Can “Jealousy” Cause Spraying?
Cat elimination problems can be complicated. Consider the case of our clients Joan and Jack. Joan and Jack have four cats: Edgar, a 6 year old male, 3 females – Fluffy and Blue Eyes, both 4 years old and Jo who is 3 years old.
Six months or so ago, one or more of the cats started spraying on the kitchen counter. It spread to Jack’s office and the master bedroom. Joan has seen both Edgar and Jo urine mark by backing up against objects and spraying urine.
Joan took all the cats to the veterinarian where medical causes were ruled out. Before they consulted with us, Joan and Jack were convinced the cats were trying to get back at them because Edgar was Joan’s favorite and Fluffy was Jack’s favorite cat. They believed various combinations of the cats were jealous of each other and of them.
“Getting back” at people and jealousy aren’t causes for marking. We don’t always understand why cats mark, but it seems to be a form of communication that occurs when cats are having antagonistic interactions with other cats, or when they have stressful interactions with people. The marking can occur in response to anything cats see, hear or smell.
In Joan and Jack’s case, Edgar and Jo have had fights over access to a preferred cat bed. Jo also chases and attacks Fluffy. Jo is terrified of Jack, for unknown reasons. Joan grows catnip in her backyard, and a gang of neighborhood cats hang out there and threaten Joan’s cats through the windows. Some of the conflict among the family’s cats may have been re-directed aggression triggered by this gang. Given all this, it would be surprising if the cats weren’t spraying!
This case is unusual in that there are so many different potential causes for the urine marking. We didn’t know how much each of these factors was contributing to the problem, so we took a broad approach to resolve it. Jack and Joan’s veterinarian prescribed anti-anxiety medications for Edgar and Jo.
We had Joan and Jack block the neighbor cats’ access to their yard and pull up the catnip. We also instructed them to improve the relationships between Edgar and Jo and Jo and Fluffy. Jack will be working on helping Jo be less fearful towards him.
A few weeks into the process, things are much better with just a few isolated incidents of spraying. Joan and Jack recognize this problem will take considerable time and effort to resolve. The way they feel about their cats and the problem has changed. When they realized that the cats weren’t spraying out of spite or jealousy, they didn’t feel so let down by their cat’s behavior and were more willing to work with the relationship issues. Understanding why cats do what they do is just as important to resolving a problem as is taking steps to fix it.