Any cat lovers? ~ I need help

[traco]

It's been a rough couple of weeks emotionally here with my pets. Our budgie who we've had for 9 years got pneumonia and died. I took her to the vet, overnight stay and she passed away the next morning. Now the cats have something going on.

My 2 cats, male and female, have been having something going on there also. Spike the male (1 year), neutered, has been acting weird around Squeak, female (2 years) who is spayed. I wonder if there is something going on with her, bacterial wise? He has been occassionally following her sniffing her tail area. Off and on, but more so within the last weeks, he will go and hide away from her. Of course, then she will chase him and he freaks, runs away hissing and growling and hiding from her. She has also looked like she is spraying, tail raised and quivering when standing still up against things. She has always done that looking like she is spraying, especially if she is friendly and you are petting her. No urine gets sprayed. But it now seems to be happening more lately. One day last week I was mad at her for starting to chase Spike, went up to her, saying "NO" and smacked her on the rear, not hard. She ran into the kitchen and was really twitching her tail and kind of spinning around. I thought I had hurt her, especially with her spinning and looking like she was spraying. Again, no liquid came out.

There is no urine odor I can detect but cats are way more tuned than humans. I am wondering either a heat (can they have that if they've been spayed?) or a urine problem? She does not yowl when using the litter box. I have seen no physical evidence (blood in urine or discharge) of anything going on there.

She would much rather eat dry food than wet. I feed wet as I feel that dry is not a good food to have cats on. She is such a tiny, picky eater that I have kind of catered to her lately with food and have resorted to giving her dry just to keep her eating and not lose weight.

So, there we have it. Money is tight, already paid a big bill at the vet's with the bird dying, there is something going on with the cats, and I don't know what to do. A vet visit will run over $200.00 which is hard to do right now with finances.

I'm away at an interview till around lunch but will check back here then and see if anyone has any ideas/help. I'm hoping if I just feed her wet food and water it down, I can flush out her system, rather than having to resort to antibiotics which will clear up any bacteria but if the source is not dealt with, I will have problems later down the road again.

Thanks all and sorry for the novel here. Just wanted to fill in as much as I could think of.

[AmberC]

Barb.. I forwarded this to my sis too. Shes a vet tech. I'll let ya know what she says. Good luck with your interview!

[diskboy]

if you didnt spay here early enough she might go through a "false" heat. we didnt have the money to get my puppy done right away so every now and then she has an "oder" i dont know if any of this will help but i felt i could try.

[traco]

Thanks Amber and Diskboy. I was wondering about the "false" heat as Squeak was older when we got and spayed her. She was wild when we got her so not sure how old she was.

I would think if it was a urine infection, it would be something constant for symptoms not like it is now. We can for a while with no problems and then a couple of days with Spike doing the growling, run away thing then back to no problem. I would think if she was in discomfort, she'd be licking the area or problems with the litter box, etc...

[marilyn1998]

It's been a while since I had cats, but I remember having to feed them a special diet. Ash must be kept to aminimum to keep them from getting urinary problems. I think the food has to be less than 3% ash. I could be wrong, tho.
I dont know what to tell you. Just a thought, have her sugar checked?? My neices cat was just diagnosed with diabetes after she was acting weird. ANd I think that can be smelled in the urine by another cat. (not us, we arent sensitive enough.)

But, cats are not my thing!!!! Good Luck!

[wolfbane]

Sounds like vaginitis, she could be hiding to lick herself. Take a white tissue and dab at "that area", look for a discharge. I once had a cat whose hormones were messed up, she came in heat infrequently, sprayed everything in sight. Spaying fixed it all. She's young for diabetes, but that would show up in her bloodwork. I have a dog with similar symptoms, minus the spray posture.Took her in for urine check, and exam. My vet said there was no problem. She still gets too much attention from male dogs. Spayed animals no longer have those hormones from a heat cycle, but an infection can make a male very interested.

[Ronald]

Hi all,

Her behavior could be that she is just looking for your attention a bit more then usual. Maybe she misses the bird?
One of our cats did the same and we had her checked ($225 all together if I remember right) and she was just fine.
We had 5 cats (only 2 left right now :( ) and the dry food was there # 1 choice.
At the time we spoke with our vet and he said if they only get dry food the males could get problems regarding urine tract closure.
So on his recommendation we changed the diet to wet in the morning and evening and every now and then as a treat later some dry food. It took them about 1 week to get used to it but there hunger finally won.:D

Ronald