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Cat Urine: Your Newest Living Room Accessory

Cat urine. What a lovely addition to your carpeting!

There are two basic reasons why your brand new carpet has been graced with parfum de cat urine:

1) Your cat is trying to tell you he has a medical issue that's causing him pain; or 2) your cat is marking. The first is physiological and the second is
behavioral. Cat urine can be deposited on vertical or horizontal surfaces.

Possible Medical Problems Behind Cat Urine

Oftentimes your will squat or spray cat urine practically right in front of you because he's trying to tell you that something's wrong.

Medical reasons why cats deposit cat urine on walls or floors include:

Urinary tract infection. This is the most common ailment.
Clogged anal glands

Dogs aren't the only ones with anal glands! (Just be glad that humans don't have them, and that we don't have to get to know one another by sniffing each other's rear end!) Your cat's anal glands may become plugged over time, and he may need them expressed at the vet's. You don't want to be in the same room when it happens.

Both ailments require a trip to the vet (your cat's very favorite pastime) and quite possibly antibiotics.

Cat Urine Marking Behaviors

Leaving cat urine on the carpet or walls is not Tuffy's way of misbehaving, being spiteful, or exhibiting jealousy. Here are the real reasons:

Not being spayed or neutered

If you have several cats and some of them aren't fixed, those who are fixed may spray cat urine in response to those who aren't. Also, Prissy Miss is just as likely to spray cat urine as Mr. Boy is.

Conflicts with other cats in the home

A cat may spray cat urine to establish dominance. The flip side of this cat urine coin is that the cat who is bullied may spray cat urine as a way to alleviate his anxiety. He may even be simply relieving his bladder if the dominant cat is aggressively defending the litter box as his own territory!

Encounters with outdoor animals

If your cat has encountered another cat while venturing outdoors, he may instinctively mark his indoor territory with cat urine when comes back in. Even if your cat never ventures outdoors, just seeing another cat near your home can trigger him to mark you hallways with cat urine.

New objects in the environment

When Tuffy graces your new boyfriend's shoes with his cat urine, he's not trying to tell you that this fellow doesn't pass cat-standards, he's simply marking some more territory. This is especially true if your new guy's shoes smell like another animal.

It's important to note that punishing cat urine marking behavior is ineffective, even if you do it immediately following the incident. Your cat will be extremely
confused, because he's simply trying to relieve pain or engage in perfectly natural instinctive behaviors.

About the Author

Kate Rieger's ultimate dream is to provide a national $10 cat sterilization program. In the mean time, she works at it one cat at a time. Drop by and pick up a free copy of her report '111 Things You Don't Know That Could Harm Your Cat' at http://www.coolest-cat-care.com/newsletter.html

Author Profile: kriege01

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