Warning signs
One way to look for illness in your cat is to watch for changes in behaviour. Especially changes in their cat litter behaviour such as not using their cat litter or staying in their box after they've made their contribution.
Sophie's story
Sophie was a rescue cat I was fostering and I noticed she stayed in her cat litter tray as if it were her new bed. Being quite inexperienced I didn't recognise this as a problem. Then to my horror I found blood in my bathroom but had no idea where or from which cat it was coming from. I started taking a keener note of each cat's behaviour and frantically checking each one for signs of blood.Eventually I saw that Sophie had blood trails coming from her. I was very upset and thought I was going to lose her. I rushed Sophie to the vet who diagnosed it as cat Cystitis. Poor little Sophie had to stay overnight at the vets but thankfully we got her there in time. Cat cystitis can be a common problem in cats. Males are more susceptible as they have a narrower urinary tract. It is treatable if caught in time. Sophie started on a 7 day medication and it's not always easy getting a cat to take a pill but wrapped in tuna or chicken seems to work.
My cat rescue co-ordinator advised I should bring in more fluids to her diet because dehydration can be a contributing factor. So Sophie was treated to canned tuna juice (brine not oil) a little evaporated milk mixed with water along with a little extra water in her wet food.
Cat stress
After a little research into cat cystitis I found another factor can be stress. And as I looked back over Sophie's life the previous couple of weeks before she became ill it all began to make sense. Another rescue cat was staying with us. The new cat bullied Sophie a little. Sophie protected herself by staying high up on the fridge out of his way. This meant the little cat's access to her food, water and litter tray was restricted at times. To us humans this might appear to be no big deal but to a cat, I learned, it can be traumatic. I did everything I could to de-stress her life making sure all her cat "things" were easy for her to get to. She was given regular little healthy food snacks and plenty of human care and attention. She was also kept separate from the bully cat.
The story ended well and I'm happy to say Sophie returned to health and was adopted by a human who was just purrrfect for her.
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