Cat urination

Meet our Bella 🐾 A SelkirkRex female, now 3yrs old, generally healthy. She lives in a 2 bed home with 2 adults and 4 other cats (all neutered, 2 boys & 2 girls) and our small male Frenchie. We work shifts but only 8hrs max is she left alone without us, never been an issue. Over a year ago she started urinating outside the litter. She had a checkup and a urine & blood test in Dec 2021 which all came back clear. They thought it was due to behaviour: Stress from introducing another female (tortie, neutered) cat who was with us in foster from Oct to Dec 2021, which was near the time this problem started. To give you an overview we moved house in Dec 2020, and they had their first proper outdoor access in 2021 (before this restricted or on harness). We had Bella as a kitten in Nov 2019, our Raggamuffin boy as a kitten in March 2020, Our two rescue girls in July 2020 (unneutered at the time), and then one of our rescue cats had our last ginger boy in March 2021, and our Frenchie came in April 2021 as a puppy. Bella wasnt too keen compared to the others but is now tolerant of our dog. Our Frenchie is still unneutered. Our 2 female cats were neutered in June 2021. Our ginger boy as ‘mount’ happy until neutering him in June 2022 as we were going to stud but decided not too. He does still mark occasionally by rubbing or urinating on our bed every now and then but simplesolution and selfgroomers help. No other symptoms seen, including thirst or signs of pain. She only pees on the vinyl and against the wall. We have tried: - Feliway plugins - Yucalm - Catnip - Playing more - Reintroduction - New litter trays (hooded, open, lower sides, higher sides) - not new litter type, we use wood pellets which she has had since a kitten. - New locations for the litter trays over time - More resources - food & water and different bowls and space away from one another. - More hiding places and scratches including shelves. - Indoor & Catio & Outdoor access. Now all indoors with no catio, due to our raggamuffins male aggression behaviour improving. Do you believe its behavioural? Is it worth another trip to the vets in case it is health related? What can we do? We have considered rehoming other cats to see if it helps, maybe too chaotic? But we dont really want to do this.

Hello.  I wouldn't be surprised if this were to be behavioural.  It sounds as though Bella may have lived in a household where she felt quite secure / sure of her place, but over time, other animals - including a dog - joined the territory and her personal space has been disturbed / shrunk down.  Cats do co-operate with other cats occasionally in the wild, but they are not pack animals like dogs;  they are much more solitary and their space is very important to them.  They will frequently mark territorial borders to claim ownership, especially when under social threat / stressed.  In the cat world, where you pee is seen as a way to make yourself seen.  In the way that some very insecure people sometimes go out to make themselves seen, insecure cats do it, too - by means of urinating either in others' territory as a challenge, or away from others territory to appease them - ie, in inappropriate places.  Cats dont fight as often as people think - just like people, they do peaceful communication first and a lot of peaceful communication between cats involves urine.  More to come

Obviously there are some illnesses that can present like this, including kidney failure, liver disease and diabetes.  Your vet can check a urine / blood sample / radiograph (delending what differentials they suspect) and let you know if any of them are present.  Frequently, vets will ask for this as it would be a shame to make an assumption and risk missing underlying diabetes for the sakes of what is often an easy urine test.  However, given the feline social  picture that you describe, it wouldn't surprise me if this were to turn out to be behavioural.  I have certainly spoken to experts in urinary disease who say that sometimes, if changes can't be made, the best thing to do is to move a 'urinary' cat to a home where they are not competing for urinary sites / chill-out space / food / territory with other cats.