Expert: Tina - 10/16/2008

Question
I have a 6 year old male cat that is is neutered and he has never been a problem for me until I became pregnant.  He urinates in his food dish every day.  I have replaced the dish, but it does no good.  His water and food have always been under our basement stairs in a cubby (to keep the dog out), so I tried separating the dishes from the litter box, still no luck.  I'm concerned that the problem may become worse once the baby arrives.  Could my pregnancy have something to do with his urinating problem???

Answer
HI Lindsay,

Congratulations on your pregnancy! Although it is possible that your cats' behavior is related to your pregnancy, the change in routine or your behavior, it's always the first step to take him to the vet. Cats who suddenly start to urinate in inappropriate places almost always have a urinary tract problem such as crystals in the urine or an infection. They often seek out cool smooth surfaces to urinate on because it feels soothing to their inflamed tissue.

Here is some more information about inappropriate urination and the steps you can take to solve the problem:

http://catnet.stanford.edu/articles/litterbox.html

Have you been not cleaning the litterbox as thoroughly or frequently recently? An unclean litterbox will create problems. If it's not clean enough that you would step in it with bare feet, neither does your cat want to.

In addition you should know that some cleaning agents including bleach attract cats to urinate in that spot. So if you have been trying to remove urine with bleach it becomes a vicious cycle! You'll need to use a product intended for cat urine sold at pet stores, such as Natures Miracle.

Another possibility is that your cat does not like his food, something you are adding to his food or he detects something has changed about it. Recently there have been so many cases of contamination in pet food. I'd try another brand, I highly recommend Nature's Variety, Wellness and Innova Evo canned foods. Your cat should eat canned food for urinary tract health, too.

You should definitely never locate the food and water near the litter box - no one wants to eat right beside the toilet! If the dog eats the cat food you can try feeding him up on a counter top, or close him in a separate room until he's finished eating. Or, put up a dog/baby gate to prevent the dog from going into the basement, with just enough space underneath that the cat can go down.

Good luck!