Please help

Question

my cat   QUESTION: Hi,
I have a Ragdoll cat who is indoors only. She is scared of everyone out side my family. It takes her a while ( about a week for visitors who stay at our house) to get used to new people. The thing is, I want to get a dog. a Golden Retriever. But she is so scared of everything I have such a bad fear of her getting depressed, not eating, and she might die. She is not afraid of rabbits. But i have babysat a kitten and she hid the whole time it was here and i have also watched a dog and you don't see her until an hour after they have left and the least. Is there any way that she might get used to a dog? If not, I will just have to wait before getting a dog. Her name is Malia, and she is 4 1/2 year old. You can see the pic i attched.
Thanks for your help!,
Maria

ANSWER: Maria,

You have an absolutely gorgeous girl there! It's important to remember that Malia's behaviour is completely normal for a cat - cats are very territorial animals and when they are distressed by changes in their home environment they can develop one of two basic coping strategies if they aren't completely at ease - fight or flight. Malia's coping mechanism when she's uncomfortable is to flee and hide. I believe that you could potentially get a dog or even another cat if you go about introducing your new family member slowly. I think that Malia might also benefit from the use of alternative therapies such as homeopathy or acupuncture to help her begin to cope more effectively when she's feeling stressed out. One remedy that springs to mind that just might help Malia relax some is Bach's Rescue Remedy which is a blend of 5 flower essences designed to calm and reassure, I've seen this stuff work some pretty impressive miracles with fearful cats from a variety of backgrounds. The dose you'll want to try is roughly 3-4 drops of Rescue Remedy 3-4 times daily for a week or so (you can go ahead and give Rescue Remedy to her for longer and/or in higher doses without causing her any harm, but it's surprising how much change can begin taking place in a short period of time and the homeopathic remedy is simply to help start her on her journey to becoming more relaxed). I generally avoid giving any homeopathic remedy that's preserved in alcohol orally since cats hate the taste and smell - Rescue Remedy is preserved in grape alcohol so I'd recommend taking time to cuddle with Malia and while she's as relaxed as possible gently rub the remedy into the relatively fur free area of skin on the outside of her ear flap. You can also put a drop into the fur between Malia's ears - I've found that the Bach Flower remedies tend to be very effective administered around the head and face and this way you can give Malia some help calming down without stressing her out by forcing medication into her orally. My recommendation at this point would be to see whether or not you can find a veterinary homeopath, a veterinary acupuncturist or a holistic vet with training and experience in the fields of acupuncture or homeopathy in your local area to do a complete assessment of Malia's overall issues and begin treating her as soon as you can just for the sake of having her be more comfortable in her own environment and a little more able to absorb unexpected changes.

In future when you dog or cat sit you may want to either prepare a spare room for the guest pet or care for that pet in his/her own home at least for the next while since as I mentioned cats are very territorial by nature and they are quite uncomfortable with sudden changes in their environment by nature. Once you see how alternative therapeutic modalities impact Malia's anxiety and her signs of stress then you'll be better equipped to make a decision about whether or not to get a dog or wait for your girl to improve further. If you have any other cat related questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me again at any time - I'm more than willing to help in any way that I can.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi,
Thanks for your reply.

I have another question about my Outside cat, Winnie. Winnie is a Female Grey tabby, 9 years old,has only been an Outside only cat,and is spayed.
What i don't understand is why she vomits often. I tried asking the vet when we took her in for a check up, but I didn't really get an answer from the vet. She eats a good healthy food. Could it be that she eats to fast? How could i slow her down? Should I try another food?
Another problem she has is that she marks (sprays) everything. I don't care to much about outside, but she has marked everything in our attic(she sleeps in the garage at night). Do you know of any possible way i could prevent her from doing this in the garage?

Thank You!

Maria

Answer
Maria,

In order to get a better picture of why Winnie is vomiting fairly frequently I have a few questions that I have to ask you:

- What food are you feeding your cat?

- Are you feeding canned or dry food?

- Does the cat vomit food primarily or hairballs?

- When was the last time that Winnie had blood work done?

- Where does she eat?

- Are there other cats around while Winnie's eating?

When it comes to Winnie urinating in places you'd rather she wouldn't there are a few basic suggestions that I have for you:

- Providing Winnie with a litter pan filled with dirt like she'd normally eliminate in outdoors might help (just be sure not to put the litter near the food or she'll look for other places to relieve herself).

- Cleaning up any previous soiling with an enzymatic cleaner such as Petzyme (which you can find in a decent sized jug at the dog section of any Petsmart) will permanently remove the urine odor that may be causing Winnie to repeatedly soil in the attic. Enzymatic cleaners are also great for dealing with vomit, feces or blood stains so they're fantastic to keep in the house when you've got pets.

- Blocking Winnie's access to the attic permanently is another solution (once you've cleaned the area thoroughly with an enzymatic cleaner of course).

- Installing a cat door in the garage that allows Winnie to come and go as she needs to might be helpful - she may be using the attic to eliminate in if she can't get to where she normally relieves herself.

- Making use of a motion activated device to modify Winnie's behaviour such as the Ssscat (Petsmart sells this for about $40 CAN and it simply deters a cat from going into a specific area by sending a short blast of compressed air into their face) could help to keep Winnie out of the attic.

For more detailed information on the urine marking issue I'd like to recommend that you check out my previous answers on litter box avoidance/inappropriate elimination. If after reading my previous answers on this subject you have any further questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact me again - I'd be more than happy to help you and Winnie out in any way that I can.