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Kerfuffle posted:Do I put some outside garden dirt that he always goes in a litterbox first? Or use something like cat attract litter? Any litterbox or litter recommendations? Are there any good flushable options? If you want a flushable option, there are cat boxes that fit inside your toilet. You train your cat to jump up on the toilet to use the box and then after a while you remove the box and they just poop in the toilet. I haven't done any real research on it because my doofus' would just fall in.
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Dec 20, 2010 04:23
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If I had the time to toilet train him, I would. But I'm not always here and I'm the only one who would be willing to do. 
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Dec 20, 2010 04:26
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Has he ever used a litter box before? If so then it probably won't really take anything besides setting up couple litter boxes for him in appropriate places where he can find them. Dumping in some garden dirt at first would probably help. As for flushable litter, both Swheat Scoop and World's Best are grain-based and are perfectly flushable. I use Swheat Scoop . . . It's not perfect but the flushability (plus its environmental friendliness if you are into that stuff) makes up for its flaws, at least to me.
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Dec 20, 2010 04:46
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What I would do is give a regular cat box a try first and see if the cat goes in it. If nothing try cat attract. Most cats who aren't feral will get it with just regular old litter. If not though that's OK. Fill a box a third dirt, if the cat has an accident anywhere move the turd to the box. After the cat has used the box, you can start adding more litter until it all litter.
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Dec 20, 2010 05:00
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Yeah, try a normal litterbox first. Pick him up & put him in it one day, and if you find any turds, throw them in there. Chances are pretty good that he'll say "Sweet, indoor toilets." and figure it right out. If not, people have made good suggestions. re: flushable litter. I don't like it because it doesn't clump, so it's rather harder to scoop. You end up scooping the poops and sort of scraping out whatever pellet dust (it dissolves when it gets peed on a lot) you can till it's time to replace the whole load. I find the clumping ones much easier to deal with, and they often control smell better. YMMV, so it's worth a try.
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Dec 20, 2010 16:55
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Thanks for the tips so far, I just read this in the current declaw thread about declawed cats not liking to use the litter box because it's irritatinghhgtrillian posted:That is a good point. Not all cats do this, but I've seen at the vet office on more than one occasion a cat having this behavioral issue after a declaw and then it being hard or impossible to fix. Hoping hard this isn't the case for my cat, I want him to LIVE  But I guess he goes outside currently in dirt and bark and poo poo so I don't know maybe it will be fine.
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Dec 20, 2010 19:25
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Eggplant Wizard posted:re: flushable litter. I don't like it because it doesn't clump, so it's rather harder to scoop. You end up scooping the poops and sort of scraping out whatever pellet dust (it dissolves when it gets peed on a lot) you can till it's time to replace the whole load. I find the clumping ones much easier to deal with, and they often control smell better. YMMV, so it's worth a try. Swheat Scoop and World's Best both clump quite well. Are you thinking of the paper litters?
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Dec 20, 2010 22:40
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Kerfuffle posted:Thanks for the tips so far, I just read this in the current declaw thread about declawed cats not liking to use the litter box because it's irritating I would think that that would mostly apply to cats that were recently declawed. If you cat has been walking around without pain and outside a lot as well, I doubt he'll have serious issues as far as the feeling of litter under his paws.
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Dec 20, 2010 23:51
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HondaCivet posted:Swheat Scoop and World's Best both clump quite well. Are you thinking of the paper litters? Swheat scoop never clumped well for me. The clumps were...malleable is about the only word I can think of. I hated it.
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Dec 21, 2010 02:33
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Just emailed a place about two little brother kittens who are looking for a home  I hope I hope I hope!I tried to convince him we needed this cat: http://westernmass.craigslist.org/pet/2122934368.html but he wouldn't go for it. I mean, just look at this beast!  30lbs of muscle and horror
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Dec 21, 2010 02:43
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Fire In The Disco posted:Swheat scoop never clumped well for me. The clumps were...malleable is about the only word I can think of. I hated it. Ah, yeah, sometimes they fall apart on me, is that what you mean?
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Dec 21, 2010 05:27
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No, they were literally, like, rubbery, I guess. It was harder to get them to scoop easily because of it, and then they did fall apart because of being overscooped.
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Dec 21, 2010 06:37
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ChairmanMeow posted:I know you cared a lot about Gary and I'm sorry. Thanks. I just took it really hard because I was so sure it was just going to be some stupid poo poo like anti-biotics or a minor surgery and it turned out that it was way, way worse.
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Dec 21, 2010 09:35
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Abbeh posted:Just emailed a place about two little brother kittens who are looking for a home They were taken, but hopefully I'll be taking a road trip down Cape Cod on Sunday to bring home two brother kittens. Four hours round trip in the snow should be fun. Everyone keeps telling me to wait, but when no one comes running to the door to welcome you home anymore, and all you get from your dog is grumpy growling when you try to sit with him on the couch, and no one wants to play anymore much less sit in your lap it gets really depressing. Also Ed is getting lazy again, without anyone to play with. I don't want her weight to go way up again. The kitten diet was the best thing for her. I was trying to adopt a mother and her kitten, but my husband is being a dope. He said either one adult or two kittens, but he doesn't want one of each 
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Dec 23, 2010 16:52
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Was at the store this morning at 730am. Old lady comes up behind me when I am paying and has a cart with a bag of "premium" cat food, in large lettering first ingredient is corn, I cringed and thought of the the poor cat(s) she has.
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Dec 23, 2010 22:20
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Hakkeshu posted:Was at the store this morning at 730am. Old lady comes up behind me when I am paying and has a cart with a bag of "premium" cat food, in large lettering first ingredient is corn, I cringed and thought of the the poor cat(s) she has. Yay welcome to the diet of 90-something-percent of cats. Really, how many people do feed the actual premium foods? Please tell me I'm wrong about that totally-made-up number.
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Dec 24, 2010 02:09
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The number will probably go up now that premium brands actually are advertising now. I think one problem is simply that the average person isn't aware of them, I wasn't before I read PI. Both Blue Buffalo and Wellness have commercials now. 
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Dec 24, 2010 05:52
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Well, after the failure of getting a semi-feral cat (nobody in the area has seen her, the food i'm leaving out has been completely ignored & if she does come back i will have 3 cats :P ) , i've decided to go to option #2 and get 2 kittens from the SPCA 2 females / 2 boys / 1 of each (why should one go for one over the other) (i'm looking at a pair of females from the same litter)
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Dec 24, 2010 08:11
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markoshark posted:Well, after the failure of getting a semi-feral cat (nobody in the area has seen her, the food i'm leaving out has been completely ignored & if she does come back i will have 3 cats :P ) , i've decided to go to option #2 and get 2 kittens from the SPCA I'm really sorry about that kitty. I hope she's doing OK wherever she is. As for your question, I wouldn't worry about sex much. Females tend to have a harder time getting along than males but I've found it depends a lot more on the cat's individual personality than on their sex. If the kitties are getting along well now then they'll probably get along well as adults too.
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Dec 24, 2010 08:53
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Our vet wants us to try an automatic feeder to help us transition away from free-feeding. Based on his advice, I'm hoping to find an automatic kibble dispenser that: a) can schedule multiple small feedings a day b) can dispense very small amounts of food at each feeding (maybe even down to an eighth of a cup) and c) will not break down in three months. What are some good brands/models to look for? It would be a bonus if the dispenser is relatively quiet; one of our cats is an extremely nervous boy and I don't want him to go hungry because he's scared of the machine. He's doing okay with the pet fountain, though, so that's probably not a huge issue.
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Dec 24, 2010 09:03
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markoshark posted:Well, after the failure of getting a semi-feral cat (nobody in the area has seen her, the food i'm leaving out has been completely ignored & if she does come back i will have 3 cats :P ) , i've decided to go to option #2 and get 2 kittens from the SPCA Hmm, smake that look like i'm getting one NOW, when actually the litter is just born, and will be a fair way away yet (8 weeks) - see if she turns up then markoshark fucked around with this message at 09:22 on Dec 24, 2010 |
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Dec 24, 2010 09:17
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markoshark posted:Hmm, smake that look like i'm getting one NOW, when actually the litter is just born, and will be a fair way away yet (8 weeks) - see if she turns up then Haha, it's good to plan ahead I guess. Since they've just been born, you should let them grow up some and pick the pair that get along best, male or female. Also it would be a lot better if they could stay with the mother for 12 weeks. I know it's probably not your decision when the kittens get thrown out but you could see if they'd be OK with keeping them another month. As for your kitty, yeah, that would give her some time to turn up. Have you been looking around at your old neighbor's place or anything? I wonder if she would've gone back there.
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Dec 24, 2010 17:03
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Question: Why do cats go batshit insane before and after they poop? My cat runs around like a crazy man, and right now my mom's cat is jumping all over everything, meowing this loud, guttural meow, and just generally freaking out. Why is this?
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Dec 25, 2010 00:49
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Skywriter posted:Question: Why do cats go batshit insane before and after they poop? My cat runs around like a crazy man, and right now my mom's cat is jumping all over everything, meowing this loud, guttural meow, and just generally freaking out. Why is this? How old is this cat? If the age is less than two years, the answer is "kittens are crazy."
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Dec 25, 2010 02:25
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I am officially the world's worst cat mom. We forgot to buy catfood yesterday, and we will probably run out tomorrow, on Christmas! While I was at work this evening, my husband called all the feedstores and petstores, and all of them would be closed before I got off work, and closed tomorrow. 3 of my 4 cats will be OK and live off of the crappy wet food I give as a treat that they love, but poor Kleng is going to be hungry (maybe) on Xmas day since he's so picky about food. Right now 2 bowls are pretty full of Taste of the Wild, and there's enough left in the bag for another small bowlful, that *might* actually last us through the storm. But I'll probably buy some crap food at a grocery store or drug store that is open tomorrow just in case, and hope poor Kleng will eat it. Ugh, I feel so bad.
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Dec 25, 2010 04:15
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HondaCivet posted:How old is this cat? If the age is less than two years, the answer is "kittens are crazy." They are both adult cats. My cat is 8, my mom's cat is 4.
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Dec 25, 2010 04:39
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Meow Cadet posted:I am officially the world's worst cat mom. We forgot to buy catfood yesterday, and we will probably run out tomorrow, on Christmas! While I was at work this evening, my husband called all the feedstores and petstores, and all of them would be closed before I got off work, and closed tomorrow. Most grocery stores are open on xmas day, go there and buy a pound of filet mignon and chop it up real good and give it to your kitties as a xmas feast!
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Dec 25, 2010 05:34
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I'm not sure if this is the right thread, but I didn't want to start a new one so... About a month ago one of my cat's living with my family started throwing up after every meal and had really bad diarrhea. He's an 11 year old male with a past history of eating weird poo poo and urinary blockages. About 5 or 6 years ago he got his penis removed to help the blockages and that was pretty much the end of that. We feed him Precise wet food. We used to feed him dry but he wouldn't chew and just throw it up later. He gets a piece of a plain rice cracker every night and sometimes my mom gives him garbanzo beans because he really like those. Anyways, so he started doing this throwing up stuff, he got kind of lethargic so we took him to our vet. Our vet is a very small clinic, she's good for spays and neuters and check-ups and what not. Just up the road is a huge emergency vet clinic with lots of specialties, so she doesn't really need to work with that stuff frequently (I think they're connected somehow...) The vet did bloodwork to check his kidneys and it all came back normal. She tested his thyroid and it was normal (he's usually ravenous and has managed to lose weight). She did an X-ray and a barium swallow and it came back normal. They've kept him for observation for a few days and he does well - stops throwing up, gets really active and hungry. The diarrhea is still there but not as bad. We feed the same food they feed him as we get our food from them. So now my mom notices after he eats he gets this weird type of breathing. She says it sounds like Lamaze breathing, so I guess a sort of huffing. He's hungry and back to his normal self, he just gets this crazy huffing after he eats and his poop isn't back to normal again. She's taking him back to the vet for observation again today. I'm not sure what I should suggest I've pressed a few times that she should take him to the bigger animal clinic because they have much more facilities and people available, but she says they'll just do the same tests that our vet has been doing. About two months ago she had a slight flea problem (slight in that the exterminator wouldn't come to our house because our house just isn't really hospitable to fleas and she only saw a few fleas on the animals). She gave all the cats Frontline for the first time, and while the other two cats are OK he's been sick. So that's a possibility, but I'm not sure what they do for Frontline overdose or something. Edit: The fleas were most likely picked up at my mother's job. She does fieldwork for disability services and has to visit clients who don't live in the nicest places. She's pretty fastidious about what clothes she wears and bringing them into the house (she enters through a different door in our garage and changes there). My mother is the definition of OCD - our house spotless. You would never imagine 3 cats and a dog to live in that house. My mother gave the pets all baths at least 3 or 4 times when this flea "problem" started. We told her to just let it go and the fleas will die out on their own but she was so upset about it all that she just kept cleaning. She threw out most of our furniture and we have hardwood floors, so most of the rugs got tossed. I guess what I'm getting at is it's highly unlikely he swallowed any pills or onions or something like that. Thanks :< If this should be moved I'll move it. And sorry for the tl;dr.
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Dec 26, 2010 20:01
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Is there any way that you could bring him to a different clinic yourself? Maybe try approaching your mother by saying you want a second opinion. Not all vets have the answers, just like human doctors don't know everything. But she's right about the fleas though, they WILL NOT go away on their own. They will feed and breed and turn into a real problem. Cleaning(mostly vacuuming) is necessary, but throwing out furniture and expensive rugs is pretty extreme. Overbathing isn't good for the animals though. It can dry out their skin and only gets the fleas off, but doesn't prevent them from getting back on. Flea treatment is usually enough for mild cases.I've heard of pets having bad reactions to (legitimate) flea meds, but nothing too serious. I'd maybe try a different brand on the sick cat, but I'm not sure. It should be brought up at the vet though, no matter which one you go to. It probably isn't OD, since they come in individual tubes, it's hard to mess up dosing.
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Dec 27, 2010 00:31
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Kerfuffle posted:Is there any way that you could bring him to a different clinic yourself? Maybe try approaching your mother by saying you want a second opinion. Not all vets have the answers, just like human doctors don't know everything. I live in Boston and she's in NJ, so I can't bring him to the vet I spoke with her this afternoon and they think it's hairballs. After the last time he was at the vet being observed, he came home and threw up this huge THING, so my mom collected it and brought it to the vet who cut it up and poo poo and it was just a bunch of hair. He's going to be there for a few days now anyways because the Jersey Shore is being hit with a huge snow storm right now I'm visiting for two weeks this Wednesday so maybe when I'm down I'll offer to take him to the bigger clinic.She also was giving them all pumpkin for a while right before this started. My dog's stomach was upset and I guess she decided "Well, I'll give them all pumpkin  ". She stopped when one of the other cat's just got diarrhea instead...And yeah, she cleaned. For the first few days she took off of work and spent 3 whole days doing nothing but vacuuming w/ diatomacious earth, cleaning, and bathing the animals. They all got Frontline. That weekend she brushed the animals again and found a flea or two on each of them. So she again took off of work and spent 3 whole days vacuuming with diatomacious earth, throwing out more poo poo that was had fabric or carpet on it. She washed all of her linens repeatedly in hot water, god, probably every other day each week. That repeated at least another time when she eventually called an exterminator and sent the pets to the vet to get a flea dip (after being bathed like 4 or 5 times already). The exterminator did a bit of spraying but nothing extreme. He said it wasn't an infestation, and the vet found one flea on one of the cats. The animals all came home and later that week of course my mother is going over them with the flea comb again and finds one live flea on each of the animals. She called the exterminator back and he said he wouldn't come out to check the house because there was basically nothing left to check. The only way I can describe the house I grew up in is you know on TV when they show people with OCD who don't even sleep in their beds because it upsets them to mess it up? Well, luckily my mother can sleep in her bed, but our house is pretty close to that.  She's always been compulsive but this really took a toll. We had a flea problem years ago and she wasn't nearly as bad. Now we don't have a couch or any upholstered chairs.Edit: Sorry it's so long I'm worried about my cat. I know he's getting older, but I'm so far away and he's one of my best kitty friends...
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Dec 27, 2010 00:46
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God drat a flea dip too? Those are pretty much terrible. Puts too much stress on the animal for a result that isn't even worth it. It also takes multiple dips to be fully effective. Frontline/Advantage does the same thing without all the stress and it works better. It's not even recommended for cats at all. e: conjunctionjunction Kerfuffle fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Dec 27, 2010 |
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Dec 27, 2010 00:56
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Kerfuffle posted:God drat a flea dip too? Those are pretty much terrible. Puts too much stress on the animal for a result that isn't even worth it. It also takes multiple dips to be fully effective. Frontline/Advantage does the same thing without all the stress it works better. It's not even recommended for cats at all. I'm not sure if it was a flea dip exactly. I know they use some type of yucca shampoo for flea baths, and that's what my mom used. We obviously did a bath the first time, then put on the Frontline, but it still didn't work after. My mother is going to feel terrible if I tell her she's killing my cat . She's just trying to do what's best, but I really think she needs a second opinion.Edit: I am pretty sure this is the stuff they use. The illustrations look like the stuff on the bottles there. I used to work there a bit taking care of the dogs that were being boarded and we used that.
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Dec 27, 2010 00:58
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If she's putting flea meds on and then bathing the animals after it isn't going to work as well. My vet recommends not bathing for at least a week after giving meds.
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Dec 27, 2010 01:52
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RheaConfused posted:If she's putting flea meds on and then bathing the animals after it isn't going to work as well. My vet recommends not bathing for at least a week after giving meds. She waited a week. Sorry, it's all really confusing...It was like, Friday, Saturday and Sunday she did all the cleaning, bathed them, gave them the flea meds the first time around. She didn't start cleaning again till the following Sunday, took off Monday and bathed them then. I told her it wont work if you bathe them right after, which she knows because she works around giving the flea medication and bathing the dog. Sorry, I just want to know why my kitty could possibly be sick...the flea problem has been fixed.
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Dec 27, 2010 01:57
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Has he lost weight? He should have bloodwork done again since this has gone on so long. Kitty liver function can go downhill very quickly.
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Dec 27, 2010 02:13
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RheaConfused posted:Has he lost weight? He should have bloodwork done again since this has gone on so long. Kitty liver function can go downhill very quickly. He hasn't lost weight since it started. Like I said, he's got his appetite back. I'll ask my mom if they plan to do bloodwork again or not, though. They did bring up that in the Xray his liver was slightly rounded, but I have no clue what the means and that was probably two weeks ago.
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Dec 27, 2010 02:30
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Absolute Evil posted:New vet...$400 worth of tests later, the cat has pinkeye and a "minor" upper-respiratory infection. Hate quoting myself but doubted if anyone would remember Helga's story if I didn't. 3 shots, 2 bottles of different liquid antibiotic, tablet antibiotic and 2 kinds of eye drops later....her upper resp. infection is all but gone. The pinkeye got so bad despite all the meds and drops that her eye ended up with a huge ulcer on it. My boyfriend didn't know what it was and called me at work to tell me it looked like Helga was growing another eye out of her right eye. I came home from work and took her straight to the vet. They gave her another shot and a different antibiotic/steroid eye drop and said if he eye isn't any better in 4 days, surgery will have to be considered. Thankfully after 3 days not only is the conjuctiva a normal color and no longer swollen to high heaven, her eyes aren't weeping as bad and the "third eye" is beginning to shrink. Yay! It only took a month and over a thousand dollars. She's no longer sleeping all the time and she's back to being her normal bitchy anti-social diva self...never thought I'd say this but I missed that personality!
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Dec 27, 2010 03:26
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Ed had her yearly check-up last night and has lost two pounds this year! The kitten diet really worked, but she's probably put on a bit since Thanksgiving. The vet was concerned about a bit of plaque buildup (this is the first time her teeth have been anything but perfect) and suggested I brush her teeth. First, does anyone have a tutorial or any other kind of info on how to do this? And alternatively, is there any sort of food I could give her that would do this naturally, because she only likes to be held on HER TERMS and is not a cuddler - and she can also express her anal glands at will, so I'd rather not piss her off too much. Zoso was very concerned when I put her into her cat crate, and sat down in front of it and glared at me. In fact we had to take him to the vet because he was so upset at her being in the crate (to be fair, the last time we put a cat in a crate it never came home again). Ed made a huge fuss when we were taking her out of the crate at the vet's, but once she was out she turned around and started head butting the vet. They were quite shocked. Also she fell asleep on the scale and also managed to tip it over  They were very impressed with her fur because it's so shiny and soft  The vets said she still had a pound or two to go, but she has come a long way from a no-neck fatty. 13lbs of sassy calico: 
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Dec 29, 2010 15:01
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Congrats on the weight loss! Two pounds on a cat is a huge accomplishment. As for the teeth, this video series is really good: http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/pet/fhc/brushing_teeth There's a Science Diet Rx food (  ) that's been shown to be helpful for teeth, but.. yeah. For most cats, the problem tartar areas (usually the outside surfaces of the back teeth) are not places where food does a lot of scraping when the cat chews, if the cat even chews kibble at all. Those spots are usually a problem because food particles hang out there all day and never get cleaned out, so brushing can help a lot with that -- even if it's briefly every other day with a piece of gauze, just to scrape some of the film off. In any case, you may want to plan on saving some money so that she can have her teeth professionally cleaned next year.
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Dec 29, 2010 15:45
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Four years ago she was closing in on 20lbs - which was what originally prompted me to look at her food and find her a better one (and get her a huge cat tree...) she's done a ton of work The tooth brushing doesn't look too bad, actually. I think I'll give it a shot. We just had to start brushing Zoso's teeth too. I wonder if Ed's issues happen to have something to do with her eating our gingerbread house  well she ate the candy off it at least. It's now in a cake carrier.
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Dec 29, 2010 15:59
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