Cat Wee

Question
Our 9 year old male cat Jack has recently started to wee around the house. He is an indoor cat and has been trained to use the litter tray for years. We went away for a few days over Christmas and he stayed (along with his sister) at our friend's house. Since returning he wee-ed in the annexe whilst my partner Paul was cleaning the litter tray, he has wee-ed in the kitchen on the floor and again today he wee-ed on the coffee machine!  On all of these occassions Jack (the cat) has been standing up and appeared to spray, Paul has always been present and Jack's weeing is usually preceeded by him shaking his tail in excitement.  Any ideas what is causing this and how we can stop it?  Many Thanks! Rachel

Answer
Hi Rachel

Sounds to me like your cat feels a little uncertain of his home environment due to the recent changes to routine, This is normal. All your cat is doing is using his urine to scent mark the house so that it smells more like him and in turn makes him feel more secure in his home again, this is a very common issue.

You will need to to two things first thoroughly clean the house where he has urinated, (a black light can help you see any splatters of urine)this will prevent him urinating there again.

Secondly you will have give your cat a period of re training this can be from a few days to a week depending on the cat and how quickly they adjust back. Basically the re training process is a period of confinement which allows the cat to feel secure again in a smaller environment and also re introduces them to their litter tray.

I have several web pages about cat urination and why it occurs but this page has the re training process on it at the bottom of the page. here is the link /cat-poo.html

For more general info on this problem please see my page here /cat-urine.html
I also have some info about urine cleaners here
/cat-urine-cleaner.html

As you can see from all my pages it is a common problem which i get asked about a lot and that is why i needed to write web pages about it.

I hope all goes well and quickly for you

best wishes Kate