Longest 3 months ever with constant feline problems out of the blue

I’m exhausted. It’s been a very, very long week and I’m still very sad.

It all started in October when my two cats, Seffie (the big, black one) and Po (the younger gray stripey one) developed a bad virus. Po got it so bad that I had to take her to the emergency vet because she wasn’t eating and was having a hard time breathing when she coughed. Cough medicine eased her breathing and antibiotics prevented a secondary infection. They seemed all right once they got better.

A few weeks later, Seffie began visiting the litter box several times every couple of minutes with little to no success and I had to take her to the emergency vet twice for antibiotics and pain medication. When the antibiotics were done, she seemed much better.

This past weekend, we got a Christmas tree in celebration. I didn’t have much Christmas spirit last year and refused to decorate, so this was a move in the right direction. While setting it up, my Seffie grabbed a piece of string and swallowed it whole. ANOTHER trip to the emergency vet and no luck in vomiting it up, so it was just a worrisome waiting game. On the third day of waiting, I came home to a puke pile of the string and a number of Christmas tree needles. I was ecstatic and thought we could finally enjoy the season.

Wrong. The next day, I get home ready to be happy when I smelled cat urine. An investigation turned up a pee spot on the carpet in the litter room; somebody wasn’t using the box. I cleaned it and Seffie was the first to come into the room to sniff around, so I immediately thought it was her and gave her a pain pill. Twenty minutes later, it is clear that Seffie is hallucinating. I call the vet and they say it will wear off just fine and that she probably just didn’t need it because she’s not in pain at all. While monitoring Seffie’s crazy antics, I catch Po trying to pee on the carpet and know I was incorrect, so I bundle her up and take her to the emergency vet AGAIN.

Urinalysis shows that Po has a Urinary Tract Infection and she’s given two shots and a 5 day course of amoxicillin. The emergency vet, the nicest vet tech at her regular vet’s office and my dad (who is not a vet, but who has had cats with urinary problems several times in his life) told me to switch them to Purina One Urinary health dry and some special diet wet food and, luckily, they like them.

For now while I’m at work or throughout most of the night, I’ve been closing Po in an emptied bathroom with water, a little food and a litter box and she seems to be responding well because she’s actually using the box. I’m hesitant to give her the run of the house for too long because I’m deathly afraid of her peeing on the carpet again; it wasn’t so bad in our rental house, but this is our new house and I don’t want her ruining the carpets that my boyfriend bought. L In the bathroom, she’s not once peed on the tile, but I’m so afraid to let her around the house for too long.

I did, however, let her out last night for a few hours and when I checked her litterbox in the bathroom (that I’d left open), she had peed in the box. That sounds slightly promising, right?

Is this just coincidence and bad luck that all this happened over the course of 3 months? I am now severely depressed and keep coming back to the thought that I’m doing something horribly wrong for them to keep getting sick in succession like this. L

Wait...I just realized something. I was giving my Seffie up to a 1000 mg a day of Lysine for her virus and then she got a UTI. When Po was recovering, I did the same and now she's got one. 

Is this a coincidence? Or could there be a correlation between the Lysine and UTIs?

No...... No correlation...... But if you are giving them dry food, stop. Feed them wet food only.
Also, please, please make SURE your vet gives them NO Metacam - Those shots in the ER were of what? Do you know?
Pain meds are important - Buprenex - NO Metacam.
Have the vet run a culture of the urine to find out exactly what bacteria is in it, so he/she can prescribe the correct antibiotic.
If there isn't bacteria, no antibiotc is necessary.......
Lots of moisture in the food..... Make sure it is meat based, and keep the envrionment at a lower stress.

Unfortunately, it just seems that everything happens at once.....

One of the shots was an antibiotic and the other was an anti-inflammatory. I just called them and they said it definitely wasn't metacam; it was a derivative of dexi-something or other. 

She's currently on a five day course of amoxicillin and both vets (the ER and her regular vet) didn't think she'd need the pain meds, especially now that it seems she's using the box pretty regularly even if she is locked in there with it. The tech at the regular vet said to watch her all weekend and if she doesn't pee on the floor, don't worry about the pain meds. If she does, then they'll give me a refill of the anti-inflammatory on Monday. 

As for the food, he said the least amount of dry the better, especially since they're a bit overweight, but don't stress them by removing it completely. I've got it down to some set out at night of the Purina One Urinary Health dry and that's it. Their wet food as of last night will now be ONLY Friskies Special Diet. I also just talked to a vet tech whose 4 cats (male and female) are on a dry-only diet and have no problems whatsoever. He did say that if one of them developed a problem like this, then he would start feeding them wet food; diff'rent strokes for diff'rent furry folks. :-)

Yeah...with the other illnesses and the string incident, I've been severely highstrung and depressed, which I'm sure is stressing the cats out. I also know that Po was VERY jealous of the extra attention I gave Seffie over the string incident and she was probably pretty stressed too. 

I refilled their Feliway diffusers and that's starting to calm them down some. Now I just need to calm down, but I can't stop crying and my heart is beating so very, very quickly...I had a panic attack the other day because of all this. :-(

P.S. Because of the hours of the regular vet, all these vet visits have been to the emergency clinic, and I've racked up almost $1000 on my Care Credit card since October. My limit is only $1400. I've also shelled out well over $300 on special foods, cleaners, calmers, etc. since the start of this. I'm drained monetarily, physically, mentally and spiritually. I feel absolutely awful. Will it ever get better?!

It seems as though there's been a lot of stress in your life and their life recently.  Even if you don't think you're stressed your kitties can pick up on it. Even the tree can be a stressor because it's different.  I'm so glad you got a feliway diffuser and it's going as that will help immensely.  Too bad they don't make one for humans! 
 

Keep us posted on what you find out.  Those diffusers are fantastic. 
 

I don't know how your kitties got a virus to begin with, usually one is a carrier and will get an episode of the virus when stressed out, and can transmit to other cats. Did anything stress one of them in October? Or were they exposed to another cat or cat's toys (etc.)?

It would not be uncommon for them to get a urinary tract infection with a lowered immune system. I agree with Carolina, be careful on allowing antibiotic shots ie convenia; or metacam, neither is specifically approved for cats.

With the peeing, it is important to remove all traces of smell and keep them from the area. Cats will pee out of the box for a reason like illness and later when they are better they will forget why they did that in the first place but will keep going back to the pee spot just because they smell it and out of habit. You can buy a product called scaat on amazon and it will emit a hiss noise when a cat comes in range of a sensor. You can put loose sheets of aluminum foil where the pee was, cats don't like it, or use those plastic carpet runners upside down ,the ones that have the spikes on the backside.
I would consider removing the tree or just use the sensor scaat product in the tree area. I know you said your cat had an infection but I've found that my kitties confuse the tree with outside and one of them marks it.

If you are going to feed a special urinary wet food, pick something other than Friskies. Look at the ingredients.. YUCK! Meat by-products, artificial flavors, soy flour, salt and color (doesn't even say what kind!)

The vet tech has some time bombs on his hands. If he knows what to do to defuse them, why would he wait until they've already gone off?



And don't worry.. things will get better.

Thanks for the kind words and vibes. I've got Nature's Miracle stinking up the closed off litter room and three litterboxes going down my hallway, like a cat public restroom. My Po has been using the box in the guest bathroom, which is where I shut her into for the first two days of her problem, and now she's happily roaming the house. I'm happy, but nervous that something will come along to kill what joy I'm getting out of this. The fact that she's using the boxes and seems playful is a good sign, right?

As for the tree, they love it. They just sit under it and watch everything. Po also uses it as her own private forest to stalk everyone going by.

On a side note...Nature's Miracle smells worse as it dries, right?

Oh, and what other urinary health wet foods are there? I got them some of those small Purina Pro Plan cans, but those only came in one flavor at my Petsmart...

You should ideally give them grain free wet food, the fancy feast classic type is good and affordable. I don't know urinary health but less grain is always better, like what the other poster said...

you can freshen the smell of the carpet by putting baking soda on the area and letting it penetrate and then vacuum , it is a great overall smell remover

signorinasirena said:

Thanks for the kind words and vibes. I've got Nature's Miracle stinking up the closed off litter room and three litterboxes going down my hallway, like a cat public restroom. My Po has been using the box in the guest bathroom, which is where I shut her into for the first two days of her problem, and now she's happily roaming the house. I'm happy, but nervous that something will come along to kill what joy I'm getting out of this. The fact that she's using the boxes and seems playful is a good sign, right?

As for the tree, they love it. They just sit under it and watch everything. Po also uses it as her own private forest to stalk everyone going by.

On a side note...Nature's Miracle smells worse as it dries, right?

Oh, and what other urinary health wet foods are there? I got them some of those small Purina Pro Plan cans, but those only came in one flavor at my Petsmart...

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Strange that the Nature's Miracle is smelling weird for you. I use it, and I mean, yea it smells like cleaner, but not bad and definitely not worse as it dries.

I'm not sure what other urinary canned foods their are as I didn't switch for my cat, but I'm sure a quick Google search would fix that. (I'm on a tablet, otherwise I'd link you.)

Originally posted by  signorinasirena:

I refilled their Feliway diffusers and that's starting to calm them down some. Now I just need to calm down, but I can't stop crying and my heart is beating so very, very quickly...I had a panic attack the other day because of all this. :-(

P.S. Because of the hours of the regular vet, all these vet visits have been to the emergency clinic, and I've racked up almost $1000 on my Care Credit card since October. My limit is only $1400. I've also shelled out well over $300 on special foods, cleaners, calmers, etc. since the start of this. I'm drained monetarily, physically, mentally and spiritually. I feel absolutely awful. Will it ever get better?!

Click to expand...

Signorinasirena, I just want you to know that I know how you are feeling.... I adopted my kittens in July after having to put my older kitty to sleep.  After we got them,  we found that they had tapeworm, roundworms, fleas, giardia, ringworm, and URI's-  after many vet visits, $, and meds, they have been healthy and great for the last couple months .About a month ago after a very stressful day at work, my car's radiator cracked and I had to have it towed to the shop. When I finally got home I discovered that my kitties had found a pack of dog/cat supplements that had come as a free sample with something else, and had eaten the entire pack.  I freaked out all night trying to find out if they had OD'd on anything and if they were going to be ok (they were fine).  I've been broke ever since fixing my car, still trying to catch up moneywise, and stressed out. Then yesterday, I had to take one kitty to the vet because he has a UTI, then, on the way to an appointment that I had to cancel once before because of my car's radiator, I got a flat tire that was un-repairable.  And it was pouring rain.  My car has no spare tire because it's tiny and there's nowhere to put one. My fiance brought me his car and I made it to the appointment but 30 mins late.  When I got done there, I had to drive the hour back to town,  get to the vet to pick up my kitty before they closed, and then get my car towed AGAIN, to the tire shop.  My fiance paid the vet and for the new tire because I'm broke. His birthday's coming up Tuesday and I can't buy him anything.  I have been sooo stressed lately and crying, and worried, I think my little one picked up on it and it contributed to his UTI.  When I get paid this week, I am investing in some Feliway diffusers for them.  And I am convinced that 2013 has got to be better!!!!  It will be for you too!

Sending   to you. I know how hard it is when things start getting overwhelming. Be sure to take care of yourself too - even if it's just listening to a favorite song, closing your eyes, and breathing deeply for a couple of minutes.