Dear Dr. John,

My cat is 14. We lost his sister within the last year, and he has not been quite the same since. Lately, he seems to have been straining in the litter box and not having proper bowel movements. He also seems to be hiding some and exhibiting weird stretching behavior with a twitch in his tail. Could stress be the cause of all of this? I had my vet take a look at him and, to appease my stress, even though it was not deemed necessary, she gave my cat a shot of an antibiotic and a steroid.  My cat started to act much better and more normally. Is it wrong to try something even without a proper diagnosis? Whatever we did, it worked! S.P.

Dear S.P.,

As you probably know, cats are prone to stress and can exhibit all sorts of behaviors and develop all kinds of problems as a result of whatever the cause of the stress might be. The fact that you had another littermate cat that died and left this cat alone could easily be a cause of stress or distress. Straining in a litter box can be a sign of a urinary tract infection or feline lower urinary tract disease. It is important to address such a clinical sign promptly since a urethral obstruction can be present and it can quickly turn into an emergency situation. Not having bowel movements if he had been eating could suggest constipation but luckily that was not the case. The stretching and tail twitching could be a sign of physical discomfort.

Hiding unusually is also a tip off that something stressful can be going on or that the cat does not feel well. You are not the first pet owner or patient that has asked for something to be given in the absence of a specific diagnosis. I am not in favor of simply giving something, especially in the case of antibiotics so as to prevent possible resistances. I can make a case for giving a shot of a corticosteroid as an anti-inflammatory given the signs that your cat was showing. Clearly something changed and I suspect it was that injection that made the difference. Most importantly, I am glad to hear that things are back to normal!

Dr. John de Jong is President of the World Veterinary Association. He owns and operates the Boston Mobile Veterinary Clinic and can be reached at 781-899-9994.