Urinary Issues Advice (FIC)

[Tinys Mom]

My 11 year old cat Tiny gave me a scare a month or so back when I caught him squatting in his litter box with nothing happening. We took him to the vet, had x-rays and blood work, luckily he wasn't blocked so I got antibiotics and sent home. He was then going about every 5-10 mins only about a drop at a time. Over the next two weeks he improved slightly but not enough that I was happy. The vet took him in for observation and to take a urine sample, followed by a culture. The results of everything came back normal. With the exception of blood in his urine he had perfectly normal blood tests, no infection, no stones.

The vet determined it was most likely a Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease called Feline Idiopathic Cystitis, which basically means they ruled out everything else it could be, don't know why it's happening, but it's believed to be caused by stress. I had to switch him to wet food, which was a nightmare because he's always hated the stuff, I eventually was desperate and tried blending it 1 can of water to one can of chunky wet food and he LOVES it, but ew it's gross. My boyfriend refuses to help me feed him the cat food soup lol. She also suggested a pheromone collar.

He's been doing way better now but is having some signs, like if I'm cleaning his "bedroom" too long (he doesn't like to go to the litter box in front of me) as soon as I'm done he bolts in like he's going to explode. He also has gone around and pee'd on every one of my dog's beds. Only the dog's beds, he hasn't peed on anything else.

So my questions are:

Any ideas about the inappropriate peeing? He doesn't really care for the dog, but they mostly ignore each other, although he does slap her around if she's in his way.

Does anyone else have a cat with FIC or other urinary issues/stress issues have any other suggestions beyond what my vet suggested?

Also, is there a difference in the different types of pheromone products? My vet suggested either the feliway diffuser plugin or NurtureCALM pheromone collar. I went with the collar because he spends equal amounts of time in his bedroom and my bedroom, but it isn't available anywhere around here so I have to order it. Are the Sentry HC Good Behavior Calming collars the same thing? That's what the local petstore carries.

Sorry for the overly long post!

[Ritzpg]

Tiny,
Ritz has stress-induced FLUTD, basically, what your cat has--no blood, some crystals, goes into the litter box, squats, nothing comes out, goes back out, goes back in--the litter box dance.
Good that you're giving Tiny wet food, male cats are prone to blockage, a life-and-death emergency.
I'm not familiar with Sentry HC calming collars, but I swear by Feliway diffusers. You plug it in, well worth the money and much cheaper on Amazon. I plugged it in before I had work done on my condo, and Ritz did not develop a UTI. Last time I had work done in my house, no Feliway, and she developed a UTI with some colitis.
You can also buy the Feliway spray, more temporary, but can spray areas maybe around the pet bed.
Inappropriate peeing MAY be caused by Tiny remembering pain--Tiny associates the litter box with pain so finds another place to go. So you might want to throw away the old litter pan and get a new one, maybe a slightly different shape, size.
Good luck.