Elderly cat accidentaly left in room for 16 hours! :(

Hi all. I feel awful, and I am hoping my 17 year old cat will be ok. She snuck past me today and I ended up locking her in my room for 16 hours; no food, water or litter. I always make her a little tent on my couch with a quilt (she loves being there during the day). There was a lump in the blanket, so I figured she was in there. I can not describe the heart-wrenching feeling when I walked into my apartment to hear muffled cries

She yelled at me for about 10 min, had some water and food, and then used the litter box. I gave her her vitamins, and am going to be sleeping on the couch with her tonight.

Do you think she will be ok? Shes old, but in good health. Shes a tough old boot too. Last year she survived being poisoned by my old landlord Shes all I have in my life.

I honestly think she'll be okay. I mean obviously the situation wasn't great, but the biggest concern is just that she didn't have water (if she HAD to go to the bathroom bad enough she would have). So as long as she replenishes the water in her system I bet she'll be fine. You probably feel worse than she does because you're feelings guilty. Sometimes things happen.

Hi @Blixxa and welcome to TCS.

Does she have any underlying conditions?  If not then it sounds like she will be fine :-)

And can you explain the part about your landlord trying to poison her???  Was this intentional?

Thanks guys!!

StephenQ, my landlord put mouse poison on my patio, BESIDE the black safety box its supposed to go into. They didnt notifty me they were doing that, and were aware I had a cat. She came out behind me, and instantly went to the brick of poison. She ate a bit of it before I noticed she was in the corner eating it. I called the rental company, and they had no idea what it was they put on my patio (no container) and they didnt keep an MSDS for it.

They got ahold of the guy that put it out, and he said its not lethal. I took her to the vet anyway. The vet looked up the product and said it was very lethal to any small animal. They pumped her stomach, gave her meds, and she had to go back for 3 follow up blood tests (one of which showed that if I hadnt taken her when I did, she would have died). It was a stressfull 3 weeks. The landlord said they werent at fault and because I have a patio, not a balcony, and it leads to a public area, my cat should have been on a leash. I took pictures before they came to remove it to prove where it was. They put it all over the property where there are lots of pets and kids (they didnt seem to care what would happen if a kid ate it). Needless to say, I moved 2 months later.

How awful for you and your cat!!!  A cautionary tale that we can all learn from.  I;m sure we would both agree that your landlord should have paid your vet bills but i'm sure he didn't.  I'm glad you were able to move!