Background: For the past year or so, my friend's cat has had a peeing problem. The cat would frequently pee outside of the litter box, around the house. My friend has tried every trick in the book to try to get the cat to stop peeing but nothing has worked. As a result, he keeps the cat confined to one room while he is out of the house.

The Real Problem: Recently, the cat, as my friend described, will randomly lose her balance. Every 5 - 20 minutes she will stumble, stand still for a second and then meow. I have observed the cat as well, and to me it seems like the cat gets spooked, much like a horse, and then the cat lets out a painful/lonely meow. Even when the cat is just sitting on a chair or getting petted on my lap, she will still occasionally "freak out." The first time I saw the cat do this, I found it to be quite disturbing.

My friend has brough the cat to the vet and they did tests to see if the cat has a virus. Assuming the test results come back negative, the cat will undergo more tests.

If anyone has the slightest idea as to what could create this behavior, please write back. Thanks for your help.

An inner ear infection caused similar behavior in my beloved Mr. Whittens. His old vet had located an ear infection but had thought it was treatable with drops...he was mistaken. The untreated infection progressed to the point where Mister's balance and behavior were affected and probably triggered a small stroke.
With a course of very strong antibiotics and supplements, my darling boy made a remarkable recovery. Please suggest this to your friend and if the current vet can't isolate the actual trouble (whatever that may be), it may be time to visit a different vet. Mister would have been spared much if I'd sought a second opinion sooner than I did.

Often a cat with a urinary problem will pee outside of the litter box because they associate the pain of peeing with the litter box and hope if they go elsewhere, it won't hurt. That is why, as soon as a cat starts exhibiting different behavior, it MUST be taken to the vet so the problem can be treated immediately.

My little cat was peeing outside of the box and it turned out she had an infection as a result of being in kidney failure -an ailment her previous owners did not tell us about.

Unfortunately, treating the infection may not stop the cat from peeing outside of the box, if it has become a habit.

I had success with getting

-- a new litter tray
-- putting it in a different room
-- using a different brand of kitty litter

all at once after a cat recovered from a urinary tract infection.

This broke the association litter-tray = pain. Such associations are often triggered by odors as well as sights.

Thanks so much for your advice. I've relayed the information to my friend and he will look into it. We didn't know about any of this stuff you guys posted, so I'm glad I asked on answerpool!