Absence of Human creates stress-induced FIC

Question
Our cat (we have 2 actually) was orphaned at a few days. The whole litter was hand fed by friends but had to give some of them up early as it was very difficult (about 4-5 weeks old). We took one and now, 5 years later, has become extremely attached to my teenage son. The problem is that my son is an athlete and travels 6-8 times a year. Whenever we travel we always get someone reliable, caring and known to look after the cats. But when we are away the cat becomes so stressed that she develops Cystitis every time and we keep having to put her on antibiotics. Giving her medication is terrible as she is very much against it and that in itself creates a lot of stress. In addition, it is also very expensive. What can I do to relieve her stress and make her less dependent on and less attached to my son?

Answer
Alex,

Have you ever thought of taking the cats with you? When you travel how long a time are you away?

I am not a vet, but it is entirely possible that the stress of separation is causing anxiety with this cat. It is a bit surprising that being with her companion would not be enough.

I would look at your cat's diet and minimize the dry food.  Also, you should put both your cats on distilled water as the mineral content is minimal. There are good non-prescription diets you can use to minimize the possibility of cystitis. I wonder if she still has a mild case and it flares up when your son is gone? There is a long acting anti-biotic called convenia (one shot lasts about two weeks).  You can check with your vet and see if she can be given this stuff prophylactically?

What kind of antibiotics are you giving? It may be possible to get them in a form that is not stressful to the cat.  We wean our cats on a good brand of strained meat baby food and they consider baby food the best food ever and will take most medications in the baby food. Another way of disguising medication is using tuna packed in oil and mixing the medicine with the tuna oil. Usually once they get used to taking medication in something, they will tolerate the strange smell.

If you are near a compounding pharmacy, see if they can compound the antibiotics into a transdermal gel, which can be put on the skin in one ear or the other.  When we give medication trasdermally, we alternate ears and always wear latex finger cots. After administering the medication we wait a while and clean the ears with some isopropyl alcohol on a que-tip.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Best regards... NOrm.