Moving house with 3 cats

Meow_35

Hi All,

We just recently moved house and have 3 cats. One is female and the other two are toms. The female is approx 5 years old, one of the tom's is approx 4 and the youngest who we only adopted last Oct is about 1 year.

So, the main problem is the eldest Tom. He was in an accident about 2 years ago, nearly didn't survive after getting a good clip off a car...we found him near dead and the poor thing was in the vets for about 2 weeks recovering after having his tail removed and just getting over the shock. He's never been the same since so moving house is an extra upsetting ordeal for him.

We moved in about 1 week ago and usually when we move house we'd keep the cats in for at least 10 days but this time he was just getting so stressed and of course the two toms (the female is never any trouble) were just up all night running around, meowing....wanting to go out..so after 5 nights of this we decided to risk it and let them out.. Luckily that all went ok. A few territory issues between our 3 cats and some of the neighbourhood cats but that's always to be expected but of course that's obviously stressing out our tom even more.

SO the problem is....when he gets extra stressed and upset, which he has been..he tends to PEE in inappropriate places. What happened recently was he peed firstly on my husbands side of the bed, all over his pillow which got all the way down through the sheet, through the mattress topper..onto the mattress..was an absolutely nightmare. THEN the other night, my husband came home and he had peed on MY side of the bed this time..luckily I'd folded the duvet over at the bottom so it only got my pillows plus of course sheets and part of the mattress again.

So at the moment they have full access to every room apart from the 3rd spare room (we still have a huge amount of stuff to unpack and didn't want to risk the tom peeing on it seeing as he's stressed) and now we've decided to close our bedroom door to all 3 cats until the situation gets a little better. We would normally always let all 3 of them in our bedroom but we can't leave the door open when we go to work in case he wanders in and decides to mark our bed again. We do try to get all of them to go out during the day but being nocturnal creatures they prefer to sleep all day and go out all night so usually they'd all be in when we go to work. So, it's quite hard when 2 of them are used to sleeping on our bed during the day which we just can't let happen at the moment.

We have three litter trays, 2 in the hallway (the hallway is quite big) and I put one up in the spare bathroom upstairs. Both myself and my husband clean these every day, put fresh litter in so we're pedantic about that.

In the boxroom we have 2 of their cat trees and we made a little bed in a nook in the wardrobe for them plus I have a proper cat bed on the landing and we also have a giant cat tree in the living room. So we have plenty of cat trees, beds etc. I also spray everything with cat nip every day or so which I find helps. There's plenty of other spots for any of them to get comfortable in downstairs as well.

I have been debating whether to try the Feliway Plug in and spray....has anyone tried this and what did they think of it?

So, just looking for some advice.we're hoping it calms down and it's just an adjustment period as we've moved quite a few times. He's always the biggest culprit, he just gets a lot more stressed since the accident and we're trying to do whatever we can to make them comfortable and to keep him from getting any more stressed. I've even started putting 2 drops of Bach rescue remedy in his food each day, hoping it helps him a little. He's just never been this bad before.

So, anyone ever go through something like this and what worked for you?

Any advice at all much appreciated....:-)

Chemical Byrne

No offence, but personally I'd find the whole set up incredibly unhygenic. Why don't you just put him (or all three for that matter) outside?

Are you living in the town or the country?

ShaShaBear

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

No offence, but personally I'd find the whole set up incredibly unhygenic. Why don't you just put him (or all three for that matter) outside?

Are you living in the town or the country?

Because that's the one surefire way of ending up with a dead cat?

Why on earth would you suggest that anyone put a house-pet outside?
They clean the trays daily, so apart from an obvious emotional issue with one cat causing him to pee, where on earth would you get the idea that the set-up was even close to unhygienic?

Chemical Byrne

Because I don't know if you live on a busy urban road, an apartment or out in the countryside. Outside/inside depends on your situation. We had a couple of pet cats at home. They were never allowed over the threshold because they had a hundred odd acres to rove about. We liked them and had great time for them but in our household the dog & cats just aren't allowed in the house.
Cats sleeping on peoples beds and in wardrobes etc would seem quite unhygenic to me, but hey, thats just my opinion.

Anyway, I diverge. To answer your Q, if they must remain inside perhaps you could consider closing off most rooms to them. Maybe just let them have the run on the utility & hallway (or whatever) and put their pet beds there?

Pac2015

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

No offence, but personally I'd find the whole set up incredibly unhygenic. Why don't you just put him (or all three for that matter) outside?

Are you living in the town or the country?

You can't just put three indoor / outdoor cats out for good as one poster said thats one way to find them all dead. Cats are creatures of routine I have 7 of them and I dont allow them in my bedroom why because they can as the OP widdle everywhere especially on the bed if they get stressed.
I have my box room as the " cat room " so they have somewhere to go if they dont want company or are stressed.
From reading your posts I will say it does seem like you have too many cat trees and posts all over the house you could make one room like your box room mainly for them, we prefer to have the box room for the cats with their litter trays, toys, trees and beds in there and then a section of the kitchen is there for them too but everywhere else we close the doors as we do need some space to ourselves now they can roam we dont limit them.

I have a cat who got a clip of a car lost his tail and he was really stressed out afterwards as he spent 2 weeks in the vets and then 7 weeks of recovery with weekly trips to the vets.
A vet suggested to me to sit him down and get like a baby brush and to groom him every evening especially around the tail / back area, also to try putting down a different shape litter tray with new litter or a different brand they can decide they want to use that one, but with males when they are stressed or feel threatened and as you said you have moved alot they will spray to let other males in the area know this is there home / territory.

Don't clean with bleach as cats love the ingredients in bleach they are attracted to it so when you clean with it they will just come along and pee in the same spot again.
Here is a link where people have the same problem and have given some suggestions.

http://www.animalplanet.com/pets/how-to-stop-your-cat-from-peeing-in-the-house/

Chemical Byrne

ShaShaBear wrote: »

Because that's the one surefire way of ending up with a dead cat?

Why on earth would you suggest that anyone put a house-pet outside?
They clean the trays daily, so apart from an obvious emotional issue with one cat causing him to pee, where on earth would you get the idea that the set-up was even close to unhygienic?

Where? Well perhaps the possibility/reality of shedding fur everywhere, peeing on things etc etc seems a little unhygenic to me.

Don't get me wrong, I love animals and really like enjoy the dog and 2 cats we have at home. But any of them they are never inside, always outside. When I was younger I often asked why they couldn't cuddle up on the couch with me but my mother would have none of it. No animals inside.


I really think you are exaggerating out ending up with dead pets. Ours have always been outside and manage just fine with cars, machinery, milk lorries etc passing through the yard on a daily basis.

No offence, but a cat with emotional issues? <sigh> :rolleyes:

On reading the OPs posts she mentions a box room - so I am assuming she is in an estate in a town/city?

borderlinemeath

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Where? Well perhaps the possibility/reality of shedding fur everywhere, peeing on things etc etc seems a little unhygenic to me.

Don't get me wrong, I love animals and really like enjoy the dog and 2 cats we have at home. But any of them they are never inside, always outside. When I was younger I often asked why they couldn't cuddle up on the couch with me but my mother would have none of it. No animals inside.


I really think you are exaggerating out ending up with dead pets. Ours have always been outside and manage just fine with cars, machinery, milk lorries etc passing through the yard on a daily basis.

No offence, but a cat with emotional issues? <sigh> :rolleyes:


On reading the OPs posts she mentions a box room - so I am assuming she is in an estate in a town/city?

I know little or nothing about cats, I'm definitely a dog person, but even I know that when you move house you MUST keep your cats indoors for I think a minimum of 3 weeks, so they'll acclimatise to their surroundings. Let them out and they don't know the area and they'll either try and make their way home or venture out onto an unfamiliar road (doesn't matter where you are - rural/urban) or perhaps get into a fight with a local cat defending it's territory from the newcomer.

No offence, but you have cats at home and don't know this? Or that cats can get stressed? The sarcastic emoticon is completely inappropriate on your posts!I hate tarring farmers with the same brush but that seems to be your background given your post above, and it's always the same, pets are nothing but a commodity, not allowed in the home to be part of the family as intended.

Pac2015

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Where? Well perhaps the possibility/reality of shedding fur everywhere, peeing on things etc etc seems a little unhygenic to me.

Don't get me wrong, I love animals and really like enjoy the dog and 2 cats we have at home. But any of them they are never inside, always outside. When I was younger I often asked why they couldn't cuddle up on the couch with me but my mother would have none of it. No animals inside.


I really think you are exaggerating out ending up with dead pets. Ours have always been outside and manage just fine with cars, machinery, milk lorries etc passing through the yard on a daily basis.

No offence, but a cat with emotional issues? <sigh> :rolleyes:

On reading the OPs posts she mentions a box room - so I am assuming she is in an estate in a town/city?

Your obviously from a farming background and look completely different on how animals are treated, my brother in law is a farmer and all his dogs are outside and he has strays cats from a neighbors farm that come over so we never agree on animal issues as I find farmers have a different way of looking at thing so we just agree to disagree however the fact that you say cats cant have emotional issues shows you don't know much about cats in fact alot of cats can suffer from issues of all kinds, stress which is obviously what this cat has, if they have been hit or beaten, starved etc there is a huge variety of issues some can be nervous and some even can be depressed. You might laugh but I have 10 cats at the moment, 7 I own and 3 are fosters.
Out of them all, Lucy was mistreated and as such is not rehomeable at present as she lashes out and will rip the hands or face off you, Fonz who is my own is very nervous, another foster Timba was beaten so badly his teeth were knocked out of his mouth he has very bad emotional issues because of that.

I've two cats that get stressed so much that one hides behind a sofa alot of the day so yes cats do have issues.
I also live beside a busy road and cats are always getting a bang of a car and end up injured or dead not all mine just 2 of mine the rest were strays.

Jackson Galaxy is a cat expert he is on telly and on You Tube I suggest you check him out he gives great advice.

Nody

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

I really think you are exaggerating out ending up with dead pets. Ours have always been outside and manage just fine with cars, machinery, milk lorries etc passing through the yard on a daily basis.

Average life of an outdoor cat? 1 -5 years. Average life of an indoor cat? 12 - 20 years. That's the thing with statistics; you can't look at only a few cats to come to a conclusion...

No offence, but a cat with emotional issues? <sigh> :rolleyes:

Only showing your lack of knowledge are about cats here; yes cats can have very severe emotional issues with change to the point they need medication for it. This is expressed in a multitude of ways from peeing where they should not (marking territory to feel safe and part of territorial stress) to excessive licking (to the point they lose fur) to aggression etc.

To OP; peeing on bed where you sleep to me screams territorial insecurity as you've just moved. I'd echo the above suggestion of trying to give him high spots to "own" in the house that he can feel safe and know that it's his area. This can be done via shelves, giving access to get up on closets etc.

kathleen37

Yes - I've used Feliway in the past - it's expensive though worth it for me in the end, so do google to see the cheapest place you can get it from. It's not guaranteed, but it can be a help.

I would think it quite normal that especially the kitty with the nervous issues would be scent marking. Even female cats do this, so it is understandable in new environments.

As has been mentioned - google removing cat urine, as you have be careful what you use - to make sure he doesn't keep peeing in the same place.

Hopefully it will just take time for him to feel confident in his new surroundings. You're doing the best thing by shutting off rooms if you're not about. High spots are definitely a good idea. Perhaps maybe even access to up on a windowsill so he/they can look out?

Good luck!

DBB

Chemical Byrne,
Please take note that the Animals and Pets forum, like any other forum, has its own ethos and style. Posting in a way that scoffs at the concept that cats can suffer from emotional issues (they most certainly can), using that bound-to-annoy rolly-eyes smiley, even calling into question the hygiene of cat owners... It's just not on. So please, don't post again unless you're going to disagree with people in a way that does not insult, scoff or mock.
Do not reply to this post on thread.
Thanks,
DBB