As most of you know one of my girls, Sugarly, has emotional issues and is extremely timid. She is on a half pill of amitrypolene (sp?), which is an antidepressant, daily (she is difficult to pill). Normally while medicated she behaves appropriately, although occassionally she acts out. When she act out she pees and poops in inappropriate places (our bed, the carpet). Because of this tendancy we keep a close eye on her and clean our boxes 3 times daily. When she behaves she is a little love. Very affectionate. Yesterday morning she started the pattern of inappropriate behaviour although there was no change in her meds or her routine. I didn't place this in behaviour because we have covered all of these issues and are dealing with them (double meds & she is in a time out room just with her, toys, a box food, etc...this always sets her straight).
The reason I am posting this is because we have a difficult decison to make. On Sunday we are leaving for a week to Mexico. Normally my cousins (19 and 21) stay at our house and take care of the cats. Our concern is that this change in routine can really set her off (it did last time we took a vacation). We have no worries about the other 4 cats.
Our options are as follows.
1) We board Sugarly for 9 days at the vets. There they can guarentee that she gets her meds on a daily basis, but she is in an unfamiliar environment and will be in a cage (large enough to have her bed a box and some room to play). As it is at the vets she will hear other animals including dogs.
2) We keep her at home locked in the time out room and get the cat sitters to visit her and try to pill her (will probably be impossible - has a great hiding spot in the room). She will be all alone although we will get the sitters to spend time in the room trying to encourage her to come out.
3) We let her have free reign of the house and if the guys can catch her then they can try to pill her but if she misbehaves we could come home to a house covered in urine and she is good at hiding those and her poops from people (not in the box)
We don't know what to do and we have to decide by Friday. Please help!
The reason I am posting this is because we have a difficult decison to make. On Sunday we are leaving for a week to Mexico. Normally my cousins (19 and 21) stay at our house and take care of the cats. Our concern is that this change in routine can really set her off (it did last time we took a vacation). We have no worries about the other 4 cats.
Our options are as follows.
1) We board Sugarly for 9 days at the vets. There they can guarentee that she gets her meds on a daily basis, but she is in an unfamiliar environment and will be in a cage (large enough to have her bed a box and some room to play). As it is at the vets she will hear other animals including dogs.
2) We keep her at home locked in the time out room and get the cat sitters to visit her and try to pill her (will probably be impossible - has a great hiding spot in the room). She will be all alone although we will get the sitters to spend time in the room trying to encourage her to come out.
3) We let her have free reign of the house and if the guys can catch her then they can try to pill her but if she misbehaves we could come home to a house covered in urine and she is good at hiding those and her poops from people (not in the box)
We don't know what to do and we have to decide by Friday. Please help!