Wow...a lot of great ideas on here. I have a very stubborn Maine Coon and he thinks it's the best gift ever to not only have a plant to chew on, but for me to put pebbles (I also tried fist sized rocks) or sticks in the dirt because he LOVES to use that extra thumb to plop those rocks & sticks onto our hardwood floor at 2am. Toby also loves water so the squirting doesn't work and loves to play with foil and celophane (I tried covering the dirt). And Toby loves spicy food so the cayenne pepper didn't work...he just licked the dirt. But I've also come to the same conclusion as most of you. Compromise. We've now got cat grass (a nice fescue) in a shallow sturdy 18" pot drainage tray for our cats to play in and the rest of my houseplants are either hung from the ceiling out of harm's way or out on our balcony. Call it a truce with the cats. They can enjoy their chlorophyl and instinct to chew/dig and we can enjoy some houseplants.

I have a story, but it isn't funny. We have a little yorkie-poo. She was less than a year old when she got sick. She had a few stomach issues and they did a poop culture (sorry!), and found some type bacteria. Treated that but within a couple of weeks, she started vomiting one evening. She had never done this and after a couple of times I called our vet. Because of her small size (she's only 9 lbs. now fully grown) they had us bring her in so she wouldn't get dehydrated. They examined her, pumped her full of fluids and suggested we watch her closely overnight. The fluids and some meds helped with the vomiting but by early morning she was vomiting again. We got up, dressed and ready to get her to the vet their opening time. They did an x-ray and showed us that something was showing in her digestive track. Something she had ingested. I remembered that she had torn one of her little toys and although I never saw any stuffing out of the toy, I knew there was stuffing and we just assumed she had eaten that. They had to do emergency exploratory surgery. I bawled my eyes out. The next day when we were allowed to *visit*, the vet showed me the PLASTIC MEAT WRAPPER that she had eaten. It was to a pretty critical point, it had started through her intestines. The vet was wonderful, even took our little baby home with her overnight to keep a close eye on her and the pup came through the surgery with flying colors. And a nice little *zipper* down her belly. Hubby and I both felt awful. We didn't know she had gotten the wrapper. We figured that she had quickly grabbed it out of the garbage (which was behind a closed door, but if she saw us put something in there she'd jump up to investigate) and gotten away with it without us seeing. The stick on label on the plastic wrapping was what we were seeing on the x-ray. Alot of tears and $$$ over a meat wrapper! She's not interested in the garbage anymore (she was just a puppy then) thankfully, but we are even more cautious when throwing something away! I never throw away a meat wrapper now without putting it in another bag and tying it up first. Our pup too watches tv. It's hilarious. There was an M&M commercial that she didn't like. Now she doesn't like the Weight Watchers commercial where they have the little orange monster (hungry). She knows by the very first sound of that commercial that it's THE ONE and immediately starts barking. She barks at most dogs she sees on tv, other than cesear. Maybe because he's little like her. tina

I also would ask about stopping the antibiotics. My cat had a reaction to Clavomox, and didn't want to eat even after stopping the Clavamox and giving her the anti-nausea drug. I hand fed her slices of ham (the only thing she would try) for a couple of days until she trusted that eating wasn't going to make her vomit. Ask your vet if switching to a different food for a couple of days would be okay. I don't think the crystal build up would happen that quickly and, anyway, not eating is more dangerous than urinary crystals. Try baby food or cooked turkey or some treat that your cat likes. He may think that his regular food is making him feel sick. Margaret

Yes, your kitty could be allergic to something in the food. Here's another thought. Does he eat dry food? If he does, it's possible he's gobbling the food down too quickly and that could be causing the vomiting. I know that doesn't necessarily explain the poop, but try feeding him only a little bit of food at a time. Like give a small portion and then wait 20 mins. Then give him a little bit more etc. That might help with the vomiting. If he gets wet food you could try it that way too. Just give a little bit at a time. As for the poop in the wrong place. As cats age sometimes they get forgetful - just like humans. My previous cat had this problem. He went in the wrong places, but once we moved the box it almost stopped. I say almost b/c sometimes he had accidents, but it was definitely a lot less. I would try putting out more than one box. Keep one in the usual place and another in the bedroom where he does inappropriate poop. I hope this helps!