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I've had my cat for three months, and she was previously owned by a neighbor. Her daughter dumped her 1-year-old cat on my neighbor (a relative), I assume because she felt too guilty to rehome her properly. This means that for over 2 years the cat received the bare minimum of care - she was fed/watered and had her litter changed daily, but nothing more than that. My neighbor is actually scared of animals so she never pet or played with the cat, and left her outside from around 7am to 5pm every day. When I moved in I never saw a litterbox anywhere for her to use, so she was likely holding her eliminations until she was allowed inside.
I started taking care of the cat once I moved into my place and my neighbor eventually let me keep her, so long as she could still see the cat and make decisions about her health. She was adamant about this, so I agreed. My neighbor ended up moving out but still keeps in touch with us, and insisted she handle a recent vet visit (this happened last Tuesday). What she did was bring a male companion around 10am and have him (who the cat doesn't know) stuff her into a carrier. The cat was agitated and not brought home until past 5pm, meaning she was left at the vet for 7 hours.
She wasn't herself when she came back, and the first thing I noticed was that she started peeing much more frequently than normal. The day after the vet, she peed six times in 24 hours. The second day five times, the third day five times. The vet had cleared of her urinary issues and she wasn't showing any other UTI symptoms so I decided to take a wait and see approach. On the fourth and fifth days I was glued to her side or had my boyfriend, who she loves, watch her - she was never left by herself. Strangely enough, her peeing became perfectly normal on these days.
Yesterday was the fifth day, which was when I had to do things I'd put off while looking after her - I thought she would be fine because she had been doing so well. What seemed to happen though was that every time I would leave her for more than five minutes, she would end up visiting her box to do a small pee. What's worse, my old neighbor came to check on her - she hid under the bed the whole time, terrified, and peed after the neighbor left.
Since last night I have not left her side for more than a couple minutes at a time, and I noticed she stopped doing these tiny pees. She seems back to normal, again. Could the frequent peeing she's been doing this week be the result of anxiety? It seems like the frequent urinating would be fairly constant if it was a medical problem, but it seems to be triggered by stress.
I've read that anxious cats tend to pee on things and pee anywhere, but I also feel that my cat is too skittish to go anywhere but her box. I think this has something to do with having been terrorized by neighborhood cats for years and trying to minimize her scent markers.
Has anyone experienced excessive peeing with an anxious cat? I'm going to spend the next few days tending to her as much as possible to see if stress really is the trigger, since it seems the vet visit is what started this mess in the first place. I would really appreciate tips on how to keep her calm when I'm not in the room with her, because I think poor kitty believes I've abandoned her every time I leave.
I started taking care of the cat once I moved into my place and my neighbor eventually let me keep her, so long as she could still see the cat and make decisions about her health. She was adamant about this, so I agreed. My neighbor ended up moving out but still keeps in touch with us, and insisted she handle a recent vet visit (this happened last Tuesday). What she did was bring a male companion around 10am and have him (who the cat doesn't know) stuff her into a carrier. The cat was agitated and not brought home until past 5pm, meaning she was left at the vet for 7 hours.
She wasn't herself when she came back, and the first thing I noticed was that she started peeing much more frequently than normal. The day after the vet, she peed six times in 24 hours. The second day five times, the third day five times. The vet had cleared of her urinary issues and she wasn't showing any other UTI symptoms so I decided to take a wait and see approach. On the fourth and fifth days I was glued to her side or had my boyfriend, who she loves, watch her - she was never left by herself. Strangely enough, her peeing became perfectly normal on these days.
Yesterday was the fifth day, which was when I had to do things I'd put off while looking after her - I thought she would be fine because she had been doing so well. What seemed to happen though was that every time I would leave her for more than five minutes, she would end up visiting her box to do a small pee. What's worse, my old neighbor came to check on her - she hid under the bed the whole time, terrified, and peed after the neighbor left.
Since last night I have not left her side for more than a couple minutes at a time, and I noticed she stopped doing these tiny pees. She seems back to normal, again. Could the frequent peeing she's been doing this week be the result of anxiety? It seems like the frequent urinating would be fairly constant if it was a medical problem, but it seems to be triggered by stress.
I've read that anxious cats tend to pee on things and pee anywhere, but I also feel that my cat is too skittish to go anywhere but her box. I think this has something to do with having been terrorized by neighborhood cats for years and trying to minimize her scent markers.
Has anyone experienced excessive peeing with an anxious cat? I'm going to spend the next few days tending to her as much as possible to see if stress really is the trigger, since it seems the vet visit is what started this mess in the first place. I would really appreciate tips on how to keep her calm when I'm not in the room with her, because I think poor kitty believes I've abandoned her every time I leave.