Neutered Kitten Peeing on Bed

by Dani
(B.C.)

My kitten Mowgli, and yes he is a monkey. He is 4.5 months old, really behaved kitten. He has two dogs as his best friends, indoor only.

I have wanted a kitten since I can remember, so he truly is my itty bitty prince. I had him castrated on the 15th (it is the 18th today) by a WONDERFUL clinic - one I worked at for a few years.

Yes that's right, I work in vetmed and still need some extra advice!

He has started peeing on the bed. He did it twice within the last 3 months we have had him at home.

We had him from 6 weeks of age. He did have to be litter trained - only took a week, he got it pretty quickly and there were never accidents (on the bed) again... until now.

Now twice since castration he has urinated on the bed, in the middle. Each time, sheets and quilt are deodorized - Nature's Miracle, and THEN washed in warm water and always put in the dryer too.

During each accident we put him into his room. He has two litter boxes (easiest way to train him to use it), and leave him in there for a short time out (about 15 min).

It's a nice room filled with cat toys and blankies but he would rather not be in there alone of course.

His litter boxes are cleaned (scooped) once daily - morning usually (and remember he has two boxes so never really dirty). They are washed with water and sprayed with Nature's Miracle, dried and fresh litter added each time of course every 1-2 weeks.

I'm really concerned that he won't just grow out of this and I love him far to much to have his 'papa' lose his mind.

My thoughts: I'm sorry to hear that your cat is having problems. It seems like every urination problem I hear of lately is intermittent, which makes them harder to pin down as to cause. In my experience, however, many of those turn out to be medical related.

The others are often a reaction to some event that created some stress, or a dislike of what's going on with the litter box. A few are marking behaviors and not an actual urinary problem (inappropriate elimination). For some, the cause remains a mystery.

I would question whether a time out would work, since punishment generally doesn't work on a cat and may add to the stress level. It would require an understanding that being in the room is punishment, and that the punishment is for urinating on the bed.

If it's not medical, and it's not marking behavior, and there's no event or circumstance you can pinpoint around the time of the incidents, then you may need to wait until it happens again to determine if there's a pattern.

In the meantime, you could try cleaning the boxes twice a day, or placing one box closer to the bedroom to see if that has any impact. Of course, he's done it so infrequently that it's hard to tell.

You could also try a calming collar, or Bach's Rescue Remedy, or Feliway to see if that helps. If it's stress related, some of these products may help to ease your cat's nerves.

I hope that helps and please let us know how things go.

-Kurt