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Carebear posted:If a cat stops breathing (lungs filled with fluid), heart stops, and turns blue, how long can it remain like that before there's no way you can bring it back? Specifically, if the cat has a 6/6 murmur, enlarged heart, and congestive heart failure, if this sort of thing happens is there basically anything, anyone could do? If you were to bring the animal to an ER vet, would it still have a chance? Why didn't you explain why you were asking? It was a bit of a bait and switch, especially since you acknowledge what assholes we are.
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Jul 30, 2010 14:01
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Carebear posted:Thanks, moron, but clearly this wasn't the case judging from the calm manner I was typing in, and the fact this is a FAQ thread. I realize that PI posters love jumping on the rear end in a top hat bandwagon, but common sense should dictate when this is appropriate. Ah, sorry, I wish you would've explained that, I kinda thought you were trolling.  But yeah, once blood stops flowing, irreversible cell damage starts up in a few minutes so there isn't much hope unless you're basically next-door to an e-vet.
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Jul 30, 2010 16:00
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Let's talk cat fountains: My cat shows interest in drinking from the sink and the left over droplets in the shower so I guess he'd be interested in a fountain. It seems like the big name is Drinkwell and the Drinkwell Platinum gets pretty good reviews. However I know that sometimes plastic dishes can be a bad idea for cats. There are ceramic (http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Pet-6022-Drinking-Fountain/dp/B00329RZFE/ref=pd_sim_k_3) and stainless steel fountains on amazon, but it looks like they are smaller capacity and less popular. The reviews don't seem to have as good of things to say. Should I worry about the Drinkwell fountain being plastic? I've never had plastic dishes around this cat so I don't have any experience from that, it is a 6-month old cat if the age factors in at all the with the acne worry.
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Jul 30, 2010 23:04
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I have the drinkwell platinum and the big capacity isn't always a plus because it's really heavy. It needs cleaned more than it needs filled and it's a pain to lift it and get it to the sink. A very minor thing but I often put it off because I know I'm going to get soaked. I love it and recommend it and have no problem with cat acne, but all things being equal I wouldn't get it just for capacity.
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Jul 30, 2010 23:41
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One of my cats is prone to kitty acne, and so we changed the food bowls to ceramic. Our Drinkwell does fine with him, because he drinks from the water that falls from the spout, not from the bowl itself. Of my 4 cats, one will occasionally drink from the bowl, but not regularly, and the other three drink from the spout. So it may not be an issue at all for your lil' dude(ette).
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Jul 30, 2010 23:42
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My cat is incompetent at burying her poo. She has the instinct to bury, but no intelligence. She just brushes the litter around randomly and scrapes the walls and roof of the litter box. On rare occasions this buries the poo, but mostly not! She smells the poo a few times - and of course it still smells because she hasn't buried it. Eventually she gives up, leaving a steaming pile behind. I have another cat who buries perfectly. Cats are about 15 months old. Litter is crysals. I don't suppose that makes much difference as the cat *wants* to bury, and *thinks* it's doing an OK job, it is just to stupid to figure it out. Is this a no-hoper?
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Jul 31, 2010 11:51
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Is there a flea megathread or collection of posts somewhere with tips on what products to use to get rid of fleas? Could anyone give me tips on how to put Advantage on a kitten? I tried on my two about a week or two ago, but they squirmed and I think it mostly got on their fur - they were licking at it and rolling around on the floor right after, so I ended up wiping a lot of it off I think. They both have fleas again already, so would it be safe to redo the Advantage, or should I wait the full month? I know I need to do some serious cleaning to get fleas out of the carpets and furniture. Any flea spray recommendations? I have BioSpot carpet spray but I'm not sure how long to keep the animals away from where it's been sprayed, or if it's actually a terrible product or something. Thank you for any help! (And the bad litterbox cat I posted about before miraculously started burying her messes! Exciting!)
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Jul 31, 2010 17:38
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HondaCivet posted:Ah, sorry, I wish you would've explained that, I kinda thought you were trolling. I wouldn't think I'd need to explain it, but I guess since there's so many idiots out there, maybe that would have been a good call in hindsight. Anyway, thanks. I've spoken to a few vets about it and the consensus is that the cat was doomed.
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Aug 1, 2010 01:21
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mothshark posted:Is there a flea megathread or collection of posts somewhere with tips on what products to use to get rid of fleas? Could anyone give me tips on how to put Advantage on a kitten? I tried on my two about a week or two ago, but they squirmed and I think it mostly got on their fur - they were licking at it and rolling around on the floor right after, so I ended up wiping a lot of it off I think. They both have fleas again already, so would it be safe to redo the Advantage, or should I wait the full month? General rule of thumb for intense bug stuff is 4 hours for humans and 24 hours for animals, I would read the instructions on the bottle though, it probably says what you should do.
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Aug 1, 2010 02:21
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mothshark posted:I know I need to do some serious cleaning to get fleas out of the carpets and furniture. Any flea spray recommendations? I have BioSpot carpet spray but I'm not sure how long to keep the animals away from where it's been sprayed, or if it's actually a terrible product or something. Thank you for any help! (And the bad litterbox cat I posted about before miraculously started burying her messes! Exciting!) As for fighting them.. Vacuum vacuum vacuum. Every single day. Take out the bag after each vacuuming. Wash everything you possibly can. Bedding, pillows, small rugs, anything that you can get in your washer. You can fight fleas in your house with this stuff called FleaBusters. Make sure you don't get the pool kind. It's safe for you and your pets, you sprinkle it around baseboards in your house. If you have the money for it, hire someone to steam your carpets, or you can rent one and do it yourself. If it's real bad, call a professional. Keep in mind even with small infestations, you are in for a long haul, it can take a long time for fleas to be completely eliminated. You can track how progress is coming by wearing high white socks so you can easily spot kill them before they can bite you. A soapy water dish set up with a lamp also works. Take a dish of soapy water and place it on the floor with a lamp. Turn on the lamp and watch them commit suicide. Hopefully you'll start seeing less of them in there everyday as time goes by.
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Aug 1, 2010 02:50
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Hey guys, Meet Lemmy and Burton (from left to right), my new kittens! Burman/persian cross. We got them at 10 weeks old, and theyre about 14 weeks old now. Since Ive only ever owned cats that were 3 years or older, Im kinda new to the whole kitten thing, although the FAQ has answered a bit for me  I have a few questions that hopefully you guys can help me out with. Firstly, Burton has a problem. He loves to chew Lemmy's balls. Lemmy doesnt like this, and starts crying, and will get up and walk away or kick him off. I can imagine this may cause problems when I get them desexed, as Lemmy will be sore down there, and Burton will miss his balls. I can only imagine that he misses his mums teet and thats why he is sucking/chewing balls? either way, its loving weird, Lemmy hates it, and I want to stop it happening. and now, just turning around, they are both involved in some kind of tantric rotating 69, sucking eachothers balls. awesome. Second - Getting them desexed. what age is appropriate to get them snipped? They havent been to the vet as of yet but they will be going very soon for worming/vaccination/snippage, and Id like to get it all done at once, if possible. Ive read on google anywhere from 12-20 weeks is OK to get the done. third - they eat like loving machines. they will eat 2 satchels of wet food (kitten sized serves) a day, and still want dry food left out during the day to nibble on. is this normal? I mean, i get that they are growing, but theyre eating a fuckload of food for something so tiny. I guess worms are a potential cause, which will be sorted in the case of no.2. lastly, taking them outside. I believe cats live both inside and outside. My previous cats have done this and never had a problem with fighting/killing wildlife/cars, and quite simply training them to poo poo and piss outside makes my life easier. Obviously they are too young to venture outside on their own right now, but I want them to become familiar with it. I have some leashes/harnesses for them but they dont really seem to like wearing them, any suggested methods for getting them comfortable with one?
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Aug 1, 2010 05:11
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Laserface posted:Hey guys, Meet Lemmy and Burton (from left to right), my new kittens! Burman/persian cross. Naming one Lemmy and then snipping him? Is that some sort of cruel joke?
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Aug 1, 2010 07:28
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I was in here about three weeks ago because my cat just had kittens, and today they finally started seriously exploring. Have some pictures of what my sister has taken to calling the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee: Nursing shortly after birth. Yes, she decided to ignore all of the nice soft places and have her kittens in a shoe closet.  So tiny!  Their eyes are open! But where's the third one?  There he is. He's bigger than the others, and more adventurous. I don't think he's large enough to grapple a Coleman stove yet, though. ToxicFrog fucked around with this message at 13:24 on Aug 2, 2010 |
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Aug 1, 2010 14:26
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Laserface posted:Hey guys, Meet Lemmy and Burton (from left to right), my new kittens! Burman/persian cross. Second -- If they're 14 weeks and haven't been to the vet since before 10 weeks, they really need to go ASAP. Kittens need several rounds of vaccines spaced apart by a few weeks, so they are probably overdue. Some vets will neuter them at the size they are now, but most will prefer to wait until they're closer to 4-6 months. Third -- Yep, kittens are eating machines. Unless they're starting to get really fat, I wouldn't worry about it. When they're closer to 6 months old, you may want to start dividing up their dry food into 2-3 measured meals per day instead of leaving it out all the time. As for indoors/outdoors, your cats are much safer living indoors only and will never know they're missing out on anything if you man up and learn to scoop a litter box. ToxicFrog posted:So tiny! 
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Aug 1, 2010 15:05
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Thanks to this thread, I did end up getting 2 kittens. I love them both dearly and taking care of two is so much easier because they play with each other all the time! It's also become our general replacement for TV in the house: watching the kittens do pseudo-WWF moves all over our living room. One of them actually did the Stone Cold Stunner on the other!
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Aug 1, 2010 20:34
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Dear cat people, I want a cat. Please help. So I'm moving into a new place soon that will allow me to have a cat, so I fully intend to take advantage of this if possible. The trouble is that there are a few snags that prevent me from just going down to the shelter and picking out the loviest fluffball I can find. The first is that I have ferrets. I've seen cats and ferrets get along just fine, but I'm planning on getting an adult cat (ferrets are kitten-like enough for me, thanks) and I don't know how he/she would react to the ferrets. I'm almost certain it will be fine, but does anyone have any experience introducing adult cats and ferrets? The ferrets are caged during most of the day, but I let them roam for at least an hour a day and while I know they're fine with other animals, I want to be sure that the cat can co-exist with them without being aggressive or even fearful. The second and main problem is that my boyfriend and best friend are both fairly allergic to cats. I don't live with either, but I would like them to be able to come to my house without their faces exploding. I've heard Russian Blues tend to work better for people with cat allergies, but after doing some research into purebreed rescues, it doesn't seem like there are many purebreds actually available anywhere and that most "Russian Blue" cats or mixes listed in shelters are just ordinary gray cats. What breed the cat is doesn't matter to me at all. I don't even have a preference for color, I just want a nice cat. Short of bringing my boyfriend down to the shelter with me and rubbing his face with cats to see which doesn't make him sneeze, what can I do? I don't want to have to just have them resort to Benadryl every time they come over, so if I can't get past this problem I can't get a cat.  How do I find a cat they won't have bad allergic reactions to?
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Aug 1, 2010 22:05
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CHRISTS FOR SALE posted:Thanks to this thread, I did end up getting 2 kittens. I love them both dearly and taking care of two is so much easier because they play with each other all the time! It's also become our general replacement for TV in the house: watching the kittens do pseudo-WWF moves all over our living room. One of them actually did the Stone Cold Stunner on the other! Hahaha we did this too when we got adopted by two stray kittens. It really is incredibly entertaining AND adorable. 
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Aug 1, 2010 23:27
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Laserface posted:Hey guys, Meet Lemmy and Burton (from left to right), my new kittens! Burman/persian cross. Free feed the kittens unless they are starting to get grossly overweight, which is unlikely. And like previously posted, man up and scoop some boxes. With healthy cats, it's never a big deal if you do it daily. It's only a huge gross mess if you let it build up. Let them live nice long lives indoors.
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Aug 2, 2010 04:00
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Laserface posted:My previous cats have done this and never had a problem with fighting/killing wildlife/cars. You've been lucky then. One of my cats got out overnight once, and was dead three days later from having sipped anti-freeze. Cats should really not roam free outside in the US. Too many predators, too many chemicals, too many cars. And many cats truly do not give a poo poo about going outside. Don't think they can't be perfectly happy living their lives indoors. Harnesses just take time on some cats, and some cats never do get used to them. But so long as they are indoor cats, it doesn't really matter.
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Aug 2, 2010 18:37
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Vilthuril posted:You've been lucky then. One of my cats got out overnight once, and was dead three days later from having sipped anti-freeze. Cats should really not roam free outside in the US. Too many predators, too many chemicals, too many cars. "Lucky" is loving right. We lived on a farm which most people think is the safest place for a cat to be and the majority of the outdoor cats disappeared or died one way or another. We had a mother cat who had a pair of kittens and then a litter of 6. Only two of the whole bunch made it to old age. I had to walk by the mom's body on the way to the school bus one morning, she'd been hit by a car. I wish we could've kept them all inside but you can't really keep cats off a farm anyway.
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Aug 2, 2010 18:59
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Vilthuril posted:And many cats truly do not give a poo poo about going outside. Don't think they can't be perfectly happy living their lives indoors. Seriously. One of my cats used to be a stray, outside all the time, but now whenever someone opens the door to the outside he runs in the other direction. "Hell NO I am not going to leave my cozy house, thanks!" The other one used to be indoor/outdoor and spend all his time hunting and exploring, but now he has the same reaction to the outdoors (but he's also generally timid so he's not as good an example.).
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Aug 2, 2010 19:16
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This is a fairly silly question: My cat, who I previously thought was black, is in fact a lovely mix of black and another color. This led me to think: Are all black cats like mine or are some "pure" black while other are mixed black? I can only see the other colors on my cat under very bright lights, and since I've never had the chance to see another black cat these lighting conditions, it seems reasonable to me that this type of coloration is actually very common. Note that under regular lighting conditions (say indoor lighting, or indirect sunlight) he seems just regular black. Here's a closeup picture taken with a flash to show the coloration I'm talking about :  And here's a belly shot, to show the coloration and also because he's adorable:  Those stripes make him absolutely gorgeous, but they're pretty hard to see under normal conditions. Oh, and one more thing: Lately he started peeing in the very front of his litter box, making it hard to scoop out the clump of litter since it's right under the entry flap (it's a closed box with a swinging flap in the front). Is there a way to encourage him to pee nearer to the back? He poops at the back, which makes it very easy to scoop, but I guess that it's the reason that he doesn't want to pee there?
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Aug 2, 2010 19:22
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Try a bigger box, it might make it easier for him. Also, my black cat is like yours, with faint brown in some areas.
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Aug 2, 2010 19:51
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I grew up on a quiet cul-de-sac. Our neighbors cat was scared by a bully cat all the way down the street to a busier road, where he was hit and killed. This was the most devastating thing to neighborhood in a long time, everyone felt his loss. Our second family cat was an adopted stray, and she hated going outside. She was scared by every little thing and much preferred hanging out inside. Eva, the current cat of my boyfriend and I, is perfectly happy inside. She gets a little curious about our back patio (which is completely fenced in), but only when we are out there. I think it's more that she wants to be near us all the time than wanting to be outside for the hell of it. Edited because I apparently forget where to put parentheses. justFaye fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Aug 2, 2010 |
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Aug 2, 2010 23:34
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justFaye posted:I grew up on a quiet cul-de-sac. Our neighbors cat was scared by a bully cat all the way down the street to a busier road, where he was hit and killed. This was the most devastating thing to neighborhood in a long time, everyone felt his loss. The thought of an entire neighborhood mourning the loss of a cat is kinda cute.  I'm glad the rest of your cats are indoors-only. The most adventurous my cats get is when one of them wants to investigate the stairway just outside our door, inside the apartment building. He sniffs everything until there's a loud noise and then he runs back to our door.
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Aug 3, 2010 01:18
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ChairmanMeow posted:I have the drinkwell platinum and the big capacity isn't always a plus because it's really heavy. It needs cleaned more than it needs filled and it's a pain to lift it and get it to the sink. A very minor thing but I often put it off because I know I'm going to get soaked. I love it and recommend it and have no problem with cat acne, but all things being equal I wouldn't get it just for capacity. I had a Drinkwell Platinum for a while too; and while kitties liked it well enough, ChairmanMeow is right; that thing is a pain to clean It wouldn't fit in my sink either so I had to wash it in my bathtub :[So what I did was just set up a ghetto water fountain.. I bought a cheapo freshwater pump (smallest one I could find and with adjustable flow! you could even use the pump from the Drinkwell) and just stuck it in a giant stainless steel bowl. One of my kitties likes to drink at the spewy fountainy part, the others just drink around the edge of the bowl! And the best thing about it is that it's easy to clean  pic: 
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Aug 3, 2010 02:13
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I'm very worried about Penn. He hasn't seemed to gain any weight since I got him and in the last few days he has been very lethargic. He appears to be eating and definitely is drinking water. His brother has gained weight and is very active. Penn also goes outside the litter box on a fairly consistent basis. Am I right in thinking this is a medical issue, or could this just be him having a hard time getting used to the Evo?
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Aug 3, 2010 08:32
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oishii posted:I had a Drinkwell Platinum for a while too; and while kitties liked it well enough, ChairmanMeow is right; that thing is a pain to clean I never thought of this but now I'm tempted by the idea to make my own. Now I just have a ton of other questions like what kind of small pump? (fishtank, decorative table top) where does one get such a thing? Fish supply store / online?
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Aug 3, 2010 08:59
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The Light Eternal posted:I'm very worried about Penn. He hasn't seemed to gain any weight since I got him and in the last few days he has been very lethargic. He appears to be eating and definitely is drinking water. His brother has gained weight and is very active. Penn also goes outside the litter box on a fairly consistent basis. Am I right in thinking this is a medical issue, or could this just be him having a hard time getting used to the Evo? Sorry about the double post but I would think about taking him in. I don't know if it's likely to be something respiratory wise since it's been a while since you'd had him home. Even if it isn't I'd still worry about the lethargy and outside the box peeing.
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Aug 3, 2010 09:04
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The Light Eternal posted:I'm very worried about Penn. He hasn't seemed to gain any weight since I got him and in the last few days he has been very lethargic. He appears to be eating and definitely is drinking water. His brother has gained weight and is very active. Penn also goes outside the litter box on a fairly consistent basis. Am I right in thinking this is a medical issue, or could this just be him having a hard time getting used to the Evo? Definitely take him in ASAP. Any lethargy is a reason for concern, not to mention the letterbox issues.
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Aug 3, 2010 10:30
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Comrade Quack posted:I never thought of this but now I'm tempted by the idea to make my own. Now I just have a ton of other questions like what kind of small pump? (fishtank, decorative table top) where does one get such a thing? Fish supply store / online? This was posted in another thread and I bookmarked it. I don't remember who posted it to credit them, but this site is tits. http://www.instructables.com/id/Filtered-Pet-Watering-Bowl/
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Aug 3, 2010 15:55
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My sister and I are going to be making the rounds to the various local cat shelters on the 21st. Aside from being so excited (I want to just chill in the kitten room while she looks around) is there anything specific to keep an eye out for? She recently lost her cat of 20 years (found her when I was six and my sister was nine) so she hasn't had much experience with actually looking for a cat. And she also just moved into her own house, so she has plenty of space. The only shelter cat I've gotten came home with pneumonia and then died of heart disease two years later. Is it common for animals coming from shelters to be sick (not counting the heart disease as that was clearly a genetic thing, but the pneumonia)? Also she wants two kittens, though she is away most of the day at work, and once classes start up she'll be gone from 6am to around 7pm. My parents will stop by most days to check on pets and whatnot, but I still don't know if kittens would be ideal. Either way, she'll be bringing home two. I suggested looking for 1-2 year olds, and black cats. And I'm totally taking pictures!
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Aug 3, 2010 16:38
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Abbeh posted:My sister and I are going to be making the rounds to the various local cat shelters on the 21st. Aside from being so excited (I want to just chill in the kitten room while she looks around) is there anything specific to keep an eye out for? It's not uncommon for cats to catch colds or other minor things from each other while in shelters but if there are lots of seriously ill cats out "ready for adoption" then you should probably try another shelter! Was the cat showing symptoms of pneumonia when you picked him up or did he contract it after you got home? Either way, I wouldn't worry about it too much, most shelter cats are perfectly healthy and you shouldn't really "expect" them to be horribly sick. If you are really worried about it, you might want to try a rescue instead since they usually foster cats instead of keeping them in shelters. Fosters are around lots of other cats usually but not quite as many, so they don't tend to catch as much stuff. They also get more individual attention so illness is caught and treated faster. I think your recommendation of two young adults is good. I don't know if I'd trust kittens to spend that much time alone. See if you can find a bonded pair in the shelters, they are hard to place but are super awesome. I don't know if my cats are "bonded" but they are best friends and it's always so fun to watch them interact. If you can't find a bonded pair, just be sure to ask the staff/rescuers for advice. Sometimes cats become buddies in their foster/shelter groups. Even just pairing up two cat-friendly cats should work. See the OP about introducing cats to each other if you can't get a pair of buddies. Black cats own. Don't worry too much about color though, making sure the cats are right for your situation is more important.
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Aug 3, 2010 17:18
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So my boyfriend and I want to get a pair of cats. I've never owned a pet before. My boyfriend has not owned a cat, but has lived with cats for the last 4 years. He helped his last roommate raise a kitten that they found while on tour (Just imagine finding a 3 week old kitten in the middle of the highway and living in a van for 9 days with 3 guys, it's quite a story) and little Mowgli turned out just fine. Anyway, recently our friend's apartment flooded, and we have had the opportunity to pet sit for her cat Toby while she finds a new place. He immediately warmed up to us and was comfortable eating and pooping and loving us and sleeping with us in our home. Having him with us for a couple weeks has cemented our desire to get a pair of our own. In the meantime, I have a couple questions about Toby. He looks like an old cat, but I don't know how old. -One is, is it normal for an old cat to be lethargic and not eat much? His activity level is pretty much sleep all day, getting off the armchair every couple of hours to sniff the corners of the house and then lay down to sleep again. He usually harasses us a few times during the night as well. He never finishes the dry food we put out for him each day, but he is definitely going over and munching it and eating it throughout the day and drinking from his water as well. Maybe he doesn't need much? Maybe he misses his owner and old apartment? -Two is, have you ever heard of a cat that refuses to groom one side of himself? He's perfectly fine on one half of his body, but the other side is dirty and matted and dredded. His hair is short-medium length. The owner says that he's always been like that, the vet always cuts it and brushes it out, but it gets back to matted right away. And he hates to be brushed. Not much I can do about it since I only have him for a few more days, but I'm just curious.
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Aug 3, 2010 22:17
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My girlfriend and I adopted two cats back in early May, they're about 8 or 9 months old now. They are generally well behaved and we never had any real issues with them, but about a month after we got them they started peeing on our bed at every opportunity. We had a cat that died about 8 months ago and it had a serious bladder problem, so there could very well be pee smells from that cat all over the room and maybe that's what caused them to pee in there. Now we keep them out of the room which solved that problem for a while, but in the last 2 weeks they've taken to peeing on our couches. They're now doing it every single night, and have peed on every single cushion, and it's getting to be a lot to handle. None of the sprays that we've tried (and we've tried about a dozen) have worked, including Nature's Miracle enzyme stuff. Our vet couldn't recommend much that would help change the behavior - they're not sick, no UTI or anything, they're well-behaved and generally seem happy other than the peeing, etc. There's no other room to put them in so we can't just ban them from the couches, and we wouldn't want to anyways. I bought a couple of pheromone dispersers for our room and the living room, is there anything else we can try? One thing with our bedroom though - my girlfriend bought a bunch of these puppy pee pads and covered the mattress under the sheets with them, to keep the urine from soaking into the mattress. Now I'm looking at the packaging and it mentions that these things are specifically designed with an odor that makes dogs want to pee on them. Would that affect cats as well? Might they keep peeing on the bed because of these pads?
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Aug 3, 2010 22:43
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Knockknees posted:
Yeah, old cats tend to not be quite so active although he should be "lazy" more than "lethargic". How much dry food are you putting out? Since he's not very active he probably doesn't really eat that much. As for his grooming, I would think that it probably hurts him to turn to the side that's all matted so he doesn't groom it. The vet hasn't said anything or looked into it? I know he's old but you'd think they'd at least investigate a bit.
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Aug 3, 2010 22:59
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Knockknees posted:-One is, is it normal for an old cat to be lethargic and not eat much? His activity level is pretty much sleep all day, getting off the armchair every couple of hours to sniff the corners of the house and then lay down to sleep again. He usually harasses us a few times during the night as well. He never finishes the dry food we put out for him each day, but he is definitely going over and munching it and eating it throughout the day and drinking from his water as well. Maybe he doesn't need much? Maybe he misses his owner and old apartment? As for the grooming, I've never personally seen that. Cats that are fat or have arthritis sometimes get greasy/matted in the areas that are hard/painful to reach, but if he's always done that, who knows. Maybe he's put together funny and has a hard time turning one direction. Adam Bowen posted:cats peeing I would put them both in a bathroom or closet with a litter box and nothing soft that they might want to pee on. Scoop the box at least twice a day, and don't let them out unless they're supervised. If they will use the box while confined, I would gradually increase the area they have access to. Basically retrain them to use the litter. You are going to need to soak the hell out of your mattress and couch (and anywhere your old cat peed) with Nature's Miracle if you want to salvage them. If you can smell any faint urine odor on the furniture, it reeks to them, and they're going to keep peeing on it. Get Cat Attract litter. The ideal number of litter boxes is number of cats +1, so three boxes spread out in your apartment. I really doubt the pee pads will attract the cats to pee there, but really you should just get a plastic mattress cover. It may help contain any odor in there, too, but soak the Mattress in Nature's Miracle and let it air out before you cover it. (And by soak, I mean you will probably need several gallons of Nature's Miracle to cover everything they've peed on -- not just a little squirt bottle.)
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Aug 3, 2010 23:01
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Serella posted:Dear cat people, I want a cat. Please help. I don't think anyone noticed me.  Any help or advice?
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Aug 4, 2010 02:49
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Serella posted:I don't think anyone noticed me. Do any non-drowsy antihistamines help your boyfriend, like Claritin or Zyrtec? There's not going to be any way to predict which cats they'll be allergic to without bringing the cat home and giving it a shot. Even if you take them to the shelter with you, all the cats are going to be covered in the cat allergens of a million cats. I'd stock up on OTC allergy meds, get a good vacuum, and see if there's a rescue in your area that will do a trial adoption or foster-to-adopt sort of setup. Also assuming your boyfriend sleeps over, I would keep the bedroom a cat-free-zone until you guys have a grip on what his symptoms are like. There's nothing worse than trying to sleep in a bed covered in poo poo you're allergic to. Sorry that's not very helpful, and I probably didn't say anything you didn't already know, but I noticed you. 
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Aug 4, 2010 03:06
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Serella posted:I don't think anyone noticed me. I can't say I have much advice, but I can share our story. Our cat was labeled as a "Russian Blue mix" at the shelter, and since I can't really attest to the validity of the Russian Blueness, I will say that our friend who is quite allergic to cats has no problem with ours. Whether this is related to her claimed Russian Blue side or if it's just because she's awesome, we'll never know. Edit: Second story! When I was growing up, my family had two cats. One from when I was baby to the age of 17 and the other in my teens and after I left for college. My mother is highly allergic to cats. The cats were not allowed in my parents' bedroom or on any furniture (except the stuff in my room) and we vacuumed regularly. My mother didn't have severe allergies except when she had to handle the cats. justFaye fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Aug 4, 2010 |
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Aug 4, 2010 03:07
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