problem with male cat spraying?

[luvmykitty]

I have a male cat in th house that just suddenly started pee-ing on things in the house. I have had him for three years and he has never done this before, he has always used the litter box from day one, how do I get him to stop?:confused:

[mary]

Although he is technically spraying urine, this is not the same as using the litter box, did you add another animal, have a new child, or have a child start getting mobile, or some other big change? This is more about being territorial than anything else. First, is he peeing, is he doing this on flat surfaces. if he is holding his tail up and doing it on walls and things that are upright it is spraying. If he is totally not usin the litter box see a vet. if he is actually spraying, this is a natural behavior that can start at any time. You may want to consider neutering ASAP because the more the behavior continues the ore ingrained it will becaome, and even neutered cats, especially ones that have sprayed a lot or been neutered after a long time with this habit, will continue this behavior.

[luvmykitty]

He is doing it both ways that you mentioned. A couple of days ago I caught him doing it on the side of the chair in the living room. Then yesterday when my kids got ready for school my youngest left his pj's on the floor while he was getting dressed and the cat walked right over and went pee on them just like it was his litter box. we have made no changes at all in the house, no new pets, baby or anything.

[mary]

You might want to very very thoroughly clean his litter box, if you use clumping litter do not just remove the clumps, but change it. Also I would consider the possibility of seeing the vet as this was an early symptom of a urinary tract blockage in a male cat we had previously.

[luvmykitty]

The litter box that he has been using is fairly new, I use liners in the box for less mess, but I still scrub it out when I change it, I will call the vet in case it is a blockage or infection, because he has never done this before, and besides the fact I have to clean up after him, it has me concerned since this is a new behavior for him.

[LoveMyKittyDuke]

Yeah, mary's 100% right. Usually what starts this is a change in their environment, or another sort of 'stresser'. I've also found that if their litter box isn't cleaned as well as we think, they'll go anywhere. If that doesn't work, what we did to train our cat was keep him in the bathroom for 5-7 days with his food and litter box, etc. We still made sure he got attention. We placed his food away from the litterbox, as cats don't go to the bathroom where they go to the washroom. He was re-trained in no time.

[luvmykitty]

well I took my kitty to the vet and the vet said that he sees no reason for concern as far as his health goes, so now I still have no clue, we havent made any changes in the house so I know he isnt upset over something like that.