Peeing cat...angry husband

[twitchandlexi]

Twitch has a habit of peeing on DH's things...in his bathroom, on his side of the bedroom, on his picture, etc.
The problem has definitely gotten better, but I need some help fixing it completely.
He is healthy ...they have 2 large litter boxes that are cleaned a minimum of once a day (usually twice, but some days don't allow for the evening cleaning)...he is eating gluten free food...we play with him twice a day...he sits with us all the time. I'm at a loss.
Any ideas?
P.s. we have another cat, they are friends.

 

[mservant]

Firstly, how difficult to live with this, it must be exasperating and particularly for DH.

I have a couple of questions, but also a couple of articles that might be useful for you to read if you haven't already found them.

Have you thoroughly cleaned areas/materials that your cat has peed on with enzyme cleaner?  If not, then traces of urine odour may be contributing to the behaviour.  There are a couple of articles that give advice on removing urine odour on the site:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-remove-cat-urine

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/combat-cat-urine 

Have you ever observed your cat doing this?  Do you know what position he is in when he urinates: squatting down or spraying upwards?  This could give a clue to the reason for his behaviour.  I am also assuming you have talked with your vet about this, in case there is some long standing health issues that has been behind it.  There could be other odours relating to your husband's posessions that attract your cat to pee where he does and it is worth thinking about this, things like bleach smells can be attractive for example, it could be that a smell is threatening (cat more likely to spray upwards) or comforting (cat more likely to squat).

The following thread gives some thoughs on possible reasons for the behaviour along with possible solutions and things to try.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/9563/inappropriate-peeing-problems-answered

I hope you manage to find some answers here and the information is helpful for you.

 

[baconman]

Definitely make sure you are cleaning the areas thoroughly. The smell of pee can bring him back to those areas. With my cat, when he had similar issues, it always seemed to be on clothes or other similar cloths, so try to avoid things like that on or near the floor (My issue, clothes on the floor lol) As for the picture, i dunno what to say about that. Mservant posted some great links and suggestions. You could also consider using a deterrent spray, I'm not sure if it is appropriate for your situation, but they have sprays to keep animals off plants, like grannicks bitter apple, perhaps this would be an effective solution to keeping him away from the offending areas. I'm not sure if you want to limit where your cat can go. Perhaps closing these areas off for a few days to stem the habit could work too. Keeping the bathroom and bedroom closed when you are not in there, things like that. I find they normally don't do these offending actions with people present. Anyhow, best of luck to you, keep working on it and don't give up on him. I'm sure the problem will work itself out.

 

[twitchandlexi]

First, thank you so much for the suggestions. I will be working on those ideas.
He pees standing up. I know that is normally "spraying", but he NEVER squats.
also, I feel it is partially a behavior issue because he makes eye contact and then pees on walls. He vary rarely pees on fabric.
I will try the suggestions but if anyone has had this problem, any help would be great!

 

[mservant]

With his standing and spraying it does sound more behavioural, and from what you say this has been an established behaviour that you have managed to reduce to some extent but is still ongoing.  I take it as a good sign that you have achieved some reduction.  It may have started as a stress reaction or teritorial response to something when ever the behaviour started and is now a habit.  It is interesting how you describe his looking at you as he pees, as if he wants a response from you.

It does sound like some more trials with the behavioural ideas on this site and any others you can find would be time well spent, as would any strategy that might break him away from habits such as altering access to the spaces where he does this / changing room access for a while.  Certainly ideas feom anyone who has gone through this would be really useful for you.

Good luck.  I hope you are able to update us.

 

[vball91]

I think there was a Jackson Galaxy episode about a very similar situation where the cat was only peeing on the husband's things. Jackson Galaxy's solution was to have the husband feed and play with the cat a lot more. He theorized that the cat was sensing negative emotions from the husband and was peeing on his things in a nervous/stressed attempt to mingle their scents. I have no idea if there's any correlation to your situation, but it came to mind so I thought I would share it in case it helped.

 

[mservant]

Makes sense to me, and I can't imagine a worse way to approach trying to generate positive emotions with a human than pee on their clothes sadly.  Definitely worth a go I think. 

 

[twitchandlexi]

I did see that Jackson Galaxy episode.  I am trying to get DH to play with him more and feed and water them.

So here is my plan...

1.  Get DH to be more affectionate with Twitch (seriously though, they cuddle together for a couple of hours most nights until Twitch pees), play with and feed and water him.

2. Go through and thoroughly re-clean any pee zones with the enzymatic cleaner.

3. Attach aluminum foil to pee zones.

4. Watch more Jackson Galaxy and read his book.

5. Replace the litter boxes.

It is weird though that Twitch stands even when he pees, right?  I mean, most cats squat when they are peeing and stand when they are spraying.  We had to get HUGE Rubbermaid containers and fashion them into litter boxes because Twitch would go into the litter box, stand in it and pee on the wall and then bury, well, nothing.

Thanks for all of your help!  I will try to update in a couple of months...hopefully with a lot of success!

 

[mservant]

I hope some of this works for you.  

With the standing pee position - one of my girls did that and I think some cats just do.  I never found litter boxes that worked for her.  It does make it harder to figure out if there's any spraying behaviour in there and you have to rely on knowing your cat very well.

Is there anything you can wash your husband's clothes with that will thoroughly remove any trace of odour your cat can sense and perhaps deter the behaviour as well, like a citrus spray afterwards or something?

 

[stephiedoodle]

Try maybe washing the husbands clothes in a citrus scented detergent that way kitty may not want to go near it your poor husband he must be very frustrated with the kitty and wondering why kitty is targeting only his items. Sounds like some daddy/furbaby time could be called for