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Your situation seems similar to mine. I live in a studio as well, and I can't section off my kitties, but only one of them has been sneezing. The other has only sneezed like 10 times in the past year. The sneezy one is perfectly normal in every way except for the sneezing, and the vets haven't been able to narrow down what the cause is. We've ruled out asthma and herpes, and now we're trying to see if it's allergies. He was already treated for an URI so maybe I need to get him tested again? Ugh.
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Jan 25, 2012 17:11
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marshmallard posted:So who here has a Litter Robot? Do you like it? I actually use World's Best in my LR, but you can definitely use something else. I just like it because it's pretty dust free and kills the smell pretty well. You might not care as much about cost because the LR really cuts down on the amount of litter you use. I can answer any other questions you have, I've had one for like 8 years now, I think (we're on our second unit). Other thoughts: we have 3 cats and they all get along super well so we are able to get by with the LR and no other boxes. You do need to clean out the inside of the ball every once in a while, which is easy with a garden hose or slightly more annoying if you live in an apartment and just have to 409 it out by hand. With the 3 cats I empty the drawer about once a week, conveniently it starts to stink at about the time it is full. Personally I find the filter in the drawer worthless, as even with the lip accessory one of my stupid cats manages to pee in the drawer every once in a while, which would just soak the filter, so I removed it. Definitely leave the plastic on that covers the control panel (I think the manual says this now), hopefully a future design will move the electronics away from the path of cat pee. Dogen fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Jan 25, 2012 |
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Jan 25, 2012 17:22
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Has anyone here bought health insurance for their cats? I had to take one of my guys to the emergency vet last night and, holy sticker shock! $350 for some x-rays and a couple of shots; I shudder to think what a major emergency would cost. My cats are still young and haven't had any major health problems, but I'd hate to be caught off guard if something came up. Any of you have any input on buying insurance?
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Jan 25, 2012 17:41
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One of my co-workers has it for her two dogs and she is really happy with it. I have been looking at different companies for the past month, pity I didn't pick one sooner or else I wouldn't have a vet bill to contend with tomorrow.
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Jan 25, 2012 17:42
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Unless things have changed, you have to cover everything up front and they reimburse you, as I recall, so you still have to have the cash on hand to cover it.
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Jan 25, 2012 17:43
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Dogen posted:Unless things have changed, you have to cover everything up front and they reimburse you, as I recall, so you still have to have the cash on hand to cover it. Depends who you go with. We're with Petplan (in the UK, but they're in the US too) and they can pay the vet directly. They also offer lifetime coverage so that if yout pet develops a condition they keep covering it for the whole life, whereas if you get a plan that needs renewing annually and your cat develops, say, diabetes, when you came to renew your policy, diabetes would no longer be covered - which is obviously where a lot of your pet's future problems might stem from.
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Jan 25, 2012 17:46
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Most of the ones I've found so far here in the US are pay upfront and get reimbursed later. I think that's why care credit is so popular regardless. The thing I am running into is that since both cats have had a URI (like most cats from a shelter) that they're excluded from a lot of the more comprehensive plans. I can still have them insured but I can't have full coverage. It's sort of frustrating and why I've taken so long to make a decision.
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Jan 25, 2012 18:04
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Esplanade posted:Has anyone here bought health insurance for their cats? I had to take one of my guys to the emergency vet last night and, holy sticker shock! $350 for some x-rays and a couple of shots; I shudder to think what a major emergency would cost. Both of my cats have insurance and I've been very happy with it. Yes, you have to pay first and get reimbursed later, but so far, the insurance company (Trupanion) has been absolutely excellent about covering my cats' medical costs (going so far as to see exactly what my student discount was applied to so they could give me more money). They even gave me money for things I didn't claim.
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Jan 25, 2012 18:32
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Thanks for the input, everyone. I'm not concerned about paying upfront since my vets all take Visa. I'll check out the companies you mentioned.
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Jan 25, 2012 18:47
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Dogen posted:To agree with their decision to call the vet? This exactly. I was hasty in my probation and Rhea had just reiterated that the vet is the right decision.
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Jan 25, 2012 19:14
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Esmerelda posted:There was heat when I got home! Pity there wasn't any when I woke up this morning. Good! It's always a big worry with colds that they'll just quit eating and a lot of people don't realize how serious that can be. Glad you are on top of it. I'm also glad that I live in a place where it basically doesn't matter if the heat isn't working.
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Jan 25, 2012 21:17
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and 
shortly before he does, and I try not to laugh but he looks ridiculous. He's eating still, just not as much at one sitting. The food dishes on books didn't go over well, he knocked the dish off then looked at me like "what the hell is wrong with you?"
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hog wizard posted:Can I get some help with eliminating the possibility of my Toby having allergies? Although he's been given a clean bill of health during each check up, and he's been absolutely normal with everything else so far, he's been sneezing multiple times a day, and I wanted to rule out allergies. So far, he's been tested negative for feline herpes, asthma, and URI (history of being treated last year with doxycycline). Anyone have any suggestions/recommendations? Thank you 
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Jan 26, 2012 17:03
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JimmydaFish posted:I have a question for those of you with kitties with CRF. Gus was diagnosed at the beginning of the month. He is responding well to fluids and the prescription food (after trying a couple of brands). Now that he is feeling better, he doesn't really want to sit still for me while getting the subq fluids every day. He is currently getting 150 ml/day. That's down from 300 ml/day that he was getting for the first 2 weeks. What I have set up now is the bottom half of the cat carrier, lined with towels, to corral him. I put this up on the kitchen counter to make him less likely to jump off (he's never been a big jumper). This works to a degree but he is getting really squirmy. I live alone so there isn't someone who can help out everyday. So does anyone have any tips or tricks to make him sit still while he's getting his fluids? Sorry to quote myself, but really hoping for some suggestions. Thanks!
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Jan 26, 2012 17:04
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JimmydaFish posted:Sorry to quote myself, but really hoping for some suggestions. Thanks! Is your cat a lap cat? Mine would only sit still on my lap (he stretched out and wrapped his paws around me knees then rested his chin on them, it was his preferred way of sitting.) So cat on my lap, fluids hanging from a light fixture so that the tube and needle were long enough to reach the cat in my lap. If you could maybe set up something similar where you just put a chair under the fluids and relax with him it might help?
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Jan 26, 2012 17:11
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If you can wrap a towel around him that might help. The feeling of constant pressure on all sides makes my cat much less squirmy.
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Jan 26, 2012 18:12
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Armarkat tree came in today. Hoooly poo poo is it ugly. By the time this wears out I'll be able to afford one of the expensive good looking ones, so I can deal with it for a while at least. Cats loving love it though! One of them ate a sticker while I was putting it together though  . Hopefully it doesn't gently caress her up.
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Jan 26, 2012 18:12
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Watson (aka "Sniffles") is heading to the vet tonight after work. One of his eyes started watering yesterday and he hadn't eaten much of his dry food. He did, however, scarf down the treats I have for him (also dry) and nearly killed himself trying to get at a can of wet food. Then he found that the feather toy had been repaired while scrounging around in the "treat bag" in the cupboard. He went nuts for it like he always does. I'm giving him whatever he'll eat at this point (fancy wet stuff) and will deal with him being a whiny brat about it when he's all better. He acts like a cat with a stuffy head basically. He still helps me with dishes, wraps around my legs when I'm trying to walk, purrs at me and sleeps on me. He wants to play but just doesn't seem to have the energy for it. Poor thing, I really wish I could make him feel better.
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Jan 26, 2012 19:30
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Esmerelda posted:I had help with my cat that needed to get regular sub-q fluids. However, I probably could have done it myself if I wasn't such a big baby about needles. Yeah, the needles don't bother me but they bother him. He's not much of a lap cat but he does have a favorite pillow on the sofa that he likes to sit/sleep on. Maybe I'll see if he's more cooperative if I do it while he's there. vonnegutt posted:If you can wrap a towel around him that might help. The feeling of constant pressure on all sides makes my cat much less squirmy. If the above suggestion doesn't work, I'll give this one a shot. Thank you!
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Jan 26, 2012 19:56
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JimmydaFish posted:Sorry to quote myself, but really hoping for some suggestions. Thanks! Dr. Yin has some good ideas one turning this into a positive experience. It probably won't be immediate, but should help in the long term if you work at it.
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Jan 26, 2012 20:21
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Hm. So, our cat started peeing outside the box a couple weeks back. Took him to the vet, and nothing came up except high glucose in his urine. We took him in the next day for a 12-hour fasting blood test, and everything was fine. They figured it was territorial/behavioral/stress related, though they couldn't put a specific diagnosis on it. We added one ginormous litter box (seriously, it's one of the short-but-long rubbermaid boxes) and replaced all the litter in the house with 100% fresh in freshly-scrubbed boxes and nothing's happened since... until today. One of the places he'd peed was on a box in the pantry. I already tossed the box, doused the area in Nature's Miracle, and cleaned the cans that were in the box with soap/water/N.M. to make sure there was little/no temptation/contamination. Today he meanders into the pantry and starts sniffing before crouching to pee there. This just means that I didn't soak the area well enough, right? I guess what I'm really asking is what do you guys do to be really sure you soaked the carpet enough? Do you just pour some on and douse the area? Do you spray-then-blot?
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Jan 26, 2012 20:41
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JimmydaFish posted:Yeah, the needles don't bother me but they bother him. Something that really helped us when we were giving fluids to our cat was to heat some water in a bowl in the microwave and then let the fluid bag sit in the water to get it a little warm. She did a whole let better when the fluid was room temperature or warm than when it was slightly cool. RheaConfused fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Jan 26, 2012 |
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Jan 26, 2012 22:01
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Thanks Enelrahc and RheaConfused! I've been giving treats after so I'll try the technique you linked and warming the fluid. Since this is something I will be doing for as long as he's still feeling good, anything to make it more positive helps.
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Jan 26, 2012 22:07
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In true cat fashion Watson didn't sneeze once at the vet. He has a slight temperature but it appears that his immune system is kicking rear end finally. Watson is eating like himself again too but that isn't necessarily a good thing - he is now 15lbs. He was 10lbs back in June.
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Jan 27, 2012 06:23
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2508084 posted:Just because the cat lived a long time, doesn't mean it lived a happy, well life. We had a cat that lived to be 23 and the last ten years of her life was nothing but medical problems (that they refused to treat). They finally put her to sleep when she was deaf, blind and could barely walk without assistance. Purina is not a good food. It ranges from Poor to Awful depending on which type of purina you're feeding the cat. Putting them on something like Chicken Soup or TOTW would be better and similar in price. I'm feeding three cats Orijen for 50$/mo. If you control how much you cat eats based on its weight, you could feed a very high quality food for not that much money. The cat DID live a happy, well life. It had no problems up until the day it died! It is hard to argue with that, even though she is normally smart about things like anecdotal evidence - she's a science reporter, for cryin' out loud. The problem is that there are no stores that carry good food around here, within an hour's drive, and I'm not driving an hour completely out of my way to get food for a drat cat. I love my cats but not that much. I talked to her about respecting me enough to stick to a feeding amount and schedule, but it just wound up with both of us crying and her reiterating that her own beloved childhood cats lived to be super old on crappier food than Purina. There's nothing I can do on her end - she will continue overfeeding the goddamn cats whenever they loving want. It doesn't help that they've learned to lift the bowls to clank them annoyingly when they want food, and she has no patience with it. gently caress. My only solution is to try walking the cats, as stupid as I'll look. Does anyone know of any good and cheap harness/leashes for cats? I'm going to feel like a complete idiot but god dammit I love these stupid animals and I don't want them to die of fatness.
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Jan 27, 2012 07:04
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Why not pick up the bowls?
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Jan 27, 2012 08:06
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RheaConfused posted:Why not pick up the bowls? Because they still need water...?
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Jan 27, 2012 09:19
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gowb posted:The problem is that there are no stores that carry good food around here, within an hour's drive, and I'm not driving an hour completely out of my way to get food for a drat cat. I love my cats but not that much. Also, you could look into getting an autofeeder to help control daily intake.
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Jan 27, 2012 09:26
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My wife and I decided to donate our tax returns to a cat/animal shelter, and we were wondering what the best, no-kill place to do it would be? I know goons are very good at sniffing out places that only contribute a pathetic percentage of your donation, so that's why I am asking here. We were going to do the ASPCA (those goddamn depressing ads were getting to us) but we couldn't verify if they were no-kill or not. It's preferable to us if it's a place that helps abused/disabled cats because we have a huge soft spot for our 3 legged family member. Thanks!
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Jan 27, 2012 13:42
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Hamburglar posted:My wife and I decided to donate our tax returns to a cat/animal shelter, and we were wondering what the best, no-kill place to do it would be? I know goons are very good at sniffing out places that only contribute a pathetic percentage of your donation, so that's why I am asking here. We were going to do the ASPCA (those goddamn depressing ads were getting to us) but we couldn't verify if they were no-kill or not. It's preferable to us if it's a place that helps abused/disabled cats because we have a huge soft spot for our 3 legged family member. Thanks! I know Dee Eight who does the cat drugs has a shelter he gives the extra too, you might check them out? I think it's listed on in his OP.
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Jan 27, 2012 15:54
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Well I just paid a stranger to cut off my little guys balls. Now I get to sit here worrying about his fat little self. The nurse loved his name, "I don't know how you came up with Cabbage Salesman, but it's a fantastic name." The older cat (Zuko) is now walking around looking for his little buddy.
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Jan 27, 2012 16:50
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gowb posted:The cat DID live a happy, well life. It had no problems up until the day it died! It is hard to argue with that, even though she is normally smart about things like anecdotal evidence - she's a science reporter, for cryin' out loud. The problem is that there are no stores that carry good food around here, within an hour's drive, and I'm not driving an hour completely out of my way to get food for a drat cat. I love my cats but not that much. How does she know it lived a happy, well life? Did it see the vet every year? Back when I still lived at home with my mom, we ran into a similar problem where she was overfeeding the cat. Eventually, I just told her that I would feed the cat from now on. Was she upset? Yes, but the cat lost weight. It is NOT normal for an indoor cat to be overweight. It is common, but it is absolutely still abnormal. I have two indoor cats, and both of them are lean and at the right body condition. It is not impossible. There is a study that showed that even animals that are a bit obese did not live as long as animals at a proper weight. Obesity predisposes your cats to a variety of medical conditions. If she refuses to listen to you, take it out of her hands.
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Jan 27, 2012 17:24
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gowb posted:I talked to her about respecting me enough to stick to a feeding amount and schedule, but it just wound up with both of us crying and her reiterating that her own beloved childhood cats lived to be super old on crappier food than Purina. There's nothing I can do on her end - she will continue overfeeding the goddamn cats whenever they loving want. It doesn't help that they've learned to lift the bowls to clank them annoyingly when they want food, and she has no patience with it. gently caress.
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Jan 27, 2012 17:47
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SupahCoolX posted:Just to note: this is a preview for how it is likely to be with children. You have been warned. Haha, well, she doesn't have a beloved childhood KID to point to and say "He lived a long life!" So hopefully not.
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Jan 27, 2012 18:47
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Braki posted:Both of my cats have insurance and I've been very happy with it. Yes, you have to pay first and get reimbursed later, but so far, the insurance company (Trupanion) has been absolutely excellent about covering my cats' medical costs (going so far as to see exactly what my student discount was applied to so they could give me more money). They even gave me money for things I didn't claim.
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Jan 27, 2012 18:53
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gowb posted:The problem is that there are no stores that carry good food around here, within an hour's drive, and I'm not driving an hour completely out of my way to get food for a drat cat. I love my cats but not that much. Are you kidding me? A ten pound bag of quality food lasts my cat for like two or three months. And you can buy bigger bags that that. Your girlfriend is deliberately endangering your cats' health for the hell of it. It's easier to eat Twinkies from the 7-11 every night than to cook dinner, does she do that too?
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Jan 28, 2012 01:45
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I have a concern about cat-on-cat aggressiveness. My girlfriend and I adopted 2 young female cats (around 1-2 years old) a month ago from a local shelter, both spayed and up to date with shots. Both were friendly and affectionate when we were at the shelter, and the folks there explicitly said that these cats got along well with the remainder of the animals. Neither of us noticed any aggression when the cats were roaming around their area of the shelter. The first week went well -- both were getting used to their surroundings and didn't interact much, but the second week...well, I suppose it started with playing -- they would chase each other around for a little while and paw at each other, and when one would hiss (it's always the same cat), it would stop. But as the weeks progressed, it seemed to get more violent. The aggressive cat would attack the other one at random while she was walking by, or while she was eating or using the litter box, and yelping and growling would ensue. The chases got longer and it looks as though they are fighting when they paw at each other. And it's always the same cat instigating everything. The behavior of the "bullied" cat seems to be changing too, she's more skittish and jittery and less affectionate. There hasn't been any blood or anything, either. It doesn't always happen though, which puzzles me -- right now, both are chilling in their respective places in the living room and not making a peep. Should I be concerned? How does one discern fighting and playing?
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Jan 28, 2012 02:08
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I would take the cat who is displaying sudden aggression to the vet. Behavior changes like that are a warning sign.
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Jan 28, 2012 07:37
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CharlesWillisMaddox posted:Well I just paid a stranger to cut off my little guys balls. Now I get to sit here worrying about his fat little self. The nurse loved his name, Just imagine when he gets the cone off and yells "My cabbages!"
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Jan 28, 2012 08:13
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gowb posted:Stuff If you have amazon prime, you can get good foods from them. I pick up Blue Buffalo from them if I remember before the bag runs out. No effort, food comes to you. I'd give it a look.
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Jan 28, 2012 08:21
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A lot of pet food websites have spend X and get free shipping.
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Jan 28, 2012 08:38
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