Not sure what else to do for Cleo other than rehome her possibly....I hate too but I don't know what else to do.

I have a very sweet cat named Cleo. She is two years old and my sweetheart. I love her a lot. She has been there for me through a lot. The reason why I’m posting this is because Cleo has Feline Idiopathic Cystitis (FIC) before it was called FLUTD.

FIC for Cleo has been a big issue this year. They say most cats grow out of it, but the stress causes her to have problems. The vet spoke with me yesterday and said we can try another drug (but the drug could cause kidney damage so that's a no go since she's only 2 yrs old) on her to see if it works or she may need to be rehomed, which with having a bladder issue could be a problem for some people.

She is a very sweet girl and doesn’t mean to not use her litter box, but she needs someone who will care for her and love her like I do and help her if she needs it. Right now she is on pain medications, but as the vet said we can’t keep her on it for the next 12+ years.

She is currently on Prozac, which has made her a bit more aggressive towards my other cats that I have. She just needs a window or two windows to view the birds and someone to show her love and care.

Cleo will most likely need a home without other cats unless you can put her on another floor where you’re cats don’t go and can’t stick their paws under the door.

Just to give you a little bit about myself and my situation so you don’t think I’m trying to pass her off or anything.

Cleo and my other three cats moved into my parent’s house last July when I separated from my ex husband. We are in one room and it’s a bit tight in there and even when I’m able to move out I don’t know if I’ll be able to afford anything other than a one bedroom apartment for a while. Right now I’m currently working two jobs to get back on my feet again and some days I work 12+ hours a day.

If someone would be willing to help me out with her I would make sure you have enough medication to get her through the weaning off period and she’s very good with women and some men (she hasn’t been around many men) and taking her medications.

I have taken her too many vets whom all say the same thing and there isn’t much that can be done other than to rehome her and place her with someone that will love her and hopefully she won’t feel the need to mark or urinate outside the box.

I need someone who is compassionate and caring as well. She has had many urine tests done and all are negative. She has had x-rays and ultrasounds as well and they were fine and negative, one x-ray showed inflammation. She is also on Hill’s Prescription C/D dry food, which she doesn’t eat much dry food anymore since I’ve started with feeding canned food most of the time. She does like treats though. I have used the plugin feliway and I also have the spray feliway that I spray every morning in the room for her. I also have tried to give her new toys every day or put older toys in the one drawer I have with cat nip and refresh the toys. I also put lavender around the room hoping it would calm her down. I did invest in playing with her also and trying to get her to feel like she got all the attention.

I have been feeding her canned food with water in it as well to keep her water intake good and I am going to put out some tuna water so she can increase her water take. I just need to find someone that will love and care for her.

I don’t care if I have to drive several states away, I just want her to have the best home possible. This breaks my heart so much but it’s not about me, it’s about what’s right for her.

I have had very good luck with cosequin; I have fostered two cats with this condition and it helped a lot. Good luck with your kitty.

The vet did have me try glucosamine I will have to check the prescription at home and see. We tried it for over 2 weeks and nothing worked. He told me to stop it because she was having a relapse at that time as well.

Maybe I'll have to try this one and see what happens....were the cats you had where they on pain medications as well or just cosequin??

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Originally Posted by smokey the elder

I have had very good luck with cosequin; I have fostered two cats with this condition and it helped a lot. Good luck with your kitty.

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I wish you luck. I know the exact situation you are in, as I have it with my Molly cat. Lillycat is actually fostering Molly for me as I type. While Molly doesn't have the same disease, she has the same tendencies and cannot live in my house with my nine cats. :(

So sorry to hear you are going through this. Might you know an elder living along who might want a kitty, even if she has to wear a diaper?

My heart kitty Oscar had idiopathic cystitis shortly after he came to live with me. He had been a feral, was tamed, and adjusted very well to my home. I added another non-feral rescue kitty - Cole - about a year later. Then Oscar got his first bout.

Because I was on PT at the time, when the vet suggested Prozac, I asked about Feliway. It worked wonderfully. I got him a very stretchy collar, and twice a day (three for some cats) would shake the bottle well and slowly press the sprayer to put a good size spot on the collar.

I am too far away to rehome her. All I can suggest is the Feliway for now. Medusa swears by Clomicalm; although it is usually used for dogs, she swears by it for her cats.

HUGS and good luck!:love:

I also thought of a diaper, like Karen suggested. But I'm guessing that might cause her more stress.

I have no other suggestions. Only to wish you luck.

So tonight I came home from working 12 hours and I'm getting ready for bed....that means taking all the toys off the bed hoping that would stop the peeing on my bed and i turn around a few times to make sure she isn't doing anything and I crawl into bed and put my arm down in cat pee......luckily I only had 2 flat sheets in the bed because I don't bother with comforters or quilts. I guess I'm going to speak with the vet again and see what rehoming would involve as far as medication. ..... I'm thinking maybe if I found someone that could take her for a few weeks to see if she does better than I will know it's the situation I have her in. I'm literally so irritated and frustrated

Have you read The Whole Pet Diet by Andi Brown? I found it at my library. She has recipes to deal with FLUTD. Perhaps this is something you can consider.

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Originally Posted by Karen

So sorry to hear you are going through this. Might you know an elder living along who might want a kitty, even if she has to wear a diaper?

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Honestly, I don't know if I could afford to get her cat diapers at this point...I've spent so much on her and I have my other 12 yr old cat that is need of a dental and I just got the estimate yesterday and it's between $450-$1,000...depending if they have to remove all her teeth. Plus, she just gained 3 lbs in 3 months and her bloodwork that I just had done and x-rays ($320). I have to give Cleo pain meds which are $22 or $25 a week only.

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Originally Posted by Freedom

Have you read The Whole Pet Diet by Andi Brown? I found it at my library. She has recipes to deal with FLUTD. Perhaps this is something you can consider.

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No I haven't. I feed her canned food with water in it already to try to help her. I think it's the stress and the other cats which is mostly like causing the problem.

I'm so sorry to hear this. My cat Alani was blocked and had injured his penis so badly that he needed PU surgery. I thought that this would be the end of his problems. He kept trying to spray when he'd become stressed or uncomfortable. He's now on Royal Canin Urinary S/O in the moderate calorie both canned and dry. He's also now on Prozac because the food alone didn't help him. I also use feliway plug-ins. He'll still sometimes have accidents but not as often as before. I feel your pain. I hope things will work out for you. Good luck.:)

I am having no luck with anything I try. I'm so frustrated. I just don't know what more or how much more I can put up with. Yesterday I left so I could take my mom back for her brother's 60th Birthday party and came home today and I lined my bed with puppy pads so that if she would pee it would go on the pads and not my bed. So I got back and I'm looking around the room for spray, etc. Noticed she marked or I think she did on the cat scratcher ......then I was siting on the bed finally thinking I'm going to get some rest and she I look down and towards the corner of my bed she was peeing standing up. Since she was standing up I'm going to say she was spraying but seriously the amount she did was way too much I of course got up and told her no and the amount is just too much for a spray amount. I'm going to try to find a dog kennel to put her in I hate to do that because of lack of space in my room but I really don't think I have any other choice here. I wish I could find someone that would take her temporarily so I can figure out if it is truly behavioral or if it's something else.

I feel your pain. I really, really do. It is so frustrating that I considered having Mollie euthanized. As i believe so strongly in a no-kill world, I know that I would feel the ramifications of that act forever. BUT, I wanted to do it. :(

I went to a mattress store and bought 100% moisture protectors. 100%. I bought the king sized and cut them up to put them in favorite pee spots and I would use them on my bed, pinned with baby pins, all the time. Didn't cut down on the peeing BUT it saved my sanity by not having to wash the world every day.

Then, I put two cats on Prozac. I fought it long and hard, but finally did it. Mollie was ONE of my pee'rs, but I had two others doing it in reaction to Mollie. This drastically cut down on my peeing situation, but by no means did it eliminate it. I would clean up 3 -4 times daily poop and pee in my kitchen. Thankfully, it was on linoleum, but still.

I think it is possible you have a cat with both medical AND behavioural issues. I have a cat that had the PU surgery. And, I still have a cat with frequent UTIs, possibly brought on by stress. Those are issues that need to be addressed, as in no way is it fair to 'blame' a cat for peeing outside the box in those conditions. They are cats, not humans that can reason, "yeah, it hurts when I pee, but I still pee in the toilet". Rarely, do stones seem to cause female cats problems. So, that is something you must figure out.

As to crating her, that HAS worked in retraining her. Does she EVER go in the box? That would be helpful to know. Does she dislike some cats? I swore by the plug-ins for a while....my mom uses some holistic cat treats that have something in them.

Bottom line- it is cat pee. It isn't the end of the world, even if it feels like it.

Edited, as I re-read your initial post. What about putting some of the other cats on Prozac? That actually worked for me. I never had Mollie (who is spay incontinent/leaks) on Prozac. I put my two other cats on it, and it calmed THEM down, which in turn, calmed Mollie down.

Cataholic had some great ideas...calming the other cats down.

The only other thing I can think of is seeing if your ex will take her, or knows someone who will. Whatever else happened - he does care about the cats.

I have waterproof mattress pads, well now just 1 because the other one got destroyed in the washing machine. Now I have started to put puppy pads down on the bed because I don't know what else to do to get her to try to to stop spraying the walls or peeing on my bed.

Since doing the puppy pads this week she hasn't had any peeing on the bed that I've noticed but once I removed them I watch her very carefully.

The vet recommended that I take her off the Prozac since it wasn't making a difference in her and to try to back off the pain meds since he believes it's behavorial and not medical.

I've cut down on her pain meds and so far she's sprayed I know that, I don't know how many times in a day she does that. But my mom helped clean my room and helped spray the walls, etc. and I think that helped.

I'm keeping a close eye on her and I started feeding her Purina Pro Plan Urinary Tract For Cats. So far everyone at the house seems to like it. I think though Cleo needs some type of anixety drug to relax her and keep her calm and I will check about getting Ashley on some prozac or something as well because she gets worked up when Cleo is not even near her at times.

Cleo will use the box, now this morning I could tell she wanted to spray so I kinda followed her and watched her to see what she was doing. She finally laid down after I kept tell her no when she would go and try to spray. She knows that's not a good thing. She does use the litter box for peeing and I'm starting to wondering now since she hasn't peed on my bed since either Sunday or Monday if it was the pain meds causing her more trouble than good.

I did check with my ex to see if he would take her and he said no. I do feel that because we are all in one room that it's hard to get along but I do remember last July when I was in the apartment with all four cats that Cleo would chase Ashley. She does tend to chase my Claudia and she is 12 years old. I haven't seen her chase Athena which is about the only cat she seems to get along with. This is why I wonder at times if she were the only cat or had only one other cat in a house how she would react vs being with 3 other cats.

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Originally Posted by Cataholic

I feel your pain. I really, really do. It is so frustrating that I considered having Mollie euthanized. As i believe so strongly in a no-kill world, I know that I would feel the ramifications of that act forever. BUT, I wanted to do it. :(

I went to a mattress store and bought 100% moisture protectors. 100%. I bought the king sized and cut them up to put them in favorite pee spots and I would use them on my bed, pinned with baby pins, all the time. Didn't cut down on the peeing BUT it saved my sanity by not having to wash the world every day.

Then, I put two cats on Prozac. I fought it long and hard, but finally did it. Mollie was ONE of my pee'rs, but I had two others doing it in reaction to Mollie. This drastically cut down on my peeing situation, but by no means did it eliminate it. I would clean up 3 -4 times daily poop and pee in my kitchen. Thankfully, it was on linoleum, but still.

I think it is possible you have a cat with both medical AND behavioural issues. I have a cat that had the PU surgery. And, I still have a cat with frequent UTIs, possibly brought on by stress. Those are issues that need to be addressed, as in no way is it fair to 'blame' a cat for peeing outside the box in those conditions. They are cats, not humans that can reason, "yeah, it hurts when I pee, but I still pee in the toilet". Rarely, do stones seem to cause female cats problems. So, that is something you must figure out.

As to crating her, that HAS worked in retraining her. Does she EVER go in the box? That would be helpful to know. Does she dislike some cats? I swore by the plug-ins for a while....my mom uses some holistic cat treats that have something in them.

Bottom line- it is cat pee. It isn't the end of the world, even if it feels like it.

Edited, as I re-read your initial post. What about putting some of the other cats on Prozac? That actually worked for me. I never had Mollie (who is spay incontinent/leaks) on Prozac. I put my two other cats on it, and it calmed THEM down, which in turn, calmed Mollie down.

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I'm sorry that Cleo is not doing well, and i feel your frustration. I've have kits that pee before too, but both were very sick.

Stress is a big factor. I know when i was fostering Bertie, my other cats reacted to her. I'ts not that they don't accept newcomers, but Bertie didn't like them. She growled all the time at the crew, and they reacted. When Bertie was rehomed, the changed in mood was fantastic. Bertie was probably grumpy because she had been declawed (not by me.) And she wanted to be the only cat.

I hope you can find a solution from the many presented.

PS, have you ever tried to go grain free.? I read that you use Hill's. Does Hill's even carry a grain free? Most has corn in it, from what I've read. on occasion I've read the ingredient list while shopping.

Well as some of you know my Cleo wasn't doing very well and I had her at the vets on Aug. 6th and she dropped 1 pound since June 2014 vet visit.

The 2 weeks prior to that I noticed that she was laying around more and as I posted though she was acting like herself with spraying. She started to come and sleep with me again, which she hasn't done in a while and she would sleep on my chest like mom I don't feel well.

They did a whole bunch of blood work and other than her testing positive for the corona virus (which the vet said a lot of cats do test positive and it doesn't mean that they have it) everything else is really good. Her fur looked terrible but she was cleaning herself. I had to put the food in front of her to get her to eat, although she did eat one time on her own. I tried to get her to move around but she wouldn't and her temperature was elevated on Aug. 6th and again on Aug. 13th.

She has now since Sunday Aug. 17th has had a normal temperature. The vet feels that the whole episode has been due to her coming off the Buprenex and having a withdrawal from it even though I slowly took her off of it like the vet recommended.

They performed an ultrasound on Tuesday Aug. 12th and everything looked normal except they did mention that her liver was a little small but I spoke with the vet on Monday about it and just to confirm we didn't need to anymore tests since she was improving and the vet agreed and said that just be sure to keep checking her incase she relaps or something and this happens again. But of course now this morning I caught her SPRAYING again......I'm really really not happy about it. Last week I thought I was going to lose her....and now this.

The vet did do an x-ray and nothing was seen. They did a heart test and her heart is great too. The weird thing is she had a fever on Aug. 13 of 103.4....and even the vet said she didn't think a withdrawal could cause a fever though....so we'll see but if anyone has any suggestions about spraying.....or helping her with that let me know.

I've done all I can think of between putting lavender scented sticks in my room....Feliaway plug ins.....Feliaway spray.....Nothing works. I honestly hate to cage her to be honest.....and well I don't have the money for that big of a cage right now that I'd get her but I'm getting a little fed up and when I move out of my parents place I can't have a cat spraying.

Hi there.

When you do move out of your parents' place, maybe the spraying will stop, especially if it is stress-related.

Again, Medusa (Mary) on here swears by Clomicalm. I think two of her cats are on it, and it works wonderfully. Maybe PM her about it.

Well I'm not sure what's happening with Cleo this morning but she didn't come down and eat her food like she did yesterday. So now I'm back to being concerned about her......I don't know really know if she is feeling back to herself I thought so but this morning has me worried....I took her temperature and she was at 101.5 and that's good but she just laid and didn't move like she did Monday morning for me.

I have found someone that will put her in a bathroom and she won't be around other cats.....I will PM Mary about the Clomicalm and see. I don't know when I can move out probably not till late next year I'll have enough funds saved up etc.

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Originally Posted by Catty1

Hi there.

When you do move out of your parents' place, maybe the spraying will stop, especially if it is stress-related.

Again, Medusa (Mary) on here swears by Clomicalm. I think two of her cats are on it, and it works wonderfully. Maybe PM her about it.

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I hope she does well in the bathroom situation. Is there something with your scent on it that can go with her? I hope you can visit her fairly frequently, and that she gets lovies from the other person. Maybe this person could come over and meet her first?

Good luck!