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There's a really friendly orange cat who hangs around an outdoor shooting range I use, and I hate to think of her having her hearing damaged from all the gunshots, but whenever I shoo her away she just comes right back. Do they sell cat ear protection like the stuff horses wear in the olympics? Is there a really effective way of scaring away cats that I could try? She has a collar and seems well fed so I'm sure she isn't a stray, but I don't know who she belongs to
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Jul 29, 2012 19:40
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Yes, there are hearing protection devices for cats. Here's one designed for pets to wear for long periods of time in the cockpit of a general aviation plane. I'm not sure that the cat would be all that happy about having it put on. Maybe you could attach a note expressing concern about the noise to her collar so she takes it home with her?
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Jul 29, 2012 19:57
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I've adopted two 6-month old male kitties and one of them seems to have a persistent not making GBS threads in the litter tray problem. I came home from work a few times last week to find that one of them had shat in either the bathtub or the laundry sink. I added a second litter tray in the bathtub which they both took to immediately, so I figured problem solved, but a day or so later I caught the tabby dumping in the bathtub at the other end from the litter tray. Each time I've nuked the sink with detergent and bleach (as my two nearest pet stores suck and don't have an enzymatic cleaner) and I'm pretty religious about scooping and changing the litter (once or twice a day, changing every 5-6 days). I'm going to pick up some enzymatic stuff today but is there anything else I can do in the meantime? Also: Does anyone in Australia know of a good place to buy cat food that isn't Purina/Eukanuba/Whiskas? I'm after somewhere to buy Innova/Blue Buffalo or one of the other decent brands from as none of my local supermarkets or pet stores sell it. Bonus pic of bro snuggling (Varg, the suspected errant shitter is the tabby, the other is Abbath)  - Age - ~6 months - Sex - Both male - How long have you had your cat? - A month or so - Is your cat spayed or neutered? - yes, just - What food do you use? - Innova dry / whiskas kitty pouches at the moment - When was your last vet visit? - Last friday - Is your cat indoors, outdoors, both? - Indoor Only - How many pets in your household? - Just the two cats - How many litter boxes do you have? - Two
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Jul 30, 2012 03:59
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Yesterday my boyfriend and I were able to take home a kitten we adopted a few weeks ago! We were lucky the foster lady held her for so long for us while we were out of town/prepping for her arrival, as we weren't expecting to adopt the day we did it. - Age - just over three months, I think - Sex - female - How long have you had your cat? - about a day and a half, this is her second night - Is your cat spayed or neutered? - not yet - What food do you use? - Innova wet - When was your last vet visit? - exit evaluation at the shelter was yesterday, if that counts? - Is your cat indoors, outdoors, both? - indoor - How many pets in your household? - two, one kitten one goldfish - How many litter boxes do you have? - one This is my first time owning a cat. I've browsed this thread and the pet nutrition megathread, but I want to be sure I'm doing things right. Since she's still a kitten, free feeding is best right? What I've been doing is putting a couple spoonfuls of food in her bowl, waiting until she finishes, and refilling with another spoonful. Is this okay? The can recommends half for an adult and double (a whole can) for a kitten, and so far we've gone through about half a can. So far her pattern is to eat a few bites and then leave, and I don't like the idea of leaving wet food out all day to spoil. How long can it stay out? She also vomited on the way home, and it stank pretty bad. The foster told us she's been perfectly healthy so far, and I'm guessing this incident was most likely stress, right? Or maybe nausea from being jostled in the carrier? So far I've been getting "yea cats like to barf!" but I know better than that. She vomited again a little later after we were home behind the toilet. Today has had no signs of barf, thankfully. Another thing about the barf, is that she managed to get it ALL OVER herself, so the first thing we did at home was bathe her. That was an ordeal, but we got it off. She still stinks though, will we just have to deal with it? It's not too terrible, but noticeable when she wants to cuddle your face. Otherwise she's been a peach, as far as kittens go. Sure I've got tons of scratches, but she's a little purr machine and somehow loves us even though her first introduction to her new home was bath time. She's been completely comfortable in the new place, no hiding, eats, drinks, and uses her box. Sorry for the long post, I'm just a worried new owner.  Hopefully kitten pics will make it up.bath time  instagrams    No name yet, can't pick one. Her papers list her as lynx point, is this accurate? The ones in GIS looked a little different, and I've just been calling her a silver tabby.. though her colors changed during her time with the foster.
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Jul 30, 2012 07:08
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Agatha - Age - 14 - Sex - female - How long have you had your cat? - 13 years? - Is your cat spayed or neutered? - yes - What food do you use? - fancy feast (and a hodgepodge of other stuff, see below) - When was your last vet visit? - spent two weeks boarding at vet ending last wednesday while we were out of town, frequent visits before that - Is your cat indoors, outdoors, both? - both, mostly indoor, doesn't hunt - How many pets in your household? - 1 - How many litter boxes do you have? - 2 Agatha is my wife's cat. She (the cat) is nice but has high thyroid and IDB. The has had diarrhea for >6 months, and starting earlier this year she sharts 2-5 times on the floor on the way to the litter box. We have a 3 year old and my wife is 8 weeks pregnant so uncontrolled cat poo poo is loving unacceptable, not to mention the ruined furniture and many thousands of dollars in vet bills we have incurred. We had Radiocat thyroid treatment done in March which neither lowered her levels nor stopped the diarrhea - $1100, far from the only treatment we've done. We've also tried a holistic vet that gave her some probiotic stuff. She's been on prednisone and methimazole and immodium at various times. The frequency/consistency of diarrhea has remained constant or gotten worse. The vets can't find anything wrong with her besides the thyroid (but they love to hunt around at $200/test). We ordered diapers for her a few days ago, we'll see how that goes. Right now she is confined to my shower at night with food, a bed and litterbox and I try to keep her outside during the day. The vet wants us to give her rice and ground beef, but of course she won't eat a bite of that. I used to love cats; I grew up with 5. Now I only love other people's cats. I hate my own and will never own an animal bigger than a hamster again. I didn't think my wife would ever get to this point (she adopted the cat before we met), but she's pretty much right there with me now. Luckily we can afford this but kid #2 will end that. We regularly discuss if/when we will put Agatha to sleep. Sorry to poo poo up the happy cat thread, but here we are.
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Jul 30, 2012 09:03
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kaworu posted:Under certain circumstances she can be quite friendly and even lovey, but she gets overstimulated easily and that can quickly turn to a very sharp and sudden attack that could leave you bloody. Picking her up is a suicide mission that could potentially result in an ER visit, depending on certain factors. I don't think anyone has ever been brave enough to rub her tummy. Lola is only totally friendly around my mom, and even then it only goes so far. It mostly works out fine, because she never allows strangers to ever see her (let alone approach her) and the people she knows are aware of how to deal with her. She's actually a pretty good cat, and a good example of one extreme type who requires some careful but loving treatment. You loving cat. Shifty Pony posted:Yes, there are hearing protection devices for cats. Here's one designed for pets to wear for long periods of time in the cockpit of a general aviation plane. I'm not sure that the cat would be all that happy about having it put on. 
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Jul 30, 2012 10:36
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duckfarts posted:Yeah, er, I knew a friend's cat that was horribly bi-polar and was only okay with one person(my friend). To everybody else, she would do poo poo like rub against your leg or hand, but then if your hand got near her head or you pet her and she decided she didn't care for it, she would bite you, sometimes to the point where the cat was hanging from my hand by her teeth. Wow, yikes. And yeah, it's funny because Lola will do almost the exact dame thing! She'll get almost aggressively affectionate and start rubbing against your legs, and walking between them while purring loudly. Then you bend down to pet her, and she's even okay with that for as long as a minute, sometimes, and it's fairly pleasant if you know when to stop. But the second you reach some point that she determines, she'll turn on you and attack. She doesn't bite, but she hisses and scratches with claws that are *very* sharp (nobody dares to trim them, only the vet and I think only if she's medicated somehow, so she doesn't get them trimmed often at all). Anyway, she does this scary thing where she hisses while simultaneously slapping the ground really loudly with one paw, and springing forward with her back paws as she attacks with the other paw. It's honestly the most legitimately terrifying thing I've seen a cat do, partly because it results in extreme pain and a surprising loss of blood sometimes. And I can't stress what a stark contrast this is to my own cat, Jackie. I sometimes view Jackie as my karmic reward for having spent about 5 years living with Lola. I sometimes wonder what would happen if they met - they live fairly close by. But I don't think I'd ever subject my Jackie to a a cat like that. Jackie's a lover, not a fighter. Lola would probably mortally wound her in what she considers "playing". 
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Jul 30, 2012 13:05
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hello fence posted:This is my first time owning a cat. I've browsed this thread and the pet nutrition megathread, but I want to be sure I'm doing things right. Since she's still a kitten, free feeding is best right? What I've been doing is putting a couple spoonfuls of food in her bowl, waiting until she finishes, and refilling with another spoonful. Is this okay? The can recommends half for an adult and double (a whole can) for a kitten, and so far we've gone through about half a can. So far her pattern is to eat a few bites and then leave, and I don't like the idea of leaving wet food out all day to spoil. How long can it stay out? 1. You're spending way too much effort on the feeding thing. Just leave her with a chunk of it and she'll eat it. You can supplement with high quality kibble if you're that concerned about leaving the wet out. Some cats prefer to graze, so it might be better for her overall anyway. 2. Carsickness. Sucks. Unless there's blood or a foreign object in it, you're fine. 3. Tabby cat. It's hard to say from your pictures but honestly a cat's a cat. She's a gorgeous color, though. AnnoyBot posted:I used to love cats; I grew up with 5. Now I only love other people's cats. I hate my own and will never own an animal bigger than a hamster again. I didn't think my wife would ever get to this point (she adopted the cat before we met), but she's pretty much right there with me now. Luckily we can afford this but kid #2 will end that. We regularly discuss if/when we will put Agatha to sleep. I'm sorry that you are going through this. It sounds like you are at the end of your rope and Agatha isn't improving either. She is 14 and she is very ill. It is not her fault that she poops everywhere. I think it would be best if you made the decision to put her to sleep soon.
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Jul 30, 2012 13:37
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Hey guys, I need help. (only pics I have are instagram variety) On June 23rd a kitten walked up to me outside and demanded love. I obliged, thought she felt pretty skinny and called my girlfriend to bring some food down. When the kitten began vacuuming the dry food down, I decided to keep her, and named her Charlie Took her to the vet the next day to check for chip/start shots etc. No chip, he said she was skinny, and guesstimated her to be around 4 months old. I scheduled her next appointment for shots and to talk about spaying. About a week after that we realized she was acting WEIRD, looked it up, and turns out from all her symptoms she really seemed to be in heat! At her next appointment I brought that up, a different vet was looking at her now and put her at 8 months. We had her spayed, and chipped.  We're finally at the point the boys (we have two neutered male cats) and her can be left alone without murdering each other. Now for my actual problem: She is way too aggressive when playing. I've looked at the thread and we've tried everything. Yelping and walking away, distracting her attention to an appropriate toy, and that works... for about 5 minutes, and then she latches on to our feet/hands again. Sometimes she'll stop playing with the dangling toy mid through and leap for my hand. So we've tried the water bottle. Works temporarily, but she continues the behaviour after perhaps 10 minutes. We love playing with the girl, but dang it's dangerous! What we've been doing in the mean time is rubbing cat nip all over the scratch post and then beating a hasty retreat, but I'd like to get to the point where she never goes for our tender bits. Do I just need more patience? She seems to be doing it playfully, but I'm not having her declawed and it hurts! In all other areas she is a angel, let's us mandhandle her, loves petting, sleeps with us, etc, but the moment she's in a playful mood the blood flows. Edit to add info: - Age - Rougly 8 months as per Vet - Sex - Female - How long have you had your cat? - 1 month - Is your cat spayed or neutered? - Spayed - What food do you use? - By Nature (95% Meat formulas) - When was your last vet visit? - Umm, her spay roughly 2 weeks ago - Is your cat indoors, outdoors, both? - strictly indoors now - How many pets in your household? - three :3 - How many litter boxes do you have? - two feverish and oversexed fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Jul 30, 2012 |
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Jul 30, 2012 14:08
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leftover posted:Hey guys, I need help. If she lets you manhandle her you sound like a perfect candidate for Softpaws They are adorable and will keep her from scratching you. Though you should still continue with anti-attacking training you've been doing. She's beautiful, keep up the good work!
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Jul 30, 2012 15:42
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My cat has thrown up twice in the past three days... How much should i be worried? His activity level is the same, he's been eating fine, and pooping and peeing in the box. No change in diet or anything except he and his brother got their feline leukemia vaccine two weeks ago. His bro has been normal. Edit: i should mention he has a tendency to devour everything right away, and the first time he threw up on Friday night, he scared down all of his dinner super fast. But this morning, which is the second time, it was before breakfast. Hand of the King fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Jul 30, 2012 |
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Jul 30, 2012 18:38
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Eggplant Wizard posted:1. You're spending way too much effort on the feeding thing. Just leave her with a chunk of it and she'll eat it. You can supplement with high quality kibble if you're that concerned about leaving the wet out. Some cats prefer to graze, so it might be better for her overall anyway. Thanks! I know I tend to worry about things I don't need to be worrying about. I'll definitely start looking into kibble, especially since now I'm a little concerned that she stopped eating. And yea, I know she's just a regular cat haha. I'd never even heard of lynx point until I skimmed over her papers, I was just curious about it. I've noticed they try and assign fancier-sounding color/breed names to otherwise normal looking cats, probably to entice people more.
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Jul 30, 2012 18:39
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hello fence posted:Thanks! I know I tend to worry about things I don't need to be worrying about. I'll definitely start looking into kibble, especially since now I'm a little concerned that she stopped eating. Concatenation: Outside of other suggestions, I would also try Cat Attract litter, we got some for our kitten that was peeing outside of the box. Both cats are quite noticeably attracted to the litter as well, both come around when it's time to refill the litter.
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Jul 30, 2012 19:35
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hello fence posted:Thanks! I know I tend to worry about things I don't need to be worrying about. I'll definitely start looking into kibble, especially since now I'm a little concerned that she stopped eating. When I fist brought my kitten home, he was very picky and much preferred the canned food to the kibble (he also barfed some of the kibble too.) I feed him a half a can in the morning and half at night and leave out kibble all the time but he hardly touches it.
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Jul 30, 2012 19:36
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hello fence posted:This is my first time owning a cat. I've browsed this thread and the pet nutrition megathread, but I want to be sure I'm doing things right. Since she's still a kitten, free feeding is best right? What I've been doing is putting a couple spoonfuls of food in her bowl, waiting until she finishes, and refilling with another spoonful. Is this okay? The can recommends half for an adult and double (a whole can) for a kitten, and so far we've gone through about half a can. So far her pattern is to eat a few bites and then leave, and I don't like the idea of leaving wet food out all day to spoil. How long can it stay out? Also, you could obviously name her... Tabitha. 
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Jul 30, 2012 22:15
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Boa - Age - 8 years - Sex - Female - How long have you had your cat? - 6.5 years - Is your cat spayed or neutered? - Spayed - What food do you use? - Iam Proactive Health Multicat & Whiskas Purfectly Fish - When was your last vet visit? - 18 months ago - Is your cat indoors, outdoors, both? - 95% indoors, wanders into fenced backyard on occasion when it's nice outside and we leave the door open - How many pets in your household? - 4 - How many litter boxes do you have? - 4, cleaned 1-2x a day My wife and I have a total of 4 cats, 2 of our own and then 2 that we were given to us a few years ago when her sister started having children and they were allergic. Boa is a very sweet but not-so-bright calico who we've now had for 6.5 years. She's chubby but generally healthy. Unfortunately for the last couple of years she has consistently peed outside of the litter box(es). We've taken her into the vet a couple times and had tests for UTI's, stones, etc with no luck or definitive guidance. Her peeing doesnt have any discoloration or redness and it's only just outside of the litter box. We have tried covered boxes, uncovered, large, small, different litter types, a combination of all the above you name it. We keep the boxes clean and change the litter frequently, and she has no problem pooping in the box. She has been relatively responsive to using puppy pads, both in and outside the box, but uses them unreliably. We have tried everything from trying to give her treats while gently placing her in the litter box, trying to have a dedicated and separate litter box for her outside the laundry room, and using pet cleaning solution/vinegar on the area to try to get her to stop if it's a marking or behavioral thing. I wouldn't go so far to say the laundry room has been ruined but it definitely has an odor thaat we can't remove and when it's rainy or humid outside, the smell becomes pretty pungent inside. We're about to close on a new house with nice hardwood floors in mid-August as well as expecting a baby in several months. We don't want to give her up but after spending a lot of time and effort with no progress, we are extremely frustrated and dont know what to do with her. With the upcoming expenses and time being at a premium, taking care of a cat like this isnt a luxury we can afford. Not to mention our new laundry room is pretty open and right next to the kitchen so the thought of foul pee smell ruining the floors and preventing us from enjoying our new home is worrying. We are planning on laying down some sort of plastic or linoleum over the laundry room but Boa is so unpredictable, I dread her possibly peeing outside one morning after we leave for work only to come home and it's soaked into the wood. We have about 2.5 weeks to figure out how to possibly solve this before we move into the new place. The stress of a new location, smells etc probably won't make this better and I dont want to take the chance on her wetting everywhere after we've just made the biggest investment in our lives. Worst case we dont think anyone will take in a cat with a problem like this and we're at the end of our rope. Any thoughts on what else we can do?
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Jul 30, 2012 22:39
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There's been this really sweet stray hanging around the neighbourhood, lately. He's been going from house to house, trying to get in, crying for loves and food. I've run into him like three times and he always cries when I stop petting him and leave. If I had to guess, he's 5-6 months old. I've been desperately wanting a cat for a while now, but: -He'll be alone about 12 hours/day for the first 5-6 weeks I'd have him. After that, there's 3 more people in the house and... -Roomie has a big dog. She's kinda doofy and really loves people, but no idea about cats. I can't even contact him to find out. -I don't don't know how much the vet bill would be. Wut do? P.S. Bought a bag of treats. Gonna hunt that kitty and feed it.
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Jul 31, 2012 00:28
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Hand of the King posted:My cat has thrown up twice in the past three days... How much should i be worried? What's the vomit like? Is it partially digested food, or is it more liquidy? If it's liquidy, what color? Probably you're fine. Twice in three days isn't really alarming so much as irritating. sticksy posted:Any thoughts on what else we can do? Have you caught her in the act? Is it possible that she's just sticking her butt out of the litterbox because she is an idiot? Have you tried a top-entry litterbox (aka a rubbermaid tub)? Great Horny Toads! posted:There's been this really sweet stray hanging around the neighbourhood, lately. He's been going from house to house, trying to get in, crying for loves and food. I've run into him like three times and he always cries when I stop petting him and leave. If I had to guess, he's 5-6 months old. I've been desperately wanting a cat for a while now, but: Call around vets & shelters to see if anyone is missing a cat of that description. It sounds like he probably had a home at some point. Otherwise, you can't take him in until you know what your other roommates think, ESPECIALLY the one with the dog. If the dog is animal aggressive or has a high prey drive or even just plays too rough, it'd be a really bad situation for the kitten. You need to find out how that factor is before you do anything else. Vet bills: depends on if he's neutered or not already, but assuming he is you're still looking at I'd say at least $150 for vaccinations and deworming and exam fee and tests for FIV/FeLV... Prices vary from place to place and maybe it's cheaper where you are, but I'd be surprised. If your eyes bugged out at $150, I would not suggest adopting this cat. It'd be good if you could at least get him neutered by a low-cost neutering service, should he turn out to not have other owners. If you're not home that's fine but he might climb your things and knock stuff over. Young cats have a lot of energy, especially if there's no one else around to play with. Potentially he and the dog could be friends but I wouldn't count on it. Anyway leaving him alone is not the end of the world probably. Eggplant Wizard fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jul 31, 2012 |
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Jul 31, 2012 00:36
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I borrowed a binder clip from work and tried it out; Rooster does not deactivate. In other news my sister found a house, but the lease does not allow pets. I asked her point-blank if she wanted her cat back and she said he was permanently mine.  edit: In celebration, Rooster helped himself to some bread. Everything Burrito fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Jul 31, 2012 |
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Jul 31, 2012 02:02
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Ed Mungo posted:I borrowed a binder clip from work and tried it out; Rooster does not deactivate. The joke's on you. Now you own a cat.
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Jul 31, 2012 02:11
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Serella posted:The joke's on you. Now you own a cat. Well if I had to give him back I was going to have to get another cat because I like having a companion for my other cat. So it was the rear end in a top hat cat I know vs a cat of unknown rear end in a top hat capability.
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Jul 31, 2012 02:38
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Have you caught her in the act? Is it possible that she's just sticking her butt out of the litterbox because she is an idiot? Have you tried a top-entry litterbox (aka a rubbermaid tub)? Yeah pretty regularly. Sadly it's not just a matter of her peeing off the side by accident, it's squatting right in the middle of the floor, basically wherever the litter box isn't. We've tried to gently coax her back in, scold her when we see it, give her treats, use puppy pads, whatever but nothing sticks. We haven't tried the top-entry litterbox - unfortunately since she's adamant to pee on the floor regardless of litter box so far, I don't know if that'll help. My wife is taking her in again to another vet tomorrow - I'm sure they'll try to run some expensive tests again and find no UTI or anything definitive as usual. Don't care what it takes just as long as it's resolved. Otherwise I don't know what we do with her, as I doubt there are shelters that take in these type of cases.
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Jul 31, 2012 03:15
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sticksy posted:Yeah pretty regularly. Sadly it's not just a matter of her peeing off the side by accident, it's squatting right in the middle of the floor, basically wherever the litter box isn't. We've tried to gently coax her back in, scold her when we see it, give her treats, use puppy pads, whatever but nothing sticks. We haven't tried the top-entry litterbox - unfortunately since she's adamant to pee on the floor regardless of litter box so far, I don't know if that'll help. If you haven't tried the Cat Attract litter you might want to try that. I tell you, both of my monsters crawl over me to crap/pee in that stuff. It's like kitty crack they want to go in. It's pricey, but I was having an issue with mister cat going where I didn't want him to and no issue for the last few weeks. Now I'm mixing the Cat Attract with their regular stuff to see if that still works... Good luck.
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Jul 31, 2012 05:47
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Eggplant Wizard posted:What's the vomit like? Is it partially digested food, or is it more liquidy? If it's liquidy, what color? Probably you're fine. Twice in three days isn't really alarming so much as irritating. The vomit is... cat food color? it's like a combination of light brown and tan, and it's most liquidy - which is great because it soaks into the carpet super fast  The first time was right after eating so it was mostly food but still liquidy. The second time was before eating and it was very, very little.
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Jul 31, 2012 05:49
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Revisiting the thread again for a follow-up post with the same theme as the post from a few days ago. My cats are exhausting me. Warning: This gets comicaly long, skip to TLDR to pass the drama. 14 yo male, owned him his entire life, only-cat his whole life. 4ish yo female, just adopted her two months ago, history of being a stray. Both spayed and neutered. Introduced them slowly at our apartment over four weeks and it was going pretty well, but then we bought a house and had to keep her there for a few weeks while showing the apartment. We moved into the house three days ago. On day one, we kept the cats separated, and that did not go well. The girl had been isolated in one room for the couple of weeks that she was at the house, and we tried isolating the boy in the room next door, which is the master bedroom with an adjoining door. The boy doesn't take well to closed doors and spent the entire night meowing to be let out. Loudly. The girl wanted into the bedroom and spent the entire night scratching at the door. Loudly. I tried blocking the doors with pillows and blankets but this did not solve the problem. I got no sleep that night and worked the next day. Night #2, we let the cats out of isolation and allowed them to explore the house on their own. Then we tried introducing them. The girl is very relaxed and doesn't care what goes on, but the male is very scared of her and hisses and growls whenever he sees her. At the apartment he would usually run into a closet or under furniture and sit there and growl while she minded her own business. At the house he corners himself in a closet while she roams around the house. I tried isolating them again that night but it was the same story, he wanted out of the room and she wanted in. Finally at 4am I said SCREW IT and let them both out into the house. There was a lot of growling and hissing from the male, and she chased him into the closet, swatted his nose, and made him bleed a little bit. The whole incident lasted maybe three seconds. Isolated both of them and more meowing and scratching. Again no sleep and work the next day. Now it's night #3. We were home the entire day and let them explore the house first by themselves and then free-roaming. The boy has spent most of the day in the closet but will come out when we are in the room, growls and hisses when she comes in. She really only chases after him if he's really growling loudly, like she's saying "enough of that crap." She is a very relaxed cat and is good at minding her own busines, but my boy is so uptight and scared of her and just runs away and hides and hisses... I don't know what to do. Sorry that this is long but I haven't had sleep in two nights now and expecting a third sleepless one and it stresses me out that my cats are stressed out. Isolating them isn't working because they hate being isolated and we can't sleep, and we have no other isolation options. Putting them together isn't working because the boy is scared of her and she chases him if he growls too much. Neither of them like the calming aide treats we got. We've tried coaxing with treats and head scratches because that worked at the apartment, but it's not working now. The Feliway does nothing for the boy. We tried keeping the boy on the upper floor and the girl on the lower floor but he just sits at the top of the stairs and meows and meows, and he is loud, and she scratches at the barrier when we're upstairs. At this point I feel like throwing my hands up and just letting them roam the house and telling them that they have to get used to the idea of living together. I hope that isn't sentencing my boy to a life in the closet, hissing and scared, while she roams the house carefree. She is not the problem, the problem is that my boy is a big baby and is frightened of a little girl that is less than half the size of him. I was hoping to have kitty cuddles, but at this point I am so frustrated that I just want them to be able to stand being in the same room as each other without hissing. TL;DR!Sorry that turned into a massive vent. 14 yo boy and 4ish yo newly adopted girl move into a house together, we can't keep them isolated because their noise doesn't let us sleep, we can't introduce them at any kind of slow pace because they hate being alone, we can't let them roam free without the boy confining himself into a mad hiss ball in a closet and her occasionally chasing him around and it feels like we've tried everything... What do I do? I need to sleep.
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Jul 31, 2012 06:05
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Eggplant Wizard posted:I'm sorry that you are going through this. It sounds like you are at the end of your rope and Agatha isn't improving either. She is 14 and she is very ill. It is not her fault that she poops everywhere. I think it would be best if you made the decision to put her to sleep soon. I should have said "I hate having a cat" instead of "I hate the cat". I understand it's not her fault, and we don't get mad at her. Since we started the shower thing it's been much better, since she's so close to the box she doesn't make a mess and she got used to it pretty quick. It's a big rectangle with glass doors rather than a bathtub. The other bit of interesting news is we got the test results from last week's thyroid test. It's high normal, which is a tiny improvement. The interesting part was the vet said "oh I thought you were still giving her the prednisone", when he had only given us enough for a week and that was like over a month ago. So we're going to be starting that back up as soon as possible. I wish vets would stop giving me really good reasons to be cynical about them. Fingers crossed...
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Jul 31, 2012 07:15
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sticksy posted:Yeah pretty regularly. Sadly it's not just a matter of her peeing off the side by accident, it's squatting right in the middle of the floor, basically wherever the litter box isn't. We've tried to gently coax her back in, scold her when we see it, give her treats, use puppy pads, whatever but nothing sticks. We haven't tried the top-entry litterbox - unfortunately since she's adamant to pee on the floor regardless of litter box so far, I don't know if that'll help. Okay, I only suggested it in case my hypothesis was correct. I guess Cat Attract litter is the next thing to try, yep. Koivunen posted:At this point I feel like throwing my hands up and just letting them roam the house and telling them that they have to get used to the idea of living together. I hope that isn't sentencing my boy to a life in the closet, hissing and scared, while she roams the house carefree. She is not the problem, the problem is that my boy is a big baby and is frightened of a little girl that is less than half the size of him. This is what I'd do, honestly. Maybe try to inure your boy to her presence by giving him delicious treats when she's out, or have her in a carrier so he can smell her and feel safe. It's only been a couple days plus moving and really it could be worse. It doesn't sound like they're fighting. Just be patient and let him hide for now, but give him extra attention/treats when you can.
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Jul 31, 2012 14:13
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sticksy posted:Yeah pretty regularly. Sadly it's not just a matter of her peeing off the side by accident, it's squatting right in the middle of the floor, basically wherever the litter box isn't. We've tried to gently coax her back in, scold her when we see it, give her treats, use puppy pads, whatever but nothing sticks. We haven't tried the top-entry litterbox - unfortunately since she's adamant to pee on the floor regardless of litter box so far, I don't know if that'll help. You need to put the litter box right where she is currently going. At least until you can get it worked out you won't have to deal with cleaning it up. Are you absolutely sure you are cleaning up the mess? There still could be some left behind that is still calling her to the spot. And I 120% also recommend Cat Attract litter, it's expensive, but it worked wonders for us and I still use it. The cats love it and when it comes to that I want something they will really like. Koivunen, maybe try playing with them both together? When ours get snippy at each other we will break out the Da Bird and they will play together without their attention being solely focused on the other cat.
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Jul 31, 2012 14:34
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How can I find out what's making my cat pull her hair? It's clearly allergies, but it's not food, and whatever it is, it's new, since the cat's 15 years old and hasn't had any problems like this before. The vet's making me pill her every 12 hours with chlortrimeton, which stops the pulling, but I'd still like to remove the offending allergy source from the house.
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Jul 31, 2012 17:20
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Protocol7 posted:How can I find out what's making my cat pull her hair? If she does end up being environmental allergens, those can be ridiculously difficult to pin down exactly what is causing the reaction. There are blood tests and skin tests that can be done to possibly give an idea of what is causing it, but you could end up with a cat that reacts to "house mites" or "mold" or "that tree down the street." Or, the test could come up inconclusive. In general, removing the offending source is extremely difficult/not possible, so desensitization shots can be pursued - but those don't always work. Have you ruled out fleas?
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Jul 31, 2012 17:30
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HelloSailorSign posted:If she does end up being environmental allergens, those can be ridiculously difficult to pin down exactly what is causing the reaction. There are blood tests and skin tests that can be done to possibly give an idea of what is causing it, but you could end up with a cat that reacts to "house mites" or "mold" or "that tree down the street." Or, the test could come up inconclusive. In general, removing the offending source is extremely difficult/not possible, so desensitization shots can be pursued - but those don't always work. The vet didn't find any fleas on her, and now that I remember she said something not vastly different from what you said. I guess I'll have to continue to pill her - I don't like doing it, she's a sweet old cat but fights the pilling like no other! That's the real factor as to why I want to try to pin it down. I'll call the vet about skin and blood tests to try to at least get an idea what's making her go crazy. Really depends on the price though. If it's $100 for tests I'll just continue to pill the cat.
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Jul 31, 2012 17:36
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Protocol7 posted:The vet didn't find any fleas on her, and now that I remember she said something not vastly different from what you said. Didn't find fleas, sure, but is on flea control? If they do happen to be allergic to fleas they can react with very few fleas. The skin and blood tests tend to be expensive, and unless you plan on going down the route of treating (shots), they're usually not worth it. The shots themselves also tend to be expensive, since treatment can require several vet visits over several months with special injections each time.
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Jul 31, 2012 18:10
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HelloSailorSign posted:Didn't find fleas, sure, but is on flea control? If they do happen to be allergic to fleas they can react with very few fleas. They didn't find evidence of fleas, and all the problems seem to go away when she's on the allergy pill, so it's not a likelihood, especially since she's an indoor cat. In any case I'll probably skip the tests, and every once in awhile take her off the pill to see of the allergies persist.
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Jul 31, 2012 18:38
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Any tips on dealing with finding an owned cat outside? One's been under my car the past two nights and I can see a tag shining, but it's ran off once and now disappeared when I went inside. I know it could be an outside cat (never had one myself), but do outside cats generally roam around at night twice in a row? Figured most outside cats would come home for the night. I'm going to call local shelters to see if anyone has called about a lost cat if I can, but will be helping a friend move so depends on time. edit: Forgot to mention, it's eaten some tuna I left out both nights. Hadn't really seen it during the day. Karl Sharks fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 02:57
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I'm getting worried. So I'm catsitting the most adorable little 2 yo girl in the entire world. She's fixed. As far as I know, she's always been a bit picky with her food. I brought her here Monday evening, and it is now Wed lunchtime and I don't think she's eaten more then a couple of bites since I brought her here. Her food is total crap, but I didn't want to force her into eating what I feed my other cat. The introductions have gone fine, they can relax in the same room although my boy growls a bit at her and they both hiss if they get too close. Couldn't really separate them, but it doesn't seem to have been a problem. She's super cuddly, she sleeps on me ad everything. I've tried microwaving her food, I've tried letting my boy out so she doesn't have him around, but she just won't bite. At home, she's a grazer, but I can't leave her dry food out because my boy is a pig. She usually gets wet food morning and evening and vacuums it all up. How do I get her to eat???  Edit: I just fed her a bunch of candy piece by piece, but I still want her to eat her food Edit 2: Crisis seems to be averted! After sitting next to the food bowl for like two hours, she decided there was food in there and she started eating it. GAH. Silly kitty :3 benjai fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 11:17
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hello fence posted:No name yet, can't pick one. Her papers list her as lynx point, is this accurate? The ones in GIS looked a little different, and I've just been calling her a silver tabby.. though her colors changed during her time with the foster. She's definitely not a lynx point - all lynx point cats have blue eyes. A lynx point is a tabby cat with the 'siamese' colorpoint mutation. I'd agree with your assessment of silver tabby. Topoisomerase fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 18:24
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Is it possible for cats to have separation anxiety? Sammy does just fine when we're out doing stuff, but if my boyfriend ever has to work later than usual she starts losing her poo poo and batting at the front door. I try playing with and comforting her but she won't get away from the door and won't stop yowling until he finally gets home, then she won't leave him alone for the next hour. Sammy used to be the most skittish cat I knew and my Boyfriend used to be terrified of her and her sharp teeth, now they're best friends for life and he can't shut up about her holy poo poo 
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Aug 1, 2012 19:11
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So as anyone who posts/reads the puppy thread would know, I have a new puppy. He's been with me for a few weeks now, and is getting nice and comfortable at home. He likes to run and jump and play and generally be a dog. Since he is teething, he also loves to bite everything, and that includes my cat, Clover. Clove will let him bite a little, then swat if it gets too much. Shanti likes to chase him, and Clover NEVER rolls into a submissive position or anything. If it gets too much, he swats and goes for higher ground. He's never made a noise like he's been in pain, just annoyed. Is that okay? Am I a terrible catmom for letting Shanti play with Clove? Please note: 1. As I said, my puppy is teething, hence the biting. I redirect him to appropriate things as much as possible, but sometimes he slips out of my sight for a second and is all over Clover. 2. Clover doesn't seem the least bit shy or scared of the puppy. He will sit close to him when he's calm, and even investigate him when he's being a crazydog.
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Aug 1, 2012 21:27
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Dabbo posted:Is it possible for cats to have separation anxiety? Sammy does just fine when we're out doing stuff, but if my boyfriend ever has to work later than usual she starts losing her poo poo and batting at the front door. I try playing with and comforting her but she won't get away from the door and won't stop yowling until he finally gets home, then she won't leave him alone for the next hour. It doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes when my husband gets home first and I'm late home, Decoy sits at the front door waiting even though there's already someone home and won't move for anything until I arrive. He is pretty awesome 
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Aug 1, 2012 21:51
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Topoisomerase posted:She's definitely not a lynx point - all lynx point cats have blue eyes. A lynx point is a tabby cat with the 'siamese' colorpoint mutation. Good to know, thanks! Anyway, I can't believe I was worried about this rascal. She eats like a pig now, despite being a gangly little thing.  We named her Cake, to go with Donut the fish. Also, Adventure Time!
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Aug 1, 2012 22:15
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