The Finicky Feline

Cats have a reputation for being finicky. Although many cats are overweight and eat just about anything you place in front of them, other cats are just plain picky and will always be thin. Whether a cat is truly finicky or just doesn’t need to eat a lot is up for debate. Sometimes they eat their meals and other times they turn up their whiskered faces as if to say, “You don’t expect me to eat that, do you?” If your cat is a truly finicky eater, mealtimes can be a frustrating and challenging experience.

Solving the Mystery

Illness or other physical problems may cause a cat to stop eating. If your cat suddenly doesn’t want to eat, have her checked by your veternarian to make sure that nothing physical is causing her loss of appetite. Place a chart on your refrigerator to keep track of her food consumption. Knowing what is normal for your cat is vital in determining if she has reduced the amount she eats.

If she is eating less than 50 percent of her normal intake for 4 or more days or eating nothing at all for as little as 48 hours, she could develop serious liver problems. Skipping a meal is fairly safe, but skipping more than one meal could spell trouble.

There are many reasons why your cat might become finicky.

The size of your cat’s bowl may have something to do with how appealing her meals have become. That cute little bowl you bought when she was a kitten is now too small for her to stick her head into and eat. Her whiskers flatten against the sides, and she gets food on her face. As soon as she lowers her head into the bowl, she wants to lift it out again.

Perhaps you are feeding her in a lightweight plastic bowl or on a paper plate that slides around as she eats. If the plate moves around or slides under the furniture, she may become frustrated and decide that eating is just too much trouble. If your cat’s bowl is flat, and the food slides onto the floor behind it, she may give up rather than scrape up the pieces that fell behind or under the plate.

Where your cat’s bowl is placed may contribute to how much or little she wants to approach it. Look at mealtimes from your cat’s perspective. Is the bowl near your dog’s bed? Is it near a noisy piece of equipment such as the washing machine? Is it near a door where family members frequently come and go? Is it in a damp location such as the basement? All of these places may have a negative impact on her appetite.

Sometimes a cat appears to be finicky because she is intimidated by other household members or pets. Perhaps the cat hides under the bed at mealtimes because there’s a loud, overly active child in the house who harasses her as she eats. The child thinks he’s being playful, but his antics frighten the cat. Dogs are famous for wanting to eat cat food when it is available and may scare off your cat before she takes her first bite.

Other causes include spoiled food, food that has become stale because it has been left sitting out too long or food that is overcome with ants or other insects.

If your cat suffers from bad teeth or gums, the condition may reduce her appetite or make it difficult for her to eat.

Cats internalize stress, and if there is any stress or sudden changes in the household such as a family member leaving or new people arriving, or changes in routine such as you working late, your cat may not be as interested in her food.

Cats may eat less in warm weather than they do in the winter months, even though they may not go outside. And, if your cat eats only one kind of food, she may be just plain bored with it.

Foiling the Finicky Eater

Although many cats do well on a diet of only one type of food (if it is complete and balanced), they may lose interest in it over time. The best way to prevent your cat from becoming finicky is to accustom her to a variety of flavors when she is still a kitten. A cat eating only one kind of food may have a more difficult time changing to a new food if a medical condition requires that she be put on a prescription diet.

Make sure your cat has an adequately sized bowl and that it is placed in a location that is appropriate from her point of view. Many cats prefer to be off the floor when there are other pets or small children around, so find an elevated place that is acceptable to you and your cat if tiny hands or floppy feet frighten her off.

If you are feeding your cat only dry food, adding a tasty broth will put variety into her mealtimes. Or, if your cat has problems with her teeth, dry food can be difficult for her to chew. Soften her food in some water from a can of people tuna or in some clam juice. Bouillon or chicken broth also make dry food softer and tastier.

Try feeding your cat canned food or jars of baby food occasionally to entice her to eat. If your cat is stubborn, offer her cooked meats or cooked fish to stimulate her appetite. Warming her food will help bring out the flavor, but be careful it isn’t too hot for her to ingest.

If you’ve just changed your cat’s diet , she may be refusing to eat the new food. Begin offering her a little of the new food mixed in with her old food. Over the course of a few weeks, gradually increase the amount of new food in the mix.

A little creativity and patience will help you keep your cat interested in her meals and keep your stress level down while trying to get your finicky feline to eat.

Please visit us at  www.siamese-cattailscattery.com

Nail Biting in Cats

By: Christian Yost

April 1, 2009

Cats have a highly ritualized grooming sequence. First, they lick the inside of a front paw and then sweep the saliva-moistened paw first in small and then in ever-increasing circles from back to front around one ear. They then groom the other side of the face in like manner. Next, comes body grooming, limb grooming and, finally, tail grooming.

In the process of cleaning and conditioning their limbs and feet, cats may pay some attention to their nails. Cats’ nails are also conditioned by their scratching hard surfaces to shuck off old nail husks. Some cats, like some people, develop the “bad” habit of constantly chewing or biting their nails for no apparent reason.

The expression “nail biting experience” goes hand-in-glove with anxiety and conflict. The same connection seems to hold true for cats, too. While cats are not normally seriously dedicated nail groomers, some do seem to bite their nails more or less continuously.

Compulsivity may explain the problem. The equation for a compulsive behavior is: Anxious personality plus anxiety-promoting circumstances = displacement [into a seemingly irrelevant behavior that is enacted repetitively] and thus the seemingly mindless performance of the behavior. The behavior then becomes ingrained, reaching “habit” proportions, and bingo, you have a compulsive disorder.

Why Cats Bite Their Nails

Displacement behaviors, and their more ingrained derivatives, compulsive disorders, arise out of conflict and other anxiety-promoting situations. You only have to look at the person next to you at the traffic lights to understand the sequence. The light is red indicating that the driver must stop. But the person wants to go. This situation represents a conflict. The result is often that people displace into grooming; grooming their hair, picking their teeth, or biting their nails. Check it out next time you’re stopped at a light.

Displacement grooming is common in cats, too. Many anxious cats will take to grooming themselves in a variety of anxious situations. Often times, this grooming is directed toward the cat’s coat, but sometimes it involves the cat’s nails, perhaps depending on which neural pathways were most frequently activated when the cat was young.

What To Do About Nail Biting

In most cases, absolutely nothing has to be done, as the behavior itself is not intrinsically damaging. However, since it implies some anxiety, you might want to get to the root of the problem and address any ongoing causes for concern that may be plaguing your cat.

Please visit us at  ww.siamese-cattailscattery.com

Hoarding Behavior in Cats

By: Christian Yost

April 1, 2009

Collecting useful things, like food and  bedding

material, is something that many animals practice and is a normal, largely innate behavior. We are all familiar with squirrels gathering nuts for the winter and birds carrying nesting materials back to the roost in spring. In addition, dogs burying bones in the backyard for future consumption is such a cliché that it’s a stereotype of the species. Even we humans are described as hunter-gatherers in terms of our behavioral roots. But what of cats? Do they instinctively gather and store things? The answer is partly yes and partly no.

In nature, cats bring prey items back to their nests for consumption but they don’t usually store what they have gathered for future use. They have a more immediate mentality than that. Cats usually kill and eat their food fresh, living more for the moment than the future.

The frequency of prey-retrieval behavior depends upon the cat himself – his gender, inclination and circumstances.

Mother cats bring home live and dead prey in order to teach their kittens how to kill and appreciate prey as food, respectively. This is the classical example of prey retrieval by cats. Since no behavior is exclusive to one sex only, males must also be capable of this behavior, though they show little to no interest in their offspring (they’re not usually around to do any parenting).

Less obvious examples of gathering/collecting behavior by cats include queen cats returning itinerant kittens to the nest and transporting kittens from place to place by the nape of the neck. The circumstance of having kittens to feed and care for encourages maternal gathering of prey and group care of the kittens. Of course, some cats are better mothers than others and will do what they have to do more conscientiously, so there is individual variation in the drive to retrieve.

In the domestic situation, depositing dead prey animals on the front doorstep is probably one of the most well known forms of feline gathering behavior. This behavior is presumably a reflection of what goes on in nature. Since cats regard their owners as maternal figures [owners groom and feed them like their moms], it could be that this behavior is more for effect (“see what I can do”) than to provide food for the family. It could also be a sign of affection and bonding that a cat feels for her owner.

Carrying non-food items, like stuffed toys, to the feeding area and dropping them in or near the food or water bowl is also a fairly common behavior in indoor cats. The reason for this behavior is not entirely clear. Some people believe the cat is retrieving kitten-facsimiles while others think that a prey motivation is involved. I favor the latter theory because it explains why cats drop the toys in the feeding area.

One unusual mode of gathering behavior that makes no biological sense is the collecting and hoarding of shiny objects, including  jewelry and small metal objects. The items are not just retrieved; they are stashed and hoarded, even though the collector cat seems to have no further use for them. This strange magpie-like or miserly behavior is particularly prevalent in the short-legged Munchkin breed. Presumably a gene that controls collecting was inadvertently concentrated in selecting for other traits considered desirable when the Munchkin breed was first established.

Non-Munchkin cats may also show jewelry-hoarding behavior, or show it in a different form. In one notorious case in England, a domestic shorthaired cat took to stealing neighborhood childrens’ stuffed toys. The cat ended up with a pile of teddy bears and other stuffed animals under a bed in her home while the neighborhood children were in tears. Whether the cat thought these stuffed animals were like kittens, prey animals, or just items to be collected is open to speculation.

Treatment

Most often no treatment is needed, especially when simple, occasional retrieval of items is involved.  Cat Owners simply watch their pet’s behavior with interest, and wonder in amazement at their cat’s seemingly pointless efforts. However, the primarily Munchkin syndrome of hoarding shiny objects may be a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and, as such, could indicate some underlying anxiety. If you see behavior of this type, you should probably consult with your veterinarian or a behaviorist to determine the suitability of your cat’s environment and the presence of any obvious stressors, like infighting between household cats or unwelcome feral visitors outside. Addressing such stressors may help reduce the frequency of the feline kleptomania. For non-responders to environmental manipulation, the behavior might be controlled using anti-obsessional medication, though this is rarely, if ever, necessary or appropriate.

The only real problem with the behavior occurs when valuable objects are hidden. If you own a magpie Munchkin cat, you must be prepared to find jewelry missing from time to time. It will likely turn up in the cat’s stash, if you can find it, but the constant loss of valuable jewelry can be somewhat perturbing. The only advantage of this behavior is that if you actually do lose a piece of jewelry, at least you can blame it on the cat, thus escaping culpability yourself.

Please visit us at www.siamese-cattailscattery.com

Introduction to Feline Fears

By: Christian Yost

April 1, 2009

Fear is a normal response for any animal to a fear-inducing stimulus or situation. Without a reasonable amount of fear neither cats nor humans would fare very well. As unpleasant as fear may be to experience, it keeps our animals and us safe by encouraging caution and by preparing us for fight or flight when danger threatens. Problems arise, however, if fears become so excessive and irrational that they disrupt normal functioning. At this stage, fear has crossed a definitional divide and is now better classed as phobia.

Excessive, irrational fears (or phobias) have three possible triggers:

Other living creatures (especially cats, dogs, and humans)

Inanimate cues (most often noise)

Certain situations, such as being left alone or visiting the vet’s office

Development of Fears/Phobias

Nature and nurture interact to produce excessive fearfulness.

The natural component is the innate hard-wiring that acquires and processes fears. Specifically, it involves neural pathways in the brain to a structure called the amygdala, where fearful stimuli are processed and then relayed to emotion centers in the limbic system. The natural tendency to acquire fears can be exaggerated in individual cats, families of cats, or whole breeds of cats.

While nature provides the substrate necessary for fear, learning is key. Without learning, fears do not arise in the first place.

Fears can be acquired suddenly and cataclysmically when an extremely traumatic event polarizes a negative learning experience. This can be thought of as a variation on the post-traumatic shock theme. From the time of the negative experience onwards, the fear-inducing stimulus will be avoided or repulsed at all costs. Permanent learning of this type is facilitated by the release of a fight or flight neurotransmitter, called norephrenephrine.

Another way in which fears develop is more slowly over time. In such instances, fears are compounded by repeated exposure to the instigating cause. Over time, the fear gets worse.

Once acquired, fear learning will fade if not reinforced – but it never completely disappears and can be rekindled quickly when circumstances dictate. Fortunately, it is often possible to reduce fearful perceptions and fearful responding by superimposing new learning that masks an older negative association.

Learning What to Fear

The “sensitive period” of learning (about many lifelong perceptions) occurs between two and seven weeks of age in cats. During the early part of this period, fearless kittens bravely go where older cats fear to tread. But, as the sensitive period rolls on, a certain caution or tentativeness emerges in our young heroes. This is a necessary development if  kittens

are to stay out of harms way. The more driven a kitten becomes to explore his environment, the more essential a dose of apprehension and caution are to his continued safety.

It is adaptive for a growing kitten to associate fear with people who are yelling or gesturing wildly. It is good for the youngster to become frightened by the loud noise and commotion of a busy highway. And it is good for the kitten to learn to avoid experiences that cause him to feel pain or discomfort. It is not so good when these fears become exaggerated, generalized, or misdirected, so that, for example, all strangers generate a powerful fear response from the cat or all visits to the vet’s office wind up nightmarish.

Avoidance of Excessive Fearfulness

Many fearful cats have fears that could have been avoided. The most critical time to guard against negative events is during the early part of a kitten’s life, notably the latter part of the sensitive period. Throughout this stage, it is imperative for kittens to be raised in a warm, friendly environment and to be introduced to a variety of people and other animals without having any bad experiences, such as prolonged social deprivation or punishment. Conscientiously shielding a young kitten from adversity will ensure a confident well-adjusted adult.

A kitten raised without human contact or who has had bad interactions with people during the first seven weeks of his life will never be entirely comfortable around people and will most likely be afraid around strangers. Adverse experiences may also cause profound and long-lasting fears later in life, but the ante goes up. That is, it takes more of a challenge to produce the same long-lasting fearful result. The susceptibility of older cats to acquiring fear varies with their behavioral experience. A properly raised, fully socialized cat will be much less likely to interpret occasional unfortunate experiences as the “rule” and more likely to interpret such events as exceptions.

Common Expressions of Fear

Fear of Animate Cues. Cats that are frightened of people and other cats have usually been undersocialized or have had bad experiences with people or other cats. Aggression, running away, and hiding are common signs of fear of living cues. Enlarged pupils, body hair raised, large bushy tail, and inappropriate elimination (urine or feces) are also seen.

Inanimate Fears. Fear of noises – demonstrated by hiding, signs of high arousal, and hunkered, cowering postures.

Fear of Situations. These can be divided into fear of cat carrier, car travel, and visiting the veterinarian’s office, and fear of separation. Fear of the carrier, travel and vet office often go “hand in glove” and represent a learning process known as back-chaining. The latter is a process by which learning experiences become linked together so that one heralds the next, and so on. When the cat experiences pain at the vet’s office, he associates the location and vetinary personnel with unpleasant consequences. The cat then associates car travel with a visit to the vet’s office. Next, he realizes that being put in the crate means a possible trip in the car – which might possibly culminate at the vet’s office – which might conceivably result in pain.

Separation anxiety. This occurs when a cat that is closely bonded to his human companion (or sometimes feline companion) becomes distraught when separated from them. Signs include: crying out when left alone, house soiling, and lack of appetite. Some cats may even pull out clumps of their own hair and most greet their owner’s over-exuberantly on their return  home.

Be able to control the fear-inducing stimulus so that it can be presented at low, incrementally increasing levels of exposure (e.g. for fear of strangers – a volunteer fear-inducing stranger who will agree to present himself/herself at varying distances).

Test the fear-inducing stimulus to make sure that it does, in fact, produce the fearful response. Then wait a few days before commencing the program.

Present the offending stimulus at a low level of intensity.

Gradually increase the challenge by decreasing the distance between the cat and the feared stimulus, by increasing the volume of a sound recording, or by adding new dimensions to the fearful situation.

Do not advance consecutively through such a program of desensitization; instead proceed in a random fashion. As long as the cat remains calm, for instance, expose the cat to a stranger at 20 feet, then 12 feet then 20 feet, then 8 feet, and so on.

Though the distance may vary in either direction between sessions, over time there should always be a progression (i.e. in the example above, the stranger is being accepted at progressively closer distances).

If a problem occurs at any stage of the program, return to an earlier stage of the retraining process, always finishing a training session on a positive note. The following day the session can be reinitiated at a low level of exposure, which is subsequently increased to, and finally through, the former upper limit of acceptance.

Training should preferably be conducted every day, however, training sessions 2 to 3 times weekly sometimes suffice.

Desensitization is usually performed in conjunction with counterconditioning (with cats, this almost always involves using delicious food to change the cat’s perception and behavior at each stage of the reintroduction process).

Global Fear

The most difficult cats to treat are those with “global” fear, meaning simultaneous fear of multiple cues; animate, inanimate, and situational. Cats of this disposition are almost impossible to desensitize to the multiple stimuli that trigger their fear. They are the “Nervous Nellies” of the feline world and are probably best treated medically to alleviate the impact of negative experiences that pervade their world. Even these cats, that seemingly have nothing to fear except fear itself, can be brought around by means of judicious anti-anxiety medication and subsequent weaning of the medication over time. The latter process should be conducted only under the strict guidance of a veternarian, perhaps with input from a veterinary  behavioral specialist.

Medical Treatment

Many anti-anxiety and anti-depressant drugs have been employed to facilitate retraining – with varying degrees of success. The best are (in order):

Buspirone (BuSpar®)

Alprazolam (Xanax®)

Fluoxetine (Prozac®)

Clomipramine (Clomicalm®)

Amitriptyline (Elavil®)

Propranolol (Inderal®)

Conclusion

If whatever frightens your cat can be consistently represented in an attenuated, non-threatening way, gradual reversal of the fear will result. The principle is similar to that involved in homeopathy – that of treating a condition by administering small carefully gauged quantities of things that excite the symptoms. Behavioral medicines can be helpful in ameliorating entrenched fears and fears that are “global” in proportions. Finally, there is a very good chance of rehabilitating cats with excessive fearfulness, especially if the fear can be clearly identified, is discrete, and can be easily isolated and controlled.

Inappropriate Elimination in Cats

By: Christian Yost

March 30, 2009

You love your cat and, until now, have enjoyed a perfect relationship with him. But suddenly he can’t seem to find his way to the litter box. Nothing can be quite so distressing for a cat owner as this pungent issue. And as tolerant as you may be, there’s probably a limit to the amount of time you can put up with living in a house that smells like a feline latrine.

Sad but true, inappropriate urination is responsible for the annual surrender of myriads of cats to shelters and pounds, a result that more often than not is the equivalent of a death sentence. So what causes cats to behave in this way? Why would they choose to foul their own nest, and what can be done about it?

Causes

Inappropriate elimination does not comprise of just one condition but rather a spectrum of conditions: some medical, some physiological (pertaining to normal biological functions), some to do with elimination preferences, and others related to anxiety and stress

.

It is important to find out what motivation underlies inappropriate urination in any particular case so that therapy can be properly directed.

Medical Causes

Cystitis and other bladder conditions

Medical conditions that cause increased thirst and urine formation, like certain kidney problems and diabetes.

Intestinal parasites, especially worms (contributing to inappropriate defecation problems only)

Hormonal Causes

Hormones are normally only a factor in the case of intact cats. Hormonally induced urine marking often begins around puberty (5 to 8 months of age), and will persist for life if unchecked. The way to deal with this problem is neutering. Not all cats stop urine marking following neutering, but most do – nine out of ten in fact – and those that continue may have other issues.

Although testosterone levels plummet after removal of male cats’ testicles, the behavioral “fix” is not immediate. A respectable reduction in spraying frequency may take a few months after neuter surgery. No one knows what causes this latency: It may simply be that old habits die hard.

Some intact females urine mark around the time of a heat period to signal their receptivity to passing males. Spaying a female will resolve this problem in 95 percent of cats and is recommended for medical and other behavioral reasons, too.

House Soiling Problems

Although technically all elimination problems are “house soiling problems,” this term tends to be reserved for simple litter box problems. This is a behavior problem in which the cat chooses not to use the litter box for any one of a variety of reasons, electing to use an alternative area for elimination of urine, feces, or both. Affected cats simply avoid shun the litter box and select a quiet, carpet-clad spot behind a chair or in the corner of a room instead.

There are many reasons why your cat may dislike his litter box:

Too few boxes

Inappropriately positioned boxes (damp cellar, high traffic area)

Inconvenient location (basement)

Hooded box (most cats dislike hoods)

Box too dirty (not scooped often enough)

Box too clean (cleaned with harsh smelling chemicals, such as bleach)

Liners (some cats are intimidated by plastic liners)

Plastic underlay (convenient for the owner but not always appreciated by the cat)

Wrong type of litter

Litter not deep enough

Animosity between cats in the house (competition/guarding of litter boxes)

Difficulty getting into/out of the box, especially inelderly, arthritic cats

Treatment

While inappropriate urination used to be a condition that veterinarians found extremely difficult to fix, clinical knowledge has increased to the point that no cat need lose his life as a result of now eminently treatable syndrome.

Medical problems should always be ruled out first before trying to control inappropriate elimination disorders and most can be addressed or contained. Have your veterinarian examine your cat and perform laboratory tests (usually a urine test, blood test and fecal exam) to establish the presence of any contributing medical problem. Obviously such conditions should be treated before proceeding further, but sometimes, even when the medical problem is under control, the elimination problem may persist because new habits have become established.

Anxiety-based problems are now treatable, thanks to modern medicines and a better understanding of the root cause of these problems. Drugs like buspirone (Buspar®) and fluoxetine (Prozac®) have revolutionized the treatment of anxiety-based inappropriate elimination problems.

Litterbox problems are a cinch to treat. Increasing the number of litter boxes to N + 1 (where N is the number of cat in the household), altering the location of litter boxes for the cat’s convenience, using scoopable litter, removal of hoods from hooded boxes, etc., will usually produce a dramatic turnaround, especially if done in conjunction with proper clean-up of previous “accidents” using a proprietary odor neutralizer (nothing less!).

Please visit us at www.siamese-cattailscattery.com

Feline Housesoiling

By: Christian Yost

March 28, 2009
It can be frustrating to live with a wonderful cat that cannot seem to find the way to the litter box. There are many possible reasons for this. If you take a calm, rational approach to uncovering the cause and treating the problem, you will have great chances for success, which begins with the right kitten training.
Inappropriate Soiling

Inappropriate soiling involves the act of squatting to defecate or urinate outside the litter box. This often occurs when something about using the box becomes disagreeable. Pinning down the exact cause is very important and may take some careful thought. Consider any changes that occurred at the time the problem appeared which might have caused the problem.

Reasons Why a Cat May Potty Outside of the Litter Box

• Medical problems (bladder infection, intestinal upsets, constipation)
• The litter box is not cleaned often enough
• The type of litter (texture or odor) is disagreeable
• The litter box is located in an area with too much traffic
• The cat was teased or frightened in or near the box
• The litter box is too near the food bowl
• Anxiety (long absences by the owner, punishment, new pets, new baby)

Could This be a Medical Problem?

A variety of medical problems can lead to housesoiling. None of your attempts to guide your cat back to the litter box will work if she has a medical problem that�s undiagnosed and uncorrected. Signs might include:

• An increase in frequency of urination
• Large volumes of urine
• Straining or discomfort when soiling
• Blood in the urine
• Diarrhea or constipation

If your cat is experiencing these signs, it is important to visit your veterinarian. The doctor may recommend tests for her urine, feces or blood.

Taking Care of Business

Pinpoint and address the cause of the problem. Treatment of housesoiling problems involves three major considerations:

• Remove the cause
• Re-establish the habit of litter box use
• Prevent the cat from returning to previously soiled areas

If the Problem Is Litter Box Related�

• Take immediate control of the problem!
• Clean the litter box more often.
• To help a timid cat, move it from a busy area to a quiet one.
• In multi-cat households, it may also help to provide one litter box per cat.
• Confine the cat to a small area, such as a bathroom, along with the litter box. Most cats prefer using the box rather than the floor. It is then a matter of confining her long enough for a consistent habit to become established.
• Only allow your cat out of the confined area when you can supervise at all times.
• Gradually allow more freedom once the litter box has been used in a confined area for one to four consecutive weeks. During this confinement period, remember to play frequently and interact socially with your cat. Let her out often, but only under close supervision.
• Offer different types of litter to find one your cat prefers. It is better to use another box entirely rather than go through a series of litter changes in one box.
• Occasionally, some cats prefer actual sand in the box mixed with a few handfuls of soil. If this is the case, gradually replace the sand mix with cat litter after several weeks.
• Removing the odor from the affected area is important. Use a good commercial product that is specifically made for use on feline stool and urine odors. Most products need to make contact with the urine or stool. Use as directed.
• To be effective on carpeting or other porous surfaces, you may need to clean more rather than less. If nothing else is available, a 50:50 mixture of white vinegar and warm water will do a good job.
• Safeguard previously soiled areas by placing motion-detector alarms, food bowls, bedding or toys on them. Plastic, foil or double-stick carpet tape can also be used.
• If your cat has developed a preference for the bathtub or sink, an inch of water in these locations will curb soiling there.
• Move furniture or close doors to deny the pet access to previously soiled areas. You may consider placing a litter box where the cat has been soiling.
• Please visit us at  www.siamese-cattailscattery.com