Not a good start to the new year
I posted at the end of November that I was having problems with my cat Tig. Well, things haven't gotten any better. They've gotten quite a bit worse in fact.
End of August:
My 17 year old cat Greymalkin died. He was on special food for his kidneys. It turns out that Tig had been mooching far more of that food than I was aware of. Not sure if that's played a role in this or not.
October:
Tig started having poop issues where he'd start pooping in the litter box but run before he finished pooping as he went. Tig and Jax were due for their yearly vet visit so off they went. Vet #1 advised a change in diet for Tig to a high fiber, low calorie food. It didn't help.
I also added a 2nd litter box with low sides since the box I already had was high-sided and I wanted to give him options.
November:
The following week we see vet #2. he puts Tig on a stool softener since the poop seems very hard. This helped a little bit but not much, he's still doing a mad poop dash.
The following week we see vet #1 again. He changes Tig's diet yet again to a low residue food and gives him a shot of a non-steroidal pain killer. The shot seems to help for about 3 days.
December:
The next week we see vet #3. She gives Tig some painkillers and another shot. Tig seems a tiny bit better so hold off on the painkillers for a few days (as per her advice). I give Tig a painkiller to see if it helps. It doesn't and it looks as if the drugs just make him feel 'bleck'.
Tig peed on the bed around 11pm at night. Thank goodness the SO worked until 11 that night since I had to call him to drive across town to bring me clean bedding since that box of stuff had already made the move to the townhouse.
The next day as I'm getting dressed, Tig got int the bedroom and peed on the bed again right in front of me. Full-bladder peed, not just a dribble.
We see vet #3 again about 2 hours later. They do x-rays to rule out a few things. The only thing it shows is that he needs to take a large poop.
They keep Tig overnight to try and get a urine sample. They don't get one. So they send me home with a tiny container of plastic beads and tell me bring a sample if I can get one. Riiight. I lock Tig and the ridiculous beads in a box in the bathroom. After about 10 minutes of watching Tig do the kitty pee dance, I replace the beads with a mostly empty litter box and stick a container under his butt once he starts peeing.
The vet thinks he has a possible UTI so puts him on a 10 day course of antibiotics. This was Saturday December 19.
On the 21st, we moved the cats (Tig and his little sister Jax) to the house. They were confined to a single room with lots of familiar things and a Feliway diffuser. There were already 2 cats in residence at the house and we wanted to keep them separated to give them a chance to get to know each other without too much stress.
Tig seemed to do ok on the antibiotics and was settling in alright with only the occasional poop accident.
Around about the 29th, Tig peed on the floor near one of the litter boxes. Again, not a dribble but a full bladder pee. I also found that he'd done another poop run and there was an elastic hair-tie in the poop. It had been in his system long enough for all of the black die to come out and the outer thread wrapping to start to break down.
I call vet #3 again. She hopes the hair-tie was the cause of the mess but add s a prescription for a behaviour modification drug to his file just in case. She recommends that I wait 5 to 7 days to fill it to see how Tig does.
That brings us up to this morning. at 730 this morning, Tig did another runner. This time he was also peeing as he went. He'd peed a good bit in his bed in the window before running all over the upstairs. I washed down all the floors and cleaned up the poop and was trying not to cry hysterically when Tig came out of hiding and deliberately peed on a knapsack right in front of me then took off running and dribbling.
Tig is now confined to the bathroom until this can be sorted out.
The vets office is closed until Tuesday but I'll be calling as soon as they open.
The worst possible outcome of this situation is breaking my heart. Tig isn't the kind of cat who can live the rest of his life confined to a bathroom by himself. If we can't figure out what the problem is and fix it, there's only one decision I can make and I do not, ever! want to have to make that one.
And before anyone yells at me for acknowledging that the possibility that he may, eventually, have to be put down exists, no there aren't any rescues or shelters in my area that would take him in with this kind of problem. I'm more than willing to do whatever I can to fix the problem but I can't ignore the doom and gloom possibilities either.
Edited to add: I believe the behavioral modification drug that the vet wants to try out is the anitdepressant amitriptyline. I'm familiar with the use of antidepressants in people but don't have any experience with their use in cats.
I just want to cuddle with my clown cat and not worry about him being sick.
