SOS! Desparate... Cat scratching

zipee

I have a 9yr old cat that I've had since a kitten. She only likes me & hides from everyone else. She only started sitting on my lap about 2yrs ago & loves it now.

She was always very nervous & has always vomited with nerves & hair balls. She will vomit for a week after vet visit, or if I've been away. She vomits if she leaves it too long without eating ( like if she goes out in morning without breakfast & doesn't eat til night time). I tried meds from vet but they had side effects.

She always scratched my couch in my old house. But I moved last Oct. & she has everything in my new house destroyed!! I bought new furniture on this move & I am not joking but she has destroyed leather suite, leather dining suite, fabric suite, bed frame & is now starting on my oak stairs!! Thousands of euros with of damage.

She actually loves new house & garden. She is much more relaxed here & is not hiding from kids now. I have scratching posts (which she doesn't use). I am trying the "Kalm aid" supplement. But if I don't find an answer soon I don't know what I'll do. My mother is at me to have her put down. I don't think I could give her to A new home as she is so nervous (I think it would kill her)

The thought of putting her down kills me. I have persevered for 9yrs with this cat. I just can't imagine putting her to sleep. But I can't take it anymore. I discovered 2 new items destroyed this morning. She also woke me at 3am vomiting in my bedroom (always under my bed - pillow end) the smell is awful & then I'm up crawling under bed trying to reach vomit & clean carpet!!!! I feel I must be nuts to keep this up.

Any advice???? I am at my wits end.

VonVix

Is she an indoor/outdoor cat?

Have you heard of nail caps? They're little caps you can put on a cat's nails, makes them pretty blunt so there is likely to be far less damage. Not sure if it's the most suitable for a cat that spends a lot of time outdoors in case she feels the need to protect herself from other animals.

Also, have you found a cat food brand suitable for sensitive stomachs/easy digestion? I also have a cat who is a nervous-vomiter.

Pumpkinseeds

Does she throw up the food soon after eating? If so she's probably bolt eating, which is just eating so fast that she ends up bringing it up again. I tried Kalm aid and tbh I didn't find it any good for our 4 cats. I got Zylkene calming pills(non addictive) from our vet which helped a good bit but didn't have 24 hour coverage.

Now we use Royal Canin Calm. It's a dry food with the same kind of calming stuff in it and since we leave the bowl of dry food down all the time they're nibbling it and it's worked wonders. We had a huge amount of tension and spraying going on before that. There are also Feliway diffusers that you can get and they're basically a plug in that releases a steady supply of stuff that reassures cats. Humans can't smell it. It can be bought much cheaper online on Amzon or Zooplus than in shops and each one lasts about a month.

A lot of people swear by putting double sided tape on furniture and other areas where cats scratch. You might try getting a really sturdy scratching post that she can use without pulling it over on herself. I buy most of our stuff online from Zooplus.ie or Zooplus.UK.

I'm sure you'll get a lot of great advice from other people here but do not put her down. If the absolute worst comes to the worst and you can't keep her then talk to a Rescue in your area.

zipee

VonVix wrote: »

Is she an indoor/outdoor cat?

Have you heard of nail caps? They're little caps you can put on a cat's nails, makes them pretty blunt so there is likely to be far less damage. Not sure if it's the most suitable for a cat that spends a lot of time outdoors in case she feels the need to protect herself from other animals.

Also, have you found a cat food brand suitable for sensitive stomachs/easy digestion? I also have a cat who is a nervous-vomiter.

Thanks for reply. She goes out for most of the day if weather isn't bad. Comes in then & sits on my lap or beside me for most of evening & sleeps usually on my bed. I also have a 15 yr old indoor cat & they adore each other.

I have tried different foods, including ones from vet but no difference with vomiting. But I can live with the vomiting but the scratching is just gone way too far.

zipee

Thanks pumpkinseeds. I am waiting for vet to phone me about the food with the calm stuff in it.

I hear ya about not putting her down but my fear with rejoining her is 1) the stress of it for her 2) her missing my other cat & me 3) her scratching is so bad that I find it hard to believe anyone would stick it. My fear then is that whoever takes will dump her or be cruel to her. I don't believe in putting animals to sleep without very good reason. I just think she is heading to that "good reason" fast. I desperately want to find a different solution.

I am even thinking could I make her an outdoor cat with bed in shed but I think it would break her heart not tobe allowed in at night after all this time.

Pumpkinseeds

Try the food first. My vet had never heard of it and when someone suggested it to me I just thought what use is a new food going to be? It made a huge difference to our 4 and it does calm them down. There are some great rescues around but I know how hard it is to rehome a much loved animal. There are loads of scratchy posts on the market, vertical and horizontal, whichever your cat prefers.

I think the Royal Canin Calm would really help her, I've been using it for a couple of months now and I evangelise about it to everyone. We were at a point where everybody was telling us we were going to have to rehome one of our cats and we just couldn't do it so we tried everything we could and the food was the only thing that has really worked. It'll reduce her anxiety.

Zapperzy

I use the nail caps called softpaws. Ordered them off the website and took about 2 weeks to arrive from america. Quite easy to put on if you do it while they're still sleepy or quiet, initially they chew and pull at them but once they get used to them they don't notice. I got them for the same reason but it's a bonus that she now has fancy yellow nails. But it's not recommended to use them on cats allowed outdoors, they can't defend themselves or climb so could end up stuck somewhere. Can you clip her claws?

Loads and loads of scratching posts too and a variety of them, horizontal and vertical, sprinkle catnip to encourage her to use them.

Mines 9 too and sounds very like yours, nervy and likes to throw up. I found dry food to make her vomiting worse, she was bolting it down without chewing and it was coming straight back up again, even dried treats if she ate a few too fast. I give her wet food little and often now, she's fussy and sometimes goes most of the day without food so I know if I were to give her a big bowl of food then at night she'd bolt it on an empty stomach and regurgitate it. In that case I do try and give her a small bit of something tasty and handfeed her slowly just to have something in her stomach so I'm not cleaning puke up the next morning.

anniehoo

Zapperzy wrote: »

I use the nail caps called softpaws.

This is good to know that there's no aversive effects of these for indoor cats-never knew anyone who used them. Can they manage to pull them off at all? How do they act when they first go on?

zipee

Thanks again for replies. I will chat to vet about covers for claws, but I can't see me keeping her in. She likes out & will always find a window or a back door left open by kids. She escaped with a vets collar on her after surgery one time & I found her 2 gardens away with her paw stuck in the collar & her looking like she felt pretty silly!!

anniehoo

zipee wrote: »

I found her 2 gardens away with her paw stuck in the collar & her looking like she felt pretty silly!!

What collars are you using zipee? The one's that snap in and out? Quick release?



Or close like a belt?



I absolutely HATE the ones with no quick release function for the very reason you've said. I've lost count of how many "quick release one's" my cat has lost, but the fact he's losing so many has me wondering what he's up to :rolleyes:;)

The best cat collar I've used has been this one from Zooplus but i needed to order 4 at a time for the minimum order. It has snap release but tougher than the supermarket/petshop ones and all stretchy nylon. I can't for the life of me find anywhere else that sells them except Zooplus, so I'm giving in and buying 4 next month

zipee

Hi annihoo sorry I misled with my post. My puddy had surgery & had one of the huge plastic vet collars to stop her licking her wound. She still manage to escape through a bathroom window only open a crack. She pushed window open & escaped. My point being she is a good escape artist & I can't see her settling as an indoor cat with the claw covers.

Thanks

miezekatze

My cat also likes to scratch furniture - she also has plenty of scratching posts and also uses those, but sometimes only the couch or dining chairs will do, it seems. I know double sided tape seems to work for lots of people, but not for me. You just can't put it on everything and it's really hard to get it off again. The only thing that seems to work in my case is a spray bottle filled with water. I just shake it when she starts scratching something and she backs off, I haven't had to spray at her in a long time. I felt pretty bad using it at the start because she hates it so much, but it was the only thing that worked for me. You have to remember that for her, scratching stuff is an instinct, it's not something she does to annoy you. I can't believe someone would even consider killing an animal for a reason like that.

Pumpkinseeds

This is another very good product that I've heard positive things about. It might be a useful tool for you and you can buy it on Amazon UK

http://www.animalbehaviorassociates.com/training-ssscat.htm

Alun

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

This is another very good product that I've heard positive things about. It might be a useful tool for you and you can buy it on Amazon UK

http://www.animalbehaviorassociates.com/training-ssscat.htm

I have one of those too, it worked great for stopping one of our cats getting up on the counter and peeing on the cooker

I got mine from here ...

http://www.petsafe.ie/magento/index.php/deterrent/spray-deterrents.html

I think it works because the deterrent is pretty much instantaneous, so the cat identifies the noise with what it's done wrong, rather than there being a delay between the two, however short.

Zapperzy

anniehoo wrote: »

This is good to know that there's no aversive effects of these for indoor cats-never knew anyone who used them. Can they manage to pull them off at all? How do they act when they first go on?

Well the first night I got 5 on her, I think two had been pulled off by the next morning and another fell off a few days later but I think those that fell off were my first attempts and I was still getting used to how much glue to use and how short to cut the nail first. I think I have them about 2 or 3 weeks now and she doesn't bother with pulling at them anymore.

She reacted exactly as she would if I were just clipping her nails, allowed me to do the first paw and then decided to repeatedly bite me when she ran out of patience. She didn't notice them for about 10 or 15 minutes then just started looking at her paw and lifting it up to lick, a few minor chews but distracting her worked a treat. I think when she was left alone at night she probably had a good chew at them but apart from that she reacted surprisingly well!

I was expecting the broken cat syndrome when cats have shoes put on them I would recommend them to anyone to at least give them a go (for indoor cats only obviously) going by my experience anyways. I was quite hesitant to get them initially, thought they'd be quite cruel and just some mad american invention. I can't wait for the next vet visit, they already think I'm a tad crazy

zipee

Thanks pumpkinseeds & alum. That looks brilliant. Definitely worth trying that. Many thanks

Pumpkinseeds

I saw in on the programme My Cat From Hell. It's very good for advice. You might find some more helpful info on his Facebook page or just google Jackson Galaxy The Cat Daddy:D