you.

Some people are going to shoot me down for saying this as has happened in the past!!! As a last resort you may have to consider rehoming her to a sole cat household, a stressed cat is an unhappy cat, if you were unhappy in a house with 2 other people you didn't get on with you can remove yourself from the situation, cats rarely have this opportunity.

But I would try seeking a professional behaviourists advice (which won't come cheap and they should insist on a home visit or at least video footage of the whole situation) The only other thing is if she has been "happy" up till this point can you pinpoint what happened just before she became more stressed could you remove this trigger?