Urine spraying in cats is one of the most common behavioural problems encountered in cats. It is important to differentiate between spraying and normal urination. During urination a cat will usually dig a hollow, and will squat to urinate in the hole. The urine is directed downwards. The hole is closed afterwards. During spraying the cat will usually stand with straight hind legs, keep the tail upright which twitches and vibrates, the cat will paddle its feet and deposit a small volume of urine horizontally, about 15 to 25 cm from the ground – directly at the height of another cat’s nose. Both sterilised and unsterilized male and female cats can spray, but the behaviour is most common in uncastrated males.
Spraying is a means of communication between cats, and forms part of normal feline behaviour, however, most owners find it unacceptable.

Causes
There are several reasons why cats start spraying. The cat starts to feel insecure about its territory due to several causes, such as:
• inter-cat conflict (social conflict between cats in the same household or stray cats)
• changes in the environment (include moving, building or alterations at the house, the arrival of a new baby, visitors, and new animals in the house)
• any event that can cause stress to a sensitive cat

It is often a combination of stressful events that pushes the cat over its threshold. When spraying is triggered by inter-cat conflict both the aggressor and the victim can start marking with urine. Interior walls and objects are normally marked with a new cat in the house whereas doors and windows are often marked when there is a new cat outside the house in the yard (for example a stray visiting cat). Urine is used to mark the territory and the cat communicates to other cats that this territory is already inhabited by a cat.

Treatment
Treatment consists of two parts. Firstly the cat must feel secure in the house and secondly the habit must be broken. There is no place for punishment in these cases. The cat is hardly ever caught in the act, and therefore punishment cannot be delivered when the behaviour takes place. To shove the cat’s nose in the urine will not help, because the cat will not associate it with the urination. Secondly, this behaviour occurs in anxious cats. To punish such an animal will only increase its anxiety, and may worsen the problem.

One can increase the cat’s feeling of security in several ways. If there are other cats in the household, these cats must be separated. Lock the cat initially in a small area (a room) and supply it with its own sandbox, water and food as well as a bed or blanket that it can see as its ‘safe haven’. Once the cat feels more secure and has not sprayed for several days, the area can be increased to two rooms, slowly increasing the cats area, but always keeping its safe space available to return to at all times. Extra time in the day should be set aside to interact with the cat by feeding several small meals per day, playing with it or stroking it. Synthetic pheromones are available and will increase the cat’s sense of security. There must be enough resources for all the cats in the household (each their own food and water bowl and every cat its own sleeping area). Enough litter trays must be supplied throughout the house – the rule of thumb is at least one tray per cat plus one extra. A scratch post that is stable should be supplied in the house. This will give the cat an alternative way to mark the territory.

It is very important to keep stray cats out of your cats’ territory. This is not always an easy thing to achieve, but if you see them in the garden you must scare them away. Spraying them with water is a good and safe method. There are even sprinkler systems that are triggered by motion. Walls on which cats like to sit can be made ‘uncomfortable’ to sit on by hitting flat headed nails into them at short intervals. Many cats do not like the smell of citronella oil and this can also be used as a deterent. Stray cats can be prevented from entering the home by keeping the windows closed at night or using electronic cat flaps that only let your own cat in. These are expensive though.

Any intact male cats must be castrated. This is probably the most important part of treating the problem and should be done as soon as possible.

Many owners have used many different methods to try to break the habit of urine spraying. These include spraying the cat with a water pistol when caught in the act, spraying citronella oil in the areas where cats mark and even placing aluminium foil over frequently sprayed areas to create a noise when the cat sprays there. A simple and cheap method to deter a cat from spraying in a specific area is food. Most cats will not urinate/spray close to the food. Wet some dry pellets a little so they stick to the food bowl, and place bowls in sprayed areas.

How to clean the area
An important way to manage the problem includes the way we clean the soiled areas. Clean the area with a warm solution of a biological detergent (do not use any products containing ammonia and/or chlorine). When the area is dry, scrub it with surgical spirits or another alcohol-containing product (test first for colour changes), and rinse thoroughly. Severely soiled objects may be so saturated with urine that they will need to be replaced.

By Dr Frederique Hurly
BVSc, MPhil