need help with the cat! asap!

This is my last attempt for help with my cat. I tried animal and cat forums, I tried the vet, no one can offer me a solution. So in the hope that there are some real cat specialists here on ats I'm posting my problem here.

Maya, my 14 year old Ragdoll cat, was left behind in the house we bought a year ago. She was left with a note in which the prev owner asked us to take care of her and all of her paperwork. Maya is a healthy old cat, she eats well, goes outside a lot and got used to us and my other two cats pretty fast. All went well until two months ago.

All of a sudden Maya is acting weird, she shows agression towards one of the other cats (mostly growling when the other one comes near and attacking if she comes to close) and she started to pee in the house.
Every day she pees on my kitchen counter, on the toaster, the coffee maker, whatever is left on there.

I placed the cam at night to be sure which of the cats was doing it, it turned out to be Maya.
The cam also taught us that at night, we have another visitor that comes inside to eat the cat food: a big beautiful black male stray cat.
We thought that Maya may pee to mark her territory so we started to lock the cat door at nights but doing this didn't help a bit.

After that she also started to do her thing under my desk, right next to me!

We had her checked out by an animal doctor, Maya had a full check up: bloodwork, urine tests, etc... they can't find anything wrong with her and judging her behavior, the DA also doesn't think it is a form of dementia.

The last week it's getting worse and worse, she pees on my counter about 4 times a day now even when I can see it, she is showing pretty dominant behavior when she begs for food, I can hear the change in the mauwing, it sounds louder and more dominant as it used to (she always begs for food, all day long) She is also stealing food from the other cats, another thing she never done before and is still aggressive towards my other cat.
My whole house is starting to smell like cat-pee, even when I'm cleaning with bleach water all day, you can still smell it.

I tried everything: there are now 3 litter boxes in the house, which aren't even used at all, I tried giving Maya an extra load of attention: playing, cuddling all evening long, giving her loads of candy, that didn't change a thing either and probably only stimulates her behavior even more. I tried one of these electrical pheromone devices which are supposed to calm them down, the DA advised those....that doesn't help either.

So this morning I called another vet and he says it's typical dominant behavior and there is nothing he knows that can be done about it, either the cat changes back to normal out of her own free will or she won't...

If anyone has another tip for me, something else I can try, please let me know
because in all honesty, both me and my husband are getting sick and tired of this and my husband is talking about putting her down if nothing changes asap.

Now before you flame me for having my cat put down, I don't like the idea one bit either! Personally I don't think anyone should do that to a healthy animal but yet I am considering it. This situation can't continue like it's going now...

One thing I'm gonna do next week is take her to yt another DA and get a 3rd opinion.
I know it's hard to train a cat, if they can be trained at all.... it's even harder to change the behavior of a 14 year old cat.... but I didn't expect these DA's to tell me that there is nothing more to try....
And of course, all these people in the cat forums keep insisting that there is something physically wrong with her.... she had the check up, she is physically fine.

Tips anyone?

I don't own any cats just dogs.

But maybe you should try confining her to a single room for now? She's wrecking your whole house! She needs a time out. Animals do things like this, Hopefully she will snap out of it!

Also stray cats are entering your house? Thats not cool at all... More than likely its what triggered this whole behavoir to start with!

Originally posted by Mikeyy
I don't own any cats just dogs.

But maybe you should try confining her to a single room for now? She's wrecking your whole house! She needs a time out. Animals do things like this, Hopefully she will snap out of it!

Also stray cats are entering your house? Thats not cool at all... More than likely its what triggered this whole behavoir to start with!

i have to agree, the stray cat is the problem

Why dont you just put them outside with their food and water bowls in the yard? Cats are feral outdoor creatures anyway they will survive anything. We have shared an immune system with dogs for a LONG time but cats carry all sorts of nastyness.

Put the cats out and get a dog to keep them in line

Urinary tract infection. Crystals in urine. Hurts to pee and thinks it is the litter box that in causing the pain, cat is looking for a place to pee where it will not hurt..

This is not at all uncommon. See a good vet.

Some vets believe this behavior is due to an association between pain when urinating and the litter box or place where the pain occurred, others believe your cat knows it is sick and is attempting to get your attention by urinating in front of you or in a place where you will notice.

Google "why is my cat urinating in unusual places"

Hope this helps.

Originally posted by Mikeyy
I don't own any cats just dogs.

Also stray cats are entering your house? Thats not cool at all... More than likely its what triggered this whole behavoir to start with!

Yes it probably did trigger it.
But the stray cat doesn't come in anymore and we had lots of wild cats around that never bothered Maya before, she kinda grew up with them around.

I participated in a stray cat project, because there where so many around. The vet came to trap the strays, neutered them and placed them back in my yard. This way they couldn't create offspring the next year. They are doing this for 3 years around here now and it seems to lower the wild cat population quite bit.

But as I said, my own cats never had real problems with they strays... and they don't come in the house anymore.

Originally posted by CrimsonMoon
Why dont you just put them outside with their food and water bowls in the yard? Cats are feral outdoor creatures anyway they will survive anything. We have shared an immune system with dogs for a LONG time but cats carry all sorts of nastyness.

Put the cats out and get a dog to keep them in line

yeah I heard that a lot around here

the thing is, I love my cats to be IN the house, that's why they call it "pets". They are used to being able to walk in and out as they please. During the day they are mostly out but at night they sleep inside.

cats do not cary more "nastyness" then dogs... they are really clean creatures which take care of themselves. They never gave me, or my family health problems at all... we don't have allergies, they are treated for flees and ticks all year long.... IMO, my cats are cleaner then most dogs :p

reply to post by GypsK


You already answered your own question....

It's this new stranger male coming inside; your cat has big competition

your cat is marking her territory anywhere which way she can

I suggest you take away the cat door and keep the cats locked up inside the wash house at night for afew weeks and see what happens.

more:

www.ehow.com...

and......

www.ehow.com...

Originally posted by deepred
Urinary tract infection. Crystals in urine. Hurts to pee and thinks it is the litter box that in causing the pain, cat is looking for a place to pee where it will not hurt..

This is not at all uncommon. See a good vet.

Some vets believe this behavior is due to an association between pain when urinating and the litter box or place where the pain occurred, others believe your cat knows it is sick and is attempting to get your attention by urinating in front of you or in a place where you will notice.

Google "why is my cat urinating in unusual places"

Hope this helps.

she isn't in pain and doesn't have an infection or crystals in her urine, the DA checked her on all of that because that was also his first thought.

And she also never used a litter box, she rather does her thing outside as she was taught as a kitten by the previous owner. My own two cats used to use the litterbox when I lived on an appartement, but since we moved here they also stopped using them.

She is not sick and it also doesn't explain the sudden dominant behavior towards everyone

Maybe part of the problem is the age of the cat: When my cat got older she didn't want to go in the garden anymore on her own and only felt save if we went out with her. She started to pie in the plants, on the carpet and nothing we did helped. Older cats can't defend themselves like when they were younger. Maybe her old age together with the other cat coming in and eating her food caused this behaviour?

I would try with starting to give her bach flower remedies. You can add them to her food and/or water. More information you can find on: www.bachflower.com...

Good luck!

see if you can get some feliway its a plug in diffuser with certain pheremones in it that cats can smell that give it feel more secure

it takes a while for it to work and so for a while don't start moving the furniture around as changes in the 'landscape' can have an effect on the cat

Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by GypsK

 

You already answered your own question....

It's this new stranger male coming inside; your cat has big competition

your cat is marking her territory anywhere which way she can

I suggest you take away the cat door and keep the cats locked up inside the wash house at night for afew weeks and see what happens.

more:

www.ehow.com...

and......

www.ehow.com...

edit on 2-9-2011 by bluemirage5 because: (no reason given)

Thanks for those links, there are some good tips in there,
I'm gonna go ahead and try these ones out:

-Clean the area thoroughly with an enzyme-based cleaner to remove all traces of the scent.
-Use a pet repellent to discourage spraying. Try bitter apple or a citrus scent, such as lemon.


Just want to add one thing: Maya is a female cat, she doesn't have competition from male cats, I can understand that two male cats start to spray for the attention of the females and for marking there space, but that is not the case with female cats.
second:
what Maya does is peeing, not spraying (I've seen spraying in both male and female cats and the position they take is very different then when they pee)

Originally posted by GypsK

Originally posted by CrimsonMoon
Why dont you just put them outside with their food and water bowls in the yard? Cats are feral outdoor creatures anyway they will survive anything. We have shared an immune system with dogs for a LONG time but cats carry all sorts of nastyness.

Put the cats out and get a dog to keep them in line

yeah I heard that a lot around here

the thing is, I love my cats to be IN the house, that's why they call it "pets". They are used to being able to walk in and out as they please. During the day they are mostly out but at night they sleep inside.

cats do not cary more "nastyness" then dogs... they are really clean creatures which take care of themselves. They never gave me, or my family health problems at all... we don't have allergies, they are treated for flees and ticks all year long.... IMO, my cats are cleaner then most dogs :p

OK but if you ever get pregnant you might want to consider putting those litter trays outside so you don’t catch toxoplasmosis from them... just saying

Billy Connelly once joked that cats are sneaky and any animal that stays when you move house shouldn't be trusted, but seriously if it was me I would put them in the shed or somewhere outside. Not that I dislike cats, I have dogs but I just believe they belong outside.

reply to post by GypsK


She does'nt need to be a male to have competition; she's competing with the two other cats who are competing for the male affection and her food.

T-Tree oil can kill a cat, you can add afew drops with water and wipe your benches; this acts as a desinfectant AND cats hate the smell of T-Tree oil.

You can also buy a water sprinkler and put it near your door, a sprinkler with a sensor....if anything that moves goes near it, it automatically turn on. Cats hate them.

Males spray, females pee. When they mark their area, same diff.

"Donate" the cat to a Chinese restaurant.

Originally posted by amar11
Maybe part of the problem is the age of the cat: When my cat got older she didn't want to go in the garden anymore on her own and only felt save if we went out with her. She started to pie in the plants, on the carpet and nothing we did helped. Older cats can't defend themselves like when they were younger. Maybe her old age together with the other cat coming in and eating her food caused this behaviour?

I would try with starting to give her bach flower remedies. You can add them to her food and/or water. More information you can find on: www.bachflower.com...

Good luck!

While reading your post I started thinking,
Maya still goes outside, but she doesn't wonder as far away from the house as she used to... then it hit me, the reason for that....
something else DID change around here since early summer:
we have neighbors now, well, they are at the end of the street, but their land borders to ours and they have a dog running around.
So Maya used to be on their land all the time, but now because of the dog, she probably doesn't go there anymore....

I can't believe this didn't hit me sooner!
Maybe she is afraid to go outside on her own after all? But then again, she still has a whole wide area where she can go and is perfectly safe

Originally posted by iNkGeEk
"Donate" the cat to a Chinese restaurant.

pfff that's not even funny....

Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by GypsK

 

She does'nt need to be a male to have competition; she's competing with the two other cats who are competing for the male affection and her food.

T-Tree oil can kill a cat, you can add afew drops with water and wipe your benches; this acts as a desinfectant AND cats hate the smell of T-Tree oil.

You can also buy a water sprinkler and put it near your door, a sprinkler with a sensor....if anything that moves goes near it, it automatically turn on. Cats hate them.

Males spray, females pee. When they mark their area, same diff.

edit on 2-9-2011 by bluemirage5 because: (no reason given)

hm maybe...
maybe she 'thinks' she's competing....
there are 6 food bowls and two water bowls for 3 cats. 3 of the food bowls are always full with dry cat food.
the other 3 are filled with meat twice a day and both my other two cats won't eat all that is in their bowl, they aren't competing for the food at all because there always is enough.
That's when Maya eats everything that is left over, on top of her own bowl (I'm suprised she isn't overweight!)

The male that hangs around is dominant. My other two cats stay out of his way because he will attack, while they have no problem shasing away other stray cats that come around.

reply to post by GypsK


I've heard of this kind of thing before and it can be caused by stress. Perhaps from the stray cat entering her domain. One question though, you know that Ragdolls are meant to be indoor cats? It's odd that you say she's showing signs of aggression because they are bread to be gentle and dosile.

Could be anything, but I hope you get it sorted.

Originally posted by Thundersmurf
reply to post by GypsK

 

I've heard of this kind of thing before and it can be caused by stress. Perhaps from the stray cat entering her domain. One question though, you know that Ragdolls are meant to be indoor cats? It's odd that you say she's showing signs of aggression because they are bread to be gentle and dosile.

Could be anything, but I hope you get it sorted.

Yes I've read up on Ragdolls when we 'adopted' her last year. Maya doesn't seem to have the typical character of a Ragdoll.
The previous owner had two of them, one died a couple of months before we moved in and both where partly outdoor cats... meaning, they went out most of the day and only came inside to eat and sleep.

Right now I'm trying to reach the people from the stray cat project.
I think I'm going to try to have the stray male removed from the area, have him fixed and see if that has a positive effect on my own cats over the next weeks.

If the male is indeed the problem, then removing him will also fix the problem. If not then.... well I don't know what then.