Feline cystitis

[Audreycat]

Hello,
I’ve been sent here by a good cat friend. I have a little rescue female called Audrey. She’s app 3 years old neutered and utd with everything.
Just over a week ago I had to take her to the vets, diagnosed with fic and prescribed metacam .4 a day plus vet pro urinary capsules. All went well initially and then the same symptoms reoccurred. Back to vets, prescribed more metacam and antibiotic. Amoxiclav 1 twice a day. She is fabulous at taking her meds and I switched her to urinary feed the day of her first visit.
Alas she’s still scratching everywhere and only doing little pees. The vets are saying an ultrasound next and possibly life long metacam. I find this strange as the metacam isint working now!
I believe stress to be the trigger. She got a bit above herself in the house pecking order plus we have a local Tom who keeps breaking into the house and spraying. She hates this cat. The cat has an owner. I’ve offered help to have it neutered but it is not my cat.
Any ideas to help her would be much appreciated. Thank you.

[Ruth B]

Welcome to the forum.

While I'm no expert i would say that it does sound like the stress is a major part of your cat's problems and the cause of the Cystitis, and it does sound like that Tom cat is the obvious cause of it. Unfortunately if the owners are being irresponsible and refusing to have him neutered there is little you can do to force them.

I'm not sure how many other cats you have but would they cope with being kept indoors for a few weeks to try and let her recover. Lock the cat flap and if possible put a board over it both sides so they can't see it as ingress where an intruder can get in, and he can't be banging on it all the time trying to force his way in making her concerned that the defenses won't hold. Even if you can't board it up, just keeping her in and not letting him in might be enough.

I would also suggest looking at microchip operated cat flaps for when you do start letting her out again (I'm assuming she is chipped, if not I would highly recommend it even if you don't get a special cat flap). At least then she would hopefully realise that she is safe in her own home.

Alternatively you might want to look at cat proofing your garden or building a run for them that the Tom doesn't have access to. It is expensive but in the long run it might be cheaper than a life time of medication for her and would certainly be better for her than constant medication to sort out the Cystitis.

Finally you might want to contact the RSPCA or Cats Protection and see if they would be willing to talk to the Tom's owner and explain the benefit of having him neutered, they will often offer help as well if finances are an issue, while you have offered to help some people are reluctant to take the money from neighbours but would accept it from a charity. However you have to be careful, if you think she will think that you have grassed her up to the RSPCA it might cause problems between you that you really don't want.

I hope your girl is feeling better soon.

[Kay]

My Tiffany kept getting cystitis and I found Cystease kept it at bay - but I don't think it was stress related with her, and after a few years I was able to stop dosing her

have you tried Feliway to calm her down while you try to deal with the tom?

[booktigger]

I'm very surprised that the vet would be recommending life long Metacam, I've heard of recommending long term Cystease or equivalent, and used that myself to keep chronic cystitis at bay. Feliway may help too.

[Sniper1]

Hi I would try a slightly more unorthodox approach I would take that tom cat to a vet not my regular vet and say he's a stray I am adopting get him neutered bring him home and release him and never tell a soul about it I would not use metscam ever for any of my cats even a one off I would use cysteze and have had good results with Dene's herbal remedies with recurring cystitis