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Anyone advice or tips to stop female spraying?

The Menagerie
#1

Has anyone had success getting a female not to spray? About a year ago and a half ago we fostered a liter of 4 kittens which we ended up keeping. Everything seemed great until 6 months ago someone was peeing and spraying everywhere. We put out cameras and figured out it was one of the girls ~ the girl cat is not scared never hides but is hissed at by her sisters and sometimes chased by her brother. I get the impression they aren’t in love with her.

I put diffusers everywhere which did nothing. We finally locked her up in a bathroom with two attached bedrooms. She hasn’t sprayed once in 4 weeks. In the past she had sprayed everywhere in these rooms. We did try to give her Prozac but pills are an issue and she knows it’s in her food. I decided to start letting her out for very short spurts in the rest of the house - very supervised…within 10 mins she went downstairs and sprayed in the bathroom. She’s locked up again. Just a note she is allowed visitors in her new domain and seems totally fine even when her one sister hisses. She also seems very happy and relaxed alone - not trying to escape at all. Any strategic methods to reintroduced her to the rest of the house and not spray? Not sure locking her up for the rest of her life is the best solution. Does she want to be an only cat? I need cat guru advise!

#2

Did you run a UA & bloodwork? Peeing issues can be infection or kidney disease, even in young cats.

Prozac can be compounded in a transdermal prep, which might be worth trying if medical causes are ruled out.

2 Likes
#3

My cat gets transdermal compounded prozac. It’s applied daily in his ear. I get it through Chewy (vet prescribed).

This was only AFTER everything else was tested for and tried.

1 Like
#4

Yes cat had a fully blood and urine panel done…all normal.

#5

Also I asked vet during visit about the transdermal application for prozac and she said it’s not done - prozac only comes in a compounded pill for cats. About 10 years ago we had used a transdermal application from a different vet for another anxiety drug and it worked great so I was surprised when new vet said this isn’t a thing. Can you tell me where I can see this on chewy so I can show her - hey look other people have gotten this…She seemed very set in her prozac is only in pill form so if I could just get her to send chewy a prescription that would be idea.

1 Like
#6

https://www.chewy.com/fluoxetine-hcl-compounded-transdermal/dp/299693

https://www.1800petmeds.com/fluoxetine+100mg%2Fml+1ml+transdermal-90084.html

https://www.heartlandvetsupply.com/p-6285-fluoxetine-compounded-transdermal.aspx

https://www.wedgewood.com/items/fluoxetine-twist-a-dose-transdermal-gel.html

Etc etc etc etc. Just about any vet compounding pharmacy does this.

#7

It sounds like there are a lot of dynamics here. Personally, I’d be looking at placing. I’ve got five and have spent eight years managing personality differences between two of mine. It has never led to spraying but from the second I noticed issues I’ve been rotating rooms and never allow them unsupervised. It’s exhausting and eight years in absolutely not any better. Once they hit a stress level of spraying I think it’s really hard to reduce their stress level to the point you can consistently eradicate the behavior. One of mine is on Prozac and the other is on Busperone, but that’s only an option for an exceedingly timid cat as it can increase aggression. I hope you find a way to navigate dynamics. Spraying is my only one hard no when it comes to my cats so I admire your perseverance and desire to find a solution where everyone can be happy.

#8

The great idea of trying the medication(s) (and clearly as you have done, making sure there is no medical issue) discussed above aside, If the cat is happy living in its private location, and your house can easily manage this set-up, to me that is a great solution that is working out fine. Not everyone/everything wants the busy life style.

#9

You don’t mention whether they are all spayed/neutered? If not - that’s the first thing I would do.
But I agree that it may be difficult to get them all to live happily together indoors. That’s a lot of cats. There will have to be some kind of pack/pride mentality and behaviors that may be undesirable.

1 Like
#10

Thanks everyone - yes she is spayed. Gracelikerain - I’m not going to lie it’s a lot constantly being on the guard if she’s sprayed anywhere. When she was out in the house I’d walk in a room smell pee and spend the next hour with my nose to the carpet trying to figure out where she pee’d or sprayed. Honestly this bathroom - bedroom situation is not a great long term situation. Question for those who used prozac or flueoxetine - with a cat that sprayed - did is totally stop the spraying?? Did you notice a behavioral change?

#11

I made the very hard decision in January to place one of my cats in a different home. It was the feral cat I trapped that was pregnant. By her own right a lovely cat once spayed and socialized, but the dynamics of my house and the three other established (also spayed) cats were cruel to her. She started peeing whereever she was hiding even though I had litter boxes in each room. For her it was genuine fearful behavior. I tried medication, Feliway, and adding more cat shelves than actual furniture. My house is more cat friendly than human friendly at this point. I kept her in her own room, and the behavior stopped - but this is no life for a cat.

But my house was not the right home for her. She needed to be an only cat. I found a lovely lady who wanted a single cat and dropped her off with a crate, a box of toys, her favorite cat bed, blankets, litter box, and treats. I was very sorry to do it, but it was the right thing for her and her new owner has reported zero issues.

It sounds like your kitty is struggling with the house dynamics. Even a little hiss is stressful; cats aren’t pack animals the way dogs are, and they internalize more stress than they let on.

Interestingly, I found giving the aggressor cats Prozac did more for cat dynamics than the aggrieved. The pill is very small. Have you tried giving it in a pill pocket? Feed them with no medicine in it for a few days first. I haven’t had many pets turn their nose up to the pockets. They must taste good.

You can also hide it in whipped cream.

3 Likes
#12

Same. My aggressor is on Prozac and my timid one on Busperone.

My aggressor is an insecure bully with some tendencies towards obsessive grooming. He still isn’t kind to her but he mellowed out considerably. Not enough to be trusted alone but everyone can eat supervised or typically be out in the evening for a few hours. It also took eight years to get here. In retrospect I should have rehomed my problem child as a one year old as he’s a phenomenal cat but at eight and his target being twelve, I envision another decade of this chaos. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone as it is truly fatiguing.

1 Like
#13

With my cat it stopped the spraying, completely, in 3 days

#14

Alterwho - was your cat female or male? Any idea why he/she was spraying in the first place?

#15

My cat is a (very sensitive) neutered male. Pretty sure he started because of an aggressive cat we had at the time

#16

Sadly neither worked for my spraying female. She is very fearful of other cats – I believe there is a genetic component as her mom was an over groomer (bare skin on belly and legs).

She did stop spraying while she was an only cat, but that situation did not continue. The solution we resorted to was to make her our barn cat (personal barn). She does not want to be a barn cat, she knows she is exiled from the presence of people (some days she will go door-to-door around the house asking to come in), but at the same time the barn is her space and I can tell she likes that part of it.

#17

It is probably the male cat that is stressing her. My 5 (YIKES!) are all fixed but Mr. Arsehole is very aggressive to my older female that lived here before he and his sister showed up as kittens. He bites her and she has had multiple abscesses before I figured out what was going on. Luckily I have enough room outside and a barn and a big front porch that he can live outside safely. The female wants to go outside but she has been relegated to an indoor cat. Both cats even fight through the glass part of my front door and I know I have smelled spray there. Surprisingly Mr. Ahole gets along fine with the newest dumpee Little Missy. He doesn’t like her but he has never been aggressive to her.

Some cats are just mean to each other and the picked-on cat is understandably stressed. I didn’t try to mood alter - I just didn’t need another abscess draining vet bill so I decided they cannot be in the same place. One is inside always and one is outside always. I used to put the male in jail (my car where he liked to go) and let the female out for a while. Then he started puking in the driver’s seat and that had to stop. I know it is hard finding good homes these days but maybe try to find a single cat home.

#18

Interesting. I haven’t added in besides the 4 liter mates we also have 3 resident cats (yes I know it’s crazy) - one older female who is spicy toward everyone and 2 big males. The one older resident male doesn’t hiss but will chase until this female gets pissed and hisses back. So maybe it’s not just her sister that’s picking on her…interesting. It does make me think perhaps she would be better as an only cat. I don’t do outdoor cats just because we have a pack of coyotes and it’s not worth letting them out. Thanks for all your help - I get the feeling even if I do the prozac it’s not going to fix the problem.

#19

It might not but it’s definitely worth giving it a trial run

2 Likes

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