Henriettas Family

by Henriettas Family
(UK)

We took in a cat from a rescue centre 3 weeks ago, the cat had the same owner from being a kitten and came to us straight from her owner, so she never spent any time at the rescue centre. Her owner was reluctant to give her up (along with several other cats she has) but due to circumstances and responsibilities she had for a very sick family member she had no real choice.

We were told Henrietta was around 3 years old, we have found her to be (as the owner promised) a most lovely, gentle and affectionate cat and it is obvious that she has been very well loved and given affection in abundance.
However, when she came to us she was sneezing quite a lot and despite being treated had fleas, we brought to our vets a couple of days after bringing her home and was told that she has ear mites, tonsillis and was underweight, she also has a lump on her gum which the vet is going to monitor. The vet gave us antibiotics and ear cream which Henrietta has become very distressed during the administration of these, to the point where she breaks out in a sweat. A couple of days after the start of the antibiotics she developed diarroah which we thought would clear up after the antibiotics had been in her system for a few days. This was not the case so we returned to our vets who advised stopping the antibiotics and prescribed diarsanyl x2 daily for 3 days and advised once the diarroah had settled we would try a different type of antibiotic.
Anyway, I know thats a bit long winded but i wanted to fill you in on the background prior to asking my question - which is MY CAT HAS RECENTLY TAKEN TO LYING DOWN IN HER LITTER TRAY EVEN WHEN THE LITTER IS SOILED WITH DIARRAOH I ASSUME THAT IT IS ANXIETY RELATED AND I WONDERED IF ANYONE ELSE HAS HEARD OF ANYTHING SIMILIAR? I have not been able to find anything specific on the internet, mostly it has been general information in regards to litter training.

Hope you can help

Answer by Kate
Oh poor kitty she is going through a lot. Apart from her various physical illnesses i am suspecting that she is very stressed in herself what will leaving her familar surroundins and poeple that she new. SO i would say that the unual behavior is probably due to her trying feel more secure in her home. Now her litter tray nad her poo will smell of her completely and this probably make her feel secure and that is why is is sitting in it as this is where she feels most secure (strange i know but cats are lead more by smell than much else).
You will have to give her lots of time to get used to her new surroundings and to get over her various illnesses. I would suggest confining her to one room with her bed and litter tray and only letting her out to eat. This will help her come to terms with a much smaller area, once she is used to this after a week or so you can start to let her into other areas of the house. See my page here about bonding with your cat and moving with your cat on the behavior, cat care and training pages for more info.

Best wishes and thankyou for submitting such a lovely picture.:)

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