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Problems with elderly cat

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Posted by: rowantree at Wed Jan 25 11:42:29 2012  [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by rowantree ]  
   

We adopted a female himalayan when she was about 15 or 16 from our local vet 2 years ago. He told us that he didn't understand why we wanted to adopt her, since we wouldn't have her for long. Well that was 2 years ago and she's been just fine. Her name is Chloe. Her sides had been grossly bloated out, within a month of living with us, the bloating was gone.

Within the past year though, she has started missing the litter box whenever she urinates. My husband placed plywood down on the floor so our untreated hardwood wouldn't get ruined (it's an old house and we haven't had the chance to reseal yet). We use puppy training pads on top of that and it's really not a problem. Sometimes she makes it in the box, sometimes it's on the pad. Just pick up the pad & throw it away. Not a problem.

She does have a tendency to defecate on area rugs though and in the kids' bedrooms, where we have laid down thin carpeting (the kind that you buy off the roll). Since it's solid, I just clean that area of the carpet really well & it hasn't really been that bad of a problem. She doesn't do it all the time.

In case you're wondering, I am constantly checking with people coming into the house, asking them if they smell pet smells or urine/feces smells and every single person that comes into my home tells me no, the house smells good. I know my mom & sister certainly wouldn't lie to me. lol

Chloe started having constipation problems about a year ago, tried getting her to eat wet food but she won't. She doesn't have very many teeth, but will eat her dry food. She liked the cat milk for a while and then decided she didn't like that. We tried tuna and she loves it. She will only eat the white albacore tuna though. I smoosh it up and add a half can of water to it. One serving is about 2-3 tablespoons and she'll eat about 3-4 of those a day. HUGE improvement with the constipation and she started using the litter box for that instead of the area rugs.

The past 3 months, she has stopped eating her tuna. I tried pureeing it with a hand held blender and she seemed to really like that for a while, then she stopped eating that. I went back to just smooshing the tuna up a little bit and she ate a plate one day and is back to not eating it. She's lost a pound, too.

She's also back to defecating on the floor in the dining room, in the kids bedrooms, and this happens several times a day. Yesterday she urinated on my son's carpeting in his room. I saturated the area with Mr. Clean and then blotted, then sprayed Hartz Nodor spray (which has worked with the litter box). Several hours later, the area was dry and my son's room reeked of Chloe's urine. He has allergies, so all I could do was take up the carpeting, about half of his room (it's a small room). I then cleaned the floor with Mr. Clean again and then bleached it on top of that. You can't smell anything in there now.

I don't know what to do with her. We don't have the money for a vet. My son wants his carpet replaced, but we don't have the money for that either and I have to take out the rest of his carpeting sometime this week and weekend. I don't understand why Chloe would urinate in his room, she's never done that anywhere before.

When we got Chloe, I did notice that she doesn't have full use of her back legs. She walks, she can jump onto the couch, but her back legs are very weak.

A friend of mine suggested putting Chloe in a large cage, where she would have a bed, little box & food/water. We took Chloe out of that situation at the vet's, why would we put her back in that situation? My husband thinks that maybe this is Chloe's way of telling us that she's ready to go and tells me it's my decision. I love Chloe and I want her to be happy, but lately she just doesn't seem very happy. If she's not feeling well and she isn't happy, then I have no problem helping her over to the other side.

Does anyone have any suggestions?


   

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