Cat Completely Stopped Using Litter Box After Antibiotics

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lilin

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Could you afford to buy/build her a catio? There are tons of options. Some actually have passage ways into the home, if you would be able to deal with that.

Here is one example of a thousand different options.

Actually that's a very accessible option for me. I belong to a shared shop space, so I can do things like this for pretty cheap, and know someone who did a small catio. I have space for a large one. I have also been considering building a greenhouse lately, maybe they could be connected (my hobby horse is orchids -- non-toxic to cats, but also, she doesn't really bother them anyway).

I'm gonna throw this out to her vet. I honestly feel like part of the trouble I'm having with her is that she is so non-responsive to any sort of human effort. I mean, I dealt with a cat with dementia, all the way to the end. I'm no stranger to weird, even highly destructive behavior. But the fact that Pia has never come to trust anyone beyond a very shallow level, and therefore any effort I make for her to seems to go ignored and there's never any improvement in her predictability... that is the trouble. That we can't come to any sort of balance.

I don't honestly believe she cares about me that much. And that's ok -- honestly. I understand. She didn't have a good start in life. She wasn't socialized at all until she was almost a year old. I was hoping she'd come around more than this, but I knew there was a risk she wouldn't. I don't honestly think she'd mind not being around me as much.
 

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Look into the catio and talk to the vet about it!! Keep me posted. I will hold off on helping you look for replacement homes until I hear back from you. :crossfingers::crossfingers::crossfingers::crossfingers:
 
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lilin

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Look into the catio and talk to the vet about it!! Keep me posted. I will hold off on helping you look for replacement homes until I hear back from you. :crossfingers::crossfingers::crossfingers::crossfingers:
Hey there. So, we've had a serious problem today...

She has a litter box that is in a part of the house she currently doesn't have access to. It's in a closet in my laundry room, but the door's removed, it's kind like in a little cubby space.

I took it out to clean today, and I discovered she has damaged the floorboards by peeing around her box. There's mold, which can be quite serious for me health-wise, and it's in the wood. This isn't ok for me. Not at all. I may need to replace the boards completely.

I am still committed to at least exploring the option of housing her in my greenhouse and getting her on psych meds. It may be that I have to admit defeat for my own well-being eventually, but one thing I won't do is just stick her in the pound and let fate decide. This cat has had enough misery, and either we're gonna find something that makes her happy on my property or off it (cause she's clearly never been happy in anyone's home, including mine), or I'm going to stop her suffering.

But I need a break from her partly just so I can regain my sanity, but partly so I can make the house safe for me. This is just so hard on my lungs, and so unsafe. I can't deal with this anymore and I need to stop the damage before what I need a break from is my entire house. If you're wondering why I didn't notice sooner, it's because she's done this so much that it pretty much always smells like a combination of bleach and her waste in here, so how would I be able to tell?

So... I need a foster. I am still talking to her vet Monday, and I've reached out to people at my shop community.
 
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lilin

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Look into the catio and talk to the vet about it!! Keep me posted. I will hold off on helping you look for replacement homes until I hear back from you. :crossfingers::crossfingers::crossfingers::crossfingers:
My behaviorist friend thinks putting her in an outdoor enclosure of any kind would be terrible for her, given how violent and aggressive she is towards cats, and that I have at least 2 neighborhood cats that I know sometimes come into my yard. Basically just non-stop anxiety and fear for her, forever. And now that I've spent 10 seconds thinking about it... yeah. That's a terrible idea.

So consult is tomorrow. But I'm feeling increasingly pessimistic.
 
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Look into the catio and talk to the vet about it!! Keep me posted. I will hold off on helping you look for replacement homes until I hear back from you. :crossfingers::crossfingers::crossfingers::crossfingers:
So we were unable to get Pia to stop pooping on her food. The aformentioned friend of mine who's an animal trainer at a shelter lent me a cat condo kennel to put her in, and my vet has started her on Prozac.

I've seen no change except that she is getting steadily more aggressive. I don't really blame her. I would be too. But also, this is literally the only way to stop her from eating her own waste. And it has been successful at that, because the perch her food bowls are on is too narrow for her to turn away from them to go on them. Now that it is physically impossible for her to go anywhere else, she is using the litterbox exclusively. But I'm currently 99% certain that if she had the ability to go somewhere else, she would. I am disinclined to take that risk, given that my repair and replacement bill of items and parts of my house Pia has destroyed is currently around 2k. My vet said I could try a cat behaviorist, but she costs more per hour than a human shrink and I can't afford or justify that with the huge expense I'm already trying to shoulder, completely alone.

I'm not feeling very hopeful. I had already done every single thing my vet suggested, except the Prozac. My shelter trainer friend thinks she is unlikely to get much better. Basically I need Prozac to give her a personality transplant, or I can't keep her. And all I see right now is her getting more aggressive.
 
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lilin

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I hope the Prozac works - for her sake.
Me too. It's only been a week, but so far no change in her mood. I have seen her hyperesthesia slowly improving, however. And I wonder if that is why her mood is so unregulated -- if it's related to that. If that's why nothing I do makes it any better, because it's a physical problem, not a behavior or trauma issue.

I guess we'll see. But I am out of ideas if this doesn't help. I really don't know what else to do for her.
 

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The dosage of Prozac may have to be adjusted over time. You will have to ask the vet about that.

The cat condo needs to be relatively good in size too; moving them from total freedom to a space that is not all that big would certainly have it's own negative impacts.
 
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lilin

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The dosage of Prozac may have to be adjusted over time. You will have to ask the vet about that.

The cat condo needs to be relatively good in size too; moving them from total freedom to a space that is not all that big would certainly have it's own negative impacts.
The kennel she gave me is very similar to this one.

Like I said, this is the only way we've been able to get her to stop defecating on her food. I'd also prefer not to have to confine her, but this is a pretty serious health risk for a cat with other illnesses in which oral infections are a very serious concern, and we've run out of options for stopping it, apart from physically taking away her choice in the matter.

She of course does have room to move around in there, and also access to a window view on the top two tiers, one of which I have a cushion on, but she chooses to spend 90% of her time in one corner on the bottom tier, the same way she spent 90% of her time under my desk when she had free roam of half the house.
 

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Well, give her time to see if the Prozac helps, see what the vet says about altering the dosage if/when appropriate.

If the Prozac does work, she still needs time to adjust to her new home - the size isn't bad, but anytime you change a cat's environment, they still need time to get used to it.
 
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Well, give her time to see if the Prozac helps, see what the vet says about altering the dosage if/when appropriate.

If the Prozac does work, she still needs time to adjust to her new home - the size isn't bad, but anytime you change a cat's environment, they still need time to get used to it.
Yeah. My concern is that her behavior is actually worsening since she went in there. She seemed reasonably confident and ok for the first few days, weirdly enough. More so than she was when she had the whole office and craft room. It was really weird, but it seemed like she preferred the kennel to the rooms.

But the last couple days, all she does is hiss and growl, even though nothing has changed. I don't know if it's because she's tired of it, or a side effect of the Prozac, or what. But I do know her twitchy skin is better, but somehow her mood is worse.

It's too early to know if this is what it's gonna be like for her once she's stable on the Prozac, but going from less fear to more aggression isn't what I was hoping for. I'm hoping it's just a side-effect.
 

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I've kind of lost track of what is going on with her besides her aggressiveness. I know we talked before about the peeing/pooping and possible infection related causes, but I don't recall you ever having gone through all the tests that would rule out ALL potential infections that are possible with the proper testing - like as in a full fecal PCR and a full urine culture. I know she was on antibiotics, but as I explained before some antibiotics don't treat all infections. Just one thing that really, really, really needs to be ruled out.

I am just saying that because you are telling me that she seemed comfortable with her new confined space initially, and now not so much - to the point of hissing and growling. Either she was 1.) at first in shock from being moved to the new space and is just now responding, or 2.) she is still physically ill and it is getting worse, or 3.) she may be having an adverse reaction to the Prozac (ask the vet about this, please). Or, all three.

She needs as much attention as you can give her. If that is not possible in your mind with petting her, then at least spend time close by her, softly talking/singing/even reading a book out loud, as many times in a day as you can. She is going through a lot of changes and she needs confirmation from you that you still love her.
 
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lilin

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I've kind of lost track of what is going on with her besides her aggressiveness. I know we talked before about the peeing/pooping and possible infection related causes, but I don't recall you ever having gone through all the tests that would rule out ALL potential infections that are possible with the proper testing - like as in a full fecal PCR and a full urine culture. I know she was on antibiotics, but as I explained before some antibiotics don't treat all infections. Just one thing that really, really, really needs to be ruled out.

I am just saying that because you are telling me that she seemed comfortable with her new confined space initially, and now not so much - to the point of hissing and growling. Either she was 1.) at first in shock from being moved to the new space and is just now responding, or 2.) she is still physically ill and it is getting worse, or 3.) she may be having an adverse reaction to the Prozac (ask the vet about this, please). Or, all three.

She needs as much attention as you can give her. If that is not possible in your mind with petting her, then at least spend time close by her, softly talking/singing/even reading a book out loud, as many times in a day as you can. She is going through a lot of changes and she needs confirmation from you that you still love her.
Look. She's been like this for her entire life, and certainly the 5 years I've had her. She's been turned inside out -- twice -- for immigration exams, which have to adhere to all kinds of crazy health department rules in multiple countries, and do test for basically every infection and parasite there is. At some point in her life, she's had every test known to man.

If you include the expenses directly associated with her care, I currently have nearly three thousand dollars worth of bills bearing down on me due to this cat. I don't have the money to re-test her for stuff I already know she doesn't have, because she has been like this for 5 years.

This is not an infection. She has no symptoms of an infection. There is nothing physically wrong with her, apart from the long-term illnesses we already know she has -- HCM and hyperesthesia. She is mentally ill. Please stop telling me to test her for esoteric infections that don't fit her symptoms. I don't live on a pile of money, and none of those things make any sense. If they did make any sense, my vet would have told me so when I asked, at any one of the 10 or so different appointments and consults I've had with him in the past month.

Not every cat just has some simple little problem that a cheap silver bullet pill can cure. Some of them are a mess of genetic, environmental, and physical broken wires, and there's no simple way to "fix" them. That's not gonna change if I just wish hard, and blow a bunch of money I don't have on tests my vet thinks are worthless anyway and have nothing to do with her symptoms.

Pia is not a simple case. There is nothing simple wrong with her and there is no simple cure. I have had half a dozen veterinarians and my friend who's a professional animal trainer weigh in on her case, and none of them think it is possible that there is any simple fix for her. Some of them think she may remain like this for life regardless of any intervention. One of them has told me that it is her professional opinion that I should euthanize her. She has a brain disorder we know almost nothing about that can impact mood and has no treatment. Pia is not just going to turn into a perfect cat if only I fed her the right antibiotic. So please stop with that. Ok?

She does let me touch her. She even lets me give her meds. That's what so weird about her demeanor. She clearly wants, and sometimes even accepts, physical touch. She's never physically attacked a human. She just continues to be aggressive and unfriendly, regardless of that desire. It's like she's fighting with herself in her own head. Somewhere deep down she's a lap cat. But the static in her brain is so loud that she acts psychotic a lot of the time. And this, too, is something she's always done. It just goes through periods of being more or less intense, or takes different forms, over time.
 

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OK. You know best, it's your cat. I never said she would turn into a perfect cat with the right antibiotic - never even insinuated it. I understand you being on the defensive, when you truly feel like you are doing the best for her that you can and people come along and question things. But, that is what we do - to make sure all possible contributors to a cat's problem are being addressed. It is never meant to question you, it is meant to help in any way we can. That is all.

I hope Pia finds some peace with Prozac or whatever else they try should the Prozac not work.
 
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OK. You know best, it's your cat. I never said she would turn into a perfect cat with the right antibiotic - never even insinuated it. I understand you being on the defensive, when you truly feel like you are doing the best for her that you can and people come along and question things. But, that is what we do - to make sure all possible contributors to a cat's problem are being addressed. It is never meant to question you, it is meant to help in any way we can. That is all.

I hope Pia finds some peace with Prozac or whatever else they try should the Prozac not work.
Thank you. It's just frustrating. I wish anything with her was ever that simple, but it never is. She's never been healthy, and she's never been happy. And there was a point where I thought I was gonna be able to change that, but now we're probably more than halfway through her expected lifespan, and she just gets sicker, physically and mentally both. When people ask what's wrong, I've started just telling them she has "runt of the little disorder." Because there's so much wrong that it would probably be quicker to list what ISN'T wrong.

It does feel like we're getting to the point of things being pretty hopeless. I'm basically relying on a silver bullet to make her stable enough for me to safely live with her, because I'm not just gonna keep her in a cage forever. I hate having her in there at all. But, as I just said, there's no silver bullets. I need a miracle for this cat.
 

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Okay, this is not relevant to a lot of her problems but for her food you could always do a wet food or some such and take it away after about 30 minutes or so when she's had time to eat it. Also my cat had an issue with peeing on things, and to mitigate it for about 2 weeks I lined all of the room he was in with puppy pads to prevent him from being able to actually ruin anything. Also before he had these problems which are not similar to yours in anyway he liked to pee, and poop in inappropriate places if he felt his box was too dirty, so I got a litter robot for him. Often cats do go in inappropriate places if they feel their box is too dirty and they have other choices. I previously scooped his box before the litter robot 4+ times a day and still if there was anything in there he would nope. This may not be the solution you want as it is expensive, and you seem tired of spending money on your cat but they do have a very nice return policy so if it doesn't help you can send it back. Follow up question do you have any other cats in your house? Also make sure you're using unscented litter.
 
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lilin

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Okay, this is not relevant to a lot of her problems but for her food you could always do a wet food or some such and take it away after about 30 minutes or so when she's had time to eat it. Also my cat had an issue with peeing on things, and to mitigate it for about 2 weeks I lined all of the room he was in with puppy pads to prevent him from being able to actually ruin anything. Also before he had these problems which are not similar to yours in anyway he liked to pee, and poop in inappropriate places if he felt his box was too dirty, so I got a litter robot for him. Often cats do go in inappropriate places if they feel their box is too dirty and they have other choices. I previously scooped his box before the litter robot 4+ times a day and still if there was anything in there he would nope. This may not be the solution you want as it is expensive, and you seem tired of spending money on your cat but they do have a very nice return policy so if it doesn't help you can send it back. Follow up question do you have any other cats in your house? Also make sure you're using unscented litter.
Thanks. Unfortunately, already done all of this, except the robot, because I already know it would make the issue worse: she is terrified of anything that makes any kind of motion or noise without her touching it. This also limits what toys I can get her. So I know all this would accomplish is scaring her away from the box for good. But anyway... If me scooping the box 3 times a day is not enough, frankly that's too bad. I can't do more than I'm doing. As far as food, I've finally given in to my vet's suggestion and put her on a dry food diet, because it's prescription calming.

No other cats. However, Pia has reacted in the past to other cats marking outside. I live in a house, so I'm a ground level, and it is likely this is happening around my house. I have no control over that, and I'm sure as hell not selling my house over the cat. So, again... we're at the limit of how much self-flagellation I'm willing to do over my cat's neuroses.
 

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Sometimes there can also be crystals in their urine which can cause this type of behavior, my cat had that and it had been missed on his previous 3 urinalysis he had had that month and been misdiagnosed as an infection. Also getting blood work done can reveal a multitude of problems you otherwise wouldn't know to look for. All these tests are about $200 with a vet visit which in the realm of vet bills is pretty bargain basement.
 

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Thanks. Unfortunately, already done all of this, except the robot, because I already know it would make the issue worse: she is terrified of anything that makes any kind of motion or noise without her touching it. This also limits what toys I can get her. So I know all this would accomplish is scaring her away from the box for good. But anyway... If me scooping the box 3 times a day is not enough, frankly that's too bad. I can't do more than I'm doing. As far as food, I've finally given in to my vet's suggestion and put her on a dry food diet, because it's prescription calming.

No other cats. However, Pia has reacted in the past to other cats marking outside. I live in a house, so I'm a ground level, and it is likely this is happening around my house. I have no control over that, and I'm sure as hell not selling my house over the cat. So, again... we're at the limit of how much self-flagellation I'm willing to do over my cat's neuroses.
If you're house is on ground level how is the greenhouse worse? Sorry if I'm missing something.
 
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lilin

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If you're house is on ground level how is the greenhouse worse? Sorry if I'm missing something.
Because then she's also be able to see the other cats (I know of at least two that sometimes go into my yard).

The reason I have no other cats is because Pia goes into murder mode the moment she sees any other cat, and she never comes back out of it no matter how long she's exposed to them, or how friendly they are. That is actually the only reason I haven't already made her indoor/outdoor. She'd be dead within the first 24 hours, after attacking another cat who's twice her size.
 
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