New cat issue

We consider ourselves pretty experienced cat owners, we currently have 8 cats ranging in age from 17 to 10 years old along with 4 dogs. Recently a new cat took up residence on our deck and long to short we have taken him in. He was an intact male, vet examined him and determined he is somewhere between 1-3 years old. He has had his Fe Luke exam, and shots and was neutered a week ago.

We have had him confined to a single bedroom since bringing him inside after his 1st vet visit back on June 1st. When we brought him home after the neutering on June 9 we intially let him out of the carrier in our bedroom. He promptly went over to the dog bed and unrinated on it (this was not spraying but actual urinating). We then moved him back to the room he had been in and kept him in there per our vets suggestion until Tuesday. He has been using the box in this room the entire time he has been in there and the only time he didn't was when I left a cushion on the floor that I would lay on while visiting with him.

We began putting a screen across the door last weekend to allow the other cats in the house and him to see and smell one another in hopes this would ease the transistion. When we let him out for the first time last Tuesday he did the touch nose sniff thing with any of our cats he encountered and was not aggressive towards them at all. Some of them on the other hand did hiss and move away. He was very talkative the whole time he was out but other than that things went fairly well. Yesterday when we let him out again things seemed pretty much the same until I found a place on the sofa where he evidently peed. At this point we do not know how to deal with this, we have had male cats that have sprayed before but not a cat that just pees normally on cushions, sofas, and I am going to assume a bed if we had him in a room with one.

Is this likely a temporary thing caused by all the changes in his life over the past 3 weeks? We are really between a rock and a hard place as we are not people that would just dump him back outside of have him euthanized but at the same time we cannot have a cat that uses the furniture as a litter box. Any advice would be much appreciated at this point. We are very familiar with Feliway and Simple Solution type products but since this does not appear to be a spraying problem I'm not sure Feliway applies.

To be honest we never had much luck with using the Feliway. Our oldest male cat, an 18 year old Maine Coon, passed back in January and that seems to have markedly reduced spraying problems with the remaining 3 males. I guess the only solution for now is to keep him separated and let him out for supervised visits daily.

I'm not sure we ever took the square footage of the entire house into consideration. We were kind of a pilot for our vet when the spray first came out and then they suggested the diffusers and we put them close to where they had been marking. I will have to research this a bit I guess and see if maybe we were not getting the full benefit of them.

We named him Trouble largely because when he was still outside I went out on the deck and was petting him while he was busy purring and climbing on me and was not paying close enough attention for the signs when he decided to grab my arm and give me a nip. At that point I was somewhat concerned about rabies since he was intact which indicated to me that I could not be certain he had ever been to a vet. The county allowed me to keep in in our house for the 10 day quarantine period and on the 11th day he went in for his neutering and rabies shot.

He has no problems using the box in the room we have him in and is not spraying anywhere in that room. We have dealt with lots of UTI over the years given the number of cats we have so we are pretty familiar with the signs and what to watch for. He goes back to the vet next week for a re-check and his 2nd distemper booster and we will take a urine sample in then.

It really just seems like an anxiety thing with him, I suspect that coming in from outside to a house with 8 cats and 4 dogs is somewhat overwhelming. He seems to be submissive when meeting the other cats, even when they hiss at him so hopefully just taking things slow will solve this. We are going to start spraying the Feliway around the room he is in and along the path he travels when we let him out and on the furniture in the area he has been hanging around in when out.

Quick update. After talking with our vet and explaining in detail everything he is doing she gave us Valium to try. We give him 1/4 a tab every 12 hours to see if it helps him. So far it has had no noticeable effect on him but he has not urinated on anything since the incident with the sofa.

He will be going back to the vet this Friday for his final distemper booster and we will be talking to her about worms at that time as his appetite is amazing. We are also going to get some furniture covers from U-Haul for the furniture so we can let him out for extended periods of time without shadowing him whenever he is in the living room.

I think taking it slow seems to be the way to go. We just hate to hear him locked in that room crying though. I go in and spend time with him and give him some treat before I leave which seems to have cut back on some of that as well as giving me the opportunity to get out of the room without a fight to keep him in. Hopefully it won't take too much longer before he has free run of the house.