seeking advice, thoughts, and ideas

[dinkster]

In Jan. 2015 we adopted a 5 month old male kitten.  I already had a 41/2yr old male cat in the house.  I introduced them very slowly and after 3 weeks they were playing and getting along. Sometimes the little guy wanted to play more so my older guy would give him a smack on the head and that was the end of that. By the end of Feb. my older guy, Nicky became ill. Presenting with blocked urinary tract, but was actually not blocked. We are still in the process of trying to figure out what made him sick. Nicky goes out when it's nice, plays with me and is eating.  But since his illness he wants nothing to do with the younger guy, Bruce. Bruce does not understand and keeps attempting to play with him. Nicky hisses, swats and tries to run away. My big issue is stress on Nicky. Vets are convinced that stress had a big part to play in his illness. (weather got very cold and he was unable to go outside).

Any suggestions on how to re-establish their once amicable relationship?  I have tried to play with Bruce to get as much energy out of him but as soon as he sees Nicky he runs over and tries to play with him. I have also put Bruce into his safe room (which we still put him in over night) for about 10-15 min and he calms down.

 

[shadowsrescue]

I have a male cat who has stress urine issues too.  The vet thought he was a contender for something called Idiopathic feline lower urinary tract disease (iFlutd).  Once the stress was under control, the symptoms went away.  He was depressed, peeing all the time and often very small little pees (sometimes 10 per day).  I  loaded up on Feliway diffusers and even bought the spray for areas where I didn't have an outlet.  These helped alot.  I then used Composure liquid Max.  It is a calming supplement that does not sedate.  My vet recommended it.  It does come in treat formula, but many cats don't like the treats.  They are large and get hard quickly.  It also takes a lot of treats to get results.  I bought the liquid Max and gave 1/2 t. in the morning mixed into wet food and 1/4 t. at night mixed into wet food.  I used this dosage for about a month and then tapered off.  It really helped.  You can find Feliway and composure on Amazon for the best price.

I too had a new cat in the house.  The new cat had been living in the house for over a year, but they cats took forever to get used to each other.  Then my DS was headed off to college.  The sick kitty was his cat.  All of the packing made the cat a mess and then when my son left it was worse.  Of course the new cat wanted to play and the sick cat wanted nothing to do with him.  I gave the sick one lots of attention and slowly the composure worked.  It has been 6 months now and no reoccurance.

I hope you can find a solution.  It is hard to watch our kitties not feel well. I would continue to keep them separated for awhile.  You want your older kitty to feel better first and the little one bothering him doesn't help.  I know the little one doesn't understand, but you will need to just play and play with him.  Get a laser pointer and da bird wand toy.  They are awesome and help to get rid of energy!!