Why is my female cat spraying and how can I make it stop?

I found a great article, but it is only available through the Wayback Machine. So, I've taken the liberty to paste the relevant parts here: A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO FELINE HOUSESOILING by Susan Little DVM Diplomate ABVP (Feline Practice) The most common behavioural complaint about cats presented to animal behaviour consultants in North America is house-soiling. The typical presentation is that of a cat that both uses its litterbox and eliminates outside of it.It is also typical for the cat to deposit only urine or stool outside the box, but not usually both.

It is critically important to discriminate between medical and non-medical causes of a behaviour problem. The common occurrence of feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD - formerly called FUS) makes this especially important for house-soiling problems in cats. This holds true whether the problem is soiling with urine and/or stools, or if it involves spraying or marking behaviours.

A good history of the problem is second in importance only to the tests required to rule-out medical problems for both diagnosis and treatment. It is essential to establish an accurate diagnosis for each case. Remember that a problem behaviour is not necessarily an abnormal one - most problem behaviours are actually normal ones which are exhibited in an inappropriate manner.

When your veterinarian is taking a history of a housesoiling problem be prepared to answer questions such as: - detailed description of the problem, its duration, progression and severity - a description of any associated events - a description of any corrections already attempted - a description of the environment: ie. Number of animals, number of litterboxes, locations of boxes, interactions between animals, etc.- medical history (ie any history of intestinal problems or FLUTD) There are 3 basic categories of housesoiling problems: 1. Normal elimination at an inappropriate site (most common type) 2. Marking behaviour (spraying).

It is important to distinguish between urinating outside the box and spraying - this is done by a description of the cat's body posture and location of the urine voiding. 3. Medical disease ** or a combination of any of the above ** After taking a complete history of the problem, your veterinarian will want to run some medical tests.

A urinalysis is always indicated when house-soiling involves urine, and is usually necessary if stools are involved as well. It is not unusual for a cat to have a medical problem when the behaviour history is suggestive of only behavioural factors. Other tests may involve blood samples to determine if another medical problem, such as kidney disease, is contributing to the housesoiling.

A diagnosis is reached by applying criteria to show which of the potential contributing factors (both medical and psychological) are involved. A working diagnosis has the advantage of suggesting the factors which must be modified in the treatment plan. A treatment plan is then formulated.

The plan should be designed to: entice the cat back to the litterbox using any changes (sometimes extraordinary) necessary, and modify the inappropriate site to make it unattractive or inaccessible. It helps to understand that elimination in cats is actually a sequence of individual behaviours, and a problem can develop at any of the steps involved. In nature, cats have an infinite variety of sites and substrates for elimination, but in a home setting, they are expected to use a restricted number of sites (often only one) and a restricted type of substrate (again, often only one).

The contributing factors to housesoiling: Location/Litterpan aversion: the location or the box itself can become associated with aversive events for the same reasons that the litter itself can (ie pain, fear, odour, etc. ). Most cats prefer an easily accessible spot, but one with some privacy.So strike a balance between getting it out of the way for your own sake, and making it private but not too distant for the cat's sake. Some cats prefer open boxes, some prefer the privacy of closed boxes, most like large boxes, a few like small ones.

Cats will learn a preference in which elimination becomes associated with a specific location(s). This type of preference can develop very quickly if a cat first chooses to go out of the litterbox for any other reason. It is to be strongly suspected if a cat repeatedly goes back to one area, or one room.

Some of these location preferences can become ridiculous, so don't be surprised by anything (the most outrageous I've heard is a location preference for the middle of the dining room table). To help treat this type of problem, you may actually have to provide a litterbox in the cat's preferred spot to get the cat using the box again, and then slowly move the box back to another location. Cats will usually dislike having to eliminate where they must eat, so don't put the food bowl and the litterbox side by side.

Anxiety-related causes: you must always consider the possibility that stress or anxiety is contributing to the house-soiling (still, this is not as frequent a cause of house-soiling as most people think). Types of stress: * separation anxiety: previously recognized only in dogs, now believed to occur in cats. Usually occurs when there has been a prolonged absence of an owner, ie over 8 hrs.

The house-soiling will occur 8-12 hours after the owner's departure, which is totally opposite to dogs, where the behaviour occurs right after departure. The behaviour may involve diarrhea and destructive events in addition to house-soiling. It can be treated similarly to the way dogs are treated (ie training thru graduated departures - requires a lot of patience and time) and with some medications.

* fear: cats that are naturally shy or fearful may not want to *come out into the open* to go to the litterbox.In some cases, there is an identifiable fearful stimulus, ie a certain person, cat, dog, object, sound that can be modified or removed. Desensitization and counterconditioning methods can also be used. You may have to provide a litterbox for that cat in some *safe* location.

* overcrowding: there is a large variation in individual tolerances for overcrowding. Where some cats may be happy with 20 other cats in the house, others will dislike even 1 other cat, or even one other animal of any kind. Cats do not naturally live in social groups all the time, they spend much of their lives in solitary circumstances and get together for breeding or they may raise kittens communally, or if they are forced to by a limited food supply.

Many cats may view all living beings (including people) in the home as part of the social group, and adding to the group in any way can upset them. You can decrease the number of cats/animals, you can increase the amount of vertical space available by adding cat trees, or even clearing bookshelves to allow cats to perch there (be creative). You can separate the cats/animals into smaller colonies within the home either on a permanent basis, or for a few weeks to resolve the problem and then try re-introducing.

If you need information about spraying behavior, this article is very good: http://www.sprayalert.com/why-cats-spray.html and even has an animated clip.

I've found that females like to mark their territory as well. We had one little girl who did this all the time... We had to let her go finally. A very sad time for us, but necessary.

There might not be much you can do, unfortunately...

Contrary to what most people believe, female cats also spray urine. Your cat is probably doing this because the spaying was done just a month ago. Another reason would be a urinary tract infection, but if your vet says everything is ok with her, just give her a few more weeks to see if her behaviour persists.Be sure to check with your vet the urinary tract infection thing.

It's most likely your cat is spraying urine because of one of the following: 1. Territorial disputes 2. Aggressive conflicts 3.

Sexual encounters 4. Urinary Infection Since the female kitten was spayed, it might be spraying because of that, or because the cat wants to show dominance over the dog, and set her territory. Cats like to show their dominance over dogs and let the dog know that this is her house, too.

Since cats don't bark like dogs, her way of showing she is dominant is to spray. It's unlikely that it's a urinary infection because a very small percentage of cats are affected by this, yet you should check again with your vet or get a second opinion to make sure that this is not the case. When cleaning the area where the cat has sprayed, be sure to use a chemical that disinfects and breaks down the enzyme that causes the odor.

This may be the best thing to do to make it stop, yet then again there are no guarantees. So, my best guess is that the cat is having a territorial dispute or aggressive with the dog, as the cats seem to get along well. Do not punish the cat, as cats do not respond to punishment.

Only give the cat positive reinforcement when it's doing the right thing.

You have to get it fixed-that is the only way to stop it-if it is real 'spraying' beign that an animal is fixed--its probanly not real spraying--and a behavioral issue--- catch the act-scare teh animal-like witha loud bang.

Here is my advice fix her, if you have already done that buy some pet spary that unmarks her terriotry. If all else fails then deal with it I guess. My male cat was spraying and I got him fixed and he does not spray anymore unless he gets mad or the litter box is dirty.

Hope this helps.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.