Yes, it can happen, and it is more common than most owners expect. Neutering removes the biggest hormonal driver of spraying and stops the behavior for many cats, but spraying is not only about hormones — territory pressure, conflict with another cat, or a stressful change can keep the habit going in a neutered cat, and a medical cause still needs ruling out before you treat it as purely behavioral.
Why Neutering Does Not Always End It
Think of hormones as volume, not the song itself. The marking behavior is built into feline communication, and a neutered cat who feels his territory is threatened still has the full behavioral toolkit to respond. Cats neutered after they had already been spraying for a long time may also have an established habit with strong learned routines — favorite spots, favorite triggers — that persist after the hormonal push fades. And sometimes the sprayer is answering someone else: a new unneutered cat in the neighborhood, or a housemate cat whose relationship with him has quietly soured, can restart marking in a cat who had been clean for years.
Females spray too, underlining the point: this is communication first.
Rule Out the Medical Side First
Before assuming it is behavioral, see your veterinarian — particularly if the spraying is new, has suddenly increased, or comes with other changes like more frequent litter box trips, straining, blood in urine, or appetite shifts. Urinary discomfort and territorial marking can overlap and amplify each other, and a cat in pain is also a stressed cat. Male cats who strain to urinate need urgent care. Go in armed with specifics: when it started, how often, where, and what changed at home around the same time. That history is half the diagnosis.
Clean Like It Matters (Because It Does)
Marked spots keep calling your cat back. Clean every site with an enzymatic cleaner designed for pet urine, following the dwell time on the label, and re-clean old spots you may have treated with regular household cleaner, which leaves scent your cat can detect even when you cannot. A blacklight in a darkened room will reveal older marks you did not know about — on baseboards, door frames, the backs of furniture. Owners are routinely surprised by the true map of the problem, and you cannot fix spots you have not found.
Find the Trigger, Not Just the Mess
Work like a detective for two weeks. Note the time, location, and what preceded each episode: the neighbor's cat at the window, a squabble with your other cat, guests arriving, the new puppy charging the hallway. Patterns usually emerge — marking clustered at windows points outside; marking around a shared resource points inside. Then address the actual cause: window film, separated feeding stations, more litter boxes and vertical space, predictable routines, and daily interactive play to drain stress. Never punish — it adds stress to a stress behavior.
Tracking the Pattern With KinsLe
As each spraying episode happens, bring Kinny the pattern questions it raises — when it happened, where the marks appeared, and what changed at home — so the answers build into a clear picture you can take to your veterinarian. A simple log beats vague recollection at the appointment, and often names the trigger. When a new spraying episode raises another question, ask the Kinny assistant in KinsLe, with replies drawn from the KinsLe Answers library to help you sort stress marking from a medical warning sign.