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Cow Bell posted:If I've had two cats for a few months now and one cat is still unwilling to come out of the basement and they fight and hiss as soon as they see each other am I basically screwed forever You can try reintroducing them all over again properly. Don't lose hope though, it's been a year and 2 my cats are slowly starting to accept each other (read as: young cat wants to play, old cat hisses and runs away, but now only hisses when young cat bops older cat on the head)
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Aug 7, 2009 00:41
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My friend's black lab puppy came home with a UTI. It's been better for a few months but now she suspects she has another one, as she peed in her sleep again. She is going to take her into the vet, but does anyone know what causes a Urinary track infection? My only idea was the food... the pup is on purina puppy now, and I have told her to switch foods.
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Aug 7, 2009 05:35
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themindisonfire posted:My friend's black lab puppy came home with a UTI. It's been better for a few months but now she suspects she has another one, as she peed in her sleep again. She is going to take her into the vet, but does anyone know what causes a Urinary track infection? My only idea was the food... the pup is on purina puppy now, and I have told her to switch foods. One possibility is that the puppy has a recessed vulva. She should ask the vet about it if it turns out to be a second UTI. If the puppy does have a recessed vulva then she should not be spayed until after her first heat, as going through a heat may correct the condition and reduce the risk of infections in the future (though it will increase her risk of mammary cancer and they will need to make VERY sure she doesn't get pregnant).
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Aug 7, 2009 06:01
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I have a new dog, a cocker spaniel. According to the the humane society, he's almost 2. Ever since I brought him home, he'll sneeze when he gets excited. So whenever I'm playing with him, or when someone comes home, things like that. As far as I've observed, he never sneezes any time he's not excited. He also doesn't have any breathing problems that I can see. Is this something to be concerned about? I've been thinking about taking him in to the vet to see if he has a problem with his sinuses or something like that.
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Aug 7, 2009 21:32
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I adopted a kitten. His name is Troubles and is a little black furball. My problem however, is with my other cat, Milky Way. Milky Way ate some of Troubles Science Diet kitten food, and now flat out refuses to eat her own (She's on Wellness). They're fed in different rooms now so she can't get his anymore, but I wanna know if she'll stop being a little brat? I know she's not sick or anything. As a test, I mixed in a little bit of his food with hers, and sure enough, she ate everything in the bowl.
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Aug 8, 2009 00:47
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Kitten formula food is probably not necessary, so you could just feed them both Wellness, mixing in less and less SD until it's all gone and they're stuck with what they've got?
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Aug 8, 2009 00:52
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My wife and I discovered a small stray kitten outside our home today, and have taken it in for the evening until we can get it to the vet tomorrow (no collar). It seems to have some sort of respiratory infection - snotty nose, sneezing, wheezing - so we've got her kenneled with some food and water in the garage right now. Is there any reason to be concerned that she could get our dogs sick? She's been no where near them and we've been washing our hands/changed clothes after dealing with her - but I'd hate to have a whole household full of sick animals if we missed a step in sterilizing.
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Aug 8, 2009 01:29
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So in the mornings my dog and I will have a romp around time followed by a cuddle time. Usually it's me still laying in bed and him nosing his way into the crook of my neck and nosing around for a while. Lately I've noticed that he will also nibble on my hair/pjs, almost as if he's grooming me. Is this just a "I love you" thing or is he trying to perform a very cute dominance role? I don't mind either way, but I'm just curious if anyone else has a dog that does similar things, or knows what he's up to. Here's a picture, I'm sure it will help diagnose his weirdness  
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Aug 8, 2009 05:21
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Agedashi Tofu posted:My wife and I discovered a small stray kitten outside our home today, and have taken it in for the evening until we can get it to the vet tomorrow (no collar). Bacteriology and virology are coming up this next quarter, but until then I can't say for sure. I can tell you that dogs and cats get vaccinated for different respiratory pathogens, and that the clinic I worked at had separate exam rooms and waiting rooms for dogs and cats, but would switch them for respiratory cases to reduce the risk of infecting other patients. From that I would say it is unlikely your dogs will get the cat's respiratory infection, but the precautions are a good idea in general.
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Aug 8, 2009 06:48
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Chaco posted:Bacteriology and virology are coming up this next quarter Are you studying to become a vet by chance? I've been wanted to ask about how to get started taking up some vet tech classes to become...well a vet tech. I just didn't know where to ask really, since this is Pet Island and this thread is about Pets and not about how I could get working in the field of animal care. Ignore this post if it's toooo out of place here guys 
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Aug 8, 2009 09:50
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rear end Crackers! posted:So in the mornings my dog and I will have a romp around time followed by a cuddle time. Usually it's me still laying in bed and him nosing his way into the crook of my neck and nosing around for a while. Lately I've noticed that he will also nibble on my hair/pjs, almost as if he's grooming me. Is this just a "I love you" thing or is he trying to perform a very cute dominance role? I don't mind either way, but I'm just curious if anyone else has a dog that does similar things, or knows what he's up to. Is it just quick, tiny nibbles with his front teeth? Because that's just a very cute grooming behavior.  He's probably just happy & relaxed! It's kinda like the doggy equivalent of cats kneading with their paws.Also, he's very, very cute.
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Aug 8, 2009 12:18
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Shortymrbig posted:Are you studying to become a vet by chance? There are several vets and vet techs here. I think there have even been threads in the past. You could probably post your own?
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Aug 8, 2009 14:35
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WolfensteinBag posted:Is it just quick, tiny nibbles with his front teeth? Because that's just a very cute grooming behavior. Yep that's what it is! Good to know he's not secretly plotting my devise with kisses
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Aug 8, 2009 16:01
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Shortymrbig posted:Are you studying to become a vet by chance? Chaco's in vet school. It's a completely different process than becoming a vet tech and PI has had threads about both topics in the past.
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Aug 9, 2009 06:10
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Hey Lioness (and other people too I guess), what are a pyr's exercise requirements? I'm getting conflicting reports out of Google. My mother-in-law is looking into adopting one. She's used to dealing with behaviorally difficult dogs with no innate desire to please, as she did chow rescue for years, so I don't think a pyr is temperamentally out of the question for her, but I'm concerned about the exercise thing. She has the time for long walks several times a day, but she can't jog with the dog, she doesn't have a fenced backyard, and there's no offleash dog park within walking distance. (she doesn't have a car) What do you think?
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Aug 9, 2009 06:55
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exactduckwoman posted:That is, unfortunately, lovely food. Stuff like Purina and Iams is full of fillers (like corn) instead of good solid protein (like, you know, chicken). It's like having your cats on a mostly carb diet. Would that help you lose weight? I'm going to kinda disagree with this. PurinaOne isn't the best food out there by far, but I wouldn't call it lovely food. It's probably one of the best you can find in a grocery store. It's listed under 'acceptable' in the petfood megathread, I'd probably put it on the high end of that list and I think for people where cost is really really an issue or they don't have access to pet stores it's an okay food to feed. I got my mom to switch to it from IAMS and there was a huge improvement in her animals. If Crazyweasel can't afford different food I'd first say look at how much you are feeding. Make sure it's no more than what is marked on the package, make sure the feedings are on a consistent schedule and up the exercise of the tubby cat with a laser or something similar. You should do this regardless, but I didn't want to give the impression that just changing foods would solve the problem. Also make sure tubby isn't snitching food out of the other cats bowl and over eating. It would be better to switch to a higher quality food not just for the weight loss need but in general for better health but don't feel like a horrible owner if you can't, stick with PurinaOne and make the change to a better food when you can. Also, don't forget that it takes a long time for a cat to lose weight. Even a pound is a huge when your total weight is only 12 pounds or whatever. I can take a cat a year or more to lose maybe 5 pounds. So if you don't see results right away, don't worry. If you can find one, get a scale that can measure smaller increments if you really want to keep track.
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Aug 9, 2009 11:03
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KilGrey posted:I'm going to kinda disagree with this. PurinaOne isn't the best food out there by far, but I wouldn't call it lovely food. It's probably one of the best you can find in a grocery store. It's listed under 'acceptable' in the petfood megathread, I'd probably put it on the high end of that list and I think for people where cost is really really an issue or they don't have access to pet stores it's an okay food to feed. I got my mom to switch to it from IAMS and there was a huge improvement in her animals. I'm not really sure why you're replying to something from several pages ago, but bear in mind that the person I'm replying to said "Purina or Iams or something like that." I made a blanket statement based on that.
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Aug 9, 2009 15:07
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exactduckwoman posted:I'm not really sure why you're replying to something from several pages ago, but bear in mind that the person I'm replying to said "Purina or Iams or something like that." I made a blanket statement based on that. It was only two pages back. The comment was maybe a week old, not exactly so crazy time ago. Regardless I saw something I wanted to comment on. And he said it was either Purina or IAMS, not 'something like that'. He had already looked at the petfood megathread as he knew both were on the 'acceptable' part of the food lists. If he's feeding PurinaOne for the moment, it's not the best and he should change if he can but it is on the 'acceptable' list of foods (as is IAMS but I don't find it as good as PurinaOne when it comes to grocery store foods). So I disagree with the blanket statement of 'lovely food' as there are different levels of awesome, great and acceptable. I don't find all foods below a premium level to be classified as lovely (again, not great or the best but not lovely) and he did name one that is okayish and better than others. I didn't want him to think it was some lovely, horrible, death in a bag brand if that's all he could get his hands on or really afford at the moment. People jumped on him for feeding better food but only a person or two really touched on portion control. Feeding better food is great but regardless of what brand he's feeding 2 cups of food a day, which is what he's feeding, is too much. I didn't want him to feel he's screwed when it comes to weight loss if he wasn't able to get ultra-premium food. It could be rectified by exercise and feeding the proper amount if he can't get something off the ultra-premium list so I wanted to reiterate portion control in addition to my above comments. Also, I think it was also pertinent for him to know it takes a long time for cats to lose weight because a lot of people expect to see results in a month and get discouraged when that is not the case. So yeah, I responded to a comment from page 103 of this 105 thread because I felt somethings weren't touched on or that I had a difference of opinion on. v  v
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Aug 9, 2009 18:42
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My girlfriend just adopted a new kitten, and it's the sweetest thing ever. Except, for the 24 hours since she adopted her, we just can't get her to eat. She currently has some sort of feline cold, and the vet-tech at the rescue shelter gave her some variant of amoxicillin (sp?) to take. We've been giving her the medication as directed. She seems to be drinking just fine, but she won't touch food. And she seems to otherwise be accommodated to her new surroundings just fine, so I don't think that's the cause. I figured that someone here might know: What could possibly be causing this, and what can we do to help our new kitty?
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Aug 9, 2009 21:22
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A lot of times cats won't eat at first in their new surroundings. She might want to try getting some really stinky wet food, and even heating it up a bit to bring out more of the scent, to try and tempt the baby.
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Aug 9, 2009 21:29
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Devil Wears Wings posted:My girlfriend just adopted a new kitten, and it's the sweetest thing ever. Except, for the 24 hours since she adopted her, we just can't get her to eat. She currently has some sort of feline cold, and the vet-tech at the rescue shelter gave her some variant of amoxicillin (sp?) to take. We've been giving her the medication as directed. She seems to be drinking just fine, but she won't touch food. And she seems to otherwise be accommodated to her new surroundings just fine, so I don't think that's the cause. Cat colds are caused in the same magic way human colds are. You can't really ask 'what caused this' in the same way you would for another illness. It's just a cold. Like Fire In The Disco said, sometimes cats wont eat at first when in a new environment and cheap, stinky wet food is the way to go. Often times with colds a kitties nose can get stuffed up and if they can't smell food they often don't have an interest in eating it. If she's not to skittish you can also try turning the shower on hot and sitting in the bathroom with her. The steam can help clear up congestion.
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Aug 9, 2009 22:33
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I'm considering adopting a kitten and a puppy. I've read both the sticky threads about each cats and dogs, but is there anything special I need to consider when mixing the two like that? I won't be getting them for a long while yet, just planning in advance
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Aug 10, 2009 00:46
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Fool Circle posted:I'm considering adopting a kitten and a puppy. I've read both the sticky threads about each cats and dogs, but is there anything special I need to consider when mixing the two like that? You may be a masochist. Raising a kitten is a huge pain in the rear end, and from what I understand, raising a puppy is ten times worse. You might be better served by getting either a kitten OR a puppy and adopting an adult cat or dog with a proven track record of getting along with the other species.
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Aug 10, 2009 01:07
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KilGrey posted:I'm going to kinda disagree with this. PurinaOne isn't the best food out there by far, but I wouldn't call it lovely food. It's probably one of the best you can find in a grocery store. It's listed under 'acceptable' in the petfood megathread, I'd probably put it on the high end of that list and I think for people where cost is really really an issue or they don't have access to pet stores it's an okay food to feed. I got my mom to switch to it from IAMS and there was a huge improvement in her animals. I think it really depends on the Purina One formula. Here's the ingredients for their Chicken and Rice dry cat food formula: Chicken, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal, wheat flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), whole grain corn, fish meal, soy protein isolate, animal liver flavor, etc, etc And their Salmon and Tuna dry cat food formula: Poultry by-product meal, whole grain corn, brewers rice, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), salmon, tuna, animal liver flavor, etc, etc I wouldn't consider their Salmon and Tuna formula acceptable at all, and some of the Iams cat formulas are better than that. I think it's always a lot better to understand the types of ingredients to look for and avoid in a food than just give a blanket statement about if a brand is acceptable or premium or not.
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Aug 10, 2009 03:26
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KilGrey posted:Cat colds are caused in the same magic way human colds are. You can't really ask 'what caused this' in the same way you would for another illness. It's just a cold. Not sure what you mean by this..."colds" are generally caused by viral infections, which are very contagious and can be picked up from various sources. Sometimes the symptoms of a respiratory illness can be due to something like herpes virus, which can be dormant and flare up with stress, such as being moved to a new environment. Respiratory infections are common in cats (and people) but they have definite causes.
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Aug 10, 2009 07:03
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tse1618 posted:I think it really depends on the Purina One formula. I'm not sure if you're implying that the first food is any good, but in case you are: 1) Having a lone meat name at the front followed by the grains is misleading, as once everything is dehydrated to make into a dry food that meat can actually end up as much as 7 places lower on the ingredients list by weight. "[specified meat] meal" is already dehydrated and therefor is a good thing to see before grain content. 2) The words "by-product" "poultry" and "animal" at all (wow, and they have all 3!) 3) Anything after the "fat" ingredient is pretty minuscule and not really worth taking into consideration. ...at least from what I've found from my own research in dog foods. I'm not a stickler like many for "ALL CORN WHEAT AND SOY = 100% BAD FOR ALL DOGS/CATS EVER" but those were some of my first thoughts when reading that ingredient list.
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Aug 10, 2009 08:01
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drat Bananas posted:I'm not sure if you're implying that the first food is any good, but in case you are: No, I don't think it's any good but in KilGrey's opinion Purina One is an acceptable food. I was trying to show that even if the first one is an improvement over Kit'n Kaboodle, the second one really isn't. EDIT: If you don't have a problem with some corn wheat and soy, why do you have a problem with some by-products? They at least would naturally be found in a cat's diet.
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Aug 10, 2009 13:35
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I'm now starting to understand why people beat their children. Not approve of it, but I understand. Two cats, one of them is on prednisone, and to beat the hunger that that causes we feed them three small portions a day. In the beginning, we set our alarms for 7:45, and it used to be that when they'd go off one of us would get up and feed the cats, and all was well. Then one day we were woken up at 7:30 by cats purring and crawling all over us. Haha, they're so hungry, isn't that cute. No big deal. Fast forward six months: they start their thing around 6am these days, no matter how late I feed them (around 11:30pm). It's mostly mine (Switters) causing the trouble, although hers (Bella) loves to join in once a week or so. It starts with a horrible purr/whine that isn't quite a purr, not quite a whine, but lasts ten seconds or so and can be as loud as he wants it. I've read about this purr, and people say it's almost definitely meant to be so annoying that you can't ignore it. So he whines. Then he jumps onto my nightstand and bumps my lamp around. Or tosses books on the floor. That stopped when I started keeping a water spray bottle with me, to blast him. Now he lurks around the edges of the table, and he loves to rattle his collar against the edge so it makes some noise. As soon as I so much as twitch in his direction he shoots out of the room, out of range of the squirt bottle. He's back as soon as I close my eyes. If I close him out of the bedroom he sticks his paws underneath and rattles the door, or scratches at it. Honest to god, it's like living with a two year old child. What on earth can we do to stop this poo poo? Ignoring it doesn't help, they're both more than happy to keep it up for an hour or more. I know I could just get up and feed them at 6am, but I'm afraid if we give in we'll soon be getting 5am wakeup calls, or worse. jackpot fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Aug 10, 2009 |
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Aug 10, 2009 15:31
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jackpot posted:I know I could just get up and feed them at 6am, but I'm afraid if we give in we'll soon be getting 5am wakeup calls, or worse. You shouldn't. The fact that you fed them on such a regular schedule to begin with is what caused this. Feeding the cat should not be the first thing you do when you wake up, the more unpredictable you make it, the less likely they are to decide a particular time (or place in your schedule) is food time. You can either start feeding them less predictably, or get an automatic feeder/put the food down when they are not in the room. Feeding them less predictably will eventually get across that you getting up doesn't = food time now. This will make them less likely to bug you. If you lock them out of the room while you prep food and don't let them see you prep it or put bowls down, or if you buy an auto feeder and use that instead of feeding them yourself, they will stop associating you with food and will leave you alone. Either way, it will take a while and you will have to get used to just ignoring them for now.
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Aug 10, 2009 15:38
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jackpot posted:I'm now starting to understand why people beat their children. Not approve of it, but I understand. My cats do this also when I forget to close the bedroom door, or they muscle it open. The most important thing is to never give in. Keep the door closed, and when they scratch at the door, either try spraying them with water or using sssscat or the vacuum trick (this way you don't have to get up).
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Aug 10, 2009 17:28
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I personally can't sleep without my kitties. But, Ceridwen's advice is good stuff and what we do as well. When I get up in the morning, I go to the bathroom, to check email, sometimes to start breakfast, and then to feed the cats. They know it's not the first thing I do, and it really does seem to help stop them from waking us up for food.
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Aug 10, 2009 17:36
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I noticed my cat has a split claw on her back paw, with a bit of dried blood around it. She doesn't flinch when I poke it, so I guess it doesn't hurt too bad, but is there anything I can do to help, or stop it happening again?
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Aug 10, 2009 18:11
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tse1618 posted:EDIT: If you don't have a problem with some corn wheat and soy, why do you have a problem with some by-products? They at least would naturally be found in a cat's diet. I'm not worried about something that'll fatten up the animal a bit, because hey, not everything I eat is bursting at the seams with nutrients either, but I draw the line at something that could contain dangerous chemicals. A question of my own: I don't live with my dad, but I just found out that they have a flea infestation among their 2 large cats, 1 tiny cat (like the size of a 4 month old kitten), and large dog. They accidentally put the large dog flea treatment on the tiny cat! They came home and she was having seizures, and rushed her to the emergency vet and everything, had to stay overnight, get an IV, all kinds of stuff. Since I don't live there and only got a brief run down over the phone, my mind is racing with nonsense "Yeah, but!! But!! BUT OMG KITTY!!" Can anyone tell me more about what exactly happened, her chances of being okay, is she out of the woods yet if they sent her home, etc etc etc? Out of all the cats I've ever had she's my least favorite (not a people-cat) but I'm so worried right now! She's the reason I'm a goon! ("halp halp cat is preggers" -> "yay kitten!")
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Aug 10, 2009 19:16
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drat Bananas posted:(From Pet Food thread) "By-products can contain high traces of chemicals used in euthanasia (such as phenobarbital), as well as meat rendered but still tainted with poisons and deadly bacteria. In the wild, most animals would never encounter these things, and would probably die if they did." One of the meds commonly used in dogs' flea preventatives (permethrin) is toxic to cats. Pyrethrin (also a common insecticide) can also be toxic if given in a really high dose. Check out this article - http://www.petplace.com/cats/permethrin-and-pyrethrin-toxicity-in-cats/page1.aspx
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Aug 10, 2009 20:03
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Ceridwen posted:You shouldn't. The fact that you fed them on such a regular schedule to begin with is what caused this.
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Aug 10, 2009 21:40
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Why does my cat have a bald belly? She doesn't lick the area obsessively or do anything that would wear away the fur, it's just this weird sudden bald patch. It's not really a problem, just kind of funny because she has a bit of the floppy belly thing going on too, and the two things combined make her pretty goofy looking at times  You can kinda see it in this picture, far left: 
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Aug 10, 2009 23:39
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Magipp posted:Why does my cat have a bald belly? She doesn't lick the area obsessively or do anything that would wear away the fur, it's just this weird sudden bald patch. It's not really a problem, just kind of funny because she has a bit of the floppy belly thing going on too, and the two things combined make her pretty goofy looking at times It is almost certainly because she's overgrooming, even if you aren't seeing her do it. The causes range from stress to urinary tract issues. It would be prudent to take her to the vet and get her checked out before you start treating it as a funny quirk.
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Aug 11, 2009 00:03
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exactduckwoman posted:There are several vets and vet techs here. I think there have even been threads in the past. You could probably post your own? I would have, but I didn't want to seem like a bother by making a, "How can I become a vet tech?" Lioness posted:Chaco's in vet school. It's a completely different process than becoming a vet tech and PI has had threads about both topics in the past. I'll try and look one of those up. Maybe that can help me out. Thanks to both of you.
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Aug 11, 2009 02:22
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As previously mentioned a few posts back, my wife and I are getting a Weimaraner puppy, Roki, this Friday. I'd like to ask for some general feedback on our schedule and housebreaking 'plan' our new pup. We both work, but we've staggered our schedules and arranged for a dog walker to stop by mid-day. Roki will be alone from 8am to 10:30am, and then from 11:00am to 3:30pm. We have a few volunteers that might stop by during that afternoon period -- but none that we can count on 100%. I know, it's not perfect, but hopefully it's not too bad. I'm working from home for at least the first week that we have Roki (should I try to make it two weeks?), so hopefully we can get some housebreaking and training work done in the time period... though who knows exactly what that means...  I've read conflicting things about leaving puppies alone: crate 100% vs. never crate un-housebroken dog for any period of time. My gut intuition tells me that we should crate him and clean up accidents, but will this make housebreaking impossible? Would it be better or worse to give him a room with newspaper, like a bathroom or kitchen, instead of just a crate? I've read all the crate training info in the puppy thread (i.e. the part where it says "newspaper training doesn't work don't do it, put the dog in a crate"), but have since been swayed to doubt given the plethora of sources saying different, conflicting things -- especially given that we won't be there 24/7 to take him out every hour on the hour. Help? 
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Aug 12, 2009 12:39
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My cat Samson pants occasionally. I asked my mom about this and she freaked because cats aren't suppose to pant. He's done it a few times now, and it's always after we play on the stairs - he likes to chase his toy up and down the stairs so I throw it for him. I read that while it isn't normal for cats to pant, it isn't unheard of for them to do so after exerting themselves. I dunno, running up and down stairs for 30 minutes would make me pant... Anyways, he's otherwise perfectly normal and healthy, so I wasn't too concerned. Should I be?
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Aug 12, 2009 13:24
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