genuinely don't know what to do

[captainsway]

hello, new here but have been lurking for years. i have two sphynx cats, around age 7 and one of them has been driving me up a wall for a while now. it's getting to the point where i'm thinking about rehoming because i have no idea how to help him

about two years ago, he started pooping on the floor outside of his litter box. nothing was different around the house and i even did all the steps of getting new litter boxes, new litter, new location, deep cleaned the area, etc etc, and nothing helps. this was before i had to get a biopsy because he has weird cysts in his nipples but it was confirmed it wasn't cancerous so i try not to worry about it. he had a period of time during the surgery where he was on antibiotics that completely destroyed his gut bacteria but i put him on probiotics to help restore them and he's back to normal poops. he still poops outside of the box though even when i change to fresh litter!

the past month, he's been driving me up a wall. he refuses to sleep under the blankets anymore even when i put out different textures and types of throws. he only wants to sleep in three different places: by the window, half draped over my laptop (even though i push him out of the way) and inside a paper bag. he will cry and run when i try to put him under the blanket on the bed and i just don't understand - my other cat is perfectly fine sleeping under there. the one in question has skin issues up the wazoo too. i discovered he has skin allergies from regular laundry detergent so i got sensitive skin detergent and he got better. but he still has dry skin (freaks out when i put lotion on him) and gets red patches when irritated. this guy is an excessive groomer (even on his brother) so putting lotion seems to exacerbate the issue at times. admittedly i'm not the cleanest person, but i try to maintain a living level for my cats and nothing is seeming to help. i try to stop him from shoving his face on my laptop (he wants the heat) because 1) it blocks my view and 2) he will try to dig his face so far into the vents that he ends up starting to wheeze and it worries me.

his behaviour is just all over the place lately. i attributed it to losing my furry cat back in february and i got the boys some toys and a nice little bed to make up for it. it seemed to work and this guy loooved the bed, but then i got a new blanket and he would only be under that and refuses to touch the bed. but now he refuses to touch any blanket and runs away when i try to coax him under. i semi suspect he might also have fiv? or some sort of illness that is the reason for his skin issues? he gets colds and sneezes a lot once a year or so but i put him on lysine treats to try and help that. it seems to work? but i'm not sure and it's driving me nuts. none of the vets in my area are sphynx specialists and the one animal dermatologist is almost an hour away. does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?? i have been getting so anxious and upset over this guy and i don't want to rehome him since he's been my baby for years but i'm feeling so hopeless when he's sitting there screaming and i don't know what to do.

 

[Catzzzmeow]

Have you had a recent wellness check? What also jumps out at me you is the heat seeking part…maybe a heated bed would help calm them down. @captainsway


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[captainsway]

i can take them to their regular vet - again, they're just kind of unaware of what's going on with sphynx cats if there's anything specific to them. the thing about the heat though is that like. my apartment is kind of hot af bc my window ac broke - i have a small fan for myself but the bed should be out of the way when i'm up. he won't even come under the blanket with me at night unlike his brother who actually gets overheated and has to poke his head out of the blanket :/

 

[Yoda mom]

@captainsway , welcome to the lair family and jumping in to join us. we are here for you. what are your babies names? all paws are family. so sorry you are going thru this. my babies did change and act off after their sibling got angel wings. your baby could be stressing from the loss? meowing searching?
mine would not sleep on same spot. I coaxed him back with some tiny treats on the blanket and "sleepytime" command. he is back to sleeping next to me.. the bed goes untouched.

lotions can cause issues of their own too, even coconut oil no longer recommended as can clog pores. I will share a link to the threads outside box issues and skin issues ( you may have seen but wanted to reshare).
do you have a pic of his skin to share with us?

my boys prefer the largest litter box I could get (and I dont use the door flaps on covered boxes, I pop them out, location of box can matter too. scented litters too can be an issue. I know the process of elimination to find the source.. we are here for you. you are not alone.

why do you think he has FIV? has regular vet ruled out a URI? can you drop off a poo sample to check? is he eating ? drinking normally? Is he neutered?

my cat was driving me crazy meowing all of a sudden. it was awful... turns out there was a stray kitty that got in my attic! who would have thought.
is there outside kitties that he can sense see causing him anxiety? just trying to brain storm

so glad his tumor was benign.

my heartfelt condolences your furbaby got angel wings. I share in the hurt and the adjustments the rest of my crew went thru.
prayers your ac gets fixed. I have gone thur alot this past year and get it.. deep breath, baby steps, we are here for you . hugs n head smooches, tell us more about shampoos, use scented litter? change of food?

 

[Yoda mom]

@captainsway , we are here for you, here are some handy links/ threads..
members will surely chime in.

sharing I live in a small town, cant really afford all the specialists and soo far away.

my vet does not have alot of sphynx specific experience yet incredible and will consult call colleagues. please share pics of skin, may be helpful for us to see and share some thoughts.

Sphynx pooping or peeing outside the litter box

It can be very frustrating when a cat/kitten starts not using the litter box. The first thing to do is see your vet to rule out a UTI (urinary tract infection) if your cat see is peeing outside of the litter box. A urinary infection can become very serious very fast if it is not treated quickly...

sphynxlair.com

Sphynx Skin Conditions

#1 Food allergies: It is not uncommon for some sphynx to have food allergies. Many studies have shown that certain ingredients contained in cat food are more likely to cause food allergies than others. The most common offenders are chicken, beef, lamb, seafood, corn, soy, wheat gluten and dairy...

sphynxlair.com

 

[captainsway]

thanks! the one giving me issues is archie and his brother is arnold. the thing that archie does is scratching outside of the box before pooping. he'll pee in the box just fine, but pooping has been his issue for ages. the only thing i can do at this point may be getting a non clumping litter? i'm just baffled bc he was just fine with the litter we've been using for years and i've even swapped out to two different types, but he didn't like either of them any more than the regular stuff. i used puppy pads for a while, esp when he was on antibiotics/probiotics and he would use them, but he would try to scratch them to cover his poop so it's not sustainable. he doesn't really meow searching (his brother does that a little more), but he'll stand in the window and meow at me/things outside until i look at him. he poops and pees regularly and eats and drinks just fine. he actively grooms and plays (attacks) his brother; it's just his sleeping spots that have changed recently.

he's a tux and has been slowly getting pigmentation since he was a baby - he's got sunspots, but the dry skin is the biggest issue. i use hylyt lotion but not as often bc he'll just lick it off again :/ bathing is also a stressful situation but i used to use antifungal/antibacterial shampoo before swapping to an oil based shampoo after finding out about his allergy.

i'm wondering if it's my apartment location. bug season is bad this summer so he might be getting annoyed by that. i have to use clumped litter so far because of my apartment and my landlord complaining about smell (arnold doesn't cover his poop and it didn't matter to archie even when i had four litter boxes). archie actually gets along fine with other animals when he used to go outside (with a harness before i found his cysts) and only gets upsetty when i won't let him out. unfortunately, until i get a better paying job we're kind of stuck here.

his litter was sick when they were babies so we got him at 6 months instead of three and he was fine until about a year old when he started getting skin pigmentation issues. he got antibiotics a couple years back for a kitty cold, and he started getting diarrhea from that so they tested his poop for any irregularities (that's when i started him on probiotics. the ones from the vet didn't do much but i ended up buying recommended stuff and they worked a lot better). i only suggested fiv bc of his sneezing/wheezing issues lately and i'm running out of ideas. he still has dry skin too and i feel like a bad kitty mom for letting him be this way and my regular vet has no suggestions bc sphynx :/

thank you about my furbaby. she had diabetes and i didn't realise until it was too late that she wasn't doing ok - at least she's not suffering anymore. i was afraid the boys would be weirded out since she's been with them since they were babies. here's a pic of archie driving me up a wall by invading my laptop space (five minutes before he started wheezing bc the laptop was digging into his neck =_=)

 

[Yoda mom]

@captainsway , awh (((hugs))))) , love their names! hope to see a pic of Arnold
My first sphynx was strange, she would pee in the big litter box of unscented dr Elseys clumping in the blue/white bag. I had to set up a separate litter box right next to it, a low profile plain square box with Yesterday's news unscented pellets. she would pee in the covered box with dr elseys, then get out and go poop in the shallow low profile box with yesterdays news unscented pellets . I could only figure out that she liked standing on the edge of the low profile box to poop.

my darker boys have normal pigmentation, sun spots too. for spa days I use hylyt. for inbetween spa days ( mine haaate baths btw), I do weekly wipe downs for nearly a decade with trizultra w/ keto. I wet swissper square cotton pads with the trizultra and gently wipe all body parts, EXCEPT Face, for which i just use a warm washcloth.
the trizultra really gets the brown off necks, armpits, bellies, chins. they rarely ever need full baths now. my vet over 15 yrs ago got me hooked on trizultra with keto to wet swissper round pads and qtips to gently clean ears. I even use it to wipe around the nails, toe skin.

sharing, My Toby has seasonal allergies. thought it was his heart. vet checked with a video I showed vet. it was reverse sneezing . she told me to get chlortabs and gave dosage for his weight (always check with vet first! my vet sent me to WM for chlortabs for about $3, and gave dosage. I use it too with my bengal cat with vets instructions . never give unless check with vet for dosage and instructions.

do you use any candles, incense, etc?? keep in mind essence oils can be toxic to kitties.

does he have any diarrhea, soft stool issues?
mine are very picky , I have to scoop 2x a day or it is not to their liking lol

what allergy does he have?

any recent stool sample checks? my vet will allow me to drop off a stool sample to check if she has seen him within a year?

hugs n head smooches to baby Archie and Arnold. we are here for you. I totally understand the frustrations. you got this.

sharing, my mom adopted a kitty years ago with out of box issues. we took out the plastic bag litter liner, switched to dr elseys and no more issues. I believe yesterdays news was discontinued. i would try an alternative litter perhaps in a shallow box next to regular box and see if Archie maybe just wants to stand on the edge of a litter box to poop?

looks like Archie wants to be close to mum while on computer. my bengal cat does this all the time.

 

[captainsway]

i thought i had trizultra but i couldn't find the bottle - i'll have to order some more and give the litter suggestion a try. i also got a fungal cleanse just in case since his skin is really weird (he's ashy u.u). i had like. four different types of litter boxes and he just doesn't care about any of them. :/ had a small shallow one (my furbaby used to like that one which was funny bc she was huge). had a really large one, had one with a top that they hated (had to remove it bc my girl would hit her head on it lmao). again, he'll pee! the other boy uses both all the time, but archie just refuses to use it and gets mad when his poop is uncovered and it's like, bud, you're the issue.

he has contact dermatitis as far as i know. literally tried everything and his skin was flaky and irritated to hell, but i stumbled on sensitive skin laundry detergent and started using that. hasn't had the same issues since (only new ones lol). i don't use any scented stuff, only cat (or baby) approved products for the boys and even unscented litter. the nipple cysts were weird since the vets asked if i had any estrogen lotion but nope, nothing :/ just weird swollen mammary cysts. he doesn't have super soft stool (wavers between regular poop and slightly soft, but still normal).

money is a bit tight at the moment (unemployed but still have money) so no tests yet, but if he gets any worse then we're going straight there.

i just don't get why he wants to stick his face in my laptop if he wants to be close he used to sit on my lap and cuddle all the time or sleep curled up next to my stomach at night but he just doesn't want anything to do with that at the moment. hope he gets over this funk for both our sakes lmao (included some pics of both of them - i'm just so ??? bc the pic of archie is literally from a month ago and now he hates the blankets lol)

 

[Yoda mom]

@captainsway , checking in for updates on baby Archie. hugs n positive vibes, head smooches to adorable Archie and Arnold. please keep us updated.

 

[captainsway]

been a loooong time, but just in case someone finds this post forever in the future with a similar problem: he had a sunburn!! he would sit in my kitchen window and apparently would get too much sun. his skin was so irritated and flaky because of that so that's why he refused to be under the blanket and wanted to just use my lap or my laptop to stay warm since there was less skin being touched and also why lotion wasn't working. i stg it's the whole 'allergic to my laundry detergent' thing all over again. he's still having litter box issues (and so is the other one because ofc the one that archie liked, arnold didn't *rolls eyes* but it's not as terrible. i still love my baby boys and they're still cuddly as ever.

 

[Catzzzmeow]

been a loooong time, but just in case someone finds this post forever in the future with a similar problem: he had a sunburn!! he would sit in my kitchen window and apparently would get too much sun. his skin was so irritated and flaky because of that so that's why he refused to be under the blanket and wanted to just use my lap or my laptop to stay warm since there was less skin being touched and also why lotion wasn't working. i stg it's the whole 'allergic to my laundry detergent' thing all over again. he's still having litter box issues (and so is the other one because ofc the one that archie liked, arnold didn't *rolls eyes* but it's not as terrible. i still love my baby boys and they're still cuddly as ever.

Thanks for updating this thread.


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[Yoda mom]

@captainsway , thank you so much for the update and figuring out it was sunburn. very helpful for members who may be experience the same skin issues with their babies to rule out over sunbathing. glad the out of box experiences are not as terrible. (is it possible dry stool and a partial segment left out of box when exciting? just brainstorming )

hugs n head smooches , hope you can share some pics of sweet baby boys!