One lost cat and a sad cat left behind

[sadaboutcat]

Dear all,

One of our beloved cats disappeared nearly a week ago. He is the brother of our other cat, who is normally outgoing and mischievous. Sadly, since the disappearance the cat left behind has been sad and withdrawn and has taken to scratching things in his stress.

We have the cat pheromone spray, which we have been using, but I wonder if anyone has any advice on what else we can be doing to help our sad little cat in the meantime? We're giving him lots of love and strokes but if anyone has any other advice I'd love to hear it! It's so upsetting to lose one cat and the effect it's having on the other one is breaking our hearts!

All advice would be gratefully received.

[PoshPuss]

Oh bless his heart, if he's feeling anything like I was when Posh was gone its awful for him. Keep giving him cuddles and making him feel loved. I'm praying for the safe return of his bro. If you PM me I can point you in the direction of some missing pet links.

[Elaine]

A Feliway plug in might be better than the spray, you could also try some rescue remedy, a few drops in food/water or rubbed into tips of ears may help reduce stress. Dont over fuss him as you may be nurturing the stress rather than comforting him.

As for your missing cat have you tried....

Putting up posters in shops, on lamp posts etc?
Contacted local radio/newspapers?
Knocked on all neighbouring doors and asked them to check sheds and garages?
Phoned local vets/rescues/cats protection?
Posted on as many forums, you never know...
Contacted local council?
Asked local postman/milk man to look out for your cat?


Useful links
www.lostmycat.org
www.nationalpetregister.org
www.petsbureau.co.uk
www.animalsearchuk.co.uk

[pookyandjo]

I hope your other cat is found soon.. some cats can become very withdrawn when they lose their friend/s..
When we lost our cat Tinky Winky to cancer last year.. our other cat George became VERY depressed...at first he was just withdrawn and spent most of the day wandering from room to room looking for Tinky.. after a couple of weeks he stopped doing that and would spend most of his days upstairs sleeping.. he wasn't he usually goofy self and didn't want to play or be groomed or anything..
a little while after that we noticed some blood in his urine...the stress of losing Tinky had brought on a bout of cystitis we got some metacam for that and it cleared it up.. but after we stopped the metacam it cam back... at that stage our vet decided to try a short dose of anti depressants...
I have to say at that stage it thought what a load of rubbish... plus i thought that they would be like human anti depressants where they had to taken long term... Not the case at all...
George was on his tablets for 5 or 6 days and after the first couple of days he was like a zombie.. luckily my vet had warned me that he would be like that and i wasn't overly concerned... after the course of tablet he gradually got back to his normal state (undrugged) and then over the next couple of months he just very gradually got back to his old self..( it was almost like the medication continued to work long after he had finished taking it)

Im not saying that your cat will need to take anti depressants... i suppose its more to make you aware that stress..(whatever the cause) can cause other problems.. and you should be aware of them.. cystitis is a common stress complaint in cats.. especially males... because the urethra is very narrow in males and is prone to
inflammation... just continue to give him his usual helping of TLC and keep an eye on his demeanour and toilet habits so you can get any problems sorted out as they arise