Spayed cat in heat? (Formerly the Feline Cystitis thread!)

maggiepip

I know you really don't want to put her on hills/science plan, but have you tried her for any length of time on the prescription food?

What Ive noticed with these prescription foods is, while the ingredients may be poor, they actually appear to contain the correct balance of fibre or similar ingredients to keep the system moving along and in turn decent poos are produced and constipation avoided, especially the "digestive" prescription variety.
Ive experience of using them over the years with both my cats and dogs.

And Ive actually found some varieties of grain free (dry especially) cat food to be a bit constipating for my cats, its like they dont contain the correct amount of fibre. Both my cats will eat grass too and I imagine its for the fibre content.

loveisdivine

It literally never ends with Ripley. We're in the process of changing the food to Feringa and she's doing really well on it. She enjoys the food and she's already pooping more regularly and the poops are nicely formed and relatively soft.

So of course, now we have something positive, she has to start doing some else negative to make up for it!

She's started to pee outside the box again She just did one of the edge of the window sill! Thank god the walls are bare and we haven't decorated yet otherwise it would have been pee all down a freshly painted wall!

She's also now got red, gunky, squinting eyes so we're off to the vets yet again this afternoon.

Honestly it's ridiculous at this stage how many problems we have with her. She's more sickly than the FIV+ cat!

Ms Doubtfire1

sounds like catflu is rearing it's ugly head again.i have one of those, it just comes back ever so often. re peeing outside the box? rub vicks vaporub into those places- she'll never wee there again.I have it under the kitchen table now.the cats don't even go near it lol.

intheclouds

How do you think Ripleys quality of life is? It sounds awful - despite best efforts to improve it. Thats not even considering the quality of life of you guys dealing with it constantly.

May I ask why you continue to battle with it?

Ms Doubtfire1

probably because she's a young cat.Probably because she deserves a chance.Probably cause OP is welll aware of what sh'es doing.
Umpf.Now I remember why i blocked you.Off ya go

intheclouds

Ms Doubtfire1 wrote: »

probably because she's a young cat.Probably because she deserves a chance.Probably cause OP is welll aware of what sh'es doing.
Umpf.Now I remember why i blocked you.Off ya go

I wasnt asking you.

loveisdivine

To be honest there have been lots of times where we've wondered what we're doing and wished we had an easy out. (Especially that time we slept on the floor at 2 am cos she'd finally fallen asleep on the bed and we had no intention of waking the beast again! That was when she was in heat and we didn't know it)

But what are the options really? Re-home her? Who'd want her! No one wants a noisy, sickly, not particularly affectionate cat that poops and pees everywhere.

Have her PTS? That would be quite harsh, she's not that ill. She does have quality of life, it just varies. The last few weeks have been bad, but we had a couple of really good weeks before that.

Most of all, she's ours. We love her. She became our responsibility when we adopted her and I take that seriously. You don't just get rid cos it's hard.

Although if this pissing around the house continues, I can't vouch for my husbands actions!

I keep coming back to this thread, partly to vent and partly to bounce ideas around. Everyone on this thread is intimately familiar with her issues now!

P.S Yes touch of cat flu, more antibiotics and some eye drops. Bunk's in tomorrow for tooth extraction. She said the rest were really pretty good, so we'll just take the one for now. If problems continue we'll go straight to a full extraction.

intheclouds

loveisdivine wrote: »

To be honest there have been lots of times where we've wondered what we're doing and wished we had an easy out.

Fair enough. You said a few posts back that you half wished there was something more serious wrong and I wondered if you felt you should PTS but were afraid to say it out loud. Which I wouldnt blame you not raising if it was in your mind considering the nonsensical hysterical reaction to me even asking you the question as to why you battle on.

Its ok to talk about maybe putting an animal to sleep and I dont think posters should be discouraged from discussing this. Its not helpful at all.

If I had a pet who was sick all the time and distressed the rest of the time and was unable to manage toileting etc.... it is something I would want to discuss along with other options/chats.

Now maybe its not THAT bad all of the time, and thats cool too.

I guess I just wanted to let you know that if you did need to discuss something like that there are non judgemental non hysterical posters here too who could have an objective chat about it.

loveisdivine

Yeah I have thought it would be easier for all if it turned out to be something serious, but at the same time I don't want her to be ill. I want her to be healthy and happy. I guess the idea of her having mild/moderate but chronic illness for the rest of her life worries me. But is it right to PTS if its not serious and she's not always in pain? I think her quality of life would have to be consistently poor for a while before I'd be ok doing it. It has to be about her, not about us.

I think, in reality, we have to giver her more time. She's been sick/unhealthy for about 6 or 7 months. Obviously as she's only young it seems like a lot, but in reality it's not that long. If we can get it all under control and she lives to be say 15, then having perhaps 1 bad year won't be all that bad.

I think if we'd gotten a diagnosis of Megacolon, or IBS and we weren't able to really get it under control, than we probably would have started to discuss PTS. Although I don't know that for sure.

But she's been cleared of all these things. Maybe if we can get a few months of healthy poops, that are pain free for her to pass, she might forget about the pain she's had before and start using a tray again.

I'm hoping the urinating is because she's unwell with the cat flu. Fingers crossed! I'm adding cystease to her food anyway just in case.

loveisdivine

Just spoke to my husband and apparently Ripley just pee'd in her bed, while she was sitting in it and it ran down the wall and all onto the floor (the bed is on the windowsill)

He struggles with it more than I do and I'm worried this new bout of urinating everywhere is gonna push him too far. He's already had enough.

I really don't know what to do. That's twice already today that she's pee'd around the house.

aonb

Oh dear, I really feel for you and your husband.
My husband never had animals growing up, hes a city boy, and this basic animal stuff really bothers him. Hes one of lifes more fastidious types! When I found our half dead half feral kitten, he was very hands off. Is still with all of our animals. He is very gentle and loving with them, but any messes are definitely NOT good for him! So I can really relate to your husbands being a bit sick of Ripley and her toilet issues.

You've really been through the mill with her. I have nothing to advise/add other than to send you my sympathies and a bit of moral support - pee/poo is a tough one to tolerate - puke I can put up with better, but pee soaks into everything

Ms Doubtfire1

loveisdivine wrote: »

Just spoke to my husband and apparently Ripley just pee'd in her bed, while she was sitting in it and it ran down the wall and all onto the floor (the bed is on the windowsill)

He struggles with it more than I do and I'm worried this new bout of urinating everywhere is gonna push him too far. He's already had enough.

I really don't know what to do. That's twice already today that she's pee'd around the house.

Look, if push comes to shove I'll have her. (you can adopt one of my healthy feckers in turn lol). I have a large farm with 45 acres and cats can come and go as they please.it might help if she has access to the outside - she can eat grass whenever she feels like it (which helps digestion).PM me if things get very bad.

intheclouds

I certainly wouldnt advise rehoming the cat to someone with hysteria issues.

fathead82

Would you consider getting her an outdoor run with a shelter in it & put her in there during the day?
It would give you a break from cleaning up after her & she might even be happier with the mental stimulation of being outside.

loveisdivine

We're actually in the process of building one. Hoping to get in mostly finished this weekend. Can't decide how to roof it at the minute though.

Thanks Doubtfire, I doubt we'd be able to give her away though. As much as we sometimes wish we didn't have to deal with it all, the thought of actually handing her over to someone else is quite upsetting. Even for my husband!

Ms Doubtfire1

loveisdivine wrote: »

We're actually in the process of building one. Hoping to get in mostly finished this weekend. Can't decide how to roof it at the minute though.

Thanks Doubtfire, I doubt we'd be able to give her away though. As much as we sometimes wish we didn't have to deal with it all, the thought of actually handing her over to someone else is quite upsetting. Even for my husband!

GOOD!!! delighted..I had the notion but some people on here are great advocates of early PTS which irks me. So i though I'd offer..:D

DBB

Ms Doubtfire and intheclouds,
If there is one more snarky comment between you both on this or any other thread, you will be actioned. As it stands, it's all I can do not to say that neither of you are to post in this thread again, but I will give you both one last chance to cop yourselves on and quit the bickering. It's embarrassing.
Do not reply to this post on thread.
Thanks,
DBB

loveisdivine

We're really struggling again. The urinating outside the box has stopped but she's replaced it with something else!

She's gone back to being restless, extremely vocal, pacing around and yelling/wailing. She would usually climb under the quilt as soon as we get into bed, but she hasn't done it in over a week, she just paces round the house yelling.

We're losing sleep again, which is really hard. Even if we shut her out of the bedroom she just yells louder and you can still hear her anyway.

As crazy as it sounds, it's honestly like she's coming into heat again. It's the exact same behaviour as last time. But that has to be virtually impossible at this stage right? She can't have had 2 botched spays?!

God she's just a constant strain on our lives

Edit - I suppose I should mention the only piece of good news, her poops have been consistently soft/normal and regular since we switched foods. So that's something. She's definitely not constipated.

kathleen37

So, some good news and some not so great.

What about putting her in the bathroom again at night?

To be honest, as she's so demanding (please don't take this the wrong way, but it does seem that she does get pandered to...) I would consider keeping her out of the bedroom full time. Can she stay in the kitchen?

We have had a couple of wilful cats. And they have also tended to smash stuff up when not getting their own way (heads up) but really, it does come down to whether you stick to your guns (and I'm only talking about keeping her out of the bedroom here - nothing else) and not fold and let her into the bedroom again.

Now you have your own place, there is no need for either of you to be losing sleep.

Great that the change of food seems to be working. Hopefully, once she gets used to no pain when she poops, using the litter tray again will hopefully come next.

I wonder if the vocalising may be to do with her breed?

Ms Doubtfire1

have you ever tried hormone treatments with her?

loveisdivine

But I don't know why she's yelling again. We honestly don't mind having her in the bedroom because normally she just crawls in at your feet and doesn't even move til about 5am. She has her routine at night and it works for all of us, I like my little foot warmer! This yelling and not settling isn't what she normally does. We tried shutting the door the last couple of nights and she just yells louder and goes round knocking stuff over. Plus she's incredibly loud (because of being deaf) so we still don't get proper sleep even with doors shut. Honestly, if I thought shutting her out of the bedroom permanently would help, I'd do it, but she didn't start yelling because we tried to shut her out. She's yelling and agitated for some other reason. Shutting her out now just seems to make it worse.

One of the biggest changes in her when all the problems started back in April was the change to her night time routine. She was always the same back then, straight under the covers at your feet and not a peep til morning. It was only when the whole heat thing started that she suddenly stopped doing it.

I know I sound like I'm flogging a dead horse but to me, this last week has been scarily similar to when she started going into heat. This thread was initially about cystitis because she'd been peeing outside the box and seemed agitated and in discomfort. Then after a week or 2 it developed into the heat behaviour. Well here we are again, peeing outside the box for a few days followed by yowling, agitation and distress.

Even I feel like I sound crazy at this stage.

I have thought about hormone treatments, but it seems quiet drastic. Obviously some cats do have real problems and need medical treatment, but I'd hate to medicate her like that if it was just to get her to shut up. Like everything, I'd need to be sure it's the right thing for her and not just us.

Ms Doubtfire1

I agree it could be quite drastic - but there is no other way to figure that out I think.Not sure if they do elaborate tests like hormone balance tests on cats.

Don't see what other options you have really..the poor poor thing.

loveisdivine

So glad to finally be able to update this thread with good news!

Ripley has started pooping in trays again!! Not every time, but in the last 7 days 4/5 of them have been in trays! She hasn't been constipated since we switched foods so I'm assuming that is whats fuelling the change.

Sometimes its both in the tray and then another small bit outside, sometimes it's all inside. It's such a huge improvement on how things had been that we're really, really pleased. She's not urinating inappropriately now either, it must have been at least 3 weeks since she's urinated somewhere she shouldn't.

She's also been on Zylkene for almost a month. At first, the only changes we noticed were that she seemed more tolerant of Bunk. But now she is definitely improving in other areas too. She's definitely calmer, the days where she yells and paces are becoming fewer. She's become slightly more playful again, rolling around on her back being silly!

All in all, I think we're finally on the right track. I'm sure not being constipated all the time is helping her mood too but we're gonna keep going with the Zylkene as it's only a supplement not an actual drug so no harm to be on it long term.

Thank you so much to everyone that's stuck around through my numerous meltdowns. I'm feeling very hopeful that those days are behind us

P.S and to add to the good news, her insurance renewal came through and it's only gone up by €5! We've claimed almost to the limited of €2500 so I'm baffled but super pleased.

Rancid

Great news!
Just so delighted that things have improved so much!

Alun

Great news at last!

BTW @loveisdivine, I've got a load of Zylkene here (14 x strips of 10 capsules) which we got for one of our cats who is no longer with us, so if you want them I can send you them. PM me if you're interested.

kathleen37

Excellent news!!!! Hope Bunk is doing well too! (Did he end up getting his teeth out?)

morgana

That's great news altogether ! Happy she's on her way

loveisdivine

Thanks everyone.

Bunk is doing great. He ended up having only 2 teeth removed as the others are actually in really good condition. If they start to deteriorate though we're going to just take them all.

loveisdivine

Over the last 5 days or so Ripleys pooping has become irregular again. Along with it the negative behaviours have returned, shes' whining a lot, pacing around just being generally irritable. The poop isn't hard or anything but she was going up to twice a day recently (and she was happy and content during that time) and now it's once every other day.

The only thing we've done differently in the last couple of weeks is mixing about 1 tablespoon of bunks food into hers as she is always way more interested in his than her own food, so I just mix some of his in to give it the same flavour and encourage her to eat.

I'm assuming either this small amount of food is causing it, or I'm wondering if it's possible that feeding her the exact same food everyday causes her to eventually start reacting badly to it.

In a way it's good to know that a lot of the negative behaviours are clearly linked with the irregular stomach issues. Just need to get it back under control again.

Edit - I guess I'm stuck as to whether to try keeping her solely on her own food with no jelly or anything from bunks, or whether to try fully moving on to the same as Bunk. I know she'd rather eat his but don't wanna make things worse.

Rancid

It really sounds like it's the change in food that's causing her problems, doesn't it?
I think I'd stop adding in Bunk's food and watch for an improvement, though it might take more than a few days for the effects to lessen.
Even if you have to feed them separately forever it'd be worth it if Ripley wasn't upset!

Good to know that she had a few good weeks, though!

loveisdivine

She must just have an incredibly sensitive stomach. It's literally just been 1 spoon with her food and most of the time just the jelly.

In fairness it's not gone back to as bad as it was before, just dipped a little.

I've stopped putting the spoonful in anyway so hopefully in a few days she'll be right as rain again. She does eat her own food, but doesn't have much enthusiasm for it, but does eat it all eventually.

I managed to get those Surefeed microchip feeders on offer so I don't have to worry about them stealing from each others bowls now. It was so funny at first watching Ripley head over to his bowl, push Bunk out the way then get all grumpy when the lid just closed on her head!