Incontinent cat, how to deal with it?

fattymuatty

Our cat is very sick and is on very strong steroids and antibiotics to try and help. He has, over the past few days, become incontinent, just with poos. It's awful, just the most foul stench imaginable. To complicate matters(or maybe not?) he is a sphynx, so he is very used to being on peoples laps, he cuddles up whenever he can, he is just not happy unless he is on someone. If anyone has had a sphynx they will know what I am talking about, they just love people.

Because he is so sick and we might lose him we don't want to leave him all sad and alone, if these are his last days with us we want him to feel loved and safe, locking him away would be torture for him. So far we have been wrapping him tight in a blanket when holding him, when the stench hits, we clean him up and replace the blanket with a new one. I work from home so can be with him most of the time, at night we put him in the bathroom.

Has anyone got any alternative ways to deal with this that I am missing? Leaving him in a crate or something by himself just isn't an option for us(already leaving him alone at night is a wrench and he cries because he has always slept with us), like I said if these are his last days we want them to be as good as we can make them for him.

jellybear

Oh I really feel for you OP My initial thought is that it may be the time to make the difficult decision as I would question your cat's quality of life and also happiness I know how difficult it is and I don't say it lightly.

Nappies with a hole for the tail may help. Another poster, SillyMangoX, has a lot of experience with cats and may have more advice. Hopefully she'll be along soon to give some advice.

So sorry you're going through such a difficult time.

SillyMangoX

As many on this forum will know, I’ve been through a couple of years with an incontenant cat before we sadly lost him. His was mainly urine but we went through a fecal incontenance stage too. The one thing I swore by were incontenance sheets, the kind you’d put on a chair under an elderly person. I bought a bulk amount on amazon but I’m sure you can get them in any pharmacy.
I would just cover all soft furnishings in them and put one over my lap when he wanted cuddles. Saved so much washing and cleaning as they can just be thrown out. He did sleep in a crate lined with them and vet bed at night time to make the morning clean up easier as he couldn’t sleep in beds for obvious reasons!
Another thing we got was a custom made nappy that had a little insert for a sanitary pad which could be changed. It wasn’t great when his bowels were loose as it would dirty his fur, but with a sphinx it may be practical as the clean up would obviously be easier! I can’t remember the exact website we got it from as it was several years ago now but I’m sure a google search would find it, it was something like handicapped pets supplies.
Finding a food that worked as well was very beneficial for the fecal incontenance. As much as I like to try and feed the best foods I can, the one food that helped him was hills I/D wet food from the tins, not the pouches or dry. It was literally the only food that cleared him up. It works out pricey enough but I’d buy in bulk from zooplus and it worked out a bit cheaper than the vets.
Also cleaning up with biological washing powder really helped cut through the smells much better than most cleaners.
I wish you the best with your little cat, it’s a tough old road when they’re suffering from something like this but hopefully it’ll all come right again for you!

fattymuatty

jellybear wrote: »

Oh I really feel for you OP My initial thought is that it may be the time to make the difficult decision as I would question your cat's quality of life and also happiness I know how difficult it is and I don't say it lightly.

Nappies with a hole for the tail may help. Another poster, SillyMangoX, has a lot of experience with cats and may have more advice. Hopefully she'll be along soon to give some advice.

So sorry you're going through such a difficult time.

Thanks jellybear, we are waiting for more test results to come back before we make any decisions. It's between 2 things a blood parasite which can be fixed with the steroids and antibiotics or lymphoma which we won't be able to fix. Until we get those test results back later this week we aren't going to make any decisions. Obviously we have thought about what will do if the results are lymphoma but to be honest the thought of losing him is too much to bear right now so we are hoping against hope the results show up parasites.

jellybear

Have everything crossed for you that it's positive news

fattymuatty

SillyMangoX wrote: »

As many on this forum will know, I’ve been through a couple of years with an incontenant cat before we sadly lost him. His was mainly urine but we went through a fecal incontenance stage too. The one thing I swore by were incontenance sheets, the kind you’d put on a chair under an elderly person. I bought a bulk amount on amazon but I’m sure you can get them in any pharmacy.
I would just cover all soft furnishings in them and put one over my lap when he wanted cuddles. Saved so much washing and cleaning as they can just be thrown out. He did sleep in a crate lined with them and vet bed at night time to make the morning clean up easier as he couldn’t sleep in beds for obvious reasons!
Another thing we got was a custom made nappy that had a little insert for a sanitary pad which could be changed. It wasn’t great when his bowels were loose as it would dirty his fur, but with a sphinx it may be practical as the clean up would obviously be easier! I can’t remember the exact website we got it from as it was several years ago now but I’m sure a google search would find it, it was something like handicapped pets supplies.
Finding a food that worked as well was very beneficial for the fecal incontenance. As much as I like to try and feed the best foods I can, the one food that helped him was hills I/D wet food from the tins, not the pouches or dry. It was literally the only food that cleared him up. It works out pricey enough but I’d buy in bulk from zooplus and it worked out a bit cheaper than the vets.
Also cleaning up with biological washing powder really helped cut through the smells much better than most cleaners.
I wish you the best with your little cat, it’s a tough old road when they’re suffering from something like this but hopefully it’ll all come right again for you!

Thanks so much for all that. Incontinence sheets sound wise, mornings are pretty grim here at the moment. I had no idea they make nappies for cats! It s something I will look at for sure, like you say we have no fur issues so wiping him down, although not pleasant is quite easily done. We are already using bio washing powders for his blankets to try and combat smells.

I'll check out the food too, one problem at the minute it is because he is taking so many tablets and the antibiotics in particular are huge, we are having to crush them up and put them in strong smelling food. The vet recommended sardines, I'm not sure they are doing him any favours but we need him to take the tablets. He has a monstrous appetite at the moment and I cringe when I see him chowing down because I know what is to come, he is rejecting dry food but horsing into wet so I will try the hills with him. It can't get any worse.

In a way we are lucky that he likes to be held so much, his day right now is sleeping in the blanket on my lap, only getting down to eat, drink and pee in the litter tray so most of it is caught in the blanket during the day.

I just really hope these pills work, I can't imagine not having his company all day as I work, he is my little lap warmer.

Alun

Regarding the pills, I don't know if you know but you can get special pill crushers in pharmacies which are a lot easier than bashing them with a rolling pin which is what I was doing previously.

Our cat is on 4 different pills / supplements at the moment, and it's a real challenge to get her to take them so I sympathize.

kathleen37

I use a pill crusher, and then mix the crushed tablets in primula. I get the tubes rather than the tubs. It's like crack to all our cats. Might be worth trying with your boy?

All the very best
x

RockDesk

To follow what kathleen37 said, I have to give my cat a liquid which she hates. I use this stuff, and mix the liquid in - http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/cats/cat_treats_catnip/vitakraft/300107.

She always eats it all.

I can't help with the other issue, but maybe this could be another way to give him his tablets without having the awful smell (could the smell be from the tablets as well?)

Alun

RockDesk wrote: »

To follow what kathleen37 said, I have to give my cat a liquid which she hates. I use this stuff, and mix the liquid in - http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/cats/cat_treats_catnip/vitakraft/300107.

That looks interesting. I've always thought that someone ought to make little sachets of the 'gravy' that comes in cat food pouches to encourage them to eat the last morsels when they've licked all the gravy/jelly off. Might give that a go.