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One Kitty Being Shunned by the Others
by Teresa
Potter & Weasley
About 1 1/2 months ago, we began noticing our littlest baby, Potter (2 1/2 yrs old - boy) was hiding from us and the other cats (3 of them, 1 boy 6 yrs, 2 girls, 4 yrs - only the 2 girls are from the same litter). We were having some work done in the house, so we thought perhaps this is part of the getting used to the change thing we all go through. Unfortunately, it continued for several weeks and got worse when Potter decided our bed was his new litterbox. We took him straight to the vet. We were told he had a lower urinary tract disease...crystals forming from not eating the better food brands. He stayed at the hospital for 2 days getting flushed out. The doctor said the others would no longer treat him differently now that he was all better and that he would go back to the litterbox and no longer explode in our bed. Well - Potter went back into hiding under my son's bed this time. It was aweful to get him out for his med's...and we swore he was not going to that litterbox. One good thing, he came out for food and water - his new diet right from the doctor's office. My son was at his father's that week. He returned to inform me that Potter was having no problem excreting. Unfortunately, he was using my son's closet as the litterbox. We've now given him his own bed, dishes & his own litterbox in the bathroom. I've put a call into the doctor with my concerns...no return call yet. I'll try again Monday morning. My Mom found this site, and I was excited to have someone else to ask about this. We also have a dog - Mini Poodle - 2yrs old - boy. He and Potter were best buds before this happened. I let him visit Potter in the bathroom to play for a little while, and he cries when it's time to come out. Potter is fine when we visit him in there as well...but I'd like my baby to have freedom and not be scared, and we'd like to enjoy him outside of the bathroom. Any advice? Thank you very much! I certainly understand what you're going through. The answer is complicated. We may have to write back and forth a bit before you can resolve the problem. There are medical and behavioral issues involved in this problem. You have to address both. First, I'll go over what happened from a behavioral standpoint. You were doing work to your house which is always stressful to a cat. Potter may have starting out hiding because of the chaos and then developed a urinary tract infection from stress. Of course, he could have started hiding because he had a urinary tract infection. You can't know which. At any rate, he urinated on the bed most likely due to the urinary tract infection. Cats hide when they're scared and they hide when they're sick. Also, other cats in a household will sense a cat is sick and they will even sense a cat is scared and shut him out for either reason and may even become aggressive to the scared or sick one. Sticking for a moment just with the behavioral aspects, a cat that is hospitalized and then comes home to other cats smells differently. The cats at home will, more than ever, find him to be "different" and may be fearful or cold to him. Continuing to look at everything that has been stressful to Potter, certainly the stay at the hospital has to be included. Then when he's home, the cats treat him like a stranger, someone is pushing medicine into him, and quite possibly, he still doesn't feel well physically so he's back to hiding. He either doesn't use the litter box because he's stressed and scared or because he still has a urinary problem or both. Regarding the medical side of things, I need more information: I need to know if Potter had a urinary obstruction where he couldn't urinate at all and had to have a catheter passed to relieve it. The reason I ask is because you mentioned them flushing him and his staying in the hospital for a couple of days and that usually occurs when there is an obstruction. Do you know what type of crystals they found? What food are you feeding him? What medications did he go home on? What discharge instructions were you given? What diagnostics were done at the vet's? Did they do bloodwork? x-rays? ultrasound? urinalysis, I assume? anything else? Is he urinating a normal amount each time he urinates now or is he producing small amounts but frequently? I'll wait to hear from you. Thank you, Dr. Neely
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