Ragdoll Cat Forums

Hi,

As you all know I now have 2 kittens. Both are de-sexed. Lily (female) has been at our home for almost 6 weeks and Luca (male) came home 1 week ago.

So far all is going pretty well. I have kept the new kitten (Luca) in my room and he sleeps, wees & poo's in and eats in my ensuite. No real dramas. He was pretty shy and stressed so I kept him away from Lily for the first few days - bar a few little mini visits. Slowly everyday I have been letting them spend a little time together all seemed to be going well.

Yesterday I noticed a strange smell in my bed! It was urine - ARGHHH, my worst nightmare - it is winter here. So I strip the bed, Doona, blankets sheets etc .... I remake the bed and Lily and Luca are playing Lily jumps up on the bed, Luca (already on my bed) jumps in fright and within seconds Luca wees on my freshly made bed again!! My concern is that he wee'd in almost the exactly same spot which is also near my pillow - yuck!! But he is probably there for comfort and maybe this makes Lily jealous??? I don't think this is spraying but please tell me if you think it is.

Not sure what to do .... If I separate them Lily gets all stressed, becomes very loud and noisy and Luca sits at the closed door crying .... Obviously they want to be together but Luca is still a bit new and easily stressed. I can't have the wee on my bed. Is is it time to bring Luca out into the main house and deal with what happens?? My major concern is that his urine doesn't smell that much and if he wees on my carpet I may not notice for a while ....

Any advice on what to do?

Good new is they seem to now be very happy with one another - they still do the occasional dominance dance/rumble but I think that is pretty normal. They are sleeping, eating together (during the day) and even use the same litter box which surprised me. Lily has her own but she has been using Luca's, he doesn't seem to care. So mostly it is all positive, but I really need to stop this weeing on my bed very quickly before it becomes a drama.

hmmm... I've heard of cats peeing on pillows before. Can you keep them out of the bedroom? Perhaps he was marking to "claim" you or maybe he was just excited that she was in the room. From what I know, even cats who get along will still mark their territory to prove dominance. But then again I could TOTALLY be wrong.

I would do a day in bathroom alone with the litter box and cat attract litter.

I'm sure other people will have better advice but good luck!

I'm wondering if by any chance he has a Urinary Tract Infection -- or maybe it is overexcitement or stress. Be sure that you're using an enzymatic cleaner - just washing things with regular detergent won't remove all the urine and even though you can't smell it, cats can and will re-mark the area.

Good luck and let us know how things go.

Here's a great web site out of the UK (the organization is called FAB Cats). This link is specific to your situation, so hopefully it will help: http://www.fabcats.org/behaviour/spraying/info.html

As Teresa says, there could be a number of reasons why Luca is weeing on the bed - stress, medical, etc. Hopefully you can get it sorted soon - it's very stressful for you too!

The primary cause of such behavior is an infection, even when the vet cannot find any other symptom. Therefore, a vet visit and course of antibiotics are always a good idea.

You need to focus on basics. You need the number of litter pans equal to the number of cats plus one. You need a litter pan near whereever a kitten is, since they may not want to go very far, including into the next room. You need to have available the litter first used by the kitten.

Cats overmark scents and are also attracted to certain materials. Materials that attract urination are plastic, rubber, high loft bedding, down - and past stains. Stains have to be cleaned with enzymatic cleaners carefully following instructions on slow drying. You should use bedding that is white cotton, including blankets, with doubled mattress pads. That way you can clean them with bleach as needed. Do not use high loft items like quilts for now.'

The best source of links that will give you ideas of possible causes and triggers are at tallyville. http://tallyville.com/litterboxhelp.html

We've just gone through something similar. We kept our newbie (12wks) in our bedroom alone for the first week. She had frequent visits, but we didn't want her to meet her new older sister yet. She had a litter pan with corn litter, one with clumping and a spare that was empty. We were told by the breeder she had been using both corn and clumping. I know they have little bladders and we had them in different parts of the room. She began immediately to use ALL the boxes, even the empty one to pee in. After a few days she began wetting on the bed and then a couple times in the corners of the room. Sometimes she wet right in front of us or several times during the day while we worked. At one point I had nothing left to put on the bed! We used the enzymatic stuff on the spots before laundering, so we didn't feel she was remarking. She'd be in mid play, stop, pee, move on. After 3 or 4 days of this new behavior we got her into the vet. We expressed our concern and asked about a UTI. I mean she had just been spayed only a few days before we got her, she'd flown to her new home, etc......and we thought maybe UTI was the answer. They did put her on Clavamox for 10 days and sent us home. The behavior continued, so we decided to listen to others and when left alone, she was confined to our bathroom with no carpets, towels, beds, etc. Only her food, water and we gave her 2 litter pans, one corn and one Swheat as she began eating the clumping so we immediately took the clumping away. We continued to use the bathroom for confinement and kept her out of the bedroom entirely. We did this for nearly 3 weeks. One Sunday morning I decided to let her in to see dad while he was in bed. He really missed having her sleep with him and from that day on she's not wet anywhere but in her litter boxes. So, did the clavamox help? did confinement? did she just age a bit more so she could hold it? Who knows, but we hope that behavior is behind us. So, take him to the vet and go from there. It was the folks on this forum that kept me sane and helped us to help her.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

I read all the sites you sent me to. I have put Luca back in the ensuite and will leave him there for a few days. I will also take him to the vet.

Kewlkat ... sounds exactly like what you have been through. I will have him put on treatment for UTI - I just so don't want this to continue