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Old July 17th, 2013, 12:07 AM
tiggy2 tiggy2 is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kingston, ON, Canada
Posts: 134
It's a Spray Athon and I'm losing the Battle

Hi Again

I have 2 cats that are spraying the house. 1 Male (Tigger) and 1 female (Akira).

The male is 12 years old, neutered and started spraying around 2006, our first move. He was not too bad. Went from an outdoor cat to an indoor cat. The next move he got worse with the spraying to the point where I put him on Clomicalm, which seemed to help. This last move it's back to being bad again even with the clomicalm. He is back to being an outdoor cat and I was really hoping this would help..nada.

I've tried Feliway and calming collars with no luck. It's undoubtedly stress/territory related behavior issue, so how do I change the behavior?

The female Akira, I only just caught her about 2 weeks ago. Blaming Tig for all the spraying but she has been contributing to the problem. Of course she has to spray over Tig and I spray with Natures Miracle over them both, but I'm losing the battle.

Akira is almost 3, Spayed and has had only 1 move. She originally was an indoor cat but is now indoor/outdoor. I don't know how long she has been spraying, but I expect it's been months. I have seen her spraying outside and as I said only recently caught her spraying inside.

Is it territorial with Females? or some other behavior problem? She also is a nervous cat, so it might be spraying so she has a familiar/safe place to be?

Anyway I'm looking for behavior changing options. How to make them feel safe or less territorial, if that's an option.

Any assistance is appreciated, as this has gotten out of control to the point of ruining not only furniture but hardwood floors
__________________
Rosie - 1999
Callie and Tigger, brother and sister - 2001
Akira - 2010
Peanut - 2010
Spencer - 2013
Trey our 3 legged terror - 2014
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  #2  
Old July 17th, 2013, 10:12 AM
Longblades Longblades is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 2,528
Hmmmm. Sorry, hmmm is all I can come up with. The obvious is to search back in your mind for what might have changed to prompt this. And to Vet check.

I've only ever had one cat spray in the house and that was our Sadie-cat, who only did it when we first got her. She was pretty beat up when we live trapped her off the street and supposedly pregnant (though she never had kittens) and she continued to spray for about the first year we had her, even after spaying. We had to throw out some pieces of new luggage that she got inside and sprayed in. Then she just never did anymore. I mean not inside, she continued to spray outside, backing up to flowers and bushes instead of digging a hole. She did dig holes in the kitty litter inside.

Good luck.
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  #3  
Old July 17th, 2013, 10:25 AM
tiggy2 tiggy2 is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kingston, ON, Canada
Posts: 134
Do you know of any changes that occurred prior to the "stop spraying"?

I know when we moved and Tigger became an indoor cat, whenever he saw another cat he started to spray and has continued ever since. I was hoping when he got outside he would stop the inside spraying but no luck.

We've had a lot of changes over the past year, moved, outdoors again, stray moved in, stray moved out, lost 2 cats and gained 2 kittens. Perhaps things will calm down, but in the mean time what to do?

Akira just started this year and I expect it's due to all the cat changes, she has a hard time with some of the older ones.

Is there anything I can do to make them get along better? I think if they were more tolerant of each other the spraying would minimize.

I've also started some natural medicines for the arthritic cats as I know that makes them crabby.

I also found a calming treat, anyone have any experience with homeopathic foods for calming cats?

I know it's a tough one, since cats are so sensitive to change and these guys have gone through a lot of changes. One good thing I work from home so I'm here all the time, maybe I'm the stressor
__________________
Rosie - 1999
Callie and Tigger, brother and sister - 2001
Akira - 2010
Peanut - 2010
Spencer - 2013
Trey our 3 legged terror - 2014
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  #4  
Old July 17th, 2013, 10:26 AM
lindapalm lindapalm is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 717
I don't know if you want to try anymore meds, but if you run out of options (I did) and don't know what else to do you can try Floxetine. I tried amytriptlene and had no luck, then went to Floxetine. At first there was no improvemnent, but we lowered the dose as a last resort, and its been almost three months with no spraying.
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  #5  
Old July 17th, 2013, 12:29 PM
tiggy2 tiggy2 is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kingston, ON, Canada
Posts: 134
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindapalm View Post
I don't know if you want to try anymore meds, but if you run out of options (I did) and don't know what else to do you can try Floxetine. I tried amytriptlene and had no luck, then went to Floxetine. At first there was no improvement, but we lowered the dose as a last resort, and its been almost three months with no spraying.
I will definitely look into this. I am desperate. He's "My Boy", I've had him for 12 years and he is a mama's boy He just does not like any kind of change, even moving familiar items gets him going.

Anyone know of a way to get cats to relax with change? You'd think he's be used to all the moving and changes, but no. Maybe there is a behavioral change I can implement to help him with changes.

Again any advice is good advice
__________________
Rosie - 1999
Callie and Tigger, brother and sister - 2001
Akira - 2010
Peanut - 2010
Spencer - 2013
Trey our 3 legged terror - 2014
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