Cat urinating everywhere.

Question
Hiya,
My cat Angel is 7 years old and not of any pedigree.
She is eating, sleeping and playing normally yet she seems to be urinating all over the house and is not trying to hide it either as she is doing it on my kitchen work tops. She normal goes outside into the back garden to do her business but she wont even go outside now.
She will scratch and hiss at me when i put her outside. She used to be more out than in but the past few days she has just changed and with us moving house shortly I would like to get this problem sorted.
Hope you can help.

Answer
Hi Krissy,

It seems that your cat no longer wants to go outside as there is something out there that has scared her. She is showing aggressive behaviour towards you as a show of her unwillingness, she is scared.

It is the first cat 'season'of the year at the moment and I am finding I am recieving many queries regarding this type of behaviour including indoor marking and other sexual and territorial related problems. There is more than likely other cats, more so toms, that are passing through and around her garden (outside territory) at the moment and this is making her feel threatened. She may have had a run in with one of these cats and it has left her too nervous to go outside.

I would suggest providing a litter tray for her so she can eliminate in an appropriate place, make sure it is not near to any exit areas from the house. If she has never used a tray before then have a play around with different substrates until she finds one that she feels comfortable with. Maybe start with some soil from outside, or grit based material. If she urinates innapropriatly do not shout or punish her, this will only make it worse, she will just become more secretive in her behaviour and may develop further fear based behavioural problems. When you see her urinating or about to urinate, gently take her to the tray, place her inside it and rake the material with your fingers. showing her this is an appropriate place to use. You can sometimes pre-empt when she is going to urinate, for example, in the morning and after meals, and can place her in the box at these times.

Buy a Feliway diffuser and place it central to where she spends most of her time, this will help to make her feel more secure in her environment. The problem behaviour may be urine'marking' or inappropriate elimination, without seeing her perform the action I do not know which it is. If she squats and urinates normally then this is inappropriate elimination. Most urine markng behaviour is generally deposited by standing and 'spraying' urine onto a vertical surface. Either way the fear shown towards going outside suggests to us that she is finding no alternative but to urinate in the house and maybe even urine mark at times as a way of sending a scent comunication to other cats that this is her territory and as a sign of stress.

Understand that this is not being carried out through spite or punishment for anything you have done, she just has no choice at the moment because she is scared. You will have to leave the tray for her to use until the threatening stimulus has gone away. The Feliway diffuser will help to make her feel more secure. If you see any unfamiliar cats in the garden spray them with water to make them leave and feel to scared to return. If you have a cat flap, make sure no other cats are able to get in through it.

I hope this has helped a little

Thank you

Kelly