CAUSES AND DEVELOPMENT

• The usual causes

Admittedly, when someone says “my cat is peeing everywhere” this often means the cat has a urinary problem. The first thing we general practitioners will want to do is to find out whether or not your pet does indeed have a problem such as cystitis, urinary crystals, bladder stones, a tumour or another disease such as diabetes or kidney failure. The vet will first carry out a full general examination and conduct some extra tests, such as a scan, an X-ray or taking blood and urine samples, before he or she can make the correct diagnosis.

• Other causes

If your pet does not have diabetes or a urinary problem, we need to find out the real reason for this behaviour. To do this, we must understand how cats “operate”.

First, we need to differentiate between pets marking their territory and peeing in the wrong place.

If they are just urinating, both male and female cats follow the same behavioural pattern. They identify a suitable spot by sniffing out an area where the substrate is loose and easy to scratch, such as earth, litter (as in a litter tray), sand or fabric. They make a little hole in it with their front paws, turn round, squat, do their business, stand up and turn round again to smell their excretion, and then cover it up as best they can by scratching with their front paws. They adopt the typical position: crouching but not touching the ground, with their tail horizontal and parallel to the ground. The urine flows down vertically onto a horizontal surface.

If they are using their urine to mark their territory, cats adopt a typical but quite different position. Standing up with their tail vertical and vibrating, they turn their backs on the vertical surface they are going to mark and release a horizontal spray of urine that is more visible in males than in females. Contrary to what many owners – and even some vets – think, marking territory is not a cleanliness problem but a communication issue. So all cats do it, male and female, whether they are sterilised or not.

To truly understand how cats “operate”, it is vitally important you pay attention to how they perceive and organise their living environment.

Cats carry out various activities – eating/drinking, sleeping, playing and toileting (doing their business) – within their own territory. Some of these activities, such as eating and toileting, must absolutely not happen in the same place. Think of it like cats refusing to eat in their bathroom!

• So what about cats that pee on the front doormat or on your bed every time you leave your bedroom door open?

Some cats follow basic criteria when they’re looking for somewhere to urinate. The place must be quiet, absorbent and somewhere they can scratch. It must be cleaned regularly but still retain the urine smell. Based on these physiological behavioural needs, we cannot really say that the cat is “dirty”, contrary to what disgruntled owners think, but simply that they have chosen other places to do their business that do not suit their human cohabitants.

PREVENTION

• Find the best possible litter, or at least one that your cat likes. Some don’t like scented litter and others are not fans of gravel that is absorbent or too fine. It must be 3 cm thick ;
• The litter tray must be 1.5 times the length of your cat from the tip of its nose to the base of its tail ;
• It’s of little importance whether the litter tray is covered or uncovered, but it must be clean! Faecal matter must be removed once a day and the litter changed completely once a week ;
• Ideally, you need one litter tray per cat plus one (for example, three cats will need four trays). This is not always feasible, but at the very least you must have one tray on every floor ;
• Things you must definitely not do with the litter tray:

• • Never position it beside the cat’s feeding area,
  • Never have two litter trays facing each other, but rather back-to-back or perpendicular to each other,
  • Do not place the litter tray opposite a mirror because the cat might think there is another cat present,
  • Always remove unused litter trays ;

• If the cat does its business in the wrong place, put the litter tray in this spot for at least two weeks. Once the cat is using it regularly, and if the tray is in your way, you can gradually start moving it to a more convenient place ;
• Cats need peace and quiet when doing their business. They must not be disturbed by another animal or by a human. So don’t make use of the opportunity to give them medication or do anything that will disturb them, such as brushing their coat. Similarly, don’t put the litter tray in a noisy area, such as beside the washing machine or somewhere people pass through regularly ;
• We recommend you clean soiled areas well with a standard cleaning product that contains no Dettol ^®, bleach or ammonia and then rinse it with white vinegar ;
• In some cases, to stop the cat using that area, you can make it unpleasant by simply covering it with aluminium foil or a survival blanket. You can also assign it a new function by putting food there ;
• Under no circumstances do we recommend you punish cats who have been relieving themselves everywhere, as you will only stress them and this might even make their inappropriate behaviour worse.

To summarise, the main cause of cats peeing everywhere is territorial stress. It is therefore a good idea to reduce their anxiety by giving them supplements (e.g. Zen Supp ^TM), pheromones or essential oils (e.g. Zen Miloa ^TM), which can be very effective. To combat this problem, you are strongly advised to apply all the “tips” at the same time to have a chance of success. If the behaviour persists, your vet or animal behaviourist may prescribe medication.

Which just goes to show that a simple pee in the wrong place is not always so easy to deal with!

Dr Eric Witvrouw
DMV | Animal Behaviourist
Veterinary Center ÉducaVet’s
Website