My older cat, Abby is 16. She is been raised with another cat who passed away of renal failure in January. She seemed lonely after he died, but we waited a few months before jumping into adopting another cat. They would play together once in a while, but mostly stayed in their own "territories." They shared litterboxes, food & water with no problems.
A week ago we made the jump and adopted a 6 month old kitten. She has primarily been secluded in a bathroom (gets to play in the basement while we are home, away from other cat). Hubby did let new kitty upstairs on Sunday to play and Abby saw her. There wasn't much hissing, but she ran upstairs and watched the new one play. Since then, they haven't seen each other. I do have Abby eat her soft food downstairs (which does change from eating upstairs) so she adjusts to the new cat.
Sunday afternoon, I had some plastic bags on the kitchen floor and she peed on them. Then she did the same sometime during the night/early morning today (on a plastic bag by the back door/kitchen). She is using the litter box inbetween these episodes. Should I run her to the vet to be checked? I think it is more behavioral since it just recently started. Maybe she isn't dealing with the stress so well with the new cat. I don't want to lock her up (she would be in the basement...where the kitten stays during the day in a separate room), but it may come down to that if needed. I read about the Feliway and Rescue Remedy, would one work better than the other in this case? How long should we give this? It has been a long time since we introduced cats (last time was when she was introduced to the cat that just recently died...14 years ago). I am worried that we should have just left her as an "only" cat
A week ago we made the jump and adopted a 6 month old kitten. She has primarily been secluded in a bathroom (gets to play in the basement while we are home, away from other cat). Hubby did let new kitty upstairs on Sunday to play and Abby saw her. There wasn't much hissing, but she ran upstairs and watched the new one play. Since then, they haven't seen each other. I do have Abby eat her soft food downstairs (which does change from eating upstairs) so she adjusts to the new cat.
Sunday afternoon, I had some plastic bags on the kitchen floor and she peed on them. Then she did the same sometime during the night/early morning today (on a plastic bag by the back door/kitchen). She is using the litter box inbetween these episodes. Should I run her to the vet to be checked? I think it is more behavioral since it just recently started. Maybe she isn't dealing with the stress so well with the new cat. I don't want to lock her up (she would be in the basement...where the kitten stays during the day in a separate room), but it may come down to that if needed. I read about the Feliway and Rescue Remedy, would one work better than the other in this case? How long should we give this? It has been a long time since we introduced cats (last time was when she was introduced to the cat that just recently died...14 years ago). I am worried that we should have just left her as an "only" cat
