Runi is a first rate bio-feedback cat. I used to think he was driving me crazy, now I know the truth: I've nearly killed him a time or two when my craziness takes control of both of our lives. That's the part I want to talk to you about: listen to your cat when he's talking to you!
Runi is a lovely 9-year old Norwegian Forest cat. Kinda like a Maine Coon, with smaller ears and a big barreled chest. He's a big beautiful, loving cat who follows me around like a dog. When I'm home, he's never more than 10' away, usually closer. Like right now, curled up on my leg as I type sitting on the sofa.
Runi came to me by way of the Humane Society in 2007, a shelter cat with a pink "caution" tag attached to his cage. He arrived at the shelter the very day that I euthanized my 16 year old Boodles. He had been waiting for me for 10 days.
Evidently he was slated to become a TV star in ads for the Humane Society if we hadn't found one another that day. He's that good.
I had to go through extensive interviews to be sure that I could provide the proper home for this amazing cat who hadn't been getting along with his former family's 10-year old daughter.
I'm thinking, what? This is an AMAZING cat!
And it's true, he's an awesome cat with many talents. The most formidable is his ability to precisely track the mood of his human. PRECISELY.
So this is what I now know, 7 years later. Some cats are ultra sensitive to human vibes. Cat people know this intuitively, but now there is actual veterinary evidence: some cats are so attuned to human emotions, particularly stress and anxiety, that they develop a neurological reaction that triggers a urological disorder that mimics a painful feline urinary syndrome, the kind that blocks and kills male cats. Runi and I have been to the Veterinary ER on a dozen occasions (usually on weekends or the middle of the night) thinking that he was about to die.
A week ago I had a very stressful incident that triggered my Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) which is typically controlled by meds and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Thank you Obamacare, but that's another story for another time. However, this particular incident was over-the-top and set me off for 3 days before I could get things under control.
On the surface most people wouldn't have noticed, but Runi did. Boy, did he ever. Runi wasted no time letting me know that we weren't happy.
I could have told him, but he wanted to be sure I understood so he peed on my bed. I washed the linens and changed the bed. A few hours later he did it again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Three times in 15 hours! He's never done that before. Ever. We were both exhausted which made matters worse for both of us.
This time I understood that he wasn't blocked, but he was in severe pain. My stress triggered his neurons which triggered a painful inflammation in his bladder. I gave him pain meds, but they didn't give him complete relief.
My finances are tenuous, so I was trying to stretch the meds hoping that we could both recover sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, Obamacare doesn't cover his meds although I'm beginning to think I should try to make a case. But I digress.
How do I know all this? Over the past 7 years we've had many emergency visits to different vets who all diagnosed Feline Urinary Syndrome, which is nothing to mess around with. A cat with FUS is at risk of death from a plugged urethra and I don't mean to minimize that risk. It's real.
However, he was never fully blocked just in obvious pain. So I tried everything they suggested (except exploratory bladder surgery! I nixed that one pronto), did my own research, learned about the various diet related crystals that can form in a cat's bladder and tried the special diets that the vets recommended. He wouldn't eat any of them so I switched to a reasonably priced grain-free diet of canned cat food (from the big box store) mixed with water to dilute his urine.
A year ago we had another ER visit late on a Sunday evening. A wonderful young veterinarian who has cats of her own confirmed my suspicions that Runi's problem might be a bio-feedback response to my stress. I mentioned that I had read some preliminary veterinary research being conducted on cats in the UK. She pointed me toward current research from Ohio State University along the same lines. You can read about it here: idiopathic cystitis (IC)
Cats with IC seem to have variably severe involvement of their stress response system (internal factors), and are exposed to a range of environmental stimuli (external factors). Given the current state of our knowledge, we have limited capacity to treat the internal factors, and so have focused on modification of external factors pending development of drugs to modulate the activity or output of the stress response system.
So, Runi and I are working together on my stress levels to try to get them into a manageable range. I'm trying to manage my anxiety for my own well being and avoid triggering him.
Barring that I'm trying to pick up his signals more quickly so that I get him on a mild pain med ASAP. For those of you who may have encountered something like this with your own beloved cat - maybe you're even at your wits end - consider the idea that your amazing friend is giving you accurate bio-feedback about YOUR LIFE when things are amiss with him. An expensive, specialty diet or treatments won't make a dent in your cats health if its your crazies driving him crazy. Be well.
Tue Mar 24, 2015 at 8:20 PM PT:
Update March 24, 2015: Runi had another episode over the past few days so I decided to try speak2me's advice about triggering an adrenaline rush to stop his bladder pain. I took him out for a drive and ran him through the car wash (safely tucked inside his carrier of course). Wide eyed and alert, he came home calm and peaceful in a very clean car. 12 hours later he's still very mellow. Thank you speak2me!!
Update May 8, 2016: Since this has turned into an ongoing public service announcement for pootie peeps, I wanted to add another important note. About 6 months ago I started adding Dasuquin for Cats to Runi’s wet cat food. It’s marketed for joint health, but it also supports the mucus lining of a cat’s bladder. It makes his bladder more resilient to the neurological triggers that used to mess up the lining of his bladder and create painful urination.
Now if I trigger him he gets over it much faster. He has turned into an awesome service animal. I’m very grateful.