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Sefal posted:For chipping, does it hurt the cats? I kinda don't wanna do it if it causes them discomfort. It causes no discomfort that I've seen. This is just an RFID chip for the cat, a very small one, placed in an area they have a lot of loose skin anyway. Since the cats are going under for spaying they won't know it happened at all. Women get birth control rods put under the skin (much much larger than the cat's tiny chip) and it's not a problem mostly. And don't forget about those cyberpunk techies putting rfid chips and more under their skin too! The kitties will be fine. If they're like mine and wearing collars is so bad that they injure themselves trying to remove them, the chips are much better.
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Oct 29, 2018 17:04
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Thank you all for the advice. Sounds like i'm good to go with the insurance and chipping
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Oct 29, 2018 17:09
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Sefal posted:what a good cat. The most important thing is what is covered, how much it costs in your area (call vets to get quotes) what your deductible is and how much it costs per month. Then consider if you just set the monthly amount aside in a separate account if that will be just as comparable. At $30/month in four years you'll have $1440 saved up. Is that enough to give you peace of mind? Do the math to see if it makes sense. Just beware many pet insurances are structured very poorly for the owner with not enough being covered if you're not careful.
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Oct 29, 2018 17:09
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Spikes32 posted:The most important thing is what is covered, how much it costs in your area (call vets to get quotes) what your deductible is and how much it costs per month. Then consider if you just set the monthly amount aside in a separate account if that will be just as comparable. At $30/month in four years you'll have $1440 saved up. Is that enough to give you peace of mind? Do the math to see if it makes sense. Good point
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Oct 29, 2018 17:10
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The big key is reading them carefully, and also starting them young. They're even worse about pre-existing conditions than they are with humans. We had to sweat out our first claim with Rexie because a few weeks before we got her on insurance we brought her in for vomiting after we thought she ate some coconut husk fiber hair things. Thankfully the vet's notes explicitly said this was a suspected foreign body incident. But if you get them on young, it's also way cheaper. We put our new 6 month old kitten on and he's $20 and change a month for max coverage. Rexie's like $23, we started her when she was 2. Healthy Paws caps coverage if you enroll older cats, they can only get the minimum level or something.
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Oct 29, 2018 17:13
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They are both 4 months old. So I think i'm still in the early stages for insurance?
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Oct 29, 2018 17:16
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Sefal posted:They are both 4 months old. So I think i'm still in the early stages for insurance? Oh yeah you're good. Anything under 2 years is fine. It's when they're 4+ I think that it gets pricier and they start limiting coverage. Getting them on that early also guarantees no fuckery about prior vet visits indicating a pre-existing condition.
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Oct 29, 2018 17:18
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Sefal posted:They are both 4 months old. So I think i'm still in the early stages for insurance? Yes. We started Pizza on insurance at 6 months and Ozma at 1 year and they've both been covered for everything, and their initial monthly rates were very low compared to now, 6 years later. Pizza's has paid for itself between his urinary issues and his food allergies (allergic to basically everything). Ozma has been more healthy overall, but the peace of mind is worth it and it has definitely saved us from shelling out a few thousand more than once. We use PetPlan. Their plans aren't as great now as they were when we first signed up the cats, imo, but we're still happy enough with them. And their customer service is top notch, in my experience. Also, if your vet accepts carecredit, it might be good to combine insurance with that (it's what we do). CareCredit is a credit card specifically for medical bills that don't usually allow payment plans (dentists, vets, cosmetic surgeons). If the bill is over I think $250 you can use the card and have 6 months to a year to pay it back interest-free depending on how much it was. Since most if not all the vet insurance companies work by reimbursing you, it's a good option if you don't have a few thousand dollars on hand to pay up front for, say, exploratory surgery for a foreign body that turns out to be allergies to just about every protein in the world. just make sure you do get it paid off in time, their "monthly required payments" are lower than it takes to pay off before the zero interest period and if you don't pay it off before then you owe all the interest, which hopefully wouldn't be a problem anyway, assuming you use the insurance to pay it off as soon as you get the check. Rat Patrol fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Oct 29, 2018 |
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Oct 29, 2018 17:23
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effika posted:It causes no discomfort that I've seen. This is just an RFID chip for the cat, a very small one, placed in an area they have a lot of loose skin anyway. Since the cats are going under for spaying they won't know it happened at all. The chips are also good insurance if they get lost and lose their collar. I can't even feel the chip on most of our cats, and its never caused them any complications or discomfort. As a happy bonus, their chips open and close their food dishes, so the cats on prescription diets and the ones not on prescription diets can eat whenever they like but can't get into the wrong food. Its a miracle of the modern age.
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Oct 29, 2018 17:29
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yeah. i'm gonna do some comparisons to see which insurance is best for my catsDienes posted:
wow, deff looking into this
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Oct 29, 2018 17:44
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My kitten got fixed early last week; this weekend, she started showing abdominal tenderness with crying and warning bites when we picked her up or tried to examine the healing incision (which she'd already popped the stitches out of...). Got her into the vet late this morning; somehow she's gotten an edema near the surgical site. Not certain it's not cellulitis. She got an antibiotic shot and she's back on Oncior for a little while. KITTENS. (The only bonus is she wants to cuddle...)
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Oct 29, 2018 18:15
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Sefal posted:wow, deff looking into this If you're really interested, we have two of these: https://www.surepetcare.com/en-us/pet-feeder/microchip-pet-feeder They are pricey, but its a lot easier to let them free feed like this than to do scheduled feedings and police their bowls 2+ times a day. POOL IS CLOSED posted:KITTENS. I'm glad you got her in and she's alright!
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Oct 29, 2018 21:12
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It really depends on the insurance. In this country I cant find anyone that will cover illness, only accidents.
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Oct 29, 2018 23:54
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Synthbuttrange posted:It really depends on the insurance. In this country I cant find anyone that will cover illness, only accidents. Are you not USA-based? Every place I've ever looked covers both. Rexie has been fully covered for her condition....
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Oct 30, 2018 00:24
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Oct 30, 2018 00:26
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? I have RSPCA insurance that absolutely covers for illness, saved me a ton of money when Pepper decided to be lethargic and have a fever one night for no reason that anyone could figure out. I figured that most other insurance was the same, I can't imagine they're the only ones.
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Oct 30, 2018 07:52
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Weird. I inquired with the Rspca earlier this year and the person I talked to was very clear about them not covering illness, just accudents
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Oct 30, 2018 08:10
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I wouldn't go with them if you can go with someone else given that the RSPCA is a trash organisation, I'm only with them because I didn't know that when I signed up and I'm too lazy to switch now.
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Oct 30, 2018 11:11
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I'm posting to ask for help parsing a suggestion from my vet. I just adopted two cats from a county shelter. The shelter had fixed them but gave them only one shot (nobivac-1), so I took the cats for two vet trips for shots and boosters, the booster trip was last weekend. The cats are inside-only and the vet estimated their age at around two years old each, which agrees with the shelter's estimate. During the booster visit, the vet applied medicine to their fur between their shoulder blades and said one application was free for new cats. I don't know if it was Revolution, but it was applied the way I remember applying Revolution to my childhood cat. At the end of the appointment, the vet strongly suggested I get a monthly supply of that medicine and apply it every month. I'm also getting follow-up emails pressuring me to subscribe to monthly drops by mail. The cats are indoor-only and wear flea collars just in case I track something inside. I've heard bad things from relatives about Revolution in particular, so I'm a little suspicious that the vet is trying to give me more services than the cats would really benefit from. I checked with some shelter volunteers I know, who said that drops seemed excessive for indoor cats. So, goons: am I being sold a bill of goods? Or should I go for it? If there's a material benefit to the cats, I'm not worried about the expense. Sadly the vet had no treatment for one of the cats whining loudly whenever the other one won't play with him. Cats will cat.
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Oct 31, 2018 17:11
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Sarern posted:I'm posting to ask for help parsing a suggestion from my vet. Revolution probably isn’t needed for indoor cats, but it may depend on where you live (rural area, wooded area, places that are prone to fleas/ticks/mosquitoes or if there are other animals nearby that can carry those things). The summers where I am at always have a ton of mosquitoes and other bugs so I tend to use revolution from May-September even though they are 99% indoor cats (sometimes they go out on our deck for 10 minutes at a time and we watch them). I would strongly recommend you take off the flea collar right away and never use them again. They can be poisonous to cats and are far more dangerous than revolution. Edit: if you do want to get revolution just get it from a website that sells pet meds. They are usually cheaper than a vet an you can get like a 6 pack or 12 pack or something.
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Oct 31, 2018 17:18
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Sarern posted:I'm posting to ask for help parsing a suggestion from my vet. It's really not a bad idea since when they're in they're in. If you live on the ground floor of a house or apartment they could get in through windows or whatever, if you're anywhere in a condo/townhouse/apartment your neighbors could introduce fleas, and as always they can ride in on people. I do a monthly topical treatment for mine during the warmer months and then tend to not do it during the winter. slave to my cravings posted:I would strongly recommend you take off the flea collar right away and never use them again. They can be poisonous to cats and are far more dangerous than revolution. Also this. I get the topical treatment online for a fraction of what it costs at the vet.
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Oct 31, 2018 17:20
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Sarern posted:I'm posting to ask for help parsing a suggestion from my vet. We use Revolution regularly on our cats and it's great. I don't know about the monthly program, we buy it from the vet directly. Compare the cost to see if you're getting ripped off. The flea collar is useless. The alternative to Revolution is just dealing with fleas when they show up with one-shot treatments. I prefer prevention, but you can do as you feel comfortable.
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Oct 31, 2018 17:22
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Ok, that's a pretty quick consensus. I'll check the vet price and either do that or buy topical treatment elsewhere. I'll also ditch the flea collars. Thanks!
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Oct 31, 2018 17:51
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My cat is 100% indoors and that didn't stop her from getting absolutely infested with fleas early last year, something I as a new pet owner didn't really understand was happening until they were all over the house and my ankles were a mess of bites. Took a solid 3 months to fully get them out of the house, and my cat was miserable the whole time. Fleas are assholes and they can get into your house in a ton of ways and spread like wildfire, so a topical is a good idea. FWIW my vet recommended me Paradyne as a better (and less risky for the Cat's health) alternative to Revolution, and it's been phenomenal in the going on two years I've been applying it now. It's a little expensive though: about $135 for a six month's supply. That said you only have to apply it once a month, it's pretty quick and painless to do so yourself, and it's kept my house flea free to date.
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Oct 31, 2018 18:43
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Sydin posted:My cat is 100% indoors and that didn't stop her from getting absolutely infested with fleas early last year, something I as a new pet owner didn't really understand was happening until they were all over the house and my ankles were a mess of bites. Took a solid 3 months to fully get them out of the house, and my cat was miserable the whole time. Fleas are assholes and they can get into your house in a ton of ways and spread like wildfire, so a topical is a good idea. This.
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Oct 31, 2018 20:52
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Deviant posted:This. I generally agree with all of this, but if you're not in a buggy area and/or not on the ground floor and your brushing and looking for them regularly, you can wipe them out early with a well applied dose. I don't personally like the idea of applying the stuff monthly, and tend to do two months of it when they show up and just keep some on hand. That being said, by the time you notice, it might already really bad, especially if you haven't had them infested before and don't know what you look for. Might just be my secret inner anti-vaccer, though. I can't link you studies saying monthly applications are bad.
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Nov 1, 2018 02:04
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Glory to Italia!
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Mika has been pooping outside the litter box for the past while. I thought it might be because she was mad I wasn't filling her food/water quick enough, but she does it when she has full food and water. I thought it might be because she didn't like how clean her litter box was(n't) but I changed it today and just caught her doing it again. I pick up the poop with a paper towel and put it in the litter box and she goes and covers it like normal, but then poops outside again. I don't understand. Nothing about her litter type or position has changed, either. She's always used the same kind of litter and I haven't moved its position in six months. It's across the room from her food and water. I'm using the like, wood pellet litter that breaks down into sawdust, for context, if that matters.
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Nov 1, 2018 03:57
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See thread title. But otherwise, cats can stop pooping in the litterbox because yeah, something's bothering them. If your cat is just being a fussypants then all you can do is try alternative litter. But they might also be having trouble like impacted glands or some other butt ailment and they may be associating the litterbox with pain and avoid it, so a vet exam might be in order.
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Nov 1, 2018 04:13
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Synthbuttrange posted:See thread title. She's scheduled to go into the vet at the end of November. She's pooping literally right next to the litterbox which is why I suspect it's just to spite me for doing something she doesn't like.  This time I actually caught her doing it and set her inside the litter box. I then put the poop in the box and she buried it like nothing was wrong. 
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Nov 1, 2018 04:16
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Lightning Knight posted:She's scheduled to go into the vet at the end of November. She's pooping literally right next to the litterbox which is why I suspect it's just to spite me for doing something she doesn't like. Its never 'spite.'
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Nov 1, 2018 04:18
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Dienes posted:Its never 'spite.' I am not being serious. What's also confusing is that she doesn't seem to do it every time. She's still always using the litter box to pee and she's using it to poop at least some of the time.
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Nov 1, 2018 04:20
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a) Try changing the litter. The thread commonly recommends Cat Attract as magical fairy dust that cats literally cannot resist pooping on, give it a whirl. b) If the spots she's pooping in are consistent, clean them thoroughly with an enzyme cleaner. Sometimes even if nothing is wrong once a place smells like a nice place to relieve, cats will continue to do so there. c) Take her to a vet and explain what's happening. They can run tests and see if something is genuinely wrong. Cats are loving stupid and if it hurts to piss/poop they'll assume it's the place and not them, and go try elsewhere until the pain stops. Brain the size of a walnut, etc.
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Nov 1, 2018 04:29
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Sydin posted:a) Try changing the litter. The thread commonly recommends Cat Attract as magical fairy dust that cats literally cannot resist pooping on, give it a whirl. I will look into the first two and ask the vet when she goes. Thanks!
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Nov 1, 2018 04:32
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Topic of litterboxes, neither Princess nor Salem have any trouble using it. I don't think they've ever had an accident, in fact. However, lately Salem hasn't been burying it. He'll go, then futilely paw at the edges of the box trying to bury it without actually doing so, claws running along the plastic with each swipe audible in other rooms, for a while before eventually giving up. Is there a good way to remind him that he has to actually move the litter to bury poo poo? (I kind of wonder if it has to do with my mom him being let into the yard more often now; he'll bury it when he goes out there, but maybe he's used to having more space to work with now?) There's another weird issue I've been having with him; shortly after Princess was fixed (she's doing great, by the way, and is back to normal), we wound up receiving the puppy my mom had been setting up to adopt from a local rescue. Molly, as she's been named, has been something of a handful, unsurprisingly, but her situation with the cats generally actually hasn't been too bad. Took them both a little while to warm up to her, Princess longer than Salem (though Princess was also, you know, kept away from her at first so she could recover from her surgery in peace), but neither of them are afraid of her or seem to dislike her, usually being neutral towards her unless she's trying to play with them when they don't want it, chase them, or otherwise annoying them. (Which is often, but, well, I'm working on that; writing up a puppy thread post to ask for some help on her end now in fact.) Princess will hang out near her and stuff, and Salem actually seems to kind of like her even. Which is actually part of the problem, as weird as it may sound. Not the possibility of them being friends, that's obviously a great outcome. But, well, as above, Molly tends to play around in ways the cats aren't fond of and can be rougher than they'd like, such as climbing on top of them, biting (not in a way that seems like she's trying to hurt them or anything, but it seems like it might be too hard and stuff sometimes), etc, and can also just be really overbearing and has trouble leaving them alone. Play-fighting is normal for both puppies and kittens and stuff, but it's important that Molly learns to leave the cats alone when they want it, and to learn to control herself while she's still about the same size they are rather than several times bigger and a lot heavier. The thing that's confusing and worrying me is that Salem, rather than letting Molly know when she's going too far or otherwise discouraging her bad behavior, seems to tolerate almost everything she does. At first, when Molly's overall dimensions were actually a little smaller than Salem's, it was pretty cute, if somewhat strange, how whenever she'd try to do stuff like put a leg over him and climb on him, mouthing on him, or just followed him around really closely, he put up with it despite obviously being able to get away or make her stop if he wanted to. She's getting bigger now, though, and playing rougher, and he still doesn't do anything about it most of the time. At least some of the time, he's definitely enjoying it and wants to play with her, and he's instigated things himself a few times, but even when she seems to hurt him he almost never does anything, and his behavior sometimes is confusing or seems outright contradictory; one time, for example, I heard him meow in a way that sounded to me like she was starting to hurt him, so I intervened, picked him up, and took him a few rooms away and set him on my bed to hang out with me for a while. Immediately after I put him down he jumped off the bed and ran back to her. Not just to the same place she was, as if he was going back to whatever he was up to before she started playing, but directly to her, as if he wanted to start things up again. It's starting to show in how Molly behaves towards the two cats, too. With Princess, despite her being smaller and stuff, Molly usually approaches slower and pokes her head close a few times and stuff, and only chases if Princess runs first. Which obviously isn't ideal still, but, again, working on that, and it's happening less since Princess is also more used to Molly now, which combined with the aforementioned slower approach means she doesn't feel the need to bolt. All this reflects how Princess hasn't hesitated in expressing her displeasure when Molly's bothered her, hissing and occasionally swatting at the dog if she got too annoying or rough. She almost certainly hasn't hurt Molly at all, apart from her feelings perhaps, but nevertheless she seems to be doing a good job defining boundaries with the puppy. On the other hand, Molly will run and bowl Salem right over, is really mouthy with him and much more persistent if he tries to walk away, and so on, despite him being about the same size she is. I'm pretty sure he could thrash her if he wanted to, even with her starting to get bigger than him and stuff, but he just puts up with it. Heck, one of the few times I saw where she actually elicited a his and swatting from him, he clearly held back a lot with his swats. He plays rougher with Princess than he is with Molly when she manages to actually get to him. I'm pretty sure he's not afraid of her or anything, either. Besides showing, like, no signs of fear around her and casually walking past or hanging out near her and stuff, he'll do things like sleep on my bed near her, even against her, and a few days ago I saw him walk right up to her, give her a quick head bump, and walk off. He clearly likes her and stuff. Which, again, is great, and the ideal outcome is for all three to be good friends. I'm just concerned about the possibility of her hurting him or not learning restraint or whatever, and I'm not quite able to tell how much of what they do is play and what might actually hurt or be behavior I need to stop, on either side. Which makes it hard to know when to intervene, since I don't want to impede their friendship either or make Molly associate the cats with negative things. Plus, I've just never seen a cat act like this with a dog; I've seen cats be neutral to dogs and friendly with them and stuff, and ones who'll line out a dog that gets on their nerves, but I haven't seen one as tolerant of things as Salem is, and don't know what to make of it. So, yeah. Again, I'll hopefully have a post up in the puppy thread describing Molly's behavior and a few things she does that have me worried soon and asking for help with how I should handle her. For now, any advice or explanations regarding Salem's behavior, kittens and puppies getting along in general, warning signs to look out for, and so on, basically anything people think might be relevant here, would be greatly appreciated. I can answer any questions people might have too. Will hopefully have found my phone and thus be able to post some cat pics, possibly with added puppy, then too.
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Nov 1, 2018 07:34
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Cats are idiots about burying stuff!
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Nov 1, 2018 07:53
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Synthbuttrange posted:Cats are idiots about burying stuff! Yeah, they're all different about it. Noot likes to do her business in corners and then heap up all the litter in the centre for some reason. And she "buries" her food for later (she likes to take breaks), I gave her some packing padding to play with in her favourite cardboard box and she drags it over the foodbowl to come back to later  I have no idea why, perhaps she thinks its like me with leftovers.
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Nov 1, 2018 08:48
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Things that have helped my dumb idiots to bury stuff: Giving them a wider more open litter tray. This let them have a bigger area to work with and it helped their tiny brains work stuff out.
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Nov 1, 2018 09:26
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A covered box can also help as there will be no rim for them to claw at. A big tall tupperware container with a door cut into it can also work. I use two of these with the flap flipped up (otherwise they won't use them  ) Before, one of them would poo poo, then stand in the box and scratch at the floor outside. If you don't already have two boxes it can be worth it to get another one. Even when I had only one cat, they would have a favorite, and if they started using the other it was kindof an early warning system that I needed to change out the litter in the primary.https://www.amazon.com/Catit-Jumbo-Hooded-Cat-Litter/dp/B003RQVGKC 
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Nov 1, 2018 13:43
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Assuming your cats have claws (and teeth), just let it go. Cats are pretty effective at letting other things know when to back off. And with a puppy especially it may take a couple swipes or light scratches to get the idea. If the cat wants the puppy to back off, it's fully capable of delivering the message. Just make sure the cats have accessible places to go the puppy can't reach them, if they want to be left alone that's going to be their preferred method. I'm dealing with this with a kitten and older cat now, you sort of just have to let it play out. They'll get the message, cats aren't shy about expressing their opinions about other animals.
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Nov 1, 2018 14:12
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ewe2 posted:And she "buries" her food for later (she likes to take breaks), I gave her some packing padding to play with in her favourite cardboard box and she drags it over the foodbowl to come back to later IIRC, cats will cache/bury extra food like this in the wild. Our grazer will try to do it when he's done, but there isn't anything near his dish to cover it, so he just phantom-digs; I've considered giving him a paper towel or something to satisfy his walnut brain.
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Nov 1, 2018 15:07
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