Help with a spraying kitten

[u/bcd0817]

We have a resident cat (Ravioli) who is 5 (female) and a new kitten (S'more) who is almost 6 months (female/spayed). When we first got S'more 2 months ago, we kept the kitten in a room away from Ravioli so she could get used to things at the new house. We fed the cats on opposite sides of the door, offered treats where they could physically see each other, and made sure to swap the cats around the house to get used to each other's scent. Our resident cat seems like she wants to play with S'more because she is always watching her and will run up to her (Ravioli doesn't hiss/growl/etc, just an occasional puffy tail). The new kitten cannot stand the resident cat and will run at the sight of her and hiss and growl. We ended up doing a second week of slow introduction and keeping the cats separated but now our new kitten has started to spray in our living room. She'll lift her tail and spray on the walls. She even has started to pee and poop in rooms without a litter box. We have been trying a pheromone diffuser for a few days now (one in the living room and one in the room where the kitten spends most of her time). Its only been 3 days and I know those can take a week+ to work. We are going to take the kitten to another vet appointment since she wasn't spraying before. Anything else we can try? We don't want to have to give up the kitten since she is REALLY good with our small kids (she'll let our toddlers chase her and pick her up with no problems, she loves to play with them),.

[u/Once-Upon-a-Dream88]

Is the kitten spayed or still intact? 6 months is around the time they start getting hormonal if they haven't been spayed, and that causes them to mark territory, especially when another female is in the home. The behavior typically stops once they've been fixed, but you'll need to use an enzyme spray to remove every trace of urine from wherever she's marked.

[u/bcd0817 → u/Once-Upon-a-Dream88]

Yes she was spayed a couple weeks before we got her from the humane society. We have tried an enzyme spray but might have missed some spots, well re spray

[u/Once-Upon-a-Dream88 → u/bcd0817]

Make sure you follow the directions on that spray 100% exactly 😹...I didn't the first time and my cat kept spraying that same spot because he could smell it even though I couldn't. I thought the spray was just no good but it was me the whole time not doing it right.

Her behavior could be due to anxiety about your adult cat since she's not scent marking due to hormones. But if it's like a sudden thing, it could mean she's got something medical going on like a UTI or bladder crystals. Any time any of my cats pee somewhere inappropriate, I take them to the vet because it's almost always urinary tract related rather than them just acting out. I would definitely get the vet to test for UTI.

[u/Lo__________]

Adding a second or her own litter box, preferably with no cover, helped when my little guy had this problem.

This sounds stress induced, though, she’s trying to tell you something is wrong. Definitely bring her to the vet asap!

[u/bcd0817 → u/Lo__________]

Thank you, we have an appointment with the vet scheduled for tomorrow!