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How to Handle Cat Spraying

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Image: Pixabay

Keeping the house clean can be a challenge for anyone who owns pets. There’s nothing worse than getting home after a long day at work to a terrible odor or mess on the floor. Spraying is one of the most common behavioral problems in cats, along with scratching. But while your first instinct may be to discipline your cat for this undesirable behavior, keep in mind that she is predisposed to this practice, and it should be redirected.

Why Does My Cat Spray?

In the wild, cats leave scent signals to communicate with other cats through rubbing, scratching, urinating, and spraying. Scent signals let cats know when another cat has claimed an area as her own, when she was there and might return, and if she is looking for a mate. While most neutered cats who live indoors do not feel the need to spray, those who do are typically under stress and want to surround themselves with their own scent for protection. Even though you’ve created a safe, nurturing environment for your cat, she may still feel distressed and want to mark her territory.

What to Do if Your Cat is Spraying

First, determine whether your cat is spraying or urinating. Cats urinate by squatting onto a horizontal surface; spraying occurs standing up. The cat makes a treading motion with her back feet and quivers her tail, leaving her scent mark on a vertical surface.

Image: Pixabay

If your cat has begun urinating outside of her litter box, be sure that the box is regularly cleaned. If the behaviour persists, take her to the vet to check for lower urinary tract disease and cystitis. A urinary tract infection can cause your cat to urinate while standing, confusing the act with spraying. Cystitis can also cause symptoms of lower urinary tract disease, including frequent attempts to urinate, straining to urinate, crying while urinating, and blood in urine. Cats who suffer from recurrent cystitis often benefit from increased fluid intake, which may require switching your cat to wet food. Consult your vet for nutritional management.

Consider recent changes to your household that may be affecting your cat’s behaviour—especially if she spends most of her time indoors—such as the arrival of a new baby or pet, a house move, schedule changes, or even rearranging furniture. To deter threats from other household or neighbourhood cats, block access to cat flaps or doors. Once your cat feels that her territory is not threatened, she will no longer feel the need to mark it.

Moving furniture or redecorating can be upsetting to a cat, because it removes her scent from places she has designated around your house. By spreading her scent to familiar places, she may feel less inclined to spray. Rub a soft cotton cloth gently around your cat’s face; this is where her individual scent and pheromones are produced. Apply the cloth several times per day to areas where your cat is spraying. Synthetic pheromones are also available through your vet.

Cats also feel most comfortable when they are secure. You can make your cat feel a sense of security by limiting her patrol area to one or two rooms.

Once your cat has urinated or sprayed in your house, she may return to that spot again if the area isn’t thoroughly cleaned.

  • Keep your cat away from the area as long as possible. For example, place a piece of furniture on the spot.

  • Wash the area with enzyme-containing laundry detergent and rinse thoroughly. Then, mix a solution of 50 percent white vinegar and water, and spray.

  • Spray and scrub the area with rubbing alcohol and dry. Test delicate surfaces on a small area before application.

  • Talk to your vet about a stain and odor remover to get rid of residual odors.

  • Do not use an ammonia-based cleaner. Because urine contains ammonia, this might attract your cat to return to the spot.

Finally, with any behavioural issues your cat might display it is important to never yell at or punish her. This can only cause a situation such as spraying to get worse as she may become more stressed. Cats do not understand punishment, so to correct a behaviour problem is best to train her and continue to show her love and affection. Slowly over time you can help redirect poor behaviours and have the cute and cuddly cat you’ve always wanted.

If your cat is suffering with urinary issues, ask your vet about how Hill’s Prescription Diet c/d Urinary Stress or Hill’s Prescription Diet c/d Urinary Stress + Metabolic cat food can help.

Source: Hillls

How To Know When It’s More Than Just Your Dog’s Bad Breath

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Image: Pixabay

It’s unlikely that your dog’s breath will ever smell like a bunch of roses, but if it carries a stench that makes you want to pass out, something may be amiss.

“So many dog owners forget to check the condition of their pet’s teeth. Bad breath is often ‘brushed over’, when in fact, if left untreated, can lead to the deterioration of your dog’s health and standard of life,” said Ashleigh Sanderson, senior brand manager at Dog Portfolio.

Smelly breath can be a sign that your pooch suffers from gum disease and cavities. However, persistent bad breath can also indicate larger medical problems in the mouth, respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, or internal organs, according to Pets WebMD

“Your dog uses his teeth for much more than just eating. He uses them where we would use our hands – to hold, carry and play,” said Sanderson, and this is why it’s important for a pet owner to get to the bottom of what’s causing the odour.

When to see the vet:

  • Breath that smells like urine can be a sign of kidney disease.
  • An unusually foul odour accompanied by vomiting, lack of appetite, and yellow-tinged corneas or gums could signal a liver problem.
  • Unusually sweet or fruity breath could indicate diabetes, particularly if your dog has been drinking and urinating more frequently than usual.

Some other underlying clues include red, inflamed or bleeding gums, a receding gum line and tooth root exposure, loose teeth, tartar build up and in severe cases, a change in eating behaviour – such as preferring softer foods or chewing more on one side of the mouth.

You can take an active role in your pet’s dental care by:

1. Brushing your pet’s teeth. It is recommended that all pets be trained early on to accept simple tooth brushing as part of their daily (at the very least, weekly) routine.

2. Regular dental cleanings by your vet. Your vet will carefully clean every tooth surface and remove plaque and tartar from hard-to-reach recesses below the gums and between teeth.

3. Ask for other dental care routines outside of brushing your dog’s teeth. For example, daily oral swishes and rinses, chew treats containing anti-plaque ingredients, and specialised teeth-cleaning diets.

Source: Huffington Post

Cat Poo Issues, How To Stop These Nasty Problems

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Image: Pixabay

Firstly cat poo in the house needs to be taken seriously by the cat owner, it is a sign that your cat is either ill or is feeling anxious about something.

They are not being naughty and they only do it in extreme cases of anxiety. This page is designed to help you understand why cats do this and how you can help your cat return to normal behavior if the cause is anxiety and not ill health.

Talking about poop is not an easy subject to approach. Often Cat owners will not discuss cat-fouling problems with anyone for the fear of embarrassment.

Feeling that others will condemn them for either having a defective pet or a dirty house.

But luckily with the advent of the Internet people can ask questions like “why does my cat poo everywhere” in complete anonymity and be able to solve this rather unsavory problem.

I am constantly being asked by often very distressed and surprised cat owners why these problems occur in the first place from an animal so associated with being clean.

I felt it was about time I wrote a page about the subject to try and clarify that cat poo in the house and outside the litter tray is a urgent cry for help from your cat and should not be ignored.

So Why Is My Cat Fouling The House?

When cat poo is found around the house and your cat is in good health, alarm bells should start to ring.

This is an extreme behavior from a cat and is not carried out lightly.

The process of misplaced defecating is called Middening and is a very deliberate act.

Your cat is not being naughty and should not be punished, but the problem does require urgent and gentle attention from owners to stop the behavior becoming a hard habit to break.

Techniques To Stop Cat Poo In The Home

There is only one way to stop cat poo ruining your life and your home. Take control of the situation fast but calmly.

Remember do not shout at your cat or tell it off, you must make your cat comfortable and secure in their home again. This is normally done in two steps.

  • Remove Threat – Firstly make sure that you remove the initial threat that was making your cat feel insecure in the first place. This may mean making sure no other cats are getting in through cat flaps etc, or by making sure your cat is not left alone for long periods if it is suffering from separation anxiety.
  • A Safe Place – Secondly you will have to carry out a period of confinement for your cat to gradually make them feel more secure in their environment and to reintroduce them to the litter tray.

Keep your cat in a pen or small room for about a week, with their toys, water and litter tray (feed them out of the pen in their usual spot then replace them back in the pen. Then gradually reintroduce them to the rest of the house.

If new pets or children are the cause, then gradual introduction is required. All of these measures are designed to help the cat come to terms with the new situation and also to become less nervous in their home environment.

Some cats need some extra help in getting used to new environments and situations. products like Feliway can help during these transitional phases.

Feliway is a well known product that mimics the natural pheromones in a cats scent helping them to feel safe and secure.

Available in diffusers such as Comfort Zone w/ Diffuser, it can help you create a happy and contented home for both you and your cat.

It may sound an extreme measure to confine a cat for a week or so, especially if the behavior is from a cat that has lived with you for many years. But if you look at it from your cats point of view, they have started to display and extreme behavior i.e. Middening, they would not do this unless they were very upset about something. As we cannot explain to them with words we have to show them gently and gradually not to be afraid.

Understanding Middening

Cat communication is very much based on scent and just like urinating to leave their scent, middening is a more extreme territory marker.

However the cat has chosen to leave cat poo as a very definite visual marker as well as a scent marker and is a very strong sign to other cats that this area is their territory and to back off. It is only carried out in extreme cases where the cat feels very insecure indeed.

In the wild other animal’s use middening quite obviously to mark out their territory and creatures like otters will often leave piles of feces on high rocks to make sure it is very visible.

Feral cats will also do the same and this is why a lot of people dislike feral cats. They are much less likely to bury their waste and instead like to leave it on lawns and pathways as markers and signals to other cats.

Middening in domesticated cats is far less common than cat spraying and so when it does occur it is often quite a shock for owners who become desperate to stop the behavior quickly.

Trying to pin down the actual cause of why your cat is leaving cat poo everywhere will need some detective work from yourselves, as each individual case can be different. However here are some of the usual causes:

  • A new cat or dog (or even baby) Introduced to the house
  • Too many cats living together in close proximity
  • Separation anxiety
  • A strange cat getting into the house via cat flaps etc.
  • Moving house

Any of the above could trigger your cat to defecate in the house but you must look at your own situations carefully. Some cats are easily upset and the simplest thing may cause them to become distressed, even moving their litter tray to a different part of the room may be just cause.

I Thought Cats Were Clean Animals?

Well yes they are in 99.9% of cases and this is one reason why cat ownership is on the increase over dog ownership. In our increasingly busy lives where both partners now go out to work, owning a cat that can look after itself during the day is an absolute bonus.

Also kittens need far less toilet training than puppies and so the need to be constantly available during the early months of ownership is less of an issue.

Kittens are essentially taught by their mother from a very early stage that they must keep their nest clean, essentially to avoid infection and not to attract predators.

She does this by taking them out of the nest and stimulating them to go to the toilet away from their living area. This way they learn that this is the way to do it. Puppies are not taught the same way.

Kittens also have a natural desire to dig at soft loose dirt and by watching their mother dig a hole and then to perform her toilet and cover it up, they learn fast and these skills are very easy to transfer to a litter tray when the time comes.

Source: Our Happy Cat