Page 16 - Spring 23

Cladonia rangiferina – 3 cases by Edward de Beaukelaer
A 14-year-old Tonkinese cat: she is one of 3 cats in the household.
A consultation was requested because she urinates on the settee when she lies close to her owner: she gets up and is all wet underneath. It seems that the urination is unnoticed. She has had cystitis once previously, but no signs of cystitis were present at the time of the consultation.
She is a strong-minded, slightly difficult to handle. She has a slight overbite.
In the past she has had an injection of Cartrophen for the bladder (hyaluronic acid) and was frothing afterwards and had diarrhoea.
“She is very active, as soon as you open a cupboard, she is straight in; she is convinced there is a mouse in every corner, and she will find and kill it.
She has no maternal instincts: a new kitten came to the house, and she made it a living hell for her until she realised, she could sleep with the kitten and then all was fine.
She always tries to lie on top of the other cats, she is constantly looking for attention. She is nasty, she is not a bad cat, but she is annoying headbanging for attention from the old cat all the time (the old cat was fragile and it upset him). She hated him. She was very territorial over her food bowl, she had to eat first.
(In the consult room she keeps walking between me and the owner meowing.)
She needs attention all the time she is annoying. But she will go out hunting; she kills everything.
She is desperately insecure. She gets stressed if one of the other cats is stressed.
We gave her tuna to take tablets for the cystitis. When we stopped the tablets, she kept bringing mice in to get more tuna. It stopped, when she brought us a dead rotten rabbit and was spluttered with the intestinal content.
She can cope with change but gets worried later. We call her the witch’s cat.
She gets nervous, if she does not get the same attention as the others; as soon as we sit down, she is on our laps. She wants my lap; if I put her on my husband’s lap, she looks at me: why can I not be on your lap. If she is unwell, she wants me to make her better.
She creeps in to lie on the other cats; you do not want me, but I want to curl up with you.
She is happy here in the consultation room, because she has both of us for her time. She could not be on her own.
She will follow and cling on to visitors as well; they call her the dog cat.
She can be stressed when the other cats have enough of her.
She is the queen outside: she is in charge, she will hit the other cats, she does not need them there. She is the queen of her home patch. She if fairly fearless, I always felt she would stand up for me if a burglar would come in.
It is never enough; she never gets enough attention. She wants all the love and affection but the next minute she may lash out. (Q: Why does she lash out?)
There were several kittens; where she came from, she was always investigating something, and when she came back there was no food left: this made her insecure for getting food and attention. Never enough food and attention.
In the house I have to stop her being a bully.
Initially one of the other cats was cleaning her bottom for her; she could not wash herself initially. The other cat got fed up doing this.
She knows she is going to be kicked out by the other cats when she lies on them, but she needs the physical contact.
She would be running around my son, who has psychotic episodes, I will make you better, she was affected by his problems.
The neighbours used to find her collar on their spare bed. She used to spend time in their house without them noticing.’’
Clad-r 200C for 3 days
1 month later
“Not as desperate to sit on my lap. Before she could not share with the other cats, it was tiresome. Her toilet is small and hard, always been.
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