I have a male, 1.5yr old domestic shorthair who is an absolute sweetheart. Starting February 2nd he had his first blockage and it’s been a hectic few months of dealing with his urinary problems. 5 weeks ago he had a PU surgery, and it went great! He healed up wonderful and is peeing like an absolute champ. Throughout this whole scenario he’s had to be in the cone on and off for probably 2 months all together. He adjusted well to it and didn’t fuss at all, he’s remained extremely calm and lovey throughout the entire ordeal. A week ago we got the okay to remove his cone after he had his final post operation checkup, but have run into a bit of a roadblock. Upon removing his cone he overgrooms quite a bit, which I’m not shocked by since he went 4 weeks without being able to groom at all, but he was doing it to the point of hurting himself. The main target areas for him were his paw pads and his back “elbow” area on his back legs. We used medicated ointment and balm and his paws have recovered fantastically, but he still tries to go at his elbows. He licks and cleans other places as well but these are the two focus areas, and oddly enough he doesn’t even really try to groom the surgery site unless it’s right after he urinates. We have been making progress slowly by giving him more and more supervised time out of his cone each day, and each day we notice him trying to groom less, and when he does it’s less aggressive. We have also been utilizing a baby t shirt to help ween him off of the cone as well, for whatever reason majority of the time he has it on he doesn’t try to lick his legs or feet even though he still can. Our vet has him on a daily dose of venlafaxine to take the edge off of the stress of assimilating back to normal kitty life for him as well. I’m curious if anyone else has dealt with this before or if anyone has any tips or tricks to speed up the process of getting him over this. He’s had a pretty awful few months and has remained the same loving and goofy cat throughout all of it, he deserves to be without his cone and be normal again but we just can’t risk him hurting himself grooming as then the cone would be necessary again. Currently he is getting about 8-10 hrs of supervised out of cone time a day, and the cone goes back on when we leave the house or when we go to sleep. I could really use some advice!
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Cat over-grooming after PU surgery
- Thread starter vsvpflex
- Start Date
Hi -
Another possibility would be plain unblended unflavored chamomile tea for any hot spots which you can obtain in grocery stores. Brew some, let it cool and dab it on him. It is antifungal, antibacterial, will help to ease any discomfort and is safe for him to ingest if he did
Have you tried Spotify's cat harp music, or Music For Cats by David Teie?
I think you're doing wonderfully exactly as you are doing. For him to be out of his cone that long while stressing less and less about being able to finally groom is excellent!
Another possibility would be plain unblended unflavored chamomile tea for any hot spots which you can obtain in grocery stores. Brew some, let it cool and dab it on him. It is antifungal, antibacterial, will help to ease any discomfort and is safe for him to ingest if he did
Have you tried Spotify's cat harp music, or Music For Cats by David Teie?
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- #3
the medicated ointment we have been using on the areas he has chewed raw is called Animax and is supposed to be antibacterial,antifungal, and steroidal. I had never heard of using chamomile before but I might just give it a try! We have also been using the duoxo mouse on him every 3 days, and applying a natural balm to his paws once a day. It’s just been extremely frustrating, the last few months dealing with the urinary issues has pushed me to my absolute emotional limits. And now having him be in the clear of urinary problems, I just want him to be able to be out of his cone and be normal, and now having this obstacle prolong that is really weighing on me. He’s getting less aggressive about the grooming/chewing but still occasionally really goes at it to the point we have to take his paw or leg out of his mouth. I wish he could understand me so I could just explain to him that the faster he stops over grooming, the faster he gets his normal life backHi -
I think you're doing wonderfully exactly as you are doing. For him to be out of his cone that long while stressing less and less about being able to finally groom is excellent!
Another possibility would be chamomile tea for any hot spots which you can obtain in grocery stores. It is antifungal, antibacterial, will help to ease any discomfort and is safe for him to ingest if he did
Have you tried Spotify's cat harp music, or Music For Cats by David Teie?
Oh, by the way, sorry for the double post but I meant to ask, what are you feeding him?
Do you have a pet water fountain? You could try placing unusual water vessels such as a clean daily mason jar with fresh daily filtered water around the house (away from his food).
Do you have a pet water fountain? You could try placing unusual water vessels such as a clean daily mason jar with fresh daily filtered water around the house (away from his food).
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- #6
I guess I should give some context to clarify a bit more. Including Finn, my boy who’s been having the issues, we have a total of 4 cats in the house. We have probably 5 water dishes scattered around the house that we fill and clean regularly, and we also have a fountain but Finn is not a fan. We have 6 litter boxes, tons of toys, beds, scratching posts, little hideouts, etc. we often joke that it’s the cats house not ours with how much stuff they have lol. As for food, he is on the Hills C/D dry and wet food per request of my vet. He gets watered down wet food with probiotics and a little bit of pumpkin to supplement the low fiber in the CD food in the morning and evening, and then is able to free graze dry food throughout the day. He is also pretty good about drinking a good amount of water, but we like to do the added moisture in his wet food just to ensure he is getting enough fluids. Part of me was curious if the overgrooming and chewing could be a sign of a food allergy, but upon researching I see that it’s pretty difficult to determine and has to be done through trial and error. And also learned that there are no hypoallergenic prescription urinary foods for cats unfortunately
. If there was I’d just buy a small bag and switch him over to see if I noticed a difference, but even if it did end up being a food allergy I don’t really have options since he’s supposed to be on a urinary diet.
Hopefully he, with your excellent help, love and patience, is able to come back to himself with just a little bit more time
You're handling it in just the right way. The cone has become a part of his life so when it's off he knows something is missing and anxiety sets in.
Are there things he did before the cone that he enjoyed and the cone wouldn't let him? When the cone is off encourage to play in those ways. Hopefully he will see that life is easier coneless.
Are there things he did before the cone that he enjoyed and the cone wouldn't let him? When the cone is off encourage to play in those ways. Hopefully he will see that life is easier coneless.
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- #9
Surprisingly the cone didn’t really limit his activity too much. He really didn’t mind having to wear it, even at the beginning, and he was able to maneuver with it in ways that I still don’t understand. We had to limit his activity post surgery so his incision didn’t open up, and during that time he was in a large dog kennel anytime we went to bed or weren’t home (it’s big enough it had a litter box, huge bed, and food and water in it so he was plenty comfortable). Since we got the okay that he’s in the clear and healed, we have been letting him stay out of the cage indefinitely. We’ve noticed this making a difference since he’s able to romp and play with his brother throughout the night, which leads to less pent up energy in the day. Still having to cone him when we leave or go to bed though, and only let him have it off when we can supervise and stop him if he starts overgrooming, and occasionally he gets so persistent about the grooming that we have to put the cone back on even when we are home to monitor him.
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- #10
Figured I’d give an update. I bit the bullet and made a vet appointment for my little guy, and they gave him a flea treatment and put him on a round of steroids. It’s only day 2 and he’s only had 3 steroid doses and already is being so so so much better about grooming. My vet said that If he’s super allergic to fleas that he could have a reaction from only a few bites and that the fact that we haven’t found any on him doesn’t mean they aren’t there. They gave me a 6 month supply of revolution plus, which seemed like the best fit since it’s pretty broad spectrum. Covers fleas, ticks, mites, ring worm, hook worm, and heart worm. With how many times he’s had to be in and out of the vet in the past 4 months (probably upwards of 40), it wouldn’t be surprising if another animal at the vet had a few little tag-alongs that jumped ship onto my boy Finn. The thought process is, if it is a flea or pest issue, the treatment will get rid of them, and the steroids will remedy his symptoms while that’s happening. When we taper the steroid dosage and eventually discontinue it after 1-2 weeks, if the overgrooming stays at bay, we know it was a pest. If when we taper the steroid, the overgrooming returns we know it’s an environmental allergy (since steroids wouldn’t really do much for a food allergy). I also figured I’d include a photo of my little guy, he’s in the front and his brother Jake is peeking over the cube in the back. They are the best of friends
This is great news!
