On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 05:34:40 -0500, "cshenk" wrote:

"Grandpa Chuck" wrote

We have two cats. They use their large litter boxes in basement just
as they are supposed to. However, one or both of them also urinates on
the floor up against the wall and the lowest step going down to the
basement. We have never been able to catch them doing it - just the
wet spot with the strong urine odor.

Been going on a long time or is it sudden?

A very long time.



2 most likely causes (and more apt to be the male but not a guarentee).

1- 'something changed' in a a relatively recent time to when they started
doing this. It could be a friend who comes over with his dog who marks
outside, or a cat doing same (more often, they will mark the inside of the
door the other one hit the outside of, or the wall below a window where they
see the other animal at from inside). A grandson or son who's come home for
a few weeks and they feel a need to establish their own terratory. A new
dog in the house. A new child in the house (may be infant, may be older).
They get over this one if you clean the area up.

2- Alpha-cat struggle between'em which would have started pretty close to
when you added them together or if kittens together, can start once they hit
about age 1 and until resolved, will not go away but you can stop them
'marking' by establishing 2 liter pans *not in same room*. A classic
symptom of this is if the male sometimes backs to a wall and 'wriggles his
butt fast' (no marking when you can see it as he may know not allowed),
especially after she's been picking on him. They may 'play' but more in a
'pussy war' mode with occasionally loud fights (rarely will they hurt one
another, just make noise and chase one another, one may even normally 'win'
but the other isnt 'submissive' which means an alpha battle). Establishing
clear zones of 'ownership' such as one having a litter pan upstairs, and the
other downstairs, can fix this.

One of our cats is a neutered male and the other a spayed female. We
just don't know what to scrub it with what to use to keep them from
doing it. The spot is only about five feet from the nearest large cat
litter box. We use the clumping litter and completely change it when
it takes on a urine odor.

The 3rd and 4th causes can be a little more difficult.

3- Cats noses are far more sensitive than yours. I have a funny feeling
this *might* be related but number 2 may be as well. They are afterall,
going really close to the litter box. How often do you change it? I don't
mean by smell, but how often actually? Clumping litter is nice, but you
cant just 'remove clumps' forever and add more. When I had 4 cats, I used
cheapest clay pellet and added baking soda and would scoup 1 day then change
out completely the next day. This actually worked better than the expensive
clumping stuff for me and the cats. I also always had a second pan as they
dont like going too soon right after another but with just 2 cats, thats
usually not too much of an issue. Keep in mind that among the animal
kingdom, humans have some of the worst sniffers around.

4- They started this, are age 10 or near it (or over), and no other changes
in ther house at all. This is time to see the vet. You may have a sort of
feline dimensia caused by kidney ailments and it can be quite common if they
have otherwise been healthy cats but not fed on the fancy 'vet' foods for
the past 10 years (can happen even with the fancy science diet sort of stuff
but less likely). If so, caught early can be fixed. Ignored, and the loved
pets will slowly get more senile acting later taking to rugs and such. It
is sort of like a kitty version of kidney disease and alzheimers combined.
Later caught, I think some help is there, but my only experience was with a
rescue elderly kitty (they estimated she was 15?) and there was little they
could do except give her a good home. She had not been treated and had been
cast out apparently for the degrading level of behavior due to her medical
conditions. She had some sort of stroke about 2 months after we got her and
we had to have her put to sleep as she lost movement in her back end and one
foreleg. The vet did tell us the early signs of such is to 'g near the
literbox or anything that smells a bit like it' and to the nearest spot they
hit like that when they have to go.

Do any of you cat lovers have a suggestion that has worked for you?

Glad to help and hope I have!


--

Grandpa Chuck
-ô¿ô-
~

Please grant me:
the serenity to accept the people I cannot change
the courage to change the one that I can
the wisdom to know that it is me