The chaos from the move caused family stress and apparently it affected my cats.
The first part of the cat stress was a new cystitis in my male cat. I was so helped by this video that I decided to blog it.
On Labor Day weekend I was unpacking from the move and working in the walk-in closet. It has two parts then there is an 8x8 storage room off of it. When I left the room at dinnertime I shut the door. I did not realize the male cat was trapped in there. The cat was so stressed and wanted to get out that he was flinging his body against the door which finally woke my son up at three in the morning and my son let him out.
The following day the cat was howling in pain and hiding under the bed and growling. This was unusual. When I tried to pick him up my hand touched his abdomen and he screeched. I also guided him to the litter box and saw him straining and he could not void. This was before bedtime on day two.
The next morning the situation was no better so I spent Labor Day in the pet ER. When they gave him the tranquilizer to do the x-ray he voided a lot and was diagnosed with cystitis.
It took me a day to realize the cat developed a new habit after treatment: he refused to use the litter box as he associated it with pain. I got a new box of a different style and put it in the same room as the first one. My cat was voiding in various places on the tile floors and leaving smelly puddles behind. One favorite place was in the guest powder room which has a tile floor. I wound up having to buy a third litter box and placing it in that area for him to use. My goal is to wean him off that so the guests don't have to see or smell a litter box when they use the powder room.
The transition was still not great. We visited our new vet. She said that keeping cats indoors actually makes some cats filled with anxiety. I know this male cat has always loved sitting in the screened window or sitting on a screened in porch (which we don't have now). We seldom have open window days in Houston. However the new house has a half acre backyard with a six foot high solid fence. The cat is declawed. I decided to let him out in the daytime. This worked well on two accounts. First, he is happier hunting and exploring around. He has a territory in the yard and goes on patrols all day, going in circles protecting his turf. Second he has started using the great outdoors as his litter box. We keep him in at night and he uses the box if he needs to at night or if we are not home and left him indoors.
I also used Feliway cat pheromone per the vet's suggestion. I doubt this helped but you never know. We use the room diffuser method. When it runs out I am going to not replace it and see what happens (since it is expensive especially when purchased full price).
We have been dealing with this and trying to get him to stop peeing around the house for nine weeks now. This is a process. We had even more stress during this as my husband threatened to get rid of the cat if he didn't quit peeing around the house.
Antoher cat problem happened with our female cat that we have been dealing with for about a month. That is a story for another day.
Feline cystitis is complicated and is stress related. It is not a simple bladder infection. If this video is not enough information for you, google for articles, there are some good ones available.