Dear everyone,
I have a cat, named Mouse, who is almost 1.5 years old.
The past two weeks, my boyfriend and I went on a holiday. In preparation, I spent weeks figuring out what would be the best and least stressful option for my cat while we were on holiday; I considered bringing her to my parents (a 3-hour drive), bringing her to a cat hotel or leaving her at my house and find someone to take care of her.
I figured the third option would be the least stressful for Mouse, as it would entail that she got to stay at her own place with her own toys, food and everything. As I couldn’t find a friend to take care of her, I hired a catsitter through an online service. I met with the catsitter before our holidays and it felt right. She was very sweet to Mouse and Mouse seemed to like her. The deal was that she would come over for about 40 minutes to an hour every day while we would be gone.
Now I know my cat is a little sensitive to change plus something else that I thought may be a problem is that she has been going outside for over half a year. I live in a country where that is very common (it is almost considered cruel to a cat to keep them inside). I live in a quiet neighborhood and she always wears a GPS tracker when she goes out. However, as the cat sitter was only going to come over for an hour a day and Mouse tends to stay outside for hours, I suggested the cat sitter did not let Mouse go outside. After all, if Mouse stayed outside for longer than an hour, she would not be able to go inside until the next day.
I foresaw that Mouse would object to having to stay inside and I thought she would maybe pee outside the litter box. She has done this before, in the past. If she’s forced to stay inside for a weekend, one time she may pee right outside the litter box. It’s annoying but from experience I knew she would only do this once or twice when we were gone.
I was dead wrong.
After the first week of our holiday, the cat sitter texted us, asking if it was normal for Mouse to fully pee outside of the litter box (i.e., not near her litter box at all). I explained no and the cat sitter said there were small puddles of pee in three places. Knowing this may be a sign of a UTI, I told her to keep an eye on it. The next day, the cat sitter texted me that Mouse had peed in several places again and that there was blood in the pee now. I immediately called the vet and arranged for the cat sitter to take Mouse to the doctor.
The next day, Mouse went to the vet and the vet established there was blood in the urine and that she would probably have a UTI. Mouse was prescribed anti inflammatory medication and painkillers. The vet also checked for a bacterial infection but that was quickly ruled out. The vet in the end told me that this behavior was probably caused by stress and when I asked what to do about it, she told me “just come home”. Needless to say, the last few days of the holiday were a bit meh because I felt as if I had gotten my cat so stressed that she got a UTI.
Every since the vet visit, the cat sitter informed me of new puddles of pee and also stated that she’d cleaned them up.
We came back from our holiday yesterday night. As soon as I walked in, I saw several puddles of pee; in my bedroom, in the living room and in the hall way. Today I spent the day cleaning and I found cat pee EVERYWHERE. On the floor, in cabinets, on my electronic piano, on all of the curtains and even IN the bread toaster on top of the kitchen counter. In any case, I am sure she has a UTI because there was blood in the urine, but for her to pee in the bread toaster (which is almost impossible if you tried) makes me feel like this whole thing is definitely behavioral. It’s one thing not to be able to control your bladder, but another to go out of your way to pee on different objects out of reach.
Now I know that cats can get stressed from change and from the get go, I tried so hard to prevent that from happening. I know that she doesn’t like going to the litter box and I knew she wouldn’t appreciate being locked up for two weeks. However, I never thought she would freak out so much that she would get a UTI and pee EVERYWHERE. I have spent all day cleaning my house and I’m still finding puddles of pee.
The thing is, I feel like Mouse is excessively stressed and I don’t know how to handle it next time. I understand that I can’t leave my cat all the time but I only left her for two weeks (with someone to take care of her every day) and it escalated so much. She’s had one of my friends take care of her before for ten days but that was when she wasn’t going outside yet, and then she was fine.
In any case, this situation was obviously not preferable for any of the parties involved. I feel very bad for Mouse that she was this stressed but I also feel like a part of my holiday has gone to waste because of this and I really did not want to spend the last two free days of the year cleaning up cat pee in my house. It’s clearly not relaxing for any of us.
I don’t want to give up my holidays (I also don’t think it’s reasonable to do that, as many people with cats just go on holidays) but I also don’t know what to do next time. The vet is kind playing it down by saying that it’s behavioral and all is fine if I’m home, but once a year I want to take a 2-week holiday and I don’t want to be this stressed about it.
Is there anybody out there that has had a similar experience with their cat? I could really use any input.
Thanks in advance.
