Expert: Jessica - 7/9/2009

Question
We live in a two story house with a basement. We own two cats, one is a black cat, the other a tortoiseshell. They are both female, spayed, and their front paws are declawed. Both are about six years old and we've had them for about four and half years. The black cat will have feces in the litter box, but urinate everywhere else, but the litter box. We have two litter boxes on the first floor which are by each other, one on the second, and one in the basement. The black cat prefers the litter box in the basement, and the tortoiseshell likes the two on the first floor. They each have a preferred room on the second floor though they may occasionally go into each others rooms they do not do it very often. They cats are not very fond of each other. The tortoiseshell will sometimes hiss, growl, and paw at the black cat when the black cat is near by. The black cat does not do anything, but paw back. We will say no and they will stop fighting. There have been instances when there is a loud screech, but by the time we get to them they have already ran away. The black cat will sometimes pounce on the tortoiseshell when we are preparing their food. We have tried giving the black cat prescribed medicine from the vet which was supposed to calm her down, it did not work. We have also tried Feliway which also did not work. The black cat has had this problem for years. We had her checked for urinary track infection, there was a very slight infection, but we gave her the medicine for it. We believe the black cat may be being territorial. Is there something we can do to get the black cat to stop urinating all over the house?

Answer
Hi Abby.  You may want to try a litter called Cat Attract to see if that helps.  It's formulated with an herbal attractant to encourage 100% litter box usage.  It's money back guaranteed.  You can find a retailer at www.preciouscat.com  There is also a Cat Attract additive if you want to continue using your own litter.

However, if she is having territorial and aggression issues, I would really encourage you to give the medications another try.  I'm not sure how long you tried them for.  They can take up to six weeks before any benefit is noticed, and there are a number of medications to choose from.  If you don't notice an improvement after 4-6 weeks, I would recommend trying a different medication.  One that has been especially helpful when aggression is a problem is Clomicalm.  Prozac, Buspar and Elavil have also been helpful in cats.  I would urge you to talk to your vet about these options.

I hope her behavior improves!

Jessica