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Long one guys, sorry. This post is actually about my parents' indoor, neutered male cats, Hector (balinese) and Finn (lynx point siamese).
Some background: my parents are NOT spos, and do everything they can for their cats, although they can have some outdated ideas. These two are the first cats who have been fed something better than Iams dry, for example. Anyway, Hector and Finn aren't littermates, but they were born days apart at the same breeder's, so they pretty much behave as such. They're... two now, I think? Between two and three. Finn is a mycoplasma cat, although he hasn't had any issues from it come up in months, and had one incident of urinary crystals. Due to this, both boys are now on an entirely wet-food diet, Weruva and Blue Buffalo.
I moved home in August, which is important because I brought my dog with me. Samwise is a mini poodle and adores the cats... but doesn't understand their body language at all. While the cats mostly tolerate and ignore him, he does try to play with them and, unfortunately, hump them from time to time. He's always on-leash in the house because of this, and we do everything we can to minimize it, but there's only so much when the cats refuse to actively avoid him (it's hard, for example, when I'm making dinner, because he's tethered in the kitchen with me and they just HAVE to come see if I'm getting them any food...). The cats are extremely tolerant, and frankly, he probably should get smacked for getting in their space way more than he does... Anyhow, a couple weeks ago we started having inappropriate urination problems. At first it was a desk - both cats went to the vet for a urinalysis, because that was the first sign something was wrong back when Finn has crystals. Nothing. Over the next few days we found multiple spots that had been peed on, all on the same end of the house, including a chair where Sam had recently spent a lot of time when my dad was watching him (back when I, uh, had a job). Now, my parents do NOT keep a cluttered house. The litter boxes are scooped daily, in the evenings, and haven't been moved or had the litter brand changed. We have two, both in the basement, and there's never been a problem with the setup with these guys before, or with previous cats. Also, the peeing seems to mostly happen at night, which means we haven't caught anyone in the act.
We suspect Hector, mostly because my dad DID see him leaving the kitchen sink right after it was peed in. Vet says it's probably a behavioral issue, although nothing major has changed in their routines for the last couple weeks that would be a stresser, and with all the snow, the neighborhood roaming tom hasn't been able to get to the windows to harass them (no footprints). They're prescribed an anti-anxiety medication, but for the first few days we don't see much improvement, besides them being kind of lethargic.
At this point, my mom starts following them. She notices that Hector spends a lot more time in the litterbox than Finn, 30 seconds - 1 minutes, and at one point thinks she sees him straining. She also notices that he's sleeping on the arm of one an armchair, head tilted up, which he's never done before, and thinks he might be trying to relieve some discomfort. He goes BACK to the vet. The vet palpitates his abdomen, and he yowls when she does, which he wasn't doing before, so she thinks he might have some inflammation. He goes back for another urinalysis - nothing to indicate inflammation or crystals, but his specific gravity is low (dilute urine). We do bloodwork to see if there's something funny going on with his kidneys, and in the meantime, he gets a shot of painkillers that last three days. Nothing in the blood - everything comes up normal. HOWEVER, since the painkillers on Tuesday, we've had no more incidents and Hector's been acting a little more playful than he was before (he likes to play fetch with those cellophane balls down the basement stairs, which he hadn't been doing much of since this all started). We're kind of baffled. They now have new litterboxes as well as the old ones - one in the study, where most of the inappropriate urination is happening - and another couple in the basement. Their litter is sprinkled with Cat Attract. My mom is convinced that something's off with Hector, and I do trust her judgement. She has a really good eye for when their behavior goes off (always has, with all our past cats), and she's almost never wrong when she thinks they're sick or hurt. Does this sound like something familiar to any of you? Is it possible we have a cat with early signs of a kidney problem? Any advice or suggestions for things we aren't already doing? This is stressing my mother out - she likes a clean house - and we know that we might be seeing evidence that it's physiological because that'd be a relatively easier fix than if it's psychological. And of course I'm concerned, because Samwise might be part of the problem if it IS behavioral, even though they cohabited for months before this without major issues. I know it's a lot of information to go through, but I'd really appreciate any insight.
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busy
