Cat scenting

Slig

We have a tom cat about 5 years old. He is neutered and knows not to go to the loo inside the house. In the last year he has started scenting everything, including inside the house. Because of this we now keep him outside nearly all the time including feeding.
However he is a pansy & lets other cats eat all his food. We want to be able to let him back inside the house especially over the Winter, so does anyone know of a pracitcal way of stopping him scenting inside the house?
He needs to be indoors a bit during the Winter because he broke his leg 3 years ago & his limp gets bad in the frosty weather!

mymo

Have you had the vet check him?
Thought one of mine had started this a while back(he's also neutered) and asked the vet. He said sometimes stress or hormone probs can set this off. It could be a health issue, also said some toms have only one descended ball at neutering if young and sometimes other drops later.
Turned out a neighbours tom was getting in a window, getting dog sorted that one.

The Sweeper

First step: vet check as stated above. When your cat gets the all-clear, you can plan the move.

First step, you have to wash absolutely everything inside the house that he's ever peed on. The reason cats are so litter-tray trainable is that they will repeatedly toilet in an area that's accepted as the toilet - and that means anywhere that smells like pee and poo. If your house still carries any trace of urine, he will simply return to that spot and use it as a toilet again. (Urine trace will show up under a blacklight if you can find one somewhere...)

Second plan - litter train him so that when he does feel the need to go inside the house, he'll go to his litter and keep using that. Cats are so predisposed towards a litter tray that sometimes all that litter training involves is giving him a litter tray! The next plan would be to enclose him in a single room for a few days with the tray. (And obviously his food and water and toys and bed etc. - the point is that he HAS to use the tray, or else soil his living space.) Always praise tray use.

If he does go somewhere inside the house, there is no point giving out to him for it or putting his face in it or any of those reactions. You'll just have to shut him in with the trays again and clean up the mess thoroughly.

I suggest the litter tray because at this stage I'm not sure you could retrain him to distinguish between going inside the house and scratching to be let out when he feels the need. A litter tray could be a happy medium for both of you.

Last tip - start the litter tray where you intend to leave it. If you move the tray, you can end up with cat poo and pee in the place where the tray was. (One gradual move, they can usually deal with - lots of moving about confuses them.)

Rancid

I think he's marking his territory, not using the walls and floors as a litter tray.
It's nothing to do with his toilet training, it's totally to do with his need to (re)establish his territory.

Something has happened to unsettle him, new furniture, new cat in the area, something like that.

I have had 100% success with homoeopathic remedies for exactly this problem.
Find a homoeopathic vet and he should prescribe Staphysagria in liquid form.

Within 3 days, my cat had stopped spraying inside the house but continued as normal in the garden. I cleaned everything inside using lemon scented cleaner (don't use bleach).
I think we had to give him the remedy for 6 or 7 days but the problem was solved before then.

dee o gee

You could also try a pheromone dispenser thing, Feliway I think they are called, you can get them in most vets and some of the bigger petshops. They are meant to calm cats that are anxious or stressed about something, might help your fella if hes doing this because hes stressed out over something, which it does sound like he is.