Why would?

[Gromit]

A cat who has used her litter tray correctly for many years start to use the floor in the utility room to have a wee?

Its been going on for the past year since she got locked in the neighbours house for a week.

She used to be a good cat, you could get friends round to feed her and she would be fine. Now she frets, don't know what to do, pet psychologists are just another way to scam the public out of money.

 

[wafflycat]

Is the litter tray cleaned out daily? If not, it could be what is the problem.
Have you changed the type of litter you use, or if not, has the 'recipe' for the regular litter you use changed? Cats can be very fussy about what litter they use.
How old is she? Sometimes elderly cats can develop inappropriate pee'ing problems.
Has another pet arrived in the household? if so there may be stress issues going on.
Has another human arrived in the household? If so, again possible stress issues.
Take her to the vet to have her checked over - she may have an underlying infection which needs to be treated.

A pet psychologist, properly trained, understands the needs of the species of animal he/she is dealing with and may well be able to identify a problem area the untrained eye is not even aware of having developed.

 

[gbb]

Has another cat been in the house and sprayed/scented. Your cat may be trying to re-establish its territory. Mind this seems to have been going on a while, so maybe not.
Also, with our pup, ive found it important to eradicate the smell of when he's made a mistake. Animals can be creatures of habit. If he/she smells its a normal toilet area...they'll continue to do it. I use some odour killing spray whenever ours messes...just to try to break any habit that might form.

 

[Gromit]

Litter tray often goes unused, so she has no excuse for not using it for having a wee. She has never been fussy about the cat litter. We had to get her a new litter tray last year, her old one had a hole in it. No problems with her using it for other things yesterday.

New kittens next door may be a problem but she has never been affected by that before. We don't let her out in the back yard because we have to keep asking the neighbours for our cat back, she can no longer jump over the 5 foot wall. Our side has a trellis on it so she climbs up it easily.

Its a bit of a puzzle really.

 

[fossyant]

Put an additional litter tray where she is going to the toilet...? or newspaper ?

We quite often don't have the litter tray out - although in this weather we have as the cats won't go out in the snow (well one will have a quick play)... If they get caught short and we don't have the tray, they generally go where it normally is...

I assume your cat is getting old - could be one of those things

 

[wafflycat]

Its a bit of a puzzle really.

Take her to the vet to have her checked over for any underlying infection or other illness. Would you like it if you had a condition which points to a potential medical issue which you denied diagnosis and treatment? If it is a medical issue with the cat, the longer it goes undiagnosed & treated the more risk of a minor, easily and cheaply treated illness developing into something major and expensive to treat.

 

[Globalti]

A vet will be able to sort out the psychological issues.

 

[wafflycat]

A vet will be able to sort out the psychological issues.

Indeed. A vet will be able to sort of any underlying physical causes and if none, either deal with the psychological issues or refer to specialist if required. The cat needs to be taken to a vet: soon.

 

[Baggy]

Agree that the cat needs to see a vet to check for cystitis etc, particularly as she's getting on a bit.

One other thing that might help is to provide two trays, she might then use on for one waste product, and one for another.

 

[rusky]

My cat went through a similar thing a while ago. might by physical (cystitis is always popular) or psychological, (baby in-laws etc)

 

[Night Train]

When one of my cats started doing that we found that she had a bladder infection and needed a change of diet. After a few weeks she was fine again but wanted the tray cleaned immediately after use or she wouldn't use it again.

We ended up having to shovel out any lumps or damp patches straight after she used it to keep her happy.

 

[patheticshark]

Very likely to be psychological if it's following something like that. Try Feliway; you can buy it online, from vets or from pet supermarkets. I've read lots of reviews where people claimed it's cured that problem.

I'm also having a messed up cat problem; mine's been overgrooming (pulling out fur with her teeth and claws) since I moved house. I've already spend a few hundred at the vets. I haven't taken her for ages because it was costing so much and not helping but I'm totally stuck so going to have to go back.

Feliway didn't work for me, btw, but it might be worth a try.

 

[Campfire]

My cat gets upset when 2 other visiting cats come in through the cat flap. He then sprays: on side of sofa, cupboard, anything in plastic bag which for some reason he doesn't like.

I've noticed with this cold weather there doesn't seem to have been a visiting cat, so he's been better.

I put polythene between the wood and the fabric on the sofa, over the DVD & digi box so it doesn't present a calamity, I just tell him off, put him out and wipe it up.

It's really a worry when cats do this. He only started doing this after the people across the way had loads of builders vans in front of the house making lots of noise.

 

[ttcycle]

It does sound stress related - just to check though, you're not using bleach to clean up are you as that when it decomposes to cats smells like their urine.

 

[biggs682]

coker our cat (Named after west ham player) always queue's up for 10 seconds before going in his litter tray and he is an only cat , and never goes outside so we call him a woose cat .
i bet this doesnt help but