Cat with crystals in urine peeing outside box
Hey guys!
To preface this, I have already contacted my vet, but it is currently 2 AM, and I will not be hearing back until at least 10 AM to get an appointment scheduled.
My cat is about 5 years old, I foster failed her a little over a year ago, and she's been with me since. When I got her, she had already been diagnosed with crystals in her urine, and she's on her prescription diet (the Hills Science Diet, my vet and the SPCA recommended). I had a big bag of another urinary food from Purina that I found out after was not a prescription, but nowhere near me will take it as a donation, so I've been mixing a little bit in with the Hills food until I can finish the bag. My cat just had her yearly check-up, probably about a month ago, and I mentioned this then to double-check it's okay, and at the time, they didn't seem worried about it since it's mostly Hills, and everything looked fine. I had requested then to look specifically for crystals since that's the medical issue of hers I feel the least prepared for, but they really didn't seem worried about it.
She's recently (in the past two-ish weeks) started peeing outside her box. She first did it right outside her box and had been playing, so I kind of chalked it up to being an accident since it hadn't happened before, and otherwise she was acting perfectly normal. It's happened once or twice since (the second time I was out of town for the weekend and my roommate was watching her for me, and the third time we aren't sure if it was my cat or my roommate's cat- the two cats don't get along great, there's some hissing but no guarding anything, they do sometimes play together. We think my roommate's cat is all talk and mine is just a bit of a butthead). She just did it again about 30 minutes ago and peed all over one of my bags (I'm graduating this week, so I've been packing to move back home).
My leading theory, since she's been acting fine, is that she's just stressed and acting out since I'm packing, but knowing she has the crystals in her urine and the vet kind of blew it off last month, combined with the mixed food, has me concerned. She isn't straining, howling, yelping, crying; they aren't small amounts when she has done it, I haven't noticed any blood, she isn't obese (if anything, she's probably slightly underweight), she's playing and cuddling like normal, she has a fountain water bowl, and I mix all of her food with water and intermittently give her wet food.
I know I'm likely overthinking it, and she's just acting up about me packing up everything today, but it does have me concerned, so I wanted to ask around while I'm waiting on a vet response.