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Sorry for the long post...
My cats are driving both my husband and I crazy, and we need some advice. Here is the situation:
We have 3 cats (all indoors)...
Max is 7 years old, we got him at age 1.5, and he is not neutered. This has not been a problem until recently...
Simon is 4 years old and we got him as a baby kitten, he is neutered.
Ella is 1 years old and spayed, she wandered into our backyard at 4 months old and couldn't find her way home - we asked around, but no one claimed her, so we took her in.
Max and Simon got along great and after Ella was with us a few months, the problems began... Simon (the neutered one) became very lethargic - took to vet, diagnosed with UTI, gave meds and we thought it was cured--then the spraying began. He was spraying all over the house, returned to vet for testing, they said nothing was wrong with him and that it was a behavioral issue. So we tried isolating him in his own room with food and litterbox and gave anti-anxiety meds for a few weeks. Tried slowly re-integrating him with other two cats - worked for a while, then spraying returned after a few months.
We tried placing more litterboxes around the house and again, the spraying stopped for a while, and now the spraying has returned. The other day for the first time I caught Max (the un-neutered one) spraying. Perhaps he has been spraying all along, but I never saw him do it until a few weeks ago.
Simon (the neutered one) in the last few weeks has developed a problem with licking patches of hair off of the base of his tail, his stomach, and one spot on the inside of his leg. Not sure if this is stress related?
And to add to the stress level even further, we have to move next week (just a local move) which will stress out the kitties even more.
I think there are definitely competition issues between the two male cats - i see them doing new weird things like following each other around, competing for food (whenever max is eating, simon needs to eat, too, and vice versa, even though they are free-fed and there is plenty of food) -- (we don't have any problems with Ella, aside from some lingering kitten tendancies, she has no behavioral issues)
So cleaning up cat spray multiple times every day is making all the humans in the house go insane! What are our options?
--Will neutering Max do any good now that he is 7 years old, or is the spraying behavior engrained in his brain? Is that our first order of business? My husband is concerned it will change his personality, or he will be mad at us for neutering.
--Should we try to keep Max and Simon in seprate areas of the house?
--Should we try temporarily crating any of them - would that do any good, or make them more stressed out?
--Are there medication options? Our vet mentioned hormone injections could be a last-resort option, but would also be expensive.
--Can we use the moving to our advantage (maybe if we kept the cats seprate, and tried re-integrating them like you would with new cats to a household?)
We definitely don't want to get rid of any of the cats - we took them in and it is our responsibility to care for them, but the idea of cleaning up cat pee for another 10-15 years is not a great one. ANY advice would be helpful...thanks in advance!
Laura
My cats are driving both my husband and I crazy, and we need some advice. Here is the situation:
We have 3 cats (all indoors)...
Max is 7 years old, we got him at age 1.5, and he is not neutered. This has not been a problem until recently...
Simon is 4 years old and we got him as a baby kitten, he is neutered.
Ella is 1 years old and spayed, she wandered into our backyard at 4 months old and couldn't find her way home - we asked around, but no one claimed her, so we took her in.
Max and Simon got along great and after Ella was with us a few months, the problems began... Simon (the neutered one) became very lethargic - took to vet, diagnosed with UTI, gave meds and we thought it was cured--then the spraying began. He was spraying all over the house, returned to vet for testing, they said nothing was wrong with him and that it was a behavioral issue. So we tried isolating him in his own room with food and litterbox and gave anti-anxiety meds for a few weeks. Tried slowly re-integrating him with other two cats - worked for a while, then spraying returned after a few months.
We tried placing more litterboxes around the house and again, the spraying stopped for a while, and now the spraying has returned. The other day for the first time I caught Max (the un-neutered one) spraying. Perhaps he has been spraying all along, but I never saw him do it until a few weeks ago.
Simon (the neutered one) in the last few weeks has developed a problem with licking patches of hair off of the base of his tail, his stomach, and one spot on the inside of his leg. Not sure if this is stress related?
And to add to the stress level even further, we have to move next week (just a local move) which will stress out the kitties even more.
I think there are definitely competition issues between the two male cats - i see them doing new weird things like following each other around, competing for food (whenever max is eating, simon needs to eat, too, and vice versa, even though they are free-fed and there is plenty of food) -- (we don't have any problems with Ella, aside from some lingering kitten tendancies, she has no behavioral issues)
So cleaning up cat spray multiple times every day is making all the humans in the house go insane! What are our options?
--Will neutering Max do any good now that he is 7 years old, or is the spraying behavior engrained in his brain? Is that our first order of business? My husband is concerned it will change his personality, or he will be mad at us for neutering.
--Should we try to keep Max and Simon in seprate areas of the house?
--Should we try temporarily crating any of them - would that do any good, or make them more stressed out?
--Are there medication options? Our vet mentioned hormone injections could be a last-resort option, but would also be expensive.
--Can we use the moving to our advantage (maybe if we kept the cats seprate, and tried re-integrating them like you would with new cats to a household?)
We definitely don't want to get rid of any of the cats - we took them in and it is our responsibility to care for them, but the idea of cleaning up cat pee for another 10-15 years is not a great one. ANY advice would be helpful...thanks in advance!
Laura