Jill Bowen

Jill Bowen has practiced veterinary medicine in England and Texas and has taught at Texas A&M. She lives with her veterinarian husband and two cats in Blacksburg. If you have a question, please write to her in care of The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 540, Christiansburg, VA 24068, or send an e-mail to mjbowen@radford.edu

Recent columns

• Invisible fences aren’t best option for every dog
• Wrap pets in protection this holiday season
• Take treats so horse associates you with something good
• Illness or change in environment may cause cat to stop using litter box
• Column archive

My fixed male 6-year-old cat has been peeing outside his litter box on my hardwood floors for more than a year. He has done this in almost every room in the home. He started peeing (spraying) in the vents, which tells me that he probably smells another cat through the vents and wants to mark. I have cleaned and covered the vents, had him on anxiety meds, locked him in the bathroom to train him to use the box  — all to no avail.  Should I get a cat cage or just give him to a farm somewhere?

Before taking your cat to a shelter or farm, there are some things you can try. Difficulty with litter box training  is one of the top 10 reasons why owners give up their cats to shelters.

Initially, have your cat checked out by your veterinarian to make sure  there is no medical reason for his behavior. Sometimes arthritic cats find it difficult to get in and out of the litter box. If a cat experiences pain while urinating, he may associate the litter box with painful elimination and avoid using it.

Make sure that the litter box is large enough; big cats may have problems with a standard-size  box. Our large Maine coon cat occasionally missed the box until I got an extra-large covered litter box, which solved the problem.

The litter should be at least 4 inches deep, scooped once or twice daily and changed weekly. A dirty litter box is the prime reason for litter box avoidance. To clean the box, use water and little or no soap, as cats don’t like the box too sweet-smelling. For the same reason do not use highly scented litter.

Clean any soiled area of carpet or floor with an enzymatic cleaner such as “Zero Odor.” White vinegar and water or soda water can be used in an emergency. Do not use ammonia, bleach or strong detergent as these can stimulate your cat to reuse the area.

There should be one litter box on each floor of the house.

One suggestion is to get a square of carpet and put it by the litter box, if or when your cat pees on it, put the carpet piece in the litter box and gradually add litter over the carpet over a period of several days. Some people have had success using a synthetic pheromone spray product. This is said to induce a sense of calm in a cat that may be spraying and marking on the carpet because he is tense, anxious or nervous.

If you have decided to use anti-anxiety medicine it is important to give the medication for several months. Many cats relapse back to their old habits if the medication is not given for a sufficiently long period of several months.

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New Scientist magazine  on July 13 reported that researchers at the U.S. National Cancer institute in Frederick, Md., studied the DNA from 979 domestic cats and wild cats from across Europe and Asia. The DNA from the wild cats broke down into five different groups of the wild cat Felis silvestris: the European wildcat, the southern African wildcat, the central Asian wild cat, the Chinese desert cat and the Near Eastern wildcat. All the domestic cats, be they fancy breeds, ordinary house cats or feral tabbies, belong to the Near Eastern wildcat group. It has been postulated for some time that all our domestic cats had the same origin from one particular group of wildcats coming from Africa, but it is nice to have it confirmed by modern scientific methods using DNA.