huge howling problem (bit of a long post)

alright, so a bit of history on my strange little kitty first.

Either he's inbred, or there's some medical issues with him, we know this for a fact as when we went to get him neutered they had issues. Neither testicle had dropped so they had to go exploring, they found one but really couldn't find the other. They searched around for a long time and eventually found what they thought was the other. Turned out it was an inactive kidney they took out instead. Also, his gall bladder was in the wrong spot, his kidney (obviously) and two other organs that i forget at this point.

Since then, his other testicle appears to have dropped, and is working fine, we have yet to scrape up the moula to get the job finished though.

it's suspected he has feline herpes as one eye is almost always leaky, (usually his right but sometimes it switches) though he hasn't had a big nasty break out in awhile. When he does have a breakout (goes really red, looks like he's bleeding from his eye) we have a cream for his eye and that clears it up pretty quickly.

We have no idea what kind of cat he is, he's white whit a few black spots but i'm sure that doesn't help (40 dollar pet store kinda cat).

Finally, just recently we did a big move with him. We were living in toronto and drove with him to Vancouver, for those who don't know that's just under 5000 km. He was completley fine the whole trip, slept through most of it, barely said a peep, no problems what so ever!

Now that we're in Vancouver he was fine for a little while, and we had planned to make him an indoor/outdoor kitty, we knew it woudl take a little work as he's scared of his own shadow (literally) but after three tries we got him really comfortable to where he was leading us on the leash instead of shaking in a corner somewhere.

This is where the problem developed. Ever since that night that he did really well outside, he's developed this howl. He howls and howls and howls and howls and I'm starting to go a little crazy (he's doing it as I type here). It's somewhat controllable during the day, but at night he's keeping me awake and I don't know how much longer I can survive here (literally, i'm a carpenter and I misfired my gun this week as I was half asleep, nail ricocheted and took a chunk out of my arm). In order to work safely i really need to have my sleep.

I'm kind of at my wits end here, and really don't know what to do. I've tried everything from teh "ssshh" and "Ch" noises to a squirt bottle. This is the fifth cat i've had over the years and i've never experienced anything like this before. My girlfriend had a cat that did the same thing and after 2 years of it they had to put her down.

The final thing here is it's slightly embarassing as well, we live in an appartment building, it's a small one with only 7 units, and the walls are a touch on the thin side and I don't know how long it's going to be until I start getting nasty looks from neighbours (fortunately the unit right next to us is vacant at the moment)

I thought i'd try a forum before i took him to the vet for recommendations

Is your cat a) neutered? b) alone all day with nothing to do? c) allowed out or not on his own - which is NOT recommended BTW. Does he get played with a lot, with interactive toys? Does he have a cat tree to climb and be king of the condo on? Was there another cat in T.O. that he misses? If that's the case, would you consider getting another to keep him company? Lots of Q's I know, and maybe none are relevant. It does sound like you're trying hard to deal with things, but more info. would help here.

If he has a testicle left then he still has tomcat hormones and will spend all night calling for a mate - he wants to let all the ladycats know where he is and that he's available.

Once you get that other testicle removed, this behaviour should stop - the hormones take about a month to get out of his system after the surgery. If you value your sleep, take him in to have that other testicle removed ASAP!

Larke, as stated above, the cat is half neutered and used to go out supervised and now no longer does, please finish reading the post before replying, thanks.

Epona, thanks a lot, that's what i suspected but what was afraid of. From physically checking, the other testicle never dropped, which means it likely didn't move from our last consult with teh vet and will be equally difficult to find if they try the surgery again and they may not be able to find it. But thank you for the confirmation and appreciate the time you took to read and reply.

cheers
Rudie

Ahhhh sounds as if it could be a tricky one to fix if it's still not dropped and not easy to find. I wonder if they could use ultrasound or something like that to locate it so they know where to operate, it can be difficult if it's not where it should be. I do sympathise, my 2 boys were both neutered ok at 6 months but they both matured quite young and started to exhibit some hormonal behaviour before neutering - I do hope that the vet is able to sort him out for you

Agreed with Epona. Let the new vet know that this is going to be an issue. The previous vet had to get surprised while in surgery, but this one will have some forewarning, so they might be able to handle it. In most cases, this will stop the howling. (If not, post back a couple months after the surgery...)

BTW, feline ocular herpes is actually very common. The vast majority of cats have it, and the symptoms tend to show when the cat is under stress. One of our cats has it, and he currently has nasty stuff coming out of both eyes. (Our vet suspects that this is related to some current food issues we have going on...)

Epona: the previous vet had mentioned an ultrasound, she also mentioned the 900 dollar price tag that came with it. Anyways, i'll definately have him checked out at teh vet soon

babushnik: yeah the vet was pretty surprised i got a message on my phone that was something along the lines of

"Hi there, this is Dr so and so from the vet's office, i'd like you to call me back concerning Jersey (awkward pause) he's a strange kitty"

that's what she said about the herpes as well (though it's still strange to hear your cat got herpes heh) and so far he jsut has a regular leaky eye, hasn't had a bad flare up since we took him in to teh vet the first time.

thanks again for the help guys, much appreciated.

cheers
rudie

Originally Posted by Rudie

Epona: the previous vet had mentioned an ultrasound, she also mentioned the 900 dollar price tag that came with it.

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If I typed the first thought that came into my head upon reading that price I'd be banned for using inappropriate language that is out of the financial range of most of us I'm sure! Suggesting earplugs in the meantime probably isn't very helpful

Originally Posted by Rudie

thanks again for the help guys, much appreciated.

Click to expand...

No worries

I just wanted to mention a few things...
I agree that if he still has a testicle, it would cause him to howl all night.

Before my cat had serious health problems, I kinda thought a vet was a vet. Now I know that price and skill level vary wildly. $900 for an ultrasound is very high - I only pay $90. So shop around!
Second a mention about the herpes - you can keep his eyes clear by adding Lysine to his food - ask your vet about it. It is cheap and harmless with no overdose worry, but it binds to the herpes virus and keeps levels low.

Take Care,
Jen