Ask Dr Claire

My cat keeps peeing on my furniture

Cat’s peeing in “the wrong places” such as on the furniture is quite a common problem that we see our clients encounter.

This change in behaviour can be understandably very frustrating and cause a disconnect between you and your beloved cat.

We need to understand why your fur baby is doing this so that we can address the underlying problem – the causes are varied from not wanting to go in a dirty tray (yep- they need to be cleaned daily and definitely straight after a poop), to being stressed with something new in the environment, to actually having a medical problem requiring treatment.

If your cat is happy and pain free when passing pee, first steps are:

• Regularly clean the litter tray
• thoroughly clean the area that is being pee’d on- the scent must be eliminated or your little angel will continue to return to the same spot. Their sense of smell is far more sensitive than ours and regular cleaning products wont do- try a product such as Urine-Off.
• Relocate your fur baby to an area they are yet to christen.
• Identify any changes at home that may be a source of stress (home perfume, litter type, house guests etc) and remove or address if possible.

If this doesn’t work a stress reducing device such as Feliway which plugs into an outlet can be effective, however extreme cases may require medications.

If your cat is unhappy and possibly in discomfort a hands-on examination from your local vet is a great place to start, and ASAP.

If you’d like to chat in person, you can get a vet on a live video call or start a chat to discuss in more detail.

We’re on stand-by to help!

Chat soon,

Dr Claire