Neutered female cat calling, mating and spraying indoors near baby - desperate for help.

[Tinker]

We're desperate for some advice about our cat - whose behaviour is a bit complex...

Tinker is 10 years old, a small ginger cat, who we adopted when she was 3 along with her mum. She's alway been a very affectionate lap cat, and adores attention. The problems started a couple of years ago a year after we moved house when I became pregnant and she began calling - slightly confusingly as when adopting her we were told she'd been neutered, which we assume to be true as over a year later she has not become pregnant. The calling and mating is constant and seems to follow no pattern. It has been accompanied by spraying and urinating inside out flat (particularly after the baby arrived) which has become out of control. It includes spraying on all available surfaces (she has favourite locations but marks everywhere), spraying on me, urinating in puddles and downward spraying on fabric/carpet which is incredibly smelly. I can never work out how welcome the mating is, she runs out if a male cat calls for her, but I have sometimes found her cornered by three male cats and she's bolted inside as soon as I've opened the door.

The poor cat is obviously very stressed. I taken her to two vets, one who was very unhelpful, the other who wasn't sure what to do but prescribed Ovarid as we assumed she may have part of her ovaries remaining. Having looked this medication up online I discovered lots of cat breeders think vets prescribe a far too high dose for cats (causing kidney problems etc), so we followed the dosage recommend by the breeders which made no difference to the calling.

I've since discovered we should ask to check for a urine infection (although I think it's clearly stress related), so will be taking her to a third vet. She currently only has access to the living room, kitchen and garden and I installed feliway diffusers in both rooms last week. I have tried both cleaning the marking with an enzymatic cleaner, and leaving it, neither make a difference.

We are at the stage where our baby is becoming more mobile and she is spraying in areas he can easily reach, so it's a real hygiene problem, and we might be at the point where getting her rehoused is the only solution - but neither of us are keen on this and would only go for it if it was the best option for her and meant she could settle again.

Can anyone help...?

[meriad]

sometimes with cats, when they are neutered, a tiny bit of ovarian tissue can be left behind and that can result in a cat showing all the signs of coming in heat but they can't fall pregnant.

Personally, I'd whisk her to the vet asap and ask them to see if they can pick anything up on an ultrasound, otherwise you may have to bite the bullet and have her re-operated on so they can physically check.

Also ask about hormone injections - that may also help

[Kay]

I too suspect a bit of left-over tissue is at the root of the problem, which in turn is causing her to have cystitis from the stress of it all

I think you must press your vet to do thorough tests to get it sorted once and for all, as clearly you can't go on like this - cats can react like this to a new baby, but it seems to me more likely it was the local tomcats picking up on a 'come and get me' scent in the new area which started this off

rehoming her in this state would be nigh on impossible, and would almost certainly find any willing new owner sending her packing again, which would be such a pity as at the age of ten she should be a loving and easy going pet once stress and hormone free

[Lallum]

Midnight is a male neutered cat. He was displaying signs of maleness. He was howling and calling back to a female cat and spraying. He also took to dragging various furry objects around and then mating with them. He even tried it on with my dressing gown whilst I was wearing it. The vet did a blood test to see if there was too much testosterone in his blood. There wasn't. He has calmed down but it took a couple of years. He still tries to mate with both our other female cats and also spends a lot of time mating with his blanket. He has severe cystitis last year and had his penis amputated. It hasn't stopped him. I can't give I any other advice. I'd be asking for a blood test or ultrasound to see if there is any tissue left behind.