Cat with Anxiety

Hello!  We have an 11  year old neutered male cat named Ferdinand.  Ferdi has anxiety and is stressed out. We believe this is due to our toddler who just turned 2.  There have been a lot of changes for Ferdi with the addition of our second child over the last two years.  Ferdi is very high needs.  He requires lots of attention and love, which we do our best to give him.

Ferdi has started peeing in the hallway. 

We are working on a solution to Ferdi's issues with our vet.  We have ruled out medical problems through bloodwork and just took her a urine sample today.  He also has allergies but the main issue at this  moment is his stress.  We are going to try and work on that and then his allergies.  He is being switched to a new prescription food next week.

I was wondering/hoping someone on here might have experience with this and be able to give us some guidance, advice or just moral support.  This is difficult to deal with as cleaning up cat pee multiple times a day is not fun, but mostly we are worried that Ferdi is unhappy.  He is an important member of the family and we want him to be happy.  We are also concerned about how he is going to react when our dog Mojo dies.  Mojo has heart disease and only has a few months left.  Ferdi and Mojo love each other and we are worried that Ferdi will become even more depressed once Mojo passes.

Aww, poor Ferdi. My cat also gets stressed out from toddlers/young kids in general, but she's rarely around them, so it's manageable for us. I'm not sure how you would handle it when the exposure is constant. Maybe a safe room or area where the kids aren't allowed? You might also try a Feliway diffuser to help calm him.

I'm sorry to hear about Mojo. I know that animals can and will grieve, but since Mojo is ill maybe Ferdi can sense it and possibly be more prepared than you think? It's hard to know how much they understand, but they can sense illness I think.

Vibes and best wishes for your family. I'm sure with love and perseverance things will work out.

Thanks!   We do use Feliway per the vets instructions.  I have no idea if it is helping or not. *shrug*  There is no way to give him a room where our toddler can't get into some of the time.  We have a fairly small house.  Both of our cats have their food and litter boxes in the basement where our toddler does not go, but neither of them seem to like being down there for any length of time.
 

Talked to the vet yesterday and it looks like Ferdi does have sugar in his urine.  She believes he is in the process of becoming diabetic.  Not sure what that means treatment wise but I will be talking to her again soon. Anyone have experience with this?
 

Melly123 said:

Talked to the vet yesterday and it looks like Ferdi does have sugar in his urine.  She believes he is in the process of becoming diabetic.  Not sure what that means treatment wise but I will be talking to her again soon. Anyone have experience with this?
 

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I've had a diabetic cat for the past 10 yrs, so I do indeed have a fair amount of experience treating it. Not sure what your kitty eats now but if it isn't a good quality grain-free wet food, that will be the first thing to switch to. Kibble is the main cause of diabetes in cats and eliminating it (and possibly a low dose of insulin for a little while) often results in the diabetes going into remission. Lots of great info at these sites on how to deal with feline diabetes:

http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.felinediabetes.com/

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=felinediabetes

http://feline-nutrition.org/health/diabetes-and-obesity-preventable-epidemics

Thank you!  The vet does want to switch his food.  She suggested a wet prescription food but he doesn't like wet food so she has ordered a kibble.  He is also rather over weight and we are working on an exercise plan for him.  I am going to go through the links you sent.  Thanks again!