Too much info about my Cat5:
Cat5 has been having litter box problems for over a year now. Sometimes it gets better and sometimes worse but it hasn’t gone away completely yet. I suspect a lot of this is due to the stress of all the changes she’s gone through this past year. She gets constipated and then we have to take her to the vet to get an enema (this, as you can imagine, is fun for everyone). In addition, she goes in the litter box but has been inadvertently dragging feces out with her. This is a very bad thing with a preschooler around the house.
We boarded the cats over Christmas for 2 weeks while we were in Hong Kong/China. While there, she once again had became constipated. At that time, the vet suggested we try switching food on her to one that is high fiber and specifically designed for cats with intestinal problems. I agreed to try it but Five couldn’t keep it down. She was vomiting 2-3 times a day. I know a certain amount of stomach distress is common when switching food but she kept throwing up for 2 weeks which seemed excessive. Plus, I was worried that she wasn’t keeping enough food down. Her stools were a lot softer but still were ending out of the litter box.
I made another appointment with the vet and took her in yesterday evening. To my relief, he does think it’s unlikely it’s her anal sphixter that’s the problem as that’s apparently quite rare with cats, even those that have bowel problems. Also, when the vet felt her, it didn’t feel like she was constipated at all which is a very positive sign. He hopes that if we just get the proper food mixture, not too hard and not too soft, everything will go back to normal. So, I took home a different bag of cat food with hopes that it provides better results. On the plus side she hasn’t thrown up today. I hope we get this figured out . . .
One thing which might help with constipation is getting them to drink more water. Our cats love the water fountain we got for them *so much*!
http:–www.petco.com-product-9399-Petmate-Deluxe-Fresh-Flow-108-oz-Purifying-Pet-Fountain.aspx?CoreCat=certona-_-ProductListTopRated_Dog_2-_-Petmate%20Deluxe%20Fresh%20Flow%20108%20oz.%20Purifying%20Pet%20Fountain-9399
Sometimes they drink off the top of the slide, sometimes from the bottom of the slide, sometimes out of the front of the pool, sometimes out of the back of the pool near the drain. They love the taste of the water and the variety of where to drink. We fill the fountain with filtered water and about once a month we empty it, scrub it out, and change its charcoal filter.
We know they drink more, not just because we observer them drinking more, but because there are many more pee spots in the litter box.
We did have to leave the pump off for the first few days to convince them to drink from it, then once they got used to the taste and knew it was tasty water, we turned the pump on and it took a few days of convincing to get them to decide it was safe, but once that process was complete, they’ve been happier and more hydrated kitties ever since.
We don’t have that one but we do have one of those gravity fed water bowls. I have noticed that both cats do strongly prefer that over just a regular water bowl, even if I faithfully change the entire water bowl every day out with a new one. Cat5 really seems to be drinking fine though, so I don’t think it’s a water thing …
At the moment, at night we have Cat5 locked up in the basement bathroom by herself. Originally, I was putting both cats in the garage at night but I was worried it was getting too cold so I tried to transition them to an indoor place. Well, it turns out that Willow will rip away at the door and anything close to the door all night in an attempt to get out. One morning I went downstairs to discover the sliding door of the bathroom off its hinges.
The reason we put them away to begin with was because even if Jaeger wasn’t allergic and bothered by cat hair in his bed, Cat5 has a bad habit of not understanding the silly human’s need to sleep. When we first got her and Jaeger was away on trips I’d sometimes start out by letter her sleep with me. Except she wouldn’t sleep, she’d just sit there and paw at me until I petted her and then when I stopped, would paw me again. At Monarch, we put them both in the basement which seemed to work fairly well. However, our basement here has carpet that hides everything (which I would have thought would be good but it isn’t). When I had both Cat5 and Willow in the full basement, Willow worked at the carpet and there’s a good-sized hole right next to the door. On the other hand, I don’t trust 5 to have enough control of her body to avoid leave surprise presents that blend into the carpet.
At the moment, Cat5 is put in the basement bathroom while Willow has the run of the rest of the house (Willow is smart and doesn’t try to jump on our bed nor does she meow piteously all night at a closed door).
Anyway … since Cat5 is the only one using the litter box downstairs, I have a much better feel for what she’s depositing versus Willow. Every morning there’s quite a bit of clumping so it seems like she has enough liquid. However, I have also discovered that she seems to be urinating of the waterproof mattress pad I give her to sleep on.* Well, I thought originally the fluids I found on it were vomit because they had bits of food in them. However … the new food appears to agree with her a lot more so she isn’t vomiting anymore. Now, I’m still finding wetness that I assume must be urine.
Last time I took her to the vet he asked if she urinated outside her box and I said I didn’t think so. She doesn’t do it anywhere else in the house. However, I think I’m going to have to talk to him about it since now I know she is having at least some problems in that area.
*I picked up a child-sized sleeping bag and a twin water proof mattress at the thrift store and put the mattress cover over the sleeping bag. This was because when we were changing her food she was vomiting so much and it was hard to find something comfy that could also take a washing every day.