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- Nov 5, 2022
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This is my first time posting here. My ongoing saga is that I have a 4 year old female cat (tortoiseshell) that has been struggling with chronic idiopathic cystitis for 3 months straight (I believe she’s had mild symptoms for the past year or 2, but they never progressed to painful attack/blood until these past 3 months). I’m just looking for any advice and experience from other people who have dealt with this as I’m running out of ideas.
Background:
-I live in a 1,000 sq foot apartment with her and another young male cat who I’ve raised since a kitten, I have 2 litter boxes with 2 different types of litter, 2 cat trees, 2 auto-feeders, a fountain and water dishes all over my apartment.
-She has been eating prescription dry food for 2 months (Hills multi-care stress) and gets half a can of urinary care wet food plus supplemented broth
-She is a nervous / high anxiety cat that hates new people, strange noises etc. she has never grown out of this anxiety
- She is 14 lbs but ideally should be 11 lbs. I’m trying to work on this without adding more stress to her life
- My young male cat is a bully towards her but she doesn’t hide from him. They both coexist in the apartment and I do my absolute best to try to give them equal attention and love. I am able to leave them alone for 8 hour work days and they don’t hurt each other. He is the main cause of her stress.
Treatment and Changes I’ve already made:
- She received a full set of tests last month at the vet, and they determined there was no bacterial infection in the urine and no crystals, they took and x-ray and saw no stones in the bladder so the vet determined it is idiopathic
- I have 2 feliway plug-ins going in the main areas of my apartment
- I supplement her wet food with extra broth and water
- I’ve made an effort to stay home and spend more time with her since the main incident that triggered the flare-up (me going on vacation for 4 days)
- I clean the litter boxes more frequently
- I have given gabapentin occasionally for pain
I am looking at now trying supplementation with marshmallow root, etc using one of the bladder strengthening supplements on the market. I’m also looking and full wet food only diet but I am nervous about the expense of doing this for two cats. I’m also looking into a trial of Prozac to see if that helps her anxiety, but my vet cautioned that it could cause more stress to her by trying to force medication down her throat everyday than it’s worth.
I don’t want to think about the possibility of re-homing one of my babies because they are both extremely attached to me.
if any one has any further advice about what worked for their kitty, please let me know!
Background:
-I live in a 1,000 sq foot apartment with her and another young male cat who I’ve raised since a kitten, I have 2 litter boxes with 2 different types of litter, 2 cat trees, 2 auto-feeders, a fountain and water dishes all over my apartment.
-She has been eating prescription dry food for 2 months (Hills multi-care stress) and gets half a can of urinary care wet food plus supplemented broth
-She is a nervous / high anxiety cat that hates new people, strange noises etc. she has never grown out of this anxiety
- She is 14 lbs but ideally should be 11 lbs. I’m trying to work on this without adding more stress to her life
- My young male cat is a bully towards her but she doesn’t hide from him. They both coexist in the apartment and I do my absolute best to try to give them equal attention and love. I am able to leave them alone for 8 hour work days and they don’t hurt each other. He is the main cause of her stress.
Treatment and Changes I’ve already made:
- She received a full set of tests last month at the vet, and they determined there was no bacterial infection in the urine and no crystals, they took and x-ray and saw no stones in the bladder so the vet determined it is idiopathic
- I have 2 feliway plug-ins going in the main areas of my apartment
- I supplement her wet food with extra broth and water
- I’ve made an effort to stay home and spend more time with her since the main incident that triggered the flare-up (me going on vacation for 4 days)
- I clean the litter boxes more frequently
- I have given gabapentin occasionally for pain
I am looking at now trying supplementation with marshmallow root, etc using one of the bladder strengthening supplements on the market. I’m also looking and full wet food only diet but I am nervous about the expense of doing this for two cats. I’m also looking into a trial of Prozac to see if that helps her anxiety, but my vet cautioned that it could cause more stress to her by trying to force medication down her throat everyday than it’s worth.
I don’t want to think about the possibility of re-homing one of my babies because they are both extremely attached to me.
if any one has any further advice about what worked for their kitty, please let me know!
