Diagnosis and Treatment of Elimination Behavior Problems in Cats

Borchelt, Peter L.; Voith, Victoria L.

doi:10.1016/s0195-5616(82)50111-8

Cited by 18 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…[2][3][4] Factors to be considered as potential causes of inappropriate elimination include substrate aversion or preference, location aversion or preference, lack of cleanliness, overcrowding, medical problems, and environmental stress. The owner had observed cat A spraying urine on upright surfaces and urinating on horizontal surfaces.…”

Section: Diagnosismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[2][3][4] Factors to be considered as potential causes of inappropriate elimination include substrate aversion or preference, location aversion or preference, lack of cleanliness, overcrowding, medical problems, and environmental stress. 2 Because cat A still used the litter box for defecation and went to that location to urine spray, location aversion was ruled out. 4,[7][8][9] Possible medical causes of the urine spraying and inappropriate elimination were eliminated with the appropriate diagnostic tests.…”

Section: Diagnosismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[5][6][7] Urine spraying has been attributed to territorial marking, intraspecies aggression, stressful environmental changes, hormonal influences, high cat density, and medical problems. 2 The urine spraying in cat A appeared to have been associated with stress in the owner' s life and the introduction of a new person into the household. 1 Substrate aversion was diagnosed because cat A avoided digging and scratching in the substrate in the litter box.…”

Section: Diagnosismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Animal Behavior Case of the Month

Seibert¹

2004

javma

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“…[2][3][4] Factors to be considered as potential causes of inappropriate elimination include substrate aversion or preference, location aversion or preference, lack of cleanliness, overcrowding, medical problems, and environmental stress. The owner had observed cat A spraying urine on upright surfaces and urinating on horizontal surfaces.…”

Section: Diagnosismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[2][3][4] Factors to be considered as potential causes of inappropriate elimination include substrate aversion or preference, location aversion or preference, lack of cleanliness, overcrowding, medical problems, and environmental stress. 2 Because cat A still used the litter box for defecation and went to that location to urine spray, location aversion was ruled out. 4,[7][8][9] Possible medical causes of the urine spraying and inappropriate elimination were eliminated with the appropriate diagnostic tests.…”

Section: Diagnosismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Diagnosismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Animal Behavior Case of the Month

Seibert¹

2004

javma

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“…Many of these articles are prescriptive in nature and are written by licensed veterinarians or veterinary behaviorists, based on conventional wisdom (e.g., n + 1 for the number of litter boxes, Borchelt and Voith, 1996). Although in most cases, experts would agree that the recommendations given in these articles may result in a reduction in inappropriate elimination, many of the recommendations they give are not linked to actual randomized controlled trials (Olm and Houpt, 1988;Neilson, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ins and outs of the litter box: A detailed ethogram of cat elimination behavior in two contrasting environments

McGowan¹,

Ellis²,

Bensky³

et al. 2017

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

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A B S T R A C TFew studies have sought to describe cat elimination behavior in detail and much of the information presently available focuses on factors that potentially cause cats to reject a litter box. Thus, the ethograms published in the current veterinary and scientific literature largely focus on macro behaviors (e.g., enter box, dig, squat, cover, and exit box) and lack the detail necessary to make distinctions between types of litter box experiences for cats. To facilitate our understanding of what positive and negative litter box experiences look like for cats, we observed cats eliminating in both an enriched ("positive") and in a clinic-like ("restricted") environment. Our results reveal that cat elimination behavior is complex and may include up to 39 different behaviors expressed during urination and defecation events. We further evaluated each event, examining the behaviors occurring pre-, during, and post-elimination as a means to better understand the behaviors associated with the appetitive, consummatory, and post-consummatory phases of the reward cycle around elimination. In doing so, we found clear differences in behavior at different stages of the elimination sequence between our two environments. In general, the elimination sequence was prolonged in the clinic-like environment compared to the enriched environment (P < 0.005) and most of the extra time was spent interacting with the box post-elimination (P < 0.005). In the clinic-like environment cats were hesitant to enter the box, spent a considerable amount of time pawing at surfaces other than the litter (P < 0.02) and spent a great deal of time sniffing eliminations postelimination (P < 0.005). In addition, cats in the clinic-like environment had less frequent urination events and their events were longer in duration than when in the enriched environment (P < 0.0039). Thus, although seemingly counterintuitive, a relatively brief elimination sequence may be indicative of a more positive litter box experience. In addition, when given the opportunity cats will utilize a large amount of space during their elimination sequence. Despite popular perception that cats will immediately turn to out-of-box elimination if they are dissatisfied with their litter box environment, we discovered that cats will continue to use a box (and not eliminate outside the box) even when their behavior is indicative of frustration.

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“…The elimination problem is reported to be the most common among feline behavioral problems in Western countries [1,9], though no comparable data is available in Japan. This elimination problem is usually categorized as inappropriate elimination or as urine marking, which occur independent of each other.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Clinical Trial of a Feline Pheromone Analogue for Feline Urine Marking.

Ogata

Takeuchi

2001

The Journal of Veterinary Medical Science

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ABSTRACT. Thirty-six cases of feline urine marking problem were collected through the cooperation of veterinary practitioners in the Kanto, Chubu, and Kansai areas in Japan, for an assessment of the clinical effect of treatment with a synthetic analogue of a feline cheek gland pheromone-like product. The mean frequency of urine marking was 14.2 times/week (median, 10; range, 1-77) at pre-treatment week (preW), and decreased significantly from the first week of treatment, dropping to 4.2 times/week (median, 2; range, 0-44) at the fourth week of treatment. This effect continued until the fourth week after cessation of treatment. These 36 cases were divided into 3 groups based on the effectiveness of treatment as demonstrated in the fourth week of treatment; 37% was categorized as the totally eliminated group (urine marking was not seen), 40% as the reduced group (the frequency of urine marking was equal to or less than 50% that of the preW), and 23% as the unchanged group (the frequency of urine marking was more than 50% that of the preW). Effectiveness of treatment in these groups was 38%, 24%, and 38% at the fourth week after the cessation of treatment, respectively. The decreasing rate of urine marking was compared between cats with and without intercat aggression, and it was revealed that the frequency of marking was sustained at high level in cats with intercat aggression. These results suggest that this pheromone treatment is as effective in Japan as has been reported in other countries for solving feline urine marking problems.KEY WORDS: feline, intercat aggression, pheromone treatment, spraying, urine marking.

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Diagnosis and Treatment of Elimination Behavior Problems in Cats

Cited by 18 publications

References 2 publications

Animal Behavior Case of the Month

Animal Behavior Case of the Month

The ins and outs of the litter box: A detailed ethogram of cat elimination behavior in two contrasting environments

Clinical Trial of a Feline Pheromone Analogue for Feline Urine Marking.

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