Hello,
I have a 15 year old female tabby cat. I don't even know where to begin. First of all, we did not know of the complication of declawing when we first got her as a kitten, so we had her declawed, and I regret it all the time now. She had never been one to be very lovable, very snooty and stuck up, but she was part of the family. About three years ago she started having spells were she was pooping on the carpet in front of our front door. We have a split foyer, so she must walk down the steps or up the steps to get there. It was solid and normal, then she began having a few episodes in front of our large window downstairs. Her litter box was in a very private place in the utility room, but we bought another one and placed it in front of the window where she kept going, and that worked for a little while, although we would still on occasion find that she had used the bathroom outside of it from time to time. Two years ago we took in a stray male, he played too rough with her, and instead of letting them hash it out I decided to let her have the upstairs and him have the downstairs, I was afraid at her age he was going to giver her a heartr attack. We moved her litter box to another portion of the upstairs. We have stairs that lead out a side door that is NEVER used, so it was a perfect place of privacy for her. We actually bought her a large RubberMaid container so she would have lots of room, we sat it up against the stairs so she could walk right down in it without having to jump since she is older. We put some attractant in it and sat her in it once and she had been very good about using it. She is terrified of other people, but when we leave town or go on vacation we have a friend go in and take care of her for us, clean litter box, food and water, ect. After a week of vacation last year when we returned she was completely different. She's always a tad clingy when we come back from vacation, but she wouldn't leave us alone, always had to either be leaning up against us, laying on us or being held, which she always used to hate. It's been a year and this hasn't changed. Follows us around crying and meowing very loudly, you can't lay down in bed without her wanting to lay on you with her face touching your face. It's a little ridiculous and very hard to sleep. One week we actually had to lock her out of the bedroom because we had gotten no sleep because she was all over us, crawling on us all night, actually trying to climb onto our head or lay on us. I love that she has become lovable, but sometimes it's a little crazy. Unfortunately the old girl lost most of her teeth during a cleaning a couple of years ago, but refused to eat wet food. Her labs at the vet all came back normal, which I was thrilled about. She continued to eat small bits of dry food for almost a year until she started throwing up undigested food about a month ago. She began puking everywhere. We couldn't leave anything laying out because she would throw up on it. She even got on the kitchen table, which she KNOWS is off limits, to throw up. We finally found a wet food that she really liked, but that seemed to do know good as she still threw up everywhere, so we switched her back to her dry food which she really loves. The puking has slowed down some. About two weeks ago we started noticing that she was pooping on the stairs next to her litter box instead of in her litter box. Figured it was just a fluke, but it kept happening, each time seemed to go up a step, until it got to the top. Now she has begun pooping a littler further out, now in front of the bedroom doors, then to the middle of the living room, and now back down in front of the original door where she used to go. This is killing us, we've tried everything, but she's ruining our carpet!!! We love her to death and would never dream of getting rid of her but need some advice on how to help her out. We had discussed putting her in the bathroom with her box when we were gone, but we've discovered that all of these so called "accidents" happen when we are home. Sometimes it's solid, sometimes it's diarrhea, I don't know what's causing the diarrhea, as nothing has changed in the past two weeks. ANY advice would be so helpful. Thank You for your time!
I have a 15 year old female tabby cat. I don't even know where to begin. First of all, we did not know of the complication of declawing when we first got her as a kitten, so we had her declawed, and I regret it all the time now. She had never been one to be very lovable, very snooty and stuck up, but she was part of the family. About three years ago she started having spells were she was pooping on the carpet in front of our front door. We have a split foyer, so she must walk down the steps or up the steps to get there. It was solid and normal, then she began having a few episodes in front of our large window downstairs. Her litter box was in a very private place in the utility room, but we bought another one and placed it in front of the window where she kept going, and that worked for a little while, although we would still on occasion find that she had used the bathroom outside of it from time to time. Two years ago we took in a stray male, he played too rough with her, and instead of letting them hash it out I decided to let her have the upstairs and him have the downstairs, I was afraid at her age he was going to giver her a heartr attack. We moved her litter box to another portion of the upstairs. We have stairs that lead out a side door that is NEVER used, so it was a perfect place of privacy for her. We actually bought her a large RubberMaid container so she would have lots of room, we sat it up against the stairs so she could walk right down in it without having to jump since she is older. We put some attractant in it and sat her in it once and she had been very good about using it. She is terrified of other people, but when we leave town or go on vacation we have a friend go in and take care of her for us, clean litter box, food and water, ect. After a week of vacation last year when we returned she was completely different. She's always a tad clingy when we come back from vacation, but she wouldn't leave us alone, always had to either be leaning up against us, laying on us or being held, which she always used to hate. It's been a year and this hasn't changed. Follows us around crying and meowing very loudly, you can't lay down in bed without her wanting to lay on you with her face touching your face. It's a little ridiculous and very hard to sleep. One week we actually had to lock her out of the bedroom because we had gotten no sleep because she was all over us, crawling on us all night, actually trying to climb onto our head or lay on us. I love that she has become lovable, but sometimes it's a little crazy. Unfortunately the old girl lost most of her teeth during a cleaning a couple of years ago, but refused to eat wet food. Her labs at the vet all came back normal, which I was thrilled about. She continued to eat small bits of dry food for almost a year until she started throwing up undigested food about a month ago. She began puking everywhere. We couldn't leave anything laying out because she would throw up on it. She even got on the kitchen table, which she KNOWS is off limits, to throw up. We finally found a wet food that she really liked, but that seemed to do know good as she still threw up everywhere, so we switched her back to her dry food which she really loves. The puking has slowed down some. About two weeks ago we started noticing that she was pooping on the stairs next to her litter box instead of in her litter box. Figured it was just a fluke, but it kept happening, each time seemed to go up a step, until it got to the top. Now she has begun pooping a littler further out, now in front of the bedroom doors, then to the middle of the living room, and now back down in front of the original door where she used to go. This is killing us, we've tried everything, but she's ruining our carpet!!! We love her to death and would never dream of getting rid of her but need some advice on how to help her out. We had discussed putting her in the bathroom with her box when we were gone, but we've discovered that all of these so called "accidents" happen when we are home. Sometimes it's solid, sometimes it's diarrhea, I don't know what's causing the diarrhea, as nothing has changed in the past two weeks. ANY advice would be so helpful. Thank You for your time!