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Thanks for the advice. My girlfriend is getting Capstar from her work, and we're buying some Advantage tomorrow for the furniture (US here). I'm guessing it's the non-cheapo stuff since it's what her vet clinic uses against fleas. Either way, we know the risks of skimping on flea treatment and will be using safe products on our kitties. The big struggle now will just be trying to keep the cats confined to one room for the 24 hours it takes to nuke any fleas in our bedroom and living room. Then wash all our clothes, the bedsheets, the fabric on our chairs and couches... It's beginning to look like an all-day kind of deal.
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# ? Oct 21, 2012 23:42 |
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# ? May 26, 2024 02:47 |
I was initially a little worried when my year plus old cat and my kitty first got together but I am SO glad I got a second cat. After they got used to each other, older kitty now just seems SO much more relaxed, less anxious and altogether happier than before I got her some company. She freaked out when I first got home from work every day, now, she is still happy to see me but seems much calmer. It has not really been any extra work or stress on my lifestyle, very glad I did it.
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 00:39 |
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Canadian Bakin posted:How do you go about telling if a cat has dandruff? My black cat has these teeny little white flecks on her fur around the base of her tail and on her paws, but I'm not sure if it's a dry skin thing, or she's collecting a lot of dust when she sleeps under the couches. She doesn't seem overly itchy at all, so I'm curious as to what it is. All cats have some skin flakes. With black cats it's just a lot more noticeable. Unless it gets noticeably worse, don't sweat it. Her skin might just be a little dryer if you live in a colder area.
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 01:27 |
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My cat and I have had one hell of a year! Anyway, we're moving to a new city soon, and I need to know what I should look for in selecting a good vet.
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 01:40 |
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Iron Crowned posted:My cat and I have had one hell of a year! If you know anyone in the area with a pet and a vet, that's the first place to look - ask! Don't go for the cheapest vet. A good vet will value both their time and that of their techs, whereas a vet that's either overly concerned with the bottom line (and thus tries to sell you on unnecessary things or cuts corners) or practicing substandard medicine (cutting corners or doing things the way they were done 20 years ago) will price things very cheaply. Don't go for a Banfield unless they come well suggested by normal people (there are good Banfields, but from what I've seen/heard, they're not the norm). In general, they will oversell you on many things, from extraneous vaccines to overkill bloodwork. I always feel so bad when I say that since there are old classmates of mine working at Banfields If they have a website, read it over! What do they emphasize? Are you looking for Eastern or Western medicine? More holistic? Homeopathic? What are their clinic hours like? Read about the veterinarians and technicians on the website - the longer more of the technical staff has been there, the more effective the work environment.
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 01:59 |
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HelloSailorSign posted:
There's homeopathy for pets?!
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 02:05 |
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marshmallard posted:There's homeopathy for pets?!
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 02:15 |
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marshmallard posted:There's homeopathy for pets?! Pretty much anything people do to themselves they also do to their pets.
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 02:30 |
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HelloSailorSign posted:If you know anyone in the area with a pet and a vet, that's the first place to look - ask! Sadly no, never lived in Cincinnati, and I haven't had to find a vet in 9 years (my parents used the last one, and I kept going, luckily it was a good office). HelloSailorSign posted:If they have a website, read it over! What do they emphasize? Are you looking for Eastern or Western medicine? More holistic? Homeopathic? What are their clinic hours like? Read about the veterinarians and technicians on the website - the longer more of the technical staff has been there, the more effective the work environment. I definitely value science over magic. I really just didn't know if there was a good way to go about it, or anything in particular I should be looking for these days.
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 02:30 |
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Iron Crowned posted:Sadly no, never lived in Cincinnati, and I haven't had to find a vet in 9 years (my parents used the last one, and I kept going, luckily it was a good office). You mean you won't give your cat a supplement made from cow, sheep, and pig stomach when the cat has stomach issues? What kind of a person are you?!!? In all seriousness, unfortunately quality of website doesn't give too much information - bad vets don't have bad websites (or bad yelp reviews). Other than going in and actually visiting the vets you won't know how they do things. One way to gauge vet quality is to require some service - like a surgery or dental procedure - and find out how they handle the whole process. A good vet will give you an estimate with all the services listed and explain each one - and if you don't know what is good to have with either of those things posting here asking about different items (this vet doesn't use fluids, but this one does, why? etc.) if they weren't explained sufficiently can work well. When you start work/making friends you could ask them about local vets, unless you need a vet asap.
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 02:39 |
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Here's a question about my gf's 3 months old kitten: So, when he was about 1 month old, he contracted the "cat flu". Being on the shelter's insurance, he got treated with antibiotics until his fever went down. So fast forward to now: he still sneezes, has a whistling respiration and a dripping nose. Other than that he his very energetic and eats a lot as he improved a lot on the past few weeks. The problem is the sneezing still being here after 1 month. My girlfriend's parents saw somewhere on the net that human nasal spray could help him and she wonders if we should. I wanted to know what you guys think about that. Personally, I think it's a poo poo idea and just waiting will do the trick.
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 03:30 |
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Its that time posted:The problem is the sneezing still being here after 1 month. My girlfriend's parents saw somewhere on the net that human nasal spray could help him and she wonders if we should. I wanted to know what you guys think about that. Personally, I think it's a poo poo idea and just waiting will do the trick. This might be ok who knows, but it's not something I'd ever ever do without a specific ok from my vet. It sure sounds like an awful idea though. Cat might just be having a hard time getting over being congested, but after a month of it persisting, I think you should bring him in just to make sure he's still doing ok. In the mean time you can lock him in the bathroom with you while you take a shower to give some relief to congestion.
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 04:31 |
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Its that time posted:Here's a question about my gf's 3 months old kitten:
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 05:05 |
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I'm hoping someone can help me with my aggressive cat issues. I have a tabby cat named Tonka that's about 5 years old that I bought from a pet store. From the day that she came home she had issues with being domineering, but not too bad. She'd hassle the older cat and when she was a kitten, which continued as an adult, but there were no major fights. Over the years, however, she became more domineering and more territorial towards both people and other cats. She started by defending certain parts of the house when visitors came over and hissing if they came near. This slowly rose to hassle other cats more and causing fights until the older cat left (with an ex). Then she would start to defend things left on the ground, like boxes or pieces of paper. She also will growl at anyone who came to the door. For the most part this behavior was not terrible because she was not physically aggressive. It is possible to shoo her away, or spray her with a water, and etc. And since she only did it only so often that would not be a big deal. But I noticed when I started dating my girlfriend that Tonka was being very domineering and territorial towards her, often blocking areas and hissing. And then my girlfriend moved in, with her own cat. After the typical acclimatization period keeping them separate, which lasted about a month, they were able to not fight (much) but only because the other cat is usually submissive. Tonka is hissing at and blocking areas from both cats and people numerous times per day. It's been six months now and there's no sign in the behavior changing. At this point I am out of ideas and thinking I may have to rehome her. I've tried. -Shooing her away. It just makes her more angry, and she really holds a grudge. -Using a water bottle. This works for a week after its introduced but then she learns the sound of it and runs. She usually can escape and then re-appears with the same behavior a few minutes later. -The cat pheromone sprays and rubs. No apparent effect. -Putting her in time out i.e. a room or her cat carrier, where she can cool off. This did work but the behavior happens so often now that it's barely a help. So any advice would be appreciated. Oh, and yes, I took her to the vet for this sort of stuff some time ago when I started to notice it happen, and no medical issue was discovered. She seems healthy - physically, that is.
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# ? Oct 22, 2012 07:26 |
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Say hello to Ichi! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFSTo8Ov70k He is two years old this month. Ichi has Feline Hyperesthesia I first noticed the symptoms a couple months after he turned 1: back spasms and excessive licking. He will also chase his tail in a whirling frenzy and bite it. Once I came home and found a spatter of blood on the wall from where he attacked himself. Well that was enough to make me completely freak out, and the next day I called off work and took him to the vet. They had me see a cat neurologist (yes really), who told me there was nothing I could do but try to put him on an anti-depressant or an anti-seizure medication, neither of which would be likely to work. I tried the anti-seizure medicine mixed in little treat capsules, which he promptly stopped eating after about three days. Then I tried grinding the pills into powder and mixing it with his food. When he stopped eating his food, I realized this method was not going to work. Since then I've been at a complete loss as to what to do. I try to play with him at least 30 mins a day to get some energy out of him, but that only helps so much. My uncle (Ichi's favorite play buddy, he's throwing the mouse in the video) wants me to let him outside, he thinks it will help him; but the neighborhood I live in is a very high traffic area. I often see animals dead on the side of the road. I hope to someday move to less populated area where I can let him out in the yard, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. Anyone have any experience dealing with this disorder and can offer some advice? I'd be grateful for any help!
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 02:30 |
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Are there no other medical alternatives? Have you brought up the not eating problem with your vet/neurologist? Do not just casually let him outside. If you take him out with a leash&harness and let him explore that's a great idea, but don't just leave him to wander on his own.
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 03:18 |
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The only alternative would be to use a dropper to force a liquid version of the meds down his throat; and I just can't do that to him. They only have about a 30% chance to do anything at all. I tried using a harness once, but he squirmed out of it. He tends to get spooked easily. Maybe I could try just leaving it on him in the house for a few hours at a time? I'm just scared if I take him for a walk that he'll freak out and run away and I'll never see him again
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 03:41 |
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Giving a cat liquid meds can actually be pretty easy and nonstressful for both of you as long as you know what you're doing. Maybe you could ask the vet to show you the best way?
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 04:03 |
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merrilyx4 posted:Say hello to Ichi! Sad kitty diagnosis aside, that video is awesome.
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 08:26 |
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Well, I have fairly recently joined the ranks of the unemployed (no fault of my own, laid off ) you see, and there are some perks to this situation and some aspects that are... not so good. For one, I'm fairly positive I have a job lined up for me after Christmas, which is very cool. And in the intervening couple months I get to collect unemployment for the first time in my life (which is surprisingly fun since I've never received government compensation before and I feel quite proud to join the ranks of the 47%). On the other hand, I'm unemployed for the first time in my adult life. And with the economy as it is and the threat of a loving republican potentially having the slightest chance of entering office again... well, it's scary as gently caress for me to be unemployed right now, in a way. Thank god, then, that I have such a great cat to make me feel better in these moments. So what have I done this past week with all my spare time? Well, mostly, I've hung around my apartment, played video games, and cuddled with my cat a lot! I've got some writing projects I intent on undertaking soon since this is already getting boring, but I have to say that in the meantime, hanging out with Jackie-cat and doing almost nothing is immensely satisfying. I mean, basically, I'm doing just what she does every day, with her. In the daytime we hang out on the couch and cuddle up together and take naps in between bouts of simultaneous gaming and film-watching. And then at night we go to bed and do the same thing. It feels almost decadent to be doing nothing to such an incredible degree. I have no idea how cats manage to live like this without the biggest guilty conscience EVER. But still, man is it nice. And it honestly makes me love my kitty-cat SO much more I am really she is just the bestest cat ever and I ADORE her I cannot stress it enough. I thought we'd get sick of each other or get on each others nerves without me going to work, but... nope! She continues to be the most affectionate and attentive and awesome cat I've ever known, in addition to being impeccably behaved all of the time - well, most of the time. The point of this silly and rambling post is this: There is no purely indolent joy greater than spending all day taking catnaps with a cat. edit: real-time update: I am currently in sleeping bag in bed still, and cat has just hopped into sleeping bag and settled in the bottom of it nestled my feet. Soft (and for the moment pleasantly cool) cat fur luxuriating against my toes and feet and ankles... Pretty nice. Did I mention that I love my cat? kaworu fucked around with this message at 12:25 on Oct 23, 2012 |
# ? Oct 23, 2012 12:20 |
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I'm wondering if I'm feeling my little rear end in a top hat enough... He's 8 months old. I give him a full 4oz can of wet food in the morning and a bowl full of dry food when I get home from work. He doesn't look overly skinny or anything but I was just being nervous as usual. Bonus pic of him not at all happy after I took away the paper towel he was shredding: mcmagic fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Oct 23, 2012 |
# ? Oct 23, 2012 18:37 |
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mcmagic posted:I'm wondering if I'm feeling my little rear end in a top hat enough... He's 8 months old. I give him a full 4oz can of wet food in the morning and a bowl full of dry food when I get home from work. He doesn't look overly skinny or anything but I was just being nervous as usual. You're in the zone where your cat will grow like a weed. My cat grew so fast in that time that you could practically watch him get bigger. Now he's one year old and huge.
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 18:59 |
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HPL posted:You're in the zone where your cat will grow like a weed. My cat grew so fast in that time that you could practically watch him get bigger. Now he's one year old and huge. Does what I'm feeding him sound like enough?
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 19:11 |
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mcmagic posted:Does what I'm feeding him sound like enough? It sounds right to me - how big is the dry food bowl? I only feed my cat 1/2 cup of dry food a day (per manufacturer's recs) and he is getting to be a little tubby lardo just the same.
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 19:14 |
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vonnegutt posted:It sounds right to me - how big is the dry food bowl? I only feed my cat 1/2 cup of dry food a day (per manufacturer's recs) and he is getting to be a little tubby lardo just the same. It's probably like 3/4 of a cup.
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 19:17 |
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This is Skathi (before scratching) Recently, she's decided that scratching bits of her fur off is a really great idea. It's done almost entirely with her back feet, and centers around her head. She's nicked her neck once, underneath her chin, and most recently a patch around her ear. None of the wounds look serious in themselves (there's been no dripping blood, and nothing that looks infected. Just small patches of bare skin), but when she keeps doing it, it's really worrying. I clip her claws regularly, but she's still able to add to existing damage. Behavior-wise, she acts entirely as normal. Super sweet and cuddly and patient. Loves to be in physical contact with humans, and purrs like a champ. Doesn't even protest when her claws are trimmed, which I didn't think was possible. :3 And she's pretty active, and gets at least a few hours of concentrated play-time a day, so I'm hoping she's not doing it out of boredom. She's pretty good at telling us when she wants to play, so I don't think so- and her heaviest scratching-times tend to be right after she wakes up. We stop her from doing it whenever we see it, but we can't stare at her 24 hours a day. And my wife and I work at home, so she's not left to herself for long stretches of time, and gets plenty of company and attention. She's entirely an indoors cat, so I don't think she caught a parasite or anything from outside. I'm wondering if there's anything in the flat that's making her itch in the face so she scratches it? From weaning, she's been on the same food her whole life (Taste of the Wild). Late August was the first time we took her to the vet (and only a couple days after we'd gotten her), because she scratched her neck. The vet said it wasn't serious, and to just keep an eye on it to make sure it didn't get worse/start bleeding. It didn't, and healed fine- but now that she's done similar things again, I'm worried that she'll keep at it, and eventually do more serious damage. We're going to call the vet tomorrow for advice, and the soft paws we ordered just got here today, though I'm a bit at a loss of how to put them on correctly. As patient as she is, I don't want to stress or hurt her by putting them on wrong! She's about 5 1/2 months old now. Bonus pic:
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 19:46 |
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Has she ever been treated for ear mites? Excessive scratching at the base of the ears is pretty typical for that.
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 20:20 |
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Duckie posted:We tend to empty ours once a week(every weds morning) for two cats. This is the absolute max we can wait though and it gets bad if we don't change it on time. We were doing twice a week, but it wasn't totally full and I feel like that wasted a lot of trash bags. I have to ask - if my cat has consistently liquidy poo poo (she's had it since she was a kitten and no change in diet seems to change this), will the litter robot be able to deal with this?
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 20:33 |
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vonnegutt posted:Has she ever been treated for ear mites? Excessive scratching at the base of the ears is pretty typical for that. I don't think so... Are ear mites visible? I'm looking at her ears, and I don't think I see anything mite-ish.
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 23:52 |
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Blackbird Saga posted:I don't think so... Are ear mites visible? I'm looking at her ears, and I don't think I see anything mite-ish. They usually appear as brownish gunk in the cat's ears. They're very, very common, especially in high-volume cat areas like shelters. A vet should be able to prescribe some drops to cure them.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 00:38 |
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vonnegutt posted:They usually appear as brownish gunk in the cat's ears. They're very, very common, especially in high-volume cat areas like shelters. A vet should be able to prescribe some drops to cure them. I'm not seeing any gunk, and since we didn't pick her up from a shelter, she hasn't been around too many other cats apart from her siblings. And it's only since she came here that she started this. (Apart from a bit of eczema on her shoulder that she got from laying in the sun for too long. Little heat-seeking missile.)
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 00:50 |
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I'm convinced my cat is insane. He's 2 years and 4 months old, neutered. I adopted him 2 months ago from the local SPCA and since then he's done nothing but terrorize me and everyone I know. I have marks on my arms, legs, feet and I'm afraid my head is next. He doesn't respond to any discipline I know like spray guns, shaking a can of pennies, loud clapping... He's destroyed furniture, part of my bicycle, and curtains. He's fearless...throwing himself at people and hurling himself into space from the highest points possible. I don't sleep much at night for loud random howling and the cat galloping around at random. He took the kitchen curtains down today. I'm not sure if he was trying to climb them or what. I haven't managed to rehang them yet as he pulled the brackets right off the wall. I'm calling the SPCA tomorrow for ideas. I've never sent a cat back but may have to this time. I have him on anti-anxiety drops to put in his food but so far they've made no difference. Any ideas or things I may not have thought of? :/
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 02:08 |
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Xoobee posted:I'm convinced my cat is insane. He's 2 years and 4 months old, neutered. I adopted him 2 months ago from the local SPCA and since then he's done nothing but terrorize me and everyone I know. I have marks on my arms, legs, feet and I'm afraid my head is next. He doesn't respond to any discipline I know like spray guns, shaking a can of pennies, loud clapping... He's destroyed furniture, part of my bicycle, and curtains. He's fearless...throwing himself at people and hurling himself into space from the highest points possible. I don't sleep much at night for loud random howling and the cat galloping around at random. 1. Have you taken him to your own vet yet? If not, do this. Have to start somewhere. 2. What anti-anxiety drops? 3. Feliway is a total crapshoot but it's worth a try I won't blame you for giving up on him if his behavior has no obvious medical root, but hopefully it's something fixable. Faceless Clock: You seem to have run out of possible easy options. You can try going to a cat specialist vet or a cat behaviorist. If you live in a reasonably sized city chances are it has at least one of those.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 03:15 |
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Blackbird Saga posted:I'm not seeing any gunk, and since we didn't pick her up from a shelter, she hasn't been around too many other cats apart from her siblings. And it's only since she came here that she started this. The mites themselves are only visible under the microscope. Sometimes you can see tiny tiny pinpoint white specks, but usually not. Other things that cause cat scratching face/neck off are things like allergies - usually to food or something in the environment, but flea allergies (not just the normal itch from a flea bite) can sometimes look like that as well, or at least make the other allergie's clinical signs worse. From what vet medicine understands of food allergies is that they can develop to the same food ingested over a long period of time - unfortunately doing these sorts of studies to prove that would be atrociously difficult - regardless of "type" or "quality" of food.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 04:37 |
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Has anyone tried Nature's Miracle in the washer? There is a couple pee soaked rugs and one bedspread that needs to be cleaned. Any ideas? The stains look like they've been dried for a while now. I've got permission from the owner to toss these, but he'd like me to try to clean them first.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 17:43 |
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cnmns posted:Has anyone tried Nature's Miracle in the washer? There is a couple pee soaked rugs and one bedspread that needs to be cleaned. Any ideas? The stains look like they've been dried for a while now. I've got permission from the owner to toss these, but he'd like me to try to clean them first.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 17:45 |
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Oh man, I think I'm going to start dreaming about playing mousie fetch soon: What's mousie doing? He goes WEEEEEE! mousie comes back multiple times. Half an hour later: He goes WEEEEE! The Bickle also managed to lick my eyeball in the night. It's a bit red but not too sore. He grooms me when I'm sleeping, so it's hard to catch him doing it. When my old cat, Spooky, did this once to my wrist I had to bandage it for a week. He licked off the top layer of my skin when I was sleeping. It bled and went all gross. I'm a little worried about the Bickle because he doesn't seem to be growing a lot. He's not underweight, but hasn't got any bigger. He's a lively chap and does nice healthy plops 2-3 times a day. (he is 5.5 months now). I didn't know something so large and stinky could come out of something so small and cute. VoodooSchmoodoo fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Oct 25, 2012 |
# ? Oct 25, 2012 19:19 |
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This is probably a really, really dumb question, but... I can't really feel my 13 year old cat's ribs, but I can easily feel her spine (as well as vertabrae) and hipbones. She's definitely at least somewhat overweight (she weighs 5kg and I can see and feel a pad of fat on her abdomen, and she has little abdominal tuck; I'm now meal feeding rather than freefeeding) but is it normal to be able to feel the bones along her back but not on her ribs? As well as this, she also has a somewhat hard upper stomach/lower chest area and has had vomiting issues in the fast (but not for a few months since I started feeding her better food), so I'm a bit more concerned about it than I would be otherwise. Is this just a normal way for overweight cats to be?
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# ? Oct 25, 2012 19:33 |
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cnmns posted:Has anyone tried Nature's Miracle in the washer? There is a couple pee soaked rugs and one bedspread that needs to be cleaned. Any ideas? The stains look like they've been dried for a while now. I've got permission from the owner to toss these, but he'd like me to try to clean them first. Yes, it's fine. If you can, let them soak in water and NM before you start the cycle and add soap. One of my cats has one really gunky ear. The other ear is clean, and my other cats' ears are clean. Should I be worried about mites, or is he just gross?
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# ? Oct 25, 2012 20:03 |
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# ? May 26, 2024 02:47 |
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I don't know why I occasionally look at this thread, because it mostly makes me sad. I adore cats, but I am sadly highly allergic to anything that has fur - I'm surprised that I can even get close to women with long hair. Whenever I say this, people propose various medical solutions, but I live in the USA - otherwise known as the place where health care went to die - so that's right out. My current apartment is no furry pets, so I couldn't adopt a cat even if I suddenly got over my allergies. However, I do love the little buggers, so here's my question: There are a number of strays that live very near my building. Four or five of them are fully grown and utterly terrified of people - I can't get within 100 feet of them without them bolting. However, there is one adolescent kitten, who I have named Spencer, who will actually get into the same zip code as I, though he won't let me touch him. The older cats all look fairly healthy, but Spencer looks a little undernourished to me, and I have tried to feed him a bit recently. So long as I keep my distance, he will eat what I put out for him. I can't formally adopt him for several reasons, but I want him to trust me and like me and be willing to let me take care of him - I make a livable wage (though I often work long hours) and cat food isn't expensive, so I want to make sure he is fed and, hopefully someday, get him to let me pet him and so on (I can handle it in small doses). So, what do you recommend that I do to get him to warm to me before he grows up fully and becomes a semi-feral human hater? I've thought about putting cat food in a bowl right next to my door, but I think that he might not smell it and he would hesitate to get near apartment doors because that is where the people come from. I'd also like to know what food you recommend, though I don't want to spend too much because it is only one not-fully-mature kitten and I'm not sure if he will ever be willing to dine regularly on my generosity. I'm a little hurt by the antisocial nature of these cats, honestly - my American grandparents had semi-wild barn cats when I was growing up (they had to hunt often for their own food), but they were all very affectionate and warm. Any advice would be appreciated - I want little Spencer to see me as a friend.
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# ? Oct 25, 2012 23:34 |