In October we put one of our two cats, Jibs, outside in hopes of making him an indoor/outdoor. I already disagree with cats being outdoor cats knowing that it puts them in a lot of danger from cars, diseases and other animals, but we had been struggling for over a year with him spraying (ie. peeing) around the house. The final straw came when he began doing it on our counters. We had tried SO many things to combat the problem that we were just at our wits' end and could not continue with the unsanitary conditions with me being pregnant and then of course for when baby gets here.
What did we try? We tried getting larger litter boxes, we added litter boxes (I've heard that typical litter trays are too small, and I've also heard some cats like to have separate boxes for each bathroom function). We kept the boxes very clean. We tried Feliway plug-ins, similar to a Glade plug-in but with cat pheromones that are supposed to calm cats and help stop unwanted marking behavior (like scratching and spraying). We did that for 6 months, with additional pheromone spray on areas that he repeatedly marked (curtains, for example). We took him to the vet and there was no medical problem, so it was determined to be behavioral. Our best guess was that it started when we got our dog Lucy. The vet prescribed anti-anxiety medication. We tried that for a month but the problem got worse as we frightened Jibs every day trying to chase him down to give him the pills. We tried putting it in food, we tried varying the time of day (so he wouldn't suspect what was coming and run away), but we just couldn't get him the pill consistently enough for it to function. In fact it was making the problem worse.
So, finally, we put him outside, put a bowl of food out there, and expected to see him shortly. Days went by, weeks went by, and finally months and we didn't see tail nor whisker of our Jibs. Until this past Saturday... we got a call from a "neighbor" (she lives in a neighborhood behind us but we can see her house from our bedroom). She had been taking care of Jibs for about a month, feeding him in a back shed along with numerous other stray cats. She wanted to bring him back to us!
So, we got Jibs back on Saturday, and he was in bad shape. He had gotten his collar stuck around his leg/shoulder area and it had been cutting into him. (It was a break-away collar so I don't know how that happened!! If it had come off though we would have likely never seen Jibs again... so was it unfortunate or a blessing??). His tail had gotten caught in something and was missing fur and bleeding and he was all skin and bones. He threw up any food we gave him, so we worried he had worms, and who knows what else.
We took him to the vet and they kept him over night to run some blood work and clean him up. It turns out his tail had been cut down to the bone, so they had to amputate about a half inch of it! :( He had lost 7 pounds (almost half his body weight). They couldn't get a stool sample so they didn't know if he had worms, but they're treating him for it. But otherwise he had no other funky diseases, which is good considering he was apparently around a lot of strays.
I feel absolutely horrible! All of this happened to him because we put him out, so it's our fault! We obviously paid a hefty price for it, but that's not enough to assuage the guilt. Am I going to be a horrible mom, and give up on my child if I get frustrated with a behavior? How can I call myself an animal lover after all of this?
And now what do we do if the problem doesn't go away? We can't give him to somebody knowing of his problem! They'd just give him to a shelter, and who knows what would happen then... no one wants a grown cat...and especially not one missing part of his tail :( We're hoping maybe the break helped him release some stress, and that coming back into the house with a cat and dog already here he may be able to cope better... but what will he do when baby arrives???
I'm at a loss for what to do. I feel horrible and guilty. My poor kitty is running around with a cone on his neck and a short tail. He's been so affectionate since he's been back and it just makes me feel worse. He slept curled up half on me the first night he was back. :( At the moment he's trying to rub his cheeks along corners (as he usually does) but is instead just running into everything with the cone. He's been doing this for 15 minutes and hasn't figured it out yet... it's so sad! :( :( :(
Me trying to "scritch" Jibs so he can stop trying to rub on things
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