Inappropriate soiling

Question
Hi Jessica,
I sure help you can give some advice. I have a nearly four year old male Silver Persian, Mr. Wickett. He has had a problem twice before with urinary obstruction. We feed him a prescription cat diet for the problem and he has been on this food for about 3 years. We have not had a urinary obstruction in approx. 2 years. I know what to look for when he is having a problem with a urinary obstruction as he will get in his litter box and strain for long periods of time and he will go to the box frequently but not be able to urinate. He has not demonstrated any of that behavior. He is urinating in his box and he is defecating in his box as well. His appetite has not changed and he plays and seems happy. He is an inside cat and he was neutered when he was six months old. He is very loving and he is loved as if he were my child. Our problem is that a week ago he had an episode where he was running through the house and going into my bedroom and wiping his front paws on plastic covers that are over some of my dresses in the closet. He continued to run in and out of my bedroom doing this over and over. I know from past experiences with him that if he has or thinks he has any litter or poo in his front paws he will rub them on the washing machine or anything that he thinks will help. So, while he was wiping his paws like a mad man on my dress covers I got up and picked him up and inspected his paws, there was nothing in his paws, but he had poo stuck in his tail fur and it was soft and smelly. I went to the laundry room to get some wash cloths (this is also where his litterbox is ) and discovered that he had vomited a large hair ball in there. We ended up having to put him in the tub to clean him and he was very unhappy about this, wailing the whole time. After he had his bath I went back into my bedroom and discovered that at some point that morning before his bath he had pooed on my bedsheets, this was also soft. He had no further diarrhea type episodes and as I said he is eating and drinking and using his litter box fine. There was nothing traumatic going on the day he soiled my bed although my husband and I have been quite stressed as our daughter is 18 and 7 1/2 months pregnant and lives with us. The cat loves her and she dotes on him also. She didn't just move in, she has always lived with us.  Last night we had a sewage back up problem in our home and the tub narly filled with it. The house smelled quite bad and I was very upset about the whole thing and the clean up. At some point the cat went into my dauhter's room , (where he is generally not allowed because he sheds so much and the new baby will sleep in the room with her), he was not trapped in the room but when my daughter came in she discovered that he had gotten on her bed and pooed on it just like he did mine a week ago. There was not as much feces as before. We put the cat out of her room and  stripped the bed and put new linens on it but when she woke up this morning she told me that she had smelled urine all night long and when she got out of her bed she saw where the cat had gotten in the baby's cradle and saturated it with urine (obviously while he was in her room last night). I was quite upset. He has been trying to get in the cradle since we bought it into the house and that is why we had to move it to her bedroom in the first place. My  husband said that he also noticed another hairball in the laundry room this morning. So I don't know if the cat was upset with the sewage smell in the house last night that prompted him to act out or if he is somehow reacting to the fact that my daughter is pregnant. But I don't think he is sick. I can't have him peeing and pooping on everything. He is very smart and he communicates with us well, he puts his cat nip toys in his water dish when he is "through" playing with them and is ready for me to discard them. The times before when he was ill he got in the bed with me and curled up under my neck and cried. I don't know how sensitive he may be to the stress in the house right now. Thanks for you time.

Answer
I think that definitely all the things that have been causing you stress are causing Mr. Wickett stress, too.  Cats are so easy to pick up on our emotions and share them.  The first bout on your bed may have been just because he had a belly ache between the hairball and the slight diarrhea, which probably caused gas and cramping.  And then with all the sewage backup and clean up, this certainly was distressing enough for him to cause more litter box problems.  The pregnancy and the new furniture, etc., that that is bringing is yet another stressful factor, and pregnancy and newborns are often a cause of litter box problems.  Cats tend to mark the baby's new things.

In all honesty, I believe that stress is likely the root issue, here, and I would recommend giving a product called Feliway a shot.  It helps reduce stress to stop problems like inappropriate elimination.  I would use the plug-in diffuser called Comfort Zone for cats in your case and might even follow up with the spray.  It can take a couple weeks to work, but it will be helpful once the baby comes.  It's available at pet stores and through many sites online.

Though I'm sure you hate to do it, try to keep all the bedroom doors closed for now to prevent further accidents.  And if accidents persist, consult a vet.  When cats get so stressed that they start with destructive behavior such as this, sometimes an antidepressant is the wisest choice.