- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
September 2012 Moms
I need advice about my stupid cats.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: I need advice about my stupid cats.
Yea, it's not helicoptering to be responsible for your pets. Letting your pets out because that's what "nature" intended sounds totally ridiculous. They're domestic cats, all of the wild was bred out of them long ago.
Nancy James 9.1.12
Calvin Donald 8.27.14
It's not rocket science, it's a non-issue. My town allows for outside cats. Evidently your town does not. One of my cats loves to go outside so I let him. My other cat doesn't so I keep her in. Thank goodness my neighbors are all understanding and have a variety of indoor and outdoor cats as well.
There are hordes of cats that go outside. It's not anything strange or unusual. I was just chiming in with what worked for our trouble-making cat. Letting him be free to roam outside has solved all behavioral issues he was exhibiting. He is an amazing companion and the best cat I've ever known. He goes outside, bfd.
Did I read it right that you only have $100 in savings? I understand that "things" happen but how on earth are you going to raise a child on such limited finances?
As for the cat thing, I'm a firm believer that unless your animal is trying to take your childs head off, you get them and keep them for life. They are not disposable just because YOU can't deal with them and their issues. We had our kitten for a month when she got a life threatening infection and we shelled out 1.5k to amputate her leg, and give her medication and get xrays done. Yeah it sucked [especially two months before our wedding] but that's what you sign up for. She starting peeing on the floor right after we brought our baby home and the ONLY thing that worked [after ruling out medical issues] was locking her into the smallest room in the house for a week and forcing her to relearn how to be box trained. It sounds mean but we had no options..who would adopt a tripod cat with pissing issues? It has to be a small room because cats won't pee where their food/water is [in most cases at least]. We put her in our half bathroom with the litter box on one side of the room and her food on the other. No room for her to pee on the floor, it either had to go in the box or she would spoil her food. We also had to completely rip up our carpet in the dining room [big loss lol] and replace it and the subflooring because it reeked of pee and she kept going back to the same spot.
That was a last resort. We changed the litter around until we found one that she was okay with [she still peed outside of the box but it decreased substantially with a litter and box change] and was very particular about the kind of litter box she used. It was stressful and I hated having to do all of this stuff for a prissy little cat, but we are her owners for LIFE, not just when it's easy.
GL, I hope you can figure something out that doesnt involve getting rid of your pets.
DD2 October 2010
DS September 2012
Yes, that's correct. Yes, things happen. Why does everyone seem to think it was impossible to raise a kid on limited finances? Poor people have children and do a good job raising them ALL THE TIME. And we're not perpetually low on funds...it's a recent occurrence that is largely because both our cars have started having problems and we had to pay our share of the delivery fees at our hospital.
And honestly, even if we did have limited finances all the time...it's not the worst fate a child could face. I grew up extremely poor and somehow, we were still happy. I guess having a mom that loved me made up for the fact that my clothes were second hand.
Unfortunetly, if you are too tight to take you pets to the vet you won't be able to get this resolved. I have two female cats and have experienced similar issues. You have to have 2 littler boxes in the house, your partner must scoop everyday and you need to rule out a UTI in your cats- a vet can only do that. Females are especially suseptable to UTI as they place their rear-ends on the litter to urinate. If you have feces filled litter they will get a UTI. Also get Feliway on Amazon.com. It will take about a month to work but it help with the destruction issues. Play with your cats as much as you can - burn them out everyday. This way they will have ZERO energy to destroy your home. That's the bottom line.
My toddler destroys way more stuff than my cat. And since DS had reflux, he puked on the carpet multiple times a day.
I'm not trying to be hateful at all, and I really do apologize if it came across that way. ( I can blame hormones, right?
) I know our financial situation isn't ideal...we wouldn't have chosen this, either. We had been doing fine up until recently, and hopefully things will level out before the baby gets here. And we wouldn't have tried for a baby if things had been like this at the time. But here we are, and we have to do what we can to make it work in the meantime.
We truly cannot afford the vets around us. I've called to ask them how much they would charge us to check for UTIs, and the prices they quoted us were extremely high. They also told us that if it wasn't a UTI, they'd be forced to do exploratory testing, which they were very vague about and basically said it could cost us our firstborn child. We don't have credit cards, so charging it isn't an option. I'm planning to contact the HS where we got them to see if they can give us some discounted vet service or something. I am truly trying to do what's best for the cats...I don't want to get rid of them, but I also don't want to get in trouble with my landlord for pee-soaked carpet or have them destroy baby stuff. I'm just frustrated and tired and honestly, my feelings are hurt by how they're acting. I know they aren't doing it to upset me, but they had been totally fine and are suddenly acting like wild animals. I'm willing to do what it takes to keep them, but expensive vet treatment isn't an option right now. I don't like it, and I'm not proud of being so low on funds, but that's just how it is at the moment.
I am just going to say that I would much rather have kid puke on my carpet than cat pee.
Believe me when I tell you that you have no idea what your neighbors are thinking. My dog just loves to eat the cat sh!t in our yard and then puke it up all over my furniture. I don't have cats. I HATE that I get cat sh!t in my (enclosed) back yard. But I'm not knocking on all the doors in the neighborhood demanding that everyone keep their cats inside.
::My Blog:: ::My Pinterest::
Yeah...ditto. My niece has puked all over me, on the floor, on furniture...It doesn't leave the lasting stank that cat pee does.
I should add that my dog as left my house in shambles many times, puke on carpet, mud on carpet, decided that hats, shoes and other items were part of his diet. But the smell of cat pee in my house still lingers from time to time and that smell is far worse than anything my dog or kid has done to the place.
I actually do know what my immediate neighbors are thinking because we talk all the time. About our cats. And my cat is one of dozens (owned and feral) that roam our neighborhood.
And while I don't like that sometimes dog poop ends up in my front yard, or that high school kids park it in our back alley to smoke and leave their cig butts back there while skipping school, or that there is a certain feral cat that sleeps on my porch furniture and leaves globs of cat hair smushed into the fabric, or that the sandbox is used as a litter box if we forget to put the lid on, the bottom line, to me is: Does it really matter? Are any of these things worth stressing over? No. And my parents dog eats the cat poop out of the litter box in the garage over there sometimes. She doesn't puke it up. It's seriously disgusting but it's what dogs do.
My point is your fear of your landlord. Trashed carpet is trashed carpet. Just saying if you are mad your cats are destroying your possessions, your kid is going to tear up stuff too but I doubt you will come here asking how to handle your stupid kid so you don't have to give him away.
I haven't been able to read ALL the posts but here are my suggestions:
A little back ground to begin with. My hubby found our cats in a black garbage bag with a knot in the top, the end of June (in TX for pete's sake-think 90 on a good day with 90% humidity) thrown out at a carwash he was building (still in construction not up & running). The vet says they were about 4 weeks old. Not certain of how to eat and totally dehydrated. Fast forward to today and they are 12 tomorrow. Skitz out on a regular basis and don't like strangers or change.
1. Extra litter box / keep the one EXTRA clean. Clean carpet or anywhere else they have pottied. Try vinegar and water. Not a great smell but better than amonia.
2. Spank them with them item they broke/played with that they are not allowed to play with. Discipline both if you don't catch them in the act. They'll sort it out amoungst themselves.
3. Feliway so did not work for my little freaks. Maybe you'll have better luck.
4. TOYS!!! Lots of options. My boys favorites are pom-poms. They lose them, I find them, they lose them again. Buy them from the craft store they are less expensive. When they are not in play keep them in cat nip. It may make them more enticing. Try it on a few first I have heard of cats NOT liking cat nip.
5. You got them last year---Terrible 2's. My cats did the same thing. Had to teach them who was alpha.
Good luck and don't give up on your babies. It's trying and hard but I couldn't imagine not having them to come home to. When it gets bad remember you love them and think of how much love they give you. They will teach you patience. Good Luck.
ITA with the pp you need to start with vet visits. If you have had them for a year and not had these problems then its odd for it to start now without a trigger. I had (and still have) a male cat who marked/peed in strange places. Here is what we did for him. Now understand that it was intense, but it *mostly* worked. This male cat also has a history of multiple UTI's so I kind of wonder if he always had mild UTI's or discomfort even though we got him checked out before we put him in kitty boot camp.
Basically we confined him. We treated him like we would treat a dog. We bought a "Cat Play Pen" which is like a huge two story crate for cats. Its tall with little perches so they can jump. And he went in there for about two weeks. He was ONLY allowed in the playpen unless we took him out and supervised him for playtime. And for those two weeks when he was out he was literally tethered to one of us (with a leash tied to our belt loop) at all times. He had NO free reign in the house. He was a prisoner for awhile. For two weeks he consistently used the litterbox and ONLY the litterbox. When we thought he could handle it we allowed him to have "free reign" but ONLY in the spare bedroom that his cage was in. So he could go out into that room and we put a second litterbox in the room for him to use so he had two choices of litterboxes. We did this for about a week. After doing this he still has accidents but almost every time he has an accident it is because he is getting a urinary tract infection. So we know that when we start seeing that its an immediate vet visit.
You want to also keep in mind that for two cats you should have a MINIMUM of 2 litterboxes. One is not enough, and many cats are particular about their litterboxes. Some things you can do if you find out this is not health related is to 1) add another litter box 2) clean your litterbox more frequently (i.e. twice daily if you are doing it once daily now) and 3) make sure that there are no overwhelming smells or perfumes near the litterboxes as sometimes cats are particular about that. You could also try introducing a new litterbox with a different kind of litter to see if its a preference issue.
My cat was often peeing on the cotton bathroom rugs, and the vet actually told me that it may be a "substrate preference" and that I may have to resort to cutting up old towels or something and re-training him to use the litterbox by mixing my chosen litter substrate with the cut up cloths until he was back to only litter.
And I am wondering what you mean by they are being destructive? My cats are a PITA for sure, they knock things over, they are into everything, etc. But that's normal cat behavior. Ever heard the phrase "curiosity killed the cat?" Are you providing enough stimulation for them? Perhaps getting a cat tree would be helpful. When my cats were younger they LOVED jumping around on the cat tree. Now they are older and are lazy but you need to provide some outlets for their energy. Scratching posts, cat tree, and lots of toys is important.
This is not an "odd" policy. This is actually quite common in the rescue/shelter world. Many people are very lax about finding suitable families for their pets, and most shelters would prefer them to bring them back to the shelter so that they can rehome them through the same process that they were rehomed through before. This is actually a mark of a very good shelter/rescue because it means they care about the animals and their welfare even after they have rehomed them.
No, no, no. DO NOT spend the money that you have on "buying them a bunch of toys." All the things you listed them doing are completely normal cat behaviors. Mine knock stuff over all.the.time. Thus I have adapted and dont have many "chatchke" type of things all over the house. And I make sure that the important items are not out in plain sight where they can be knocked off of high surfaces. You might think of it as both cat-proofing and pre-baby proofing your house. Because if the cats can get access to it so will your future toddler/toddling baby. So it might be good for you to start now by cat/baby proofing the house.
I would also check Craigslist for a used cat tree. That should help with getting some of their energy out. Cats need to play, and often times the little cat toys arent enough. Ours rarely play with ours, preferring to play in/out of brown grocery bags, and run through the house like they are possessed.
I would take the money that you were going to spend on the toys and spend it on at LEAST one more litterbox. Seriously make room for it. Somewhere. Sometimes cats have a "change of heart" and something that was working fine for awhile is no longer acceptable.
Then I would take them to the vet with anything left over.
BV, I agree with the pp who mentioned that since it's BOTH cats and a recent development that it may just be a behavioral issue caused by your pregnancy. Did you also say you were staying at home now? I doubt that both cats would have developed a medical condition at the exact same time.
We have 3 cats and a dog and for the last 3 years, one of our cats would constantly pee and poop outside of the litter box. Through 3 different apartments/houses. Now, for some reason, this stopped after we moved to NJ.
Our dog is so well behaved that we don't have to crate him when we leave. We let him and the cats have free reign over the house. However, after we moved and I was at home for 6 weeks, he got used to me being here. After I went back to work, he started acting out while I was gone.
Sometimes even the slightest change in routine can get your animals out of whack. I suggest extra playtime with them, make sure your husband is keeping the litter box cleaned out daily, and try filling a spray bottle with vinegar. Cats HATE the smell of vinegar so when they get into something they aren't suppose to...I just spray it down and they leave it alone.
Yes, I started being a SAHW at the beginning of March. The development of the crazy has only been in the last month or so. They are good cats most of the time, but when they are left alone, the do all sorts of stuff they never used to do. Our cats are weird, but they actually LIKE vinegar. We tried vinegar in a spray bottle and we would squirt them when they did something they weren't supposed to...they would lick and lick and looked like they were having the BEST time with it! I'm thinking about getting double sided tape...I read that they don't like the texture of it so they'll stay off when it touches their feet.
Our Baby Boy is due September 8, 2012
Yes, definitely spayed. The HS wouldn't let us have them until they spayed them. Their litter box has a lid, but no flap or anything...they haven't seemed bothered by it before now but I'll have DH take it off and see if it helps. We do have a kitty tower...they'd rather scratch it than climb on it. They'll jump up every once in a while and look out it but they seem just as happy being on the floor and looking out the window.
I'd bet the house that this is the problem. They are now used to you being at home. That, coupled with "bun in the oven" smell that you've got going on to them... Every time you leave the house, they think you're abandoning them. Odd behavior for cats, as they are usually more independent, but not unheard of. Try giving them treats when you leave and then again when you come back. Positive reinforcement and obviously, if they are bad, constructive discipline. You could try spending a weekend leaving the house for a few minutes, coming back in, leaving, coming back in and so on and so forth to see if you can break this habit of theirs.
I'm a little late to this, and it might not be relevant, but I think maybe you are someplace not too far from Nashville, BV?
ValueVet is a chain around here with relatively cheap office visits ($33) for an office visit/exam. It's drastically cheaper than our old vet ($60 for office visits), and usually it's not so difficult to get an appointment. On their website, it specifies that examinations include behavioral consultations, so you might be able to get the cats looked at and get more advice on behavioral strategies if you can't figure it out.
I felt my blood beginning to boil while reading this thread...
Shame on every single one of you who have made an uneducated, unwarranted and completely ignorant response in reply to the OP. To assume that you are an expert on somebody else's situation, financial or otherwise... is ridiculous to say the least. I am utterly disgusted at some of the assumptions and the asinine comments that have flowed throughout. I say bullsh!t to anyone who claims to not have run into a tight financial situation at an inconvenient and unforeseeable time in their their lives. And kudos to those of you who have, and were able to make it through unscathed.
Sh!t happens, and it's not always (if ever) convenient. Sometimes you have to postpone, defer or forgo things - whether you want to or not. Anyone that has been through a fairly tough and rough financial situation would know and understand this. Just because someone makes the decision to become a pet owner doesn't mean that they are immune to financial hardships at some point in their lives.
...and FTR, I don't recall hearing the OP say that she plans on abandoning her cats...throwing them out the front door or driving them to the other side of her town to dump them out - where in many places, that is exactly what someone who is irresponsible and ignorant might do. In fact, it looks to me like she is reaching to find alternative solutions to better the situation.
BV - there were some great suggestions here about checking out different vet services that may offer lower cost alternatives or checking back with the HS for vet care, as well as several other things you can try to hopefully bring their behavior back in line. I wish you the best of luck and hope that things work out favorably for all. Coming from someone who has been a pet owner her entire life (and 11 years with my current dog) - I totally understand the frustration you are feeling.. I've been there... a few times. Exhaust your local resources and do the very best you can; and if that still isn't enough, only you can decide what the next best step will be. GL.
I was thinking this! My doggy has been acting up everytime we leave the house and it has only started recently because I haven't been working as many days a week and I am done with my college for the summer so she's used to me always being here with her. She tore up my front door one day and we are talking a 5 lb Yorkie poo here, so how this is possible beats me. Good luck with the cat thing I know cats can get a little crazy sometime and I am sorry about the whole money situation I hope everything does level out before your baby gets here.
I was also wondering if you found anything out since you posted about the cyst thing? Or is that even what it was? I just know something was worrying you and was wondering how all that is going?
BV, I'm late to this but have to respond because I had cats doing the exact same thing as yours a couple of years ago. It's super frustrating because no one thing worked and it ended up being a lot of trial and error. We did take them to the vet and tested for UTI which came back negative. The vet didn't go any further into testing.
We got two more litter boxes, one covered and two uncovered, and put them around the house. We tried out different litter in all three to see what they preferred. Have you tried the litter called Cat Attract? That was their favorite. Then once we found litter they liked we locked them in one room with three litter boxes and food and water for about a week to retrain. I also spent a lot of time with them in the room to reassure them.
Cat proof your house so they can't knock things over/shred things to pieces. Also, we put tin foil down secured with duct tape in all the places they peed on the carpet. Super cheap and looks terrible but they don't pee there anymore.
Good luck, and keep trying!
No, I don't think cats = kids, but kids are destructive. For the OP to come on here and call her cats stupid and beasts for doing typical cat things is sad (breaking lamp, tearing up tissue boxes). Pets are part of the family and they tear stuff up just like kids, they need to see a vet just like kids see a doctor. OP said she was worried about the landlord being upset about the carpets and she was upset about her cats breaking things. DH and I laugh that we had to pay a pet deposit and not a kid deposit. My kid is way harder on our house than our cat.
This could be my exact story, destroying cords, plants, etc. Do my cats live at your house too??? We have two female cats and one of them is far more destructive than the other one. Her is what we have done, hopefully it will help you out.
I hope some of these work for you. Feel free to PM me if you want any details on anything. I feel for you; like I said, this is almost exactly my story as well, but it does get better. And for what its worth, one of my cats did have a UTI once and it wasn't an invasive or exploratory procedure. They got a sample from her, tested it and gave me antibiotics.