Cat won't use her litter tray!

meoklmrk91

I am fostering a new dog at the moment but every time a new animal comes to stay or she gets upset my cat refuses to use her litter tray and pees all over the house. She has peed on 2 beds in the last 2 days and on some towels as well. It's annoying as well as unhygienic because you won't know anything until you smell it and then the search begins, anyone have any tips on how to stop her doing this?

I should mention that the dog is no where near her at any time!

The Sweeper

The best tip on stopping her doing it is stop fostering other animals.

It may sound harsh, but you bringing other animals into your home is extremely stressful for your cat. It doesn't matter whether or not they're near her - they're in the rooms that she'd otherwise be in if they weren't there, and she can smell them, and hear them, and possibly see them through doors or windows and so on.

When I fostered I sectioned off part of my house (a hallways leading to a bedroom and bathroom) completely from my own cats for a couple of weeks, so they no longer considered that space 'theirs'. I fostered litters of hissy feral kittens up to a stage where they could be handled and cuddled and weren't reactive, so it'd take a few weeks. I also fostered adult nursing queens and their litters, again where the female was hissy and the kittens were off the wall ferals. This meant my fostering was best done in an enclosed space like one or two rooms, bedecked with cat trees and toys, because I could control the environment and the handling and the kittens couldn't hide (much) and so on.

My cats practically never knew there were fosters in the house, and the added quarantine of separating them all was always a good thing.

If you're fostering a dog, of course the best thing for it is to have access to loads of the house and be generally underfoot and so on. However if your cat is reactive and unhappy there really is no way to fix that other than to remove the source of the cat's distress, or split your house in half so she no longer 'owns' the half you keep foster animals in. Even to do that you'll have to clear out your fosters for a couple of months so your cat gets used to half the house and stops caring what happens in the other half. (If you don't create a safe space for your cat, she'll keep peeing on everything - it's a stressed out effort to establish what's hers.)

meoklmrk91

The Sweeper wrote: »

The best tip on stopping her doing it is stop fostering other animals.

It may sound harsh, but you bringing other animals into your home is extremely stressful for your cat. It doesn't matter whether or not they're near her - they're in the rooms that she'd otherwise be in if they weren't there, and she can smell them, and hear them, and possibly see them through doors or windows and so on.

When I fostered I sectioned off part of my house (a hallways leading to a bedroom and bathroom) completely from my own cats for a couple of weeks, so they no longer considered that space 'theirs'. I fostered litters of hissy feral kittens up to a stage where they could be handled and cuddled and weren't reactive, so it'd take a few weeks. I also fostered adult nursing queens and their litters, again where the female was hissy and the kittens were off the wall ferals. This meant my fostering was best done in an enclosed space like one or two rooms, bedecked with cat trees and toys, because I could control the environment and the handling and the kittens couldn't hide (much) and so on.

My cats practically never knew there were fosters in the house, and the added quarantine of separating them all was always a good thing.

If you're fostering a dog, of course the best thing for it is to have access to loads of the house and be generally underfoot and so on. However if your cat is reactive and unhappy there really is no way to fix that other than to remove the source of the cat's distress, or split your house in half so she no longer 'owns' the half you keep foster animals in. Even to do that you'll have to clear out your fosters for a couple of months so your cat gets used to half the house and stops caring what happens in the other half. (If you don't create a safe space for your cat, she'll keep peeing on everything - it's a stressed out effort to establish what's hers.)

Oh okay, I get it now , I guess we will just have to manage until the foster leaves, and then stop fostering. Thanks for your advice.