Hi everyone,
I could really use some advice. My 4 year old spayed kitty has a vet appointment on Friday because she is urinating/spraying outside the litter box. A little background:
It started about 6 weeks ago and appears to have been triggered by the neighborhood (very friendly) semi-feral deciding he liked my front porch after ignoring us the whole time we’ve lived here. She would spray by the living room window and by the front door, and then added the dining room windows to her territory. At the same time, my daughter’s boyfriend came to stay with us for a week. A week or so later, there was another lost cat in my backyard (clearly a lost housecat) that I ended up feeding for 2 weeks–we found her owners, fortunately, so that threat has been removed. I bought Feliway and it helped somewhat, but with the male cat still hanging around it didn’t stop completely–but it did improve. To complicate matters, my mother lives with us and refuses to listen to my wishes when I asked her to keep the blinds on the first floor closed so she can’t see outside. It’s very frustrating.
Then about 2 weeks ago I bought her a calming collar and it worked wonders. By last weekend I was considering removing the plastic from my furniture. I even canceled her vet appointment for last Friday after talking to the vet about how well she was doing.
However, on Sunday, my daughter’s cat died very suddenly and it was very traumatic and stressful for everyone. This week, my poor kitty has been a demon and I feel so bad because there is no way for me to help her. She wasn’t particularly attached to my daughter’s cat but it is still a change for her. I don’t know if she’s picking up on our mood and reacting to that or what. She is spraying again and more–she peed all over my dining room table on Monday. Last night I noticed missing patches of fur on her paws, and after watching her, I realized that she is over-grooming, probably stress-related. I took the calming collar off because I thought she was having a skin reaction to it, but I don’t think that’s the case at all. So, off to the vet she goes. Medication might be inevitable at this point, I think. I just hope she is okay physically. The really odd thing is: she is using the litter box. I have seen her do it, as recently as last night. There are 6 litter boxes in this house, two on every floor.
Any advice or thoughts? I'm going to put the collar back on because that obviously isn't the cause of her missing fur. I just don't know what else to do for her. I feel awful.
I could really use some advice. My 4 year old spayed kitty has a vet appointment on Friday because she is urinating/spraying outside the litter box. A little background:
It started about 6 weeks ago and appears to have been triggered by the neighborhood (very friendly) semi-feral deciding he liked my front porch after ignoring us the whole time we’ve lived here. She would spray by the living room window and by the front door, and then added the dining room windows to her territory. At the same time, my daughter’s boyfriend came to stay with us for a week. A week or so later, there was another lost cat in my backyard (clearly a lost housecat) that I ended up feeding for 2 weeks–we found her owners, fortunately, so that threat has been removed. I bought Feliway and it helped somewhat, but with the male cat still hanging around it didn’t stop completely–but it did improve. To complicate matters, my mother lives with us and refuses to listen to my wishes when I asked her to keep the blinds on the first floor closed so she can’t see outside. It’s very frustrating.
Then about 2 weeks ago I bought her a calming collar and it worked wonders. By last weekend I was considering removing the plastic from my furniture. I even canceled her vet appointment for last Friday after talking to the vet about how well she was doing.
However, on Sunday, my daughter’s cat died very suddenly and it was very traumatic and stressful for everyone. This week, my poor kitty has been a demon and I feel so bad because there is no way for me to help her. She wasn’t particularly attached to my daughter’s cat but it is still a change for her. I don’t know if she’s picking up on our mood and reacting to that or what. She is spraying again and more–she peed all over my dining room table on Monday. Last night I noticed missing patches of fur on her paws, and after watching her, I realized that she is over-grooming, probably stress-related. I took the calming collar off because I thought she was having a skin reaction to it, but I don’t think that’s the case at all. So, off to the vet she goes. Medication might be inevitable at this point, I think. I just hope she is okay physically. The really odd thing is: she is using the litter box. I have seen her do it, as recently as last night. There are 6 litter boxes in this house, two on every floor.
Any advice or thoughts? I'm going to put the collar back on because that obviously isn't the cause of her missing fur. I just don't know what else to do for her. I feel awful.