# Cat suddenly weeing in the house?



## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

My bengal kitty dexter has been perfectly litter trained for the last 9 months, pooing and weeing in there every day apart from twice when we first got him and he went on the dogs bed. 
Suddenly about a week ago he started weeing on the floor downstairs and has continued to do so twice a day since then.
Nothing has changed in the house, same cat litter, same tray, no new animals, literally nothing has changed. 
We've taken him to the vets to rule out a medical issue but they think he's fine although we are waiting on some test results just to rule everything out.
We just have no idea why he's doing it and what to do to stop him, we are cleaning the area thoroughly each time he does it and I've started cleaning out his litter tray twice a day instead of once in case that made a difference (it didn't).
The weird thing is he is still going into his tray every day for a poo but weeing on the floor!
I'm going to try putting another tray downstairs to see if that helps but is there anything else we can try?
I think my boyfriend is going to kill the cat if this carries on much longer 
Thanks for reading!
Jess


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## Rogue665 (Mar 17, 2010)

Did putting a litter tray where he is weeing help?
The only thing i can think of (if he is medical ok)
sexual maturity and scent marking.


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Firstly is he neutered? If he isn't that's almost definitely your cause at 12 months.

if he's neutered then something is stressing him and he's trying to establish territory. Often people don't realise just how easily a cat is stressed and it could be the simplest thing that has caused this. 

Does he free roam, because it could be a cat outside upsetting him. If he doesn't free roam it could still be a cat outside, maybe spraying at your door and upsetting him - we've actually had this happen to us.

You could try putting out bowls of food where he is peeing, because a cat (usually!!!) doesn't wee where he eats.

Finally how are you cleaning up the area where he is peeing?


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Thanks for your replies 
Dex was neutered October last year and is an indoor cat.
We are cleaning the area with just soapy water, we were using stronger cleaners but our vet advised us to use something weaker without a smell.
So far putting a litter tray downstairs isn't helping as he isn't weeing in just one spot but all over our downstairs so I'm not sure where we would put food down either.
We've been trying to think of anything that could be stressing him out, nothing has changed in the house and we've never seen cats in our front or back garden. There must be something we just can't think what it could be.
It's absolutely ruining our flooring downstairs and the house smells like wee now no matter how much we clean. 
What should we do if he actually does it in front of us? It's not happened yet but I'm not sure what to do if it does.
Thanks!


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

So he was neutered at a very young age :gasp:, but you don't mention whether he is an only cat or whether you have others? Just trying to get the whole scenario.

However, straight away I can tell you that soapy water won't remove urine smells, so he will still be able to smell the areas that he is claiming as his territory.

You need to use a bio washing powder to wash the area as the enzymes will "digest" the proteins in the urine. Then you need to remove any remnants of smell that will attract him back and to do this you need to use an alcohol based product, such as surgical spirit, after shave, perfume, anything with alcohol, which will remove the fatty deposits left behind. There are purpose made products on the market that are supposed to remove smells, such as Febreze, but I always use Surgical spirit because of the strength of it. Shell195 swears by Cat Odour Eliminater – she uses it daily where she know the cats will pee and it seems to stop them going back and gets rid of the smell totally(Pets @ home sell it). 

You could also try putting a small bowl of dried cat food in that area because cats, being such fastidiously clean animals, will not urinate where they eat, however, I for one can tell you that that doesn't always work.

If you ask any cat behaviourist/psychologist they will tell you that the type of litter you choose is crucial if you have a cat with a problem like this. So, firstly, what type of litter are you using? The finer the grain of litter, the happier your cat will be, so if you are using one of the fine clumping sand-type litters your cat will be ecstatic. If you are using a fuller's earth type litter, your cat will use it, but not as happily and if you are using the pelleted sawdust litter your cat will probably hate it! This is compounded if your cat is an indoor cat who has softer paw pads than a cat who goes out on the street every day, so standing on hard wooden pellets could be found uncomfortable.

If none of this works, then you may have to resort to re-training and that means either penning your cat, or confining it to the smallest possible room in your house. It doesn't come out of that pen or that room until it has been totally clean for a minimum of a week. Then you can let it out, but *do not* give it access to all the house, just to the room (if it's been penned) or another room if it's been confined and it doesn't leave that room until it's been clean again for a minimum of a week. If it has a setback, go back to the previous stage and start again. This isn't something that you are going to cure overnight, especially if it's been going on for some months.

We've dealt with this problem for about the last 15 years and it's not fun. In our case it was too many cats causing the stress, so we just used 'damage limitation' and regular cleaning, so I do understand your problem and sympathise with your plight, but if you don't have any other cats in the house something is stressing him and it could be something so simple it hasn't crossed your mind.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

feorag said:


> So he was neutered at a very young age :gasp:, but you don't mention whether he is an only cat or whether you have others? Just trying to get the whole scenario.
> 
> He was neutered at 6 months old when we first got him and we've now had him for 9 months.
> We don't have any other cats but we have an old labrador who he gets on with.
> ...


Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, its just frustrating because he went in his litter tray good as gold for 9 months and only in the last couple of weeks hes started weeing on the floor


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## biohazard156 (Nov 11, 2007)

If he is stressed at all by anything then you might want to try some Zylkene capsules for him. My cat suddenly started pulling his fur out all over his body. No new pets, neutered, everything the same.... But something obviously changed to his dislike.
We tried feliway but didn't seem to do an awful lot, but the zylkene worked a treat, he has stopped completely and his fur is all back.


Not an immediate solution by any means, but it's not expensive, and isn't a drug as suchso no harmful side effects! I can't suggest more practical things than Feorag already has though!

Good luck!


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## Avyron (Jun 29, 2010)

are there any strays/ferals hanging around? our cats were all perfect with toilet habits, but started weeing and leaving uncovered poos on the grass when ferals started hanging round. they used to get in too!


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Avyron said:


> are there any strays/ferals hanging around? our cats were all perfect with toilet habits, but started weeing and leaving uncovered poos on the grass when ferals started hanging round. they used to get in too!


There are cats around our street, we've not really seen any in our garden but that's not to say It isn't happening when we aren't there during the day or overnight.
He is mainly weeing by the front and back doors so that could be it.
Any suggestions on what we can do to discourage cats coming in our garden? Someone I work with has suggested lemon juice?
Jess


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

biohazard156 said:


> If he is stressed at all by anything then you might want to try some Zylkene capsules for him. My cat suddenly started pulling his fur out all over his body. No new pets, neutered, everything the same.... But something obviously changed to his dislike.
> We tried feliway but didn't seem to do an awful lot, but the zylkene worked a treat, he has stopped completely and his fur is all back.
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks will look into that 
Jess


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## Avyron (Jun 29, 2010)

im not 100% sure how to stop strays... they were coming thru the cat flap for food so we took the biscuits away at night. i think the zyklenes are good but you still need to find the cause lol. ours was solved when we trapped, neutered & released a feral who now hangs zaround keeping the rest away. one still leaves a poo occasionally if i go out and seems to be a sort of separation anxiety


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

harlequin said:


> Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, its just frustrating because he went in his litter tray good as gold for 9 months and only in the last couple of weeks hes started weeing on the floor


No problem, I do sympathise, we just lost our last piddler last month and to be honest it's quite a relief, so I know how you feel. 

I didn't realise you got him at 6 months old - thought it was the usual 3 months! :blush:

All due respect to vets, but they are more into the physiology of a cat, not the psychology and they can't be experts on every species. I think if they've never owned cats or suffered the problem themselves, you're better getting advice from cat owners and breeders, who have.

I get your point about the cat food - didn't realise you had a dog and also you certainly shouldn't have any problems with Oko Plus, so we can definitely rule out a 'dislike to the litter' problem.

Feliway should help you - it didn't help us at all, was just a waste of money, but we knew what our problem was and couldn't fix it as we weren't prepared to rehome our cats. I honestly don't think it helps in multi-cat households, but in a household of 1-3 cats I think it will work.

That still leaves the possibility of outdoor cats upsetting him by maybe spraying in your doorways or even jumping on your windowsills. We had that problem with a local cat. Our estate is open plan at the front so no boundaries and the neighbour's cat used to come and sit on our windowsill and really stress our cats out. So this could be happening when you're out.

For a time we also had an entire cat hanging around (we had entire females and they announced to the world when they were in season :lol: ) and he used to spray at our front door, which upset them all. Our back garden is cat proofed and although a few cats have negotiated the overhang to get IN to the garden, once they've been trapped in it they never come back and we haven't had a cat trapped for well over 10 years.

As far as keeping cats out of your garden, it's far nigh impossible. You can help to stop them doing their business by putting out orange peel and using products such as "Get Off" - a lot of the other ones don't work, but nothing will stop them coming in.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Well we have now had 2 feliway diffusers in the house and had the kitty on zylkene for about a week and he is still weeing in the house apart from 2 wees in his tray.
I have now seen a strange cat in our garden twice which really upset dex so I ran out and chased it off with a water sprayer.
Hoping that persisting with scaring the cat off and with the feliway and zylkene we might get somewhere.
We've changed what we are cleaning up the wee with after your recommendation feorag but I think he's now been doing it for long enough that he just keeps going back to the same spots anyway.
Keeping my fingers crossed anyway, thanks again for all your help and suggestions


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## Rogue665 (Mar 17, 2010)

harlequin said:


> Well we have now had 2 feliway diffusers in the house and had the kitty on zylkene for about a week and he is still weeing in the house apart from 2 wees in his tray.
> I have now seen a strange cat in our garden twice which really upset dex so I ran out and chased it off with a water sprayer.
> Hoping that persisting with scaring the cat off and with the feliway and zylkene we might get somewhere.
> We've changed what we are cleaning up the wee with after your recommendation feorag but I think he's now been doing it for long enough that he just keeps going back to the same spots anyway.
> Keeping my fingers crossed anyway, thanks again for all your help and suggestions



If it doesn't get in your way maybe put a litter tray there, with a little urine in there, squeeze out kitchen towel you used to wipe it up into the litter tray then gradually move it inch by inch until its where you want it.
tin foil is supposed to be a good deterrent too.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Rogue665 said:


> If it doesn't get in your way maybe put a litter tray there, with a little urine in there, squeeze out kitchen towel you used to wipe it up into the litter tray then gradually move it inch by inch until its where you want it.
> tin foil is supposed to be a good deterrent too.


We have tried putting a litter tray where he is weeing but unfortunately there are several places he is going and if there is a litter tray there he just goes somewhere else.
We haven't tried tinfoil yet because it would be such a pain to us and the dog to have it all over the place but we may have to give that a go. 
Thanks


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Double sided sticky plastic is good too, cos they hate it sticking to their feet. You can buy it to put on furniture to deter scratching, so you could like that on the floor where he's weeing.

If absolutely NOTHING in your house has changed, then the cat will very likely be the reason why he's stressed and insecure, so keep spraying it to keep it away.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

No wee all day yesterday which was amazing but woke up to wee this morning. step in the right direction though!


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

It is indeed! :2thumb:


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

So kitty is still weeing in the house everyday and is now going upstairs on the carpet as well as downstairs on the laminate. 
He's started sometimes weeing directly underneath the feliway diffuser so I'm not sure whether to take it out completely now, we tried shutting him in his room and he wee'ed on the carpet next to his litter tray.
He seems to almost be waiting for us to be around to wee, for example when I get up in the morning there's no wee so he hasn't gone all night but then when I go back downstairs after getting ready hes done a wee, or I'll come home from work and there's no wee but 5 minutes later I'll walk into a room and he's just done one.
My boyfriend is getting really angry and stressed about it and I'm worried he's going to tell me to get rid of him, do not want to have to choose between my OH and my baby cat


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

I think you need to think about a total re-train. You need to either borrow a pen from someone (if you haven't got one of course) and confine him to that until he's using his litter tray all the time for at least a week.

I'm certain, however, that the cat is being stressed by something. When they are stressed within a household they will pee on anything new that appears which could explain the fact that he's peeing on the diffuser plug!

Do you know what 'F' he is?? How far back is the Asian Leopard in his pedigree.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

feorag said:


> I think you need to think about a total re-train. You need to either borrow a pen from someone (if you haven't got one of course) and confine him to that until he's using his litter tray all the time for at least a week.
> 
> I'm certain, however, that the cat is being stressed by something. When they are stressed within a household they will pee on anything new that appears which could explain the fact that he's peeing on the diffuser plug!
> 
> Do you know what 'F' he is?? How far back is the Asian Leopard in his pedigree.


I've never had to litter train a cat before, they've all come trained, even the little kitties seemed to have the hang of it apart from the odd accident.
Will look into getting a pen and do some research so I know what I'm doing.
Better get some ear plugs too because he screams the house down any time he's shut away lol 
We've wracked our brains for things that could be stressing him and we can't think of anything in the house, he had his first cattery stay recently but it was over a month after he came back before he started weeing.
The only idea we've had is this cat that's coming in the garden but we hardly ever see it and cant stop it getting in the garden. We think it might be weeing outside the back door but we're not sure.
I'm not sure of his F, I'm not even sure he's a pedigree bengal although he was sold as one. the breeder turned out to be an idiot and disappeared off the face of the planet after we collected him.
I made alot of mistakes when I got him, fell in love and rushed in too quickly and got burnt for it.

ETA - I forgot to mention, he's been going to the vets on and off while this has been going on and has been steadily losing weight since the weeing started, he was 3.9kg before this started and at last weigh in was 3.4kg


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

I bred cats for 20 years and never litter trained a single kitten - they did it themselves, so I understand where you're coming from.

Re-training is simply confining the cat to a pen where there is basically room for a bed, food & water and a litter tray. On the basis that (most) cats won't toilet where they eat or won't toilet where they sleep, they have the limited choice of where to toilet, so use the litter tray.

That's one of the problems with Bengals (as well as quite a few other breeds) that they're loud and miaow a lot, so yes it'll be difficult for you, but once you start you mustn't stop. He doesn't come out of that pen until he's been using only his litter tray for at least a week.

After a week you can let him out of the pen, but confine him to one room and if he continues to use his litter tray then after a week he can have access to another room - he doesn't get the run of the house until you are absolutely certain that he is always using his litter tray. If he pees anywhere inappropriate, then go back to the previous stage and start again.

In the meantime there's not a lot else you can do except keep everything in the house the same and in the same place (when our cats were peeing we couldn't move anything or put down anything like a shopping bag or it would be peed on, cos it was 'new') so don't move stuff and make every attempt to chase that cat away, cos that's probably what's causing it.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

feorag said:


> I bred cats for 20 years and never litter trained a single kitten - they did it themselves, so I understand where you're coming from.
> 
> Re-training is simply confining the cat to a pen where there is basically room for a bed, food & water and a litter tray. On the basis that (most) cats won't toilet where they eat or won't toilet where they sleep, they have the limited choice of where to toilet, so use the litter tray.
> 
> ...


Thanks so much for all your help and advice, I really appreciate it 
When you say pen do you mean like a dog crate? 
I have to say the thought of shutting him away even in a room feels horrible because he is very active and also very needy of human company, he follows me around everywhere and if im sitting down hes usually on my lap but if that becomes our only option we'll have to take it.
Unfortunately our house is very open plan so we could keep him in a crate, and then a room but after that he would pretty much have the run of the house =/
He has his own room upstairs with his tree, toys, beds, litter tray, food and water in but we almost never shut him in there, we tried it recently and he just howled the house down and wee'ed on the carpet next to his tray.


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Yes, in the cat world it's called a kittening pen and in the dog world a dog crate. :2thumb:

It's going to be tough, but the way things are at the moment, I don't know what else you can do. You can get him out of the pen for short intervals of cuddles, but I wouldn't let him wander about, just in case otherwise it'll be counter-productive.


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## viperdan (Sep 15, 2011)

My cat is about 13 years old and does her business everywhere but the litter tray.

The vet says its just down to her age.


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

If it was my cat I wouldn't accept that to be honest. Not unless the vet is saying that the cat is senile. If the cat isn't senile, then sorry I think that's a cop out on behalf of your vet.

There are thousands of cats over 13 - it's not _that_ old for a cat - who use their litter trays properly.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Ok little update... Dex has now been on zylkene and feliway for over 2 weeks and in the last few days we are finally seeing some improvement! 
For the last few weeks he has not been weeing in his litter tray at all and doing great big puddles of wee on the floor but now what I am starting to notice is that he is weeing in his tray every day and just doing tiny wees on the floor and it appears only in one place now.
Unfortunately that one place is next our £350 solid oak bookcase which is now pretty much ruined as it has soaked up the wee and stinks of it.
I'm guessing he's continuing to go there now because no matter how much we clean it you can still smell wee there.
We did think it was because the feliway was plugged in there but we moved the plug in and the poor bookcase is still getting it!
Can't throw the bookcase away so we're thinking about trying to get it to soak up something else that will cover the smell lol 
Once again, thanks for all your help and support


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## Rach1 (May 18, 2010)

viperdan said:


> My cat is about 13 years old and does her business everywhere but the litter tray.
> 
> The vet says its just down to her age.





feorag said:


> If it was my cat I wouldn't accept that to be honest. Not unless the vet is saying that the cat is senile. If the cat isn't senile, then sorry I think that's a cop out on behalf of your vet.
> 
> There are thousands of cats over 13 - it's not _that_ old for a cat - who use their litter trays properly.


Our family cat reached the age of 16 and she never did it anywhere other than outdoors until she was literally getting so poorly she didn't know what she was doing.
That's how we knew something was wrong tbh... As she started weeing in mums potplants and under the table.

Similarly, we always knew if she was I'll cause she would have accidents.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

OK so after trying everything else under the sun we have now decided to try re-training him as suggested, i've really been putting this off because I didn't want to have to shut him in a cage but hes still weeing all over the house and if anything is getting worse.
I've borrowed a dog crate off of someone and set it up with a litter tray, his favourite bed, food and water bowls and a couple of toys.
He's already completely trashed it, water and cat litter everywhere but I guess that was to be expected!
Heres a couple of photos of his cage, does this look ok? 





Im a bit worried that hes just going to wee on the floor of the cage instead of going in his litter tray but I guess i'll just have to wait and see and keep fingers crossed.
Jess


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Sorry, you've had to resort to this, but hopefully it will work.

That crate looks fine and, although it sounds horrible, the less space the better. The idea is that the cat won't pee where it eats and _shouldn't_ pee where it sleeps, so as there is such a confined space with basically a sleeping, eating and toilet space, he'll use the litter tray.

I can't remember if I asked you what age he was when you got him??

I sincerely hope it works out for you. Doubtless he will wail and complain about being in there, so it's going to be tough, but you just have to switch off (not easy I know) and leave him to get on with it. 

We've never had a litter problem with any of our cats in 30 years of cat ownership, but we did once have to crate a cat who had terrible digestive problems and was put on an eliminate diet to try to find the trigger, so he lived in the kitten pen for weeks and I hated it, but if it solves your problem it will be worth it.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

feorag said:


> Sorry, you've had to resort to this, but hopefully it will work.
> 
> That crate looks fine and, although it sounds horrible, the less space the better. The idea is that the cat won't pee where it eats and _shouldn't_ pee where it sleeps, so as there is such a confined space with basically a sleeping, eating and toilet space, he'll use the litter tray.
> 
> ...


Although I feel like an absolute monster for shutting him in a cage it is actually working at the moment!
For the first time in months he is weeing only in his litter tray :2thumb:
He was around 6 months when we got him and was perfectly litter trained for another 9 months with us before the problems started.
He's been in there since saturday afternoon and although he cried alot at first he seems to have accepted his position now and just gets on with it.
I'm planning to let him out on saturday and have him shut just in his room and that will be the big test if he keeps using the litter tray or not, we tried shutting him in his room before and he just wee'ed on the carpet and ignored the litter tray!
Jess


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Fingers crossed then!

If he pees anywhere but the litter tray when you let him out, put him straight back in again until he's been clean for a week and then try again.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Feeling quite low right now, kitty had been in the cage for a week and been totally clean so we let him out into his room today.
Within an hour of being out he wee'ed on the carpet 
He's now back in the cage and I'm worrying about what the hell we are going to do if the same thing happens next week.
Really thought this was going to work after he used his litter tray all last week.


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

I'm really struggling to understand what is motivating him. I know you said he was neutered, they did remove 2 testicles didn't they? Might sound daft, but if he was monorchid, maybe the vet couldn't find the other one??

He's definitely got a 'marking' problem and I do find myself wondering whether his breeding has something to do with it. There are wild cat genes behind him and you know what they say "genes will out" and they do. They lie dormant for generations and then suddenly appear.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

They told me it was a standard castration, he definitely had 2 balls before he went in and none after lol
I just don't really know what to do next if this doesn't work (again).
We can't go on having him wee all over the house but I don't know what other options there are.
Alot of people have been telling me I should let him out but my neighbours hate cats, I live on a road and have a tiny garden.
I would never forgive myself if I let him out and something happened to him.
It's also been suggested I rehome him but I can't just give my baby away


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## Salamanda (May 28, 2008)

I haven't read whole thread so sorry if I repeat anything that has already been said. Have you had a urine sample done? Male cats are more prone to cystitis and they often associate the pain with the litter tray so will wee other places if they are in pain. Could also be pain in general that is causing him to wee. Has he been vet checked? 
Also biological washing powder will help get rid of the urine smell x


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Salamanda said:


> I haven't read whole thread so sorry if I repeat anything that has already been said. Have you had a urine sample done? Male cats are more prone to cystitis and they often associate the pain with the litter tray so will wee other places if they are in pain. Could also be pain in general that is causing him to wee. Has he been vet checked?
> Also biological washing powder will help get rid of the urine smell x


Thanks for your reply, he's been to the vet and got a clean bill of health, they said it was something behavioural but we don't know what caused him to start weeing everywhere.
We've tried everything and anything that's been suggested to us with no luck so far 
Jess


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Well just got home and he's now wee'ed all over the bottom of the cage and his bed.
Just don't know what to do anymore. I know its stupid to get upset about something like this but I just feel like crying!


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

After his in cage incident last Monday he was clean in his cage again all last week so we let him out again last night, he once again wee'ed on the carpet not long after we let him out so he's back in the cage again. 
If the same thing happens after this third week in the cage I'm not going to put him back in again, it's clearly not working and he's getting more and more distressed being in there. 
OH thinks it's time to start thinking about rehoming and trying to find someone in the country with a big garden where he could go out.
I don't want to rehome him but no clue what to do, don't know what's best for him now =/


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## Tommy Coopers Ghost (Sep 14, 2014)

Hope this Link helps... may Possibly be covered by any insurance 

Find a clinical animal behaviourist - Animal behaviour experts - rspca.org.uk


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## Tommy Coopers Ghost (Sep 14, 2014)

As for the Practical Aspect of your Floor, have you considered putting puppy training pads where he wees? Super absorbent and lock aware odours.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Tommy Coopers Ghost said:


> Hope this Link helps... may Possibly be covered by any insurance
> 
> Find a clinical animal behaviourist - Animal behaviour experts - rspca.org.uk


Thanks for this, I was actually just talking about a behaviourist today so perfect timing!



Tommy Coopers Ghost said:


> As for the Practical Aspect of your Floor, have you considered putting puppy training pads where he wees? Super absorbent and lock aware odours.


He's in the cage again atm but for a few weeks before he went in our whole house was covered in puppy pads to try and save the floor / furniture lol
Jess


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

I am so sorry this isn't working and I totally understand your frustration and upset.

I think if it's working in the cage, then the only thing you can do this time is leave him in the cage for longer, as obviously a week isn't enough.

How big is his room and have you totally cleaned all the areas in that room where he's peed and sprayed it with alcohol to remove all remnants of smell. 

If his room is fairly big, like a bedroom size, then you need to put him in a smaller room, like a bathroom, so again he has a little bit more space, but not as much as his room- if it's a large-ish room.

What's his weight like now, because I've just read through your comments again and saw your comments on his weight. Bengals are a very muscular breed and muscle weighs heavy and 3.4Kg is very lightweight for this breed. Even my Somali queens weighed heavier than this and Somalis are a foreign, lithe type cat, not a large boned type like a Bengal.


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## Rach1 (May 18, 2010)

I keep track of this thread cause it fascinates me, also I'm willing him to stop peeing so you don't have to rehome.
I feel so sorry for you, it must be horrid.
My thoughts are with you and I'm hoping at some point I will read this and see he's back to being a good boy.


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## Tommy Coopers Ghost (Sep 14, 2014)

Jess, dont forget, if you had him seen by a vet Under any insurance, and it also covers behavioural treatment, it is treatment for the same Condition, and you will have already covered the excess.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

feorag said:


> I am so sorry this isn't working and I totally understand your frustration and upset.
> 
> I think if it's working in the cage, then the only thing you can do this time is leave him in the cage for longer, as obviously a week isn't enough.
> 
> ...


His room is our spare bedroom, its pretty small but maybe you're right and it is too big still. 
The bathroom is teeny so would work better but may be a bit tricky logistically lol once his litter tray and bed etc is in there we won't be able to get in and out to wash etc haha
His weight is back up to 4kg now, it is low for the breed but he is quite a small cat and the vet said his weight was perfect for his size, it was pretty bad when it dropped right down, at 3.4 you could see his hip bones and really feel his spine and ribs 
Will try 2 weeks in the cage this time and then into the bathroom, I'm willing to keep trying anything and everything because for me rehoming him is just not even worth contemplating, I love him to bits, piss and all!



Rach1 said:


> I keep track of this thread cause it fascinates me, also I'm willing him to stop peeing so you don't have to rehome.
> I feel so sorry for you, it must be horrid.
> My thoughts are with you and I'm hoping at some point I will read this and see he's back to being a good boy.


Thanks rach  I'm really hoping we eventually hit on something that works because I really don't want to have to rehome, theres still a few more things to try so fingers crossed!



Tommy Coopers Ghost said:


> Jess, dont forget, if you had him seen by a vet Under any insurance, and it also covers behavioural treatment, it is treatment for the same Condition, and you will have already covered the excess.


He's been to the vet but we didn't use the insurance, i'm not sure if my insurance would cover a behaviourist anyway but I'll look into it 


This is my fave pic of the little blighter, chilling out in the sink 


Jess


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## Rach1 (May 18, 2010)

I even looked some stuff up on the net to see if there was anything different I could find for you.
What I did find was that it seems quite a common problem in bengals.


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## Rach1 (May 18, 2010)

How are you getting on?
Are you staying sane Hun?


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Rach1 said:


> How are you getting on?
> Are you staying sane Hun?


Well I woke up this morning to discover kitty had wee'ed all over his cage again. He's getting more and more upset being stuck in the cage and I just feel like the worst mum ever.
I feel like I'm running out of options and I am probably going to have to try and convince my OH to pay out a reasonable sum of money for an animal behaviorist for a cat he basically hates.
I feel like an idiot because so many people warned me about bengals in general and this cat in particular but I just ignored everyone because I loved him and now I feel like hes stuck with me when he could be in a much better home because I jumped in at the deep end and just assumed I would be able to swim!
Ive owned moggies all my life, all free roaming outdoor cats and thought I could cope jumping up to a 6 month old, hand reared bengal from a dodgy breeder.
I just don't want him to suffer from my stupidity.


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

It's not stupidity, Jess, so don't berate yourself. It could have worked out really well and no-one could have told you this might happen.

I didn't realise he was handreared and that _MIGHT _have made a slight difference, in terms of him not being taught to be a cat. Was he still with his mother and only hand fed because she couldn't feed him?? Unless of course he was brought up in a houseful of cats and allowed to mix with them from a very early age.

I'm still kinda harking back to the breed to be honest. I've never known a 'normal' pedigree cat not to successfully re-train through this method and the only difference here is the Asian Leopard cat behind this breed. Wild cats are far more territorial than domestic cats and the fact that there are wild genes behind him _could_ be the reason he is as bad as he is. 

 I wish I could offer more advice, but to be honest I can't! Barry and I sat and re-read through this thread before I put up my previous post and he couldn't come up with anything, other than what I'd already advised either! :sad:


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Just been reading this thread with everyone warning me how dodgy the breeder was and how much trouble I was going to have lol

http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/other-pets-exotics/994278-after-2-years-begging-im.html

Since getting him he's ransacked all our kitchen cupboards and eaten everything, opened the fridge and freezer and eaten everything, got in the microwave and eaten leftovers, opened the understairs cupboard and eaten the dog food, got back in the kitchen cupboards After we put child locks on them, eaten more sponges and tea towels than I can count, eaten numerous socks, trousers, t shirts, jumpers, leggings etc and pissed all over the house. 
There's probably more that I've forgotten or blocked out haha

We got through everything and found solutions to all our problems until the weeing. Still love him though!


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## Rach1 (May 18, 2010)

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing isn't it.
Think of all the mistakes we wouldnt need to go thru if we all had forethought and future vision!

You've done well considering, just put it down to experience.
You'll not make the same mistake again.

I'm sure he'll get there and he'll be perfect again in no time... It's just the long slog getting there.
:lol2:
X x


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

:up: What Rach said! :2thumb:


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## Rach1 (May 18, 2010)

How are you getting on?


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Rach1 said:


> How are you getting on?


Thanks for asking  Been a busy couple of weeks hence no updates, OH broke his freaking arm so he's been keeping me busy lol

Kitty went in the cage for a week, came out into his room and immediately wee'ed, went back in the cage for a week, came out into his room and immediately wee'ed again so we then followed feorags advice and put him in the cage for 2 weeks and then let him out into the bathroom instead of his room, unfortunately he wee'ed on the floor again.

I made the decision that I wasn't going to put him back in the cage again as it obviously wasn't working and he was getting more and more distressed with each stay in the cage.

We decided to let him out to have free run of the house again with a litter tray upstairs and downstairs.
The first couple of days out he was very good and mainly went in his litter trays but then went back to just weeing all over the house 2-3 times a day.

We are now just back to damage control, puppy pads everywhere and cleaning up the wee as soon as we find it.

I am pushing for an animal behaviourist but they are expensive and the OH is not keen so we are at a stalemate atm.
We can't go on like this but I still don't want to rehome.

Jess


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## Rach1 (May 18, 2010)

Hi, sorry to hear it's not going great I was so hoping it would improve.
I was reading some stuff about bengals and in the USA their way to stop this is to prescribe Prozac for the cat?

This got me thinking, is there a medication you could try from the vet? Obviously it's not nice to think your pet will be medicated but it may buy you some time to try other ideas etc.


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## harlequin (Oct 28, 2008)

Rach1 said:


> Hi, sorry to hear it's not going great I was so hoping it would improve.
> I was reading some stuff about bengals and in the USA their way to stop this is to prescribe Prozac for the cat?
> 
> This got me thinking, is there a medication you could try from the vet? Obviously it's not nice to think your pet will be medicated but it may buy you some time to try other ideas etc.


We did speak to the vet about this and they recommended we try feliway and zylkene which we have but said they wouldn't recommend anything stronger.

The feliway is plugged in all the time but we stopped the zylkene after a few weeks as it wasn't making any noticeable difference.


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

So sorry to hear the crating hasn't worked! :sad:

We're on holiday in Scotland and there's no signal where we are so can only get on line when we're somewhere with Wi-Fi.

The only other 'calmer' you could try would be something like Valerian, which cats love the smell and taste of. that's a natural 'sedative' and might keep him calm.

Feliway didn't work for us with our problems either, although it does appear to have worked for other people. 

We tried Zylkene on our 'high anxiety' GSD and it didn't make any difference, whereas calming herbs did, so you could try Valerian, which you can buy on line from Dorwest Herbs. I would use the pure Valerian, not their Skullcap and Valerian tablets as Skullcap can sometimes work the other way!


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