Tortie Needs Help!

[molloroni]

Hi all! I hope you are having a great weekend!

I am writing on behalf of my sister's 13 year-old tortie, Sadie. Since she was adopted as a kitten, Sadie has had abnormally stinky stools. However, recently, she has started pooping outside of her litter box and her stools have been very runny. My sister was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and has not had the time or energy to deal with the litter box problems. Since my sister's diagnosis, Sadie has been locked up in a small bathroom, and now rarely uses her litter box to poop, has lost a lot of weight, and has stopped grooming herself.

Sadie's vet has run lots of tests--ultrasounds, bloodwork, stool samples--and has been unable to find anything wrong. They put her on pain medication for awhile, thinking that might help, but it did not seem to. A year or so ago, they changed her food, thinking she might have a food allergy. She has since been eating Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Green Pea & Salmon food, but that obviously has not been helping.

Do you have any thoughts on what we could do to help Sadie, or what might be wrong? Her quality of life is really terrible, and I want to help my sister as much as I can--and I know this has been stressful for her!

Thank you for any thoughts!

 

[jen]

Only because you said the tests have all come back normal, I agree it does sound like it could be a food allergy. But it could be other things too. Poor thing. Have you tried her on a limited ingredient canned food diet or even raw? Sounds like she is likely dehydrated too, especially if she is on a dry diet.

 

[Furballsmom]

Oh my goodness, and ALL of my best wishes for your sister!!! and bless you for coming here for Sadie!!

Try this, obtain some calming products (I'll give you a list of some to try) because in my opinion baby Sadie is reacting to stress, along with likely having a food sensitivity as mentioned.

Can you help with grooming or can someone pick up that duty? Zoom Groom can be a good brush since it's rubber and more gentle (but keep a damp papertowel in use every three or four wipes to keep static electricity from building up in her fur even with the rubber) or grooming mitts.

Also if she's not keeping clean at her rump area, get some earthbath wipes or micellar makeup removal wipes (anything else has too many chemicals and can cause UTI's in cats)

Try and ensure her water and all her bowls and dishes are safe and cleaned daily, filtered water would be best if at all possible.

This is dry food, correct?
Can you-all try some canned food - I'd go with Fancy Feast as the first one to try, most cats will eat that.
Also do please make some kitten glop (recipes are on the internet, find one with goat milk) and make or buy some Pedialyte - ,
tent test for dehydration and home-made pedialyte recipe - The Daily Kitten

Try different styles of litter boxes - is Sadie arthritic? A lower sided one might be better. Also there are litters that have Cat Attract qualities to them, those might help, and/or littermaid's walnut litter, or Dr Elsey's respiratory relief crystals.
If you scroll towards the bottom there's a great photo of a setup that might work for her...
Solving Litter Box Problems In Senior Cats — Chewy

In any case, if you can, let us know how things go with everything, what works for Sadie, what doesn't, and we'll absolutely see that we come up with something else.

 

[Furballsmom]

Can you also try some low volume classical harp music? Or the app Relax My Cat?

I have a couple articles as well;

Potential Stressors In Cats - The Ultimate Checklist

Six Surefire Strategies To Reduce Stress In Cats

Also you could try some chamomile tea, the type from the bags only, a couple cooled teaspoons a couple times a day mixed into food, or even with Kitten Milk Replacer - this is another where there are recipes on the internet. She needs every source of nutrient rich thing you can give her that she'll eat.

If that's not accomplishing anything, there are these as well;
This is an incomplete list of over the counter calming products. Feliway is certainly not the only item available, and there are also prescription meds that you could talk with your vet about if the otc products don't help.

Some cats such as my Big Guy are completely unaffected by Feliway. There are products with different ingredients such as L-Tryptophan and casein, tryptophan, chamomile etc.

In addition some people are using CBD oil.

There is Zylkene, Calming Care, Calm-o-mile, Sentry, Natures Miracle calming spray, Vetri-Science's Composure is another item to look at, Pet Remedy (it has valerian) is yet another, as is Essential Pet Pet-ease, Only Natural Pet (brand and website) has a calming product, Pet Naturals also has one I believe. Thunderease has a diffuser and so does Sentry.

Lambert Vet Supply is a website to look at, and of course amazon and chewy, also there's Petwishpros, drsfostersmith, 1800PetsMeds, Animaleo. Australia's Petbarn has a product as well.

There are a couple of recent discussions about calming items, here's the link to one thread. Post #6 in this has a link to the second discussion.
Calming Treats?

 

[Furballsmom]

Maybe something here will entice her to eat;

Kitten Glop Recipes - Supplementing Cats and Kittens with nutritious formula you make at home: presented by Bengal Cat breeder Foothill Felines. --This website has a number of kitten glop recipes, with ingredients that you may very well have in your house.

These can be used on their own or combined with food. Also, if you heat the food a little - stir it so there aren't any hot spots from the microwave. Or you could heat some water, about a tablespoon, and add that to canned food. A shot glass works to stir it all up.

• Chicken, beef or ham flavored baby food such as Gerber Stage 2 - make sure there is no garlic or onions in the ingredients

• Tuna and/or the juice, a low mercury/low/no sodium brand is called SafeCatch

• Salmon, mackerel

• Sardines (make sure there are no bones)

• boiled cut up chicken or turkey with no seasonings

• canned kitten food any brand - it's usually smelly. See if it's eaten on its own, then maybe mix it in or put on top

• Try mixing in Kitten Milk Replacer - there are recipes on the internet or store bought

• Fish, tuna or BBQ flavored canned wet food (I personally have never seen BBQ flavors, but...)

• Lickable cat treats or pouch treat 'gravy' poured over the food

• kitten glop (recipes in website link above)
• Bonito flakes
• fortiflora
• fish oil
• green beans, asparagus mushed up

• goat milk, or no lactose cow milk
• whole cooked eggs (the white must always be cooked) or raw egg yolk now and then
• broth with no salt and no garlic or onion or seasonings of any kind
• There are also commercial toppers, Applaws is a brand that can work well as a topper
  
• Some good treats would be freeze dried Purebites, Orijen, Meowtinis, Meowables

• There are also Lickimats that you could spread types of soft food onto, even plain unflavored yogurt, and even freeze it. Licking something can help a cat to feel better emotionally The LickiMat - Food Puzzles for Cats
• shredded cheddar cheese

 

[stephanietx]

My first tortie had fecal incontinence when she was stressed. It was stinky and soft and always a much larger quantity than normal. It was the ONLY time she wouldn't use the box. Most likely, she is stressed out. I would do a couple of things. First of all, get some Feliway diffusers and plug them in. This will help her de-stress. Also, add additional boxes, even 1 in every room. Allow her access to her home again. That's probably stressing her out even more and she's feeling abandoned. Additionally, torties are known to bond with their humans. If she senses something isn't right with your sister, she is probably is upset as well.