After PU surgery affecting other cats in household

[kittymama1991]

Hi everybody! I am new to this website and need some serious advice. I have three cats in total. One female who I rescued (Little Miss), I took her in not knowing that she was pregnant. The kittens all went to great homes, unfortunately except for one. About a year later after she had her babies, I got a phone call from a friend who said that one of her kittens had been abandoned due to the person getting evicted. I went to rescue him and had noticed that he was a feral cat of the neighborhood. He was in rough shape and must have been an outdoor only cat. He had fighting marks all over him with a gash on his face, that looked very infected. Also had prior frost bite on his ears! My heart melted that I let this wonderful baby go to such an awful person and I knew I had to get him to the vet asap. He (Junior) was well taken care of by the veterinarian and healed up very nicely. I also got him neutered. When I first initially brought Junior to my house, he had some behavioral issues. Peeing on the carpet mostly. I figured this was due to him mostly being a feral cat before. The behavior was corrected things have been great up until recently. I have since then rescued yet another cat. (Shrek) All the cats get along great and love to spend time cleaning each other and cuddling Shrek has recently had to have the PU surgery and can no longer have dry food. This is tough with two other cats who have always had food left out for them. My only conclusion I could come up with is putting the regular cat food in a closet with a door and open it and feed the two cats twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. I have also had to switch all the litter in the house to yesterdays news. Junior is having a very hard time adjusting to this. He has started peeing on the carpet outside of one of the litter boxes and right in front of the closet where I keep their dry food in. Does anyone have any suggestions? It's so frustrating that Junior has fallen back into old behaviors, and I understand cats don't like change but please HELP!

 

[susank521]

First I've got to say you are a cat angel!

I am so glad that you helped Little Miss and then found Junior again. How long has Junior been neutered and  indoors with you?

Junior is certainly making it very obvious that he doesn't like the change in litter or eating arrangements. Wouldn't it be best to eliminate the dry food completely, just feed them all canned food two or three times per day?  Maybe you could give a little dry food as a treat once per day. There are a lot of people on TCS that do just that (I'm not one of them, though

). Here's a link to info on transitioning from dry to timed meals: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals .

How long will Shrek have to use the special litter? Is this forever? Or just post-op? How long ago was his surgery? Is there some way that you could separate Shrek when you're not there? Just long enough (a week or two?) so that you can slowly introduce the new litter to Junior.

 

[kittymama1991]

Hi Susan, Thanks for all of your wonderful suggestions! I have had Junior indoors and neutered now for about three years now. Yes I do agree that switching all of them to wet food would more then likely be best. Shrek is on a grain free wet food. Do you think it would be best to put all of them on the same type of food? Thank you for the link you posted, I really appreciate it. Shrek had surgery two months ago and is to stay on the special litter for the remainder of his life. Separating them should not be an issue for when I am not home. I look forward to hearing from you again

 

[susank521]

It's encouraging that you've had Junior in for 3 years and this is the first time he's reverted. If you can transition Little Miss and Junior to the food Shrek is eating it sure would make your life (and all of theirs) easier and less stressful at meal time. Given how Junior is not overly fond of any kind of change to his routine, you may have a slow road ahead, unless, by some chance he happens to love Shrek's food?

  Either way, you may have to start with 4 or 5 meals per day  so Junior won't fret over losing his bottomless food bowl.

The litter seems a bigger problem since you can't take time to transition Junior considering Shrek's immediate need. One thought, could you leave a couple of boxes out all of the time with Yesterday's News (YN) in it. Then, at night and when you're not home, keep Shrek separate with a YN box, and use that time to transition Junior to the YN? (Use his regular litter, then slowly, day by day, add more of the YN)

 

[susank521]

I got so wrapped up in your kind-heartedness and the dilemma with with Junior that I totally forgot the first line of your initial post!

Delayed, but still sincere:

Welcome to The Cat Site!

 

[kittymama1991]

Susan you are so smart! I will absolutely try your ideas :high5: One more thing to let you in on.. Junior is now sneezing and his left eye has a yellowish green liquid draining from it He has not been outdoors because it is winter where I live. I did read online that this could be due to stress but is highly contagious? I plan on bringing him to the vet, but in the mean time would it be wise to quarantine him from the others.?

 

[susank521]

Hopefully, you've gotten him to the vet by now? If not, honestly it's really probably too late, but yes, quarantine him until you can get him to the vet. Poor Junior (and all of the rest of you, too). His world has been a little rocky lately. If he doesn't feel well and/or has a fever, that could be a big part of the inappropriate peeing.

 

[guywithacat]

 
How long will Shrek have to use the special litter? Is this forever? Or just post-op? How long ago was his surgery? Is there some way that you could separate Shrek when you're not there? Just long enough (a week or two?) so that you can slowly introduce the new litter to Junior.

Hi Susan, Thanks for all of your wonderful suggestions!

I have had Junior indoors and neutered now for about three years now. Yes I do agree that switching all of them to wet food would more then likely be best. Shrek is on a grain free wet food. Do you think it would be best to put all of them on the same type of food? Thank you for the link you posted, I really appreciate it. Shrek had surgery two months ago and is to stay on the special litter for the remainder of his life. Separating them should not be an issue for when I am not home. I look forward to hearing from you again

My little guy had PU surgery last year and only had to use yn until he was fully healed. I was instructed to use it only following surgery so that reg litter wouldn't get into the surgical area. I mean you can still use it but it's not necessary. He's been useing regular clumping litter for the past 11 months with no problems.

As for the food I don't have any suggestions but I wish you the best of luck.