moving cat

Question
hey i am moving soon and was wondering about one of my cats.he is neutered but the house we have now he would spray this corner he liked to sleep in so we removed the carpet and put new in but he did it again. is there a way to stop him from spraying in the new house we are moving to

Answer
Hi Luke,

Unfortunately removing the carpet isn't enough to break this sort of habit - this behaviour is not normal in a neutered cat and is likely to be a medical or behavioural issue that you need to get to the bottom of, or he will just do the exact same thing when you move house.

The first thing I would suggest is a trip to the vet to rule out a medical problem that is causing this behaviour.  Sometimes cats who choose to urinate outside the litter box are doing so because there is a medical problem that makes it painful when they go to the toilet, and cats can connect this pain with the litter box and so decide to try going somewhere else.  A soft surface such as a carpet is a typical place that a cat might try as an alternative to the litter box if they mentally connect the box with discomfort.

Once you have ruled out a medical problem, have a think about your litter box.  For any cat that is indoors any of the time, you ideally need one box per cat in the household plus an extra one, so if you have one cat, you need two boxes.  Some cats will not use a box that they have used even once since it was last cleaned, so by having at least two, you increase the chance of the cat using one of them.  

You need to ensure that the litter boxes are away from the area where the cat eats and that it is in a quiet corner where the cat will not be disturbed by noise, or any passing cat that might be able to look through a glass window or door at him while he is using the box.  Also experiment with different types of litter and different linings for the box.  Some cats like gravel-type litters but others find them too hard on their feet, and many cats are scared of the plastic litter liners because they make a noise, and would prefer something paper-based.  The problem could be as simple as the cat wanting something softer to stand on, hence why he uses your carpet.

Another important issue is how you clean the areas where the cats have already urinated.  Cats who urinate around the house will often return to the same area because they can still smell urine and therefore associate the area with being a toilet.  You need to buy a specialist product for eliminating the smell of urine, and ensure that if they have urinated on a carpet, you have also cleaned the area beneath the carpet as the smell could be held in the underlay or the floor itself, so could still smell like a toilet to the cat even if you can't smell it yourself.  It's likely that replacing your carpet hasn't helped as the smell is actually held in the underlay or floorboards.  You can buy a urine detector online that uses a UV light to show up cat urine, and you might be surprised how much urine is actually held in the floor surface.

Inappropriate urination and defecation can be a sign of stress and a cry for help, so try to think of any reason why the cat could be stressed.  It could be to do with a new pet or baby, a house move or a change in the household such as someone moving out or in.  Try buying a Feliway diffuser, which is a device that you plug in like an air freshener, and which emits syntethic cat phermeones to make cats feel calm and safe.  You can also try adding a few drops of Bach's Rescue Remedy, which also has a calming effect, to his drinking water.  There is also a spray version of Feliway, which you can try spraying onto any area where the cat is urinating.  If he is urinating on the carpet to mark his territory, the Feliway will make him think he has marked that spot already.  The house move itself will make your cat more stressed and might actually make the spraying worse so it's worth following these tips carefully.

Very best of luck with this, and I hope some of this advice is helpful and can be put into practice before your move.  Please believe that problems like this can be solved with a bit of time and effort, and that this is very likely to get better very quickly.

Take care
Annie