New to the forum with "peeing" question

[jax's mom]

Hello all!

I'm new to the forum and after looking at several different web sites over the past couple of days, I thought I'd join a forum and consult with other cat parents. My little guy (Jax, two and a half years old) likes to pee on my bed when my fiance and I have been away from the house longer than he is used to or if we are scrambling around and don't pay him enough attention. For example, we were away most of the past long holiday weekend, not out of town but just out a lot and when we returned home Monday evening from a picnic, I went into the bedroom to change and sure enough, Jax jumps up on the bed and does his business right in front of me, almost as if to say "that's what you get". This is probably the fourth time he's ever done this. One time, it was after we had out of town guests sleep in our bed. We've been told not to yell or scold him so this time, I shoed him off the bed and pulled off the linens before the urine hit the mattress pad.

So, my question is two fold.....has anyone had success with Feliway? If so, is it damaging to furniture/bedding, etc. And, do you think my little buddy wants a friend to keep him company when we're not around? We bring him over to my parent's house a lot and they have a cat and Jax seems to enjoy chasing him around or just sitting near him, so we know he is good natured with other cats but don't know how he would react if we brought another one into "his" house. Help!!!

 

[feline]

Well, I'm not sure about some of your questions, but I do know that my cat definatley likes having other cats in the house to spend time with. When I first brought a new cat into 'his' house, he didn't seem to like it much, be he soon adapted to it and now he loves having her around.

 

[tuxedokitties]

Hi

I used to have trouble with one of my cats peeing on my bed too. Thankfully, we finally solved the problem. There is hope!

My first recommendation is to take him to the vet, to make sure he doesn't have any urinary problems that could be prompting this - 99% of the time a cat pees out of the box, it's because of medical issues. Even if you've just had him at the vet recently & they said he was healthy, take him back in, mention the peeing problems, and request a checkup. If he has a bladder problem, nothing you can do at home will help until he gets treated.

If he gets a clean bill of health, try the tips in this thread:
Inappropriate Peeing Problems Answered

The "litterbox secrets" articles here (click here) are also helpful.

What finally helped for my bed-peeing cat (in her case it turned out to be a mix of fastidiousness and anxiety) was a combined approach - extra litterboxes with Cat Attract litter, a Feliway Comfort Zone plug-in, a waterproof tarp over the bed, and Feliway spray on the bed. After a while with no bed-peeing incidents, we removed the tarp and sprayed Feliway on the bedding itself. It's been a couple of years now since she's peed on the bed. For her, the trick has been to keep the litter boxes super-clean (we added an extra box for her), and provide her with unscented, fine-grained litter, and give her plenty of attention. And if we know our schedule will be disrupted and she might get anxious, we close the bedroom door.

I hope this helps - please keep us posted, and let us know how he checks out at the vet.

 

[tuxedokitties]

For your question about Feliway damaging furniture/bedding: I haven't had trouble with the spray damaging anything, but I've been careful to only spray it on the cloth parts of furnishings and bedding, avoiding the wooden parts of the furniture. The Comfort Zone plug-in works like an air-freshener plug-in, except with pheromones to calm the cat, so you wouldn't have to worry about that damaging anything.