Signs of anxiety

HI!
I have 2 cats, Pollyanna (5 1/2 years) and Feykirofa (allmost 3 years).
Pollyanna is the dominant cat and Feykirofa accepts her power completely. They are good friends and sometimes eat from the same bowl at the same time, but if Feykirofa is sitting or sleeping in a spot that Pollyanna "owns" or fancies at the time, Feykirofa is knocked of and goes to find another place.
Pollyanna is very quiet but affectionate, and very clever, but Feykirofa is more vocal and also affectionate but in a more jumping, walking accross you way, seeking for strokes and play. She also complanes quite a lot about never ever getting anything to eat, to her opinion! We, the humans have to fight for our food, wheater we are eating fish, bread or a cucumber, Feykirofa will eat it if the gets her paw on it.

I´m getting to the problem...
Pollyanna has always been rather ill. Last November we finally took her to have surgery to remove her anal glands, since they always got clogged up, and we sometimes had to take her to the wet once a month to get them emptied. Sometime after that surgery we had her checked again, because she had big lumps under her nipples, and acording to the wet, felt like cancer tumors. Between the checkup and the cancer surgery the lumps had changed so much, that the wet thought it rather to be swollen milk glands and swelling on the ovaries, as side effects from the pill. She stopped taking the pill and some lumps have gone and other allmost gome, but the "side effects" from not taking the pill is what I think is now causing the problem. She has now gone into heat twice, crying for days to be let out to meet a male companion. (They both go out, except Pollyanna these few days when she is on heat).
This new behavior, the crying, is what I think is stressing Feykirofa out. When Pollyanna is on heat, Feykirofa is very quiet (very unusual), hides being or under furniture and keeps an eye on Pollyanna. And the main problem is, that she has started to uninate on the bath mat or anything that happens to be on the bathroom floor. When we had to move out last year for some months I found out that she really gets nervous when her normal life gets interrupted, and then is the only time she has had any toilet problems.
Does anyone have any idea of what I can to to make her feel better and more secure????

That´s it for now,
Greetings, Sesselja =^..^=

If it is stress related, the only thing really is to reduce the stress by eliminating the cause. Is there no way to have surgery to get them spayed? That I am sure it would help both of them. You can also make sure she does not have acess to the bathroom (hopefully she does not find another spot). Try putting a litter box in the bathroom for her. Also, you can try giving her some Dr Bachs rescue remedy on a regular basis again. There is another product that works well too, but it's in a pill form. It's called Be Calm.

Where can this BeCalm pill be found? I got some Bach for my older cat (11yrs) but doesn't seem to help. Im thinking of giving it to my little one (8mths). She is soooo hyper, maybe if I can calm her down she won't mess with Cloey as much.

thanks
Cathy

What a hassle...good luck with it, and I agree that spaying is a good start in solving the problems.

Hi!
For a few days now, things have been going well, I have given them Dr. Bachs Rescue Remedy and I have also not been letting Feykirofa get unattended into the bathroom (she likes that room though, for some reason the water on the shower floor always tastes better than the water from a bowl...)
I know that gettting them spayed would be a good thing, but thats where I have a bit of dilemma. I want to let Pollyanna have kittens once, and I do admit that is just for me, not for her, and I want to keep one of the kittens. After that I will let her get spayed. The problem is just that now is not a good time for all that, having a litter, and adding the third cat to the household and that even being a small kitten. The thing is, that I am expecting a baby myself, and if its possible, I would like to pospone the kitten thing untill the baby is at least a few months old, preferrably one year old. If Pollyanna would get pregnant, thats OK, but I would like to try to controll it for a while, if I can.
I am also curious where to get the Be Calm pills. Would that be from the wet, or is this for everyone, like Dr. Bachs remedies? Dr. Bachs remedies only recently made their way to Iceland, so maybe Be Calm pills are not to be found here yet.

Sesselja =^..^=

Well, the Dr Bachs and the Be Calm you can get at most health and nutrition stores. I am not sure what they have in Iceland but here, the most popular seems to be GNC. The Be Calm is a pill. For cats you give them half a tablet. They are fairly large, so I cut them into quarters.
As for the spaying. If you are really set on doing this, please pay close attention to her. Cats who continually go into heat and are not bred, can get a serious uterine infection. If you dont catch it in time, it can mean death and if you do, it means immediate spay. It really may be better to let her get spayed and when the time is right, adopt a young kitten to add to the family. Trust me, mother cats, once the kittens are old enough, treat them as if they were total strangers

Thanks for your advices. Actually now I´m even more puzzled, since I didnt know about the uterine infection. Do you know how the signs are??? Do you know what is considered to be a long period of time of going into heat and not beeing bred?
As I said, the kitten thing is more for me than it vould be for her. I would like to try this experience having a litter in the house and watching the growing up of the kittens, and then combine that experience and keeping one of her kittens, since she is clever, affectionate, friendly and beautyful. But I wouldnt want to risk her healt, which is why I took her of the pill. What a dilemma!
Sesselja

They are usually at high risk once they hit a year old. The first signs would be odor, discharge and possible blood. What happens is that when they go into heat, thier uterus opens and if it gets infected, when it closes there is nowhere to drain and just keeps getting worse. Then they will stop eating and drinking as well as run a high fever. If the Uterus bursts, it's all over.
I really don't know what other advice to give you. I am not real fond of the idea on breeding domestic cats. I am not sure of the situation there, but here there are so many unwanted strays already, that it seems senseless to add to the #. It also takes away from the # being rescued out of a pound. If it's the same there, maybe you can get in touch with a local rescue and ask to foster a mom kitty. This way the kittens will be born in your house and I am sure you will get to pick one to keep. I know here, there's plenty of homeless kittys that were thrown out and left to get pregnant. The rescue I volunteer with has pregnant strays come in all the time.

Just speaking from experience. If you are expecting your first child I would most definetly hold off on the litter. Having a "real" baby is alot of care and you don't want to have to be taking care of a litter of kittens at the same time. Also, some mother cats get very protective when pregnant and afterward so that would not be a good idea with a baby (as they don't know any better and very curious). My daughter is 31/2 now and we got a kitten in July and I wish I would have waited a little longer as she was always picking her up by her neck or tail or paw or whatever she could get her hand around. My other two cats were already big when Nicole was born. (lost one of them a year later at 17yrs old).

Good luck.

Cathy

Cathy, that is also what I had been thinking, I would not want to be taking care of a small child and a litter at the same time (This is my first child). Also, as you say, children are curious and would treat the kitten like any other soft toy, and kittens are also curious and stupid and while the child is to small to protect itself, you cant really trust the kitten.
Sesselja