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SpaceGoatFarts
Jan 5, 2010

sic transit gloria mundi


Nap Ghost

Deteriorata posted:

quote:

The energetic ingredients are: Reiki energy and a variety of flower, animal and gem essences.

Water haunted with the souls of a hundred living creatures :ghost:

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GenderSelectScreen
Mar 7, 2010

I DON'T KNOW EITHER DON'T ASK ME
College Slice
Do claws grow back? This cat came back to my house with most of his claws missing in one paw. It looks like he ripped them out holding onto something while being picked up. :ohdear: He's walking and seems to be using the paw fine, but one of his claw regions looks really bad.

I have no idea what happened to him on Sunday, but I'm pissed as hell. He was so scared yesterday and was freaking out over every minor sound, when he's usually calm, not to mention he's limping. But that might be related to the claw issue.

Rat Patrol
Feb 15, 2008

kill kill kill kill
kill me now
They're like fingernails. It depends on how it was torn off, whether it was just cracked past the quick or really ripped out. Consider taking the cat to the vet if it still looks rough - you don't want the paw to get infected.

Lord Zedd-Repulsa
Jul 21, 2007

Devour a good book.


Someone posted not too long ago about having a cat with fatty liver wondering about feeding tubes. One of mine got a feeding tube put in today and I'm glad to keep them/the rest of this thread informed about how it goes. First post with details will likely be tomorrow.

Marchegiana
Jan 31, 2006

. . . Bitch.
That was me! Odin got his tube put in Monday, and he's definitely perked up in the energy department. Well, perked up in that he actually moves from place to place now instead of cowering in my closet. He even jumped up on my bed today! He's in a cone of shame until the surgical site heals around the tube, which he HATES. He keeps having the cone bump into stuff and then he gets spooked by it. He also has a hard time figuring out how to actually get his face into the water dish around the cone, I usually have to help him to drink. The tube feeding itself goes really smoothly, as far as he knows it's just a good 10-15 minutes of petting time so he's happy as a clam.

Currently we're in the process of moving him up to a feeding schedule that will meet all his caloric needs. He gets the prescription a/d food through his tube, mixed with a little water to make it easier to push through the syringe. Ideally he should be getting 1.7 cans per day, but since we can only push about 10-15 mL of food into his stomach at each feeding (plus the 15mL of water we use for flushing the line) he's getting just about a can per day. As he gets more accustomed to the tube feeding we can increase the amount of food at each feeding until he's where he needs to be. Hopefully we'll be close by Friday, which is when he goes in for another bandage change and bilirubin check. One nice thing about this line is he can get his meds through this as well, so no more fighting with him to get him to swallow a pill. Instead I just crush up the pills, mix it in a syringe with about 5 mL of water, and pump it right into the tube.

Current plan is a holding pattern, just feeding and checking bilirubin periodically. Once his enzymes come down and he starts feeling better he might actually be amenable to eating for himself, so we can start tempting him with food before tube feeding at that time. That's also when we're going to start him back on the mirtazapine as well. We've already bought a bag of kitten chow in preparation. Yes, I know Purina Kitten Chow is pretty much garbage food, but it's the one thing he goes bonkers for so we're hoping it will motivate him. It's what the SPCA always gave us when we had foster kittens, and Odin would do anything in his power to eat some himself. I know it's his favorite because he was actually willing to brave a room full of insane kittens to get to it.

Tendai
Mar 16, 2007

"When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."

Grimey Drawer
Awww, that's really cool hearing that he's improved some. How adaptable cats are always kind of startles me considering what ~*drama queens*~ they are day to day.

Ya'll are good cat-havers to do all that :3:

Lord Zedd-Repulsa
Jul 21, 2007

Devour a good book.


Rena got hers in yesterday and she's currently so weak that there was a chance of her not surviving the sedation. She hid her not-eating for a long time somehow and we're giving her 13ml of food/water through the tube every 4 to 5 hours along with plenty of medication. Her energy is already a little better so I hope it's just fatty liver; X-rays showed one kidney a lot smaller than the other and thick or inflamed intestines. We're taking everything with her one day at a time and hoping we can figure out how to pay for it all since Care Credit turned us down.

Dienes
Nov 4, 2009

dee
doot doot dee
doot doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot


College Slice

Hitlers Gay Secret posted:

Do claws grow back? This cat came back to my house with most of his claws missing in one paw. It looks like he ripped them out holding onto something while being picked up. :ohdear: He's walking and seems to be using the paw fine, but one of his claw regions looks really bad.

I have no idea what happened to him on Sunday, but I'm pissed as hell. He was so scared yesterday and was freaking out over every minor sound, when he's usually calm, not to mention he's limping. But that might be related to the claw issue.

I got a kitten years ago, which my (now ex) rear end in a top hat boyfriend thoughtfully declawed for me. She needed follow up surgery because part of the nail bed grew back, making a malformed nail that poked through her paw pad. Those were fun months. Yes, they can grow back, but might not grow back correctly. Keep a close eye on it, and I would recommend take him to the vet in case he needs antibiotics.

Winged Orpheus
May 21, 2010

Domine, Dirige Nos
Does anyone have or have opinions on pet insurance? I adopted my first cat recently, and am considering getting insurance for any potential future medical bills. I looked through the FAQ and first couple pages of the forums, but didnt see any info on it.

Tendai
Mar 16, 2007

"When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."

Grimey Drawer

Winged Orpheus posted:

Does anyone have or have opinions on pet insurance? I adopted my first cat recently, and am considering getting insurance for any potential future medical bills. I looked through the FAQ and first couple pages of the forums, but didnt see any info on it.
I had ASPCA pet health insurance and they were horrible. What they promised versus what they gave was pretty misleading. I think Trupanion is the one people here recommend, but I might be remembering that wrong, I'm switching Kiska this week.

Deteriorata
Feb 6, 2005

Winged Orpheus posted:

Does anyone have or have opinions on pet insurance? I adopted my first cat recently, and am considering getting insurance for any potential future medical bills. I looked through the FAQ and first couple pages of the forums, but didnt see any info on it.

TBH, this is the only place I've ever heard anything positive about pet insurance at all. In most cases you'll be better off setting up a savings account and depositing the equivalent of an insurance payment into it every month. Paying your vet bills out of that will generally leave you money ahead.

Danith
May 20, 2006
I've lurked here for years

Danith posted:

Saw my cat doing a careful job of licking the area and got a better look. It's not a nipple. He seems to be licking the fur off around the area, looks like a wound or place where some fur got torn out. Guess I'll be taking him to the vet next week. drat it cat

wasn't going to take him in because I thought it was going better but today he sat and just licked the area for 30 mins so decided to take him to the vet just in case. According to the vet, that is his nipple area and that it's probably stress. Not sure what caused it except maybe the dog being away for the weekend. Anyways, got some lotion to put on the area and another $110 into my cat :v:

He's lucky he's so meowy and cat like

Doorknob Slobber
Sep 10, 2006

by Fluffdaddy
Back when my wife decided to get cats I did a lot of research and found that the worlds best cat litter was good, I think here on the forums it was recommended. I also found that silica based litters were unhealthy or something. For some reason I decided not to use them. I can't find in the thread where it said that and I can't really find much about it on the internet. Did I dream that up or does anyone have any resources on why the silica crystals are bad?

ForceKin
Dec 22, 2009

A couple days ago I took our new shelter cat, Raisin, to my vet. Turns out he has a massive ear mite infestation that the shelter chose not to tell me about. So I'm medicating his ears every other day now. He absolutely hates it but he doesn't struggle too much, he's a really sweet tempered cat. I'm just concerned that Butters may have picked them up as well, since I wasn't informed of it they did spend some time around each other. I'll be keeping a close eye on her and taking her to the vet if I notice ear scratching. Is that common practice, to not mention a contagious condition to the adopter? because I'm pretty mad about it.

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

Reason posted:

Back when my wife decided to get cats I did a lot of research and found that the worlds best cat litter was good, I think here on the forums it was recommended. I also found that silica based litters were unhealthy or something. For some reason I decided not to use them. I can't find in the thread where it said that and I can't really find much about it on the internet. Did I dream that up or does anyone have any resources on why the silica crystals are bad?

I stopped using silica when I noticed the crystals at the bottom being crushed to powder and I'd have to put a mask on while cleaning it up or I'd breathe it in when cleaning out the pans or it'd get in my nose and lungs. If it's that bad for me I imagine it'd be much worse for the cats. I use a paper pellet litter now that's far far cheaper and actually smells way better than silica.

Hyperlynx
Sep 13, 2015

Thought I'd ask in here as well: could anyone recommend a cat-carrier backpack that can cope with two ~5kg cats?

I need one for getting the cats down 7 flights of stairs when the fire alarm goes off, and my big bulky plastic carrier is frustratingly heavy and unwieldy. This happened last night. Kitties were not happy. Fortunately was a false alarm.

Danith
May 20, 2006
I've lurked here for years

Reason posted:

Back when my wife decided to get cats I did a lot of research and found that the worlds best cat litter was good, I think here on the forums it was recommended. I also found that silica based litters were unhealthy or something. For some reason I decided not to use them. I can't find in the thread where it said that and I can't really find much about it on the internet. Did I dream that up or does anyone have any resources on why the silica crystals are bad?

I'm currently using Worlds Best Cat Litter Long Lasting Performance (100% natural). It's a big green bag and made out of corn I guess. The grain size is really small so it's easy to scoop through and my cat doesn't seem to want to dig and dig and dig like he did with every other litter I tried.

Quandary
Jan 29, 2008
So I need to travel cross country with my 1.5 year old cat and am going to need to fly with her unfortunately. From everything I've seen online, it seems doable but stressful as poo poo. Does anyone have any personal experience with flying a cat in the cabin vs. in the cargo hold? I'm extremely hesitant to have my cat ride in the hold, but knowing her she will meow the entire time if she's in the cabin which doesn't seem good,and I'm also hesitant to sedate her and prevent that.

I love my little kitten, but she certainly does make travel much harder.

Irritated Goat
Mar 12, 2005

This post is pathetic.
I am honestly out of ideas. 2 cats. Kaylee, 3 yr old and Jayne a 9-10 yr old. We've introduced them slowly twice. We've tried feliway. We've tried giving them both affection and treat when they're close to each other. They'll just randomly decide it's fightin time and go at it. Kaylee also likes to attack\nip at any moving thing she sees that belongs to a human. We've got a baby coming so I'm really torn between keeping this really sweet adorable cat or going back to it just being Jayne in the house. He's been with my wife for his whole life so I'm honestly not worried about him in the slightest. :sigh:

Deteriorata
Feb 6, 2005

Irritated Goat posted:

I am honestly out of ideas. 2 cats. Kaylee, 3 yr old and Jayne a 9-10 yr old. We've introduced them slowly twice. We've tried feliway. We've tried giving them both affection and treat when they're close to each other. They'll just randomly decide it's fightin time and go at it. Kaylee also likes to attack\nip at any moving thing she sees that belongs to a human. We've got a baby coming so I'm really torn between keeping this really sweet adorable cat or going back to it just being Jayne in the house. He's been with my wife for his whole life so I'm honestly not worried about him in the slightest. :sigh:

If they're not actually tearing into each other, it's just cats being cats. Wrasslin' is what they do. Snarling/hissing/swatting is what they do. Attacking random objects is what they do.

Maybe there's more going on than you indicate in your post, but you seem to have unrealistic expectations.

Irritated Goat
Mar 12, 2005

This post is pathetic.

Deteriorata posted:

If they're not actually tearing into each other, it's just cats being cats. Wrasslin' is what they do. Snarling/hissing/swatting is what they do. Attacking random objects is what they do.

Maybe there's more going on than you indicate in your post, but you seem to have unrealistic expectations.

It isn't playing when they fight. It's more the hissing\claws out attacking. They cannot be in the same room for more than a few minutes. If Kaylee goes within 2 feet of Jayne's box (which is basically impossible if she's going to our bedroom), he starts hissing and swatting at her. Same with just being anywhere near Kaylee for Jayne. I feel like they barely tolerate each other on a good day.

Puppy Galaxy
Aug 1, 2004

Irritated Goat posted:

It isn't playing when they fight. It's more the hissing\claws out attacking. They cannot be in the same room for more than a few minutes. If Kaylee goes within 2 feet of Jayne's box (which is basically impossible if she's going to our bedroom), he starts hissing and swatting at her. Same with just being anywhere near Kaylee for Jayne. I feel like they barely tolerate each other on a good day.

Hissing and swatting are fine.

Edit: Two adult cats will rarely become best buddies. Many will only tolerate each other. What will eventually happen is that they will coexist. Fights will still happen sometimes but if they're not hurting each other, they are ok.

Puppy Galaxy fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Oct 23, 2015

Deteriorata
Feb 6, 2005

Irritated Goat posted:

It isn't playing when they fight. It's more the hissing\claws out attacking. They cannot be in the same room for more than a few minutes. If Kaylee goes within 2 feet of Jayne's box (which is basically impossible if she's going to our bedroom), he starts hissing and swatting at her. Same with just being anywhere near Kaylee for Jayne. I feel like they barely tolerate each other on a good day.

This is completely normal. We have three cats and they can barely tolerate being in the same room together. Coming within three feet of another generates growls and hisses, any closer gets a swat.

Our youngest one is an rear end in a top hat who deliberately starts poo poo with the oldest one. She'll also sit in a chair by the door and swat at the tail of the others if they go by, generating more snarls and return swats.

This is how cats interact socially. They are rarely cuddle buddies.

Marchegiana
Jan 31, 2006

. . . Bitch.
Yeah, we've had our kitten Persephone for a year now and Odin still hisses like crazy if she just moves too fast in his general direction. The key is that after a bit of hissing they break up on their own. You have to give them a chance to establish boundaries with each other.

Speaking of Odin, he had another checkup and bandage change today and he's doing fabulous. They didn't run any bloodwork today because they could visibly see that he was less yellow than on Monday, and he had gained back almost a quarter pound since then. He also started eating today! Not enough to count for much of anything, but it's great that he's at least showing an interest in food. I think he may actually be coming out of the woods on this thing, and way faster than expected. He's going back on Monday for another bandage change and they'll probably do bloodwork then so we can see where his bilirubin levels are.

Gorgar
Dec 2, 2012

Marchegiana posted:


Speaking of Odin

I think he may actually be coming out of the woods on this thing, and way faster than expected.

This looks like a cat that might bounce back way faster than expected. I hope he pops up in here again.

Hella Nervous
May 13, 2005
You must be joking.
Also having acculturation problems with the cats, but at least one of them isn't pissing everywhere now. Two have adjusted to each other and are kept in one half of the house. The third, a very sweet but skittish feral who had a broken pelvis when I took her in off the street, is in, basically, my bedroom and is terrified of the other two. The first two attack and bully her (one in particular beelines for her, she runs away terrified, and my jerk cat pins her in the corner and won't let her leave). I have gone through the whole Jackson Galaxy-approved process about four times. No luck so far.

I feel bad for Terrified Cat, but she seems content to lie in my bed and sleep all day, so as long as I keep the other two out...

Deteriorata
Feb 6, 2005

Hella Nervous posted:

Also having acculturation problems with the cats, but at least one of them isn't pissing everywhere now. Two have adjusted to each other and are kept in one half of the house. The third, a very sweet but skittish feral who had a broken pelvis when I took her in off the street, is in, basically, my bedroom and is terrified of the other two. The first two attack and bully her (one in particular beelines for her, she runs away terrified, and my jerk cat pins her in the corner and won't let her leave). I have gone through the whole Jackson Galaxy-approved process about four times. No luck so far.

I feel bad for Terrified Cat, but she seems content to lie in my bed and sleep all day, so as long as I keep the other two out...

They will do that until feral cat starts defending herself. The hissing and swatting is about setting boundaries. Until she sets them there won't be any.

Something you could try is bopping* the aggressive cat on the nose on the sly while he's acting out. He may not realize it comes from you and might think the feral is defending herself. At the very least he'll realize that feral cat has a big brother/defender and he has to be more tolerant or more will come.

*by "bopping" I mean a light tap with a finger. The intent is not inflicting pain, but startling. It's the equivalent of a claws-in swat from another cat. Mother cats do it do discipline a rambunctious kitten, so they all understand intuitively what it means - "Mom says 'NO'".

Marchegiana
Jan 31, 2006

. . . Bitch.

Gorgar posted:

This looks like a cat that might bounce back way faster than expected. I hope he pops up in here again.

Ask and ye shall receive . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgKsS9aDJZ8

GenderSelectScreen
Mar 7, 2010

I DON'T KNOW EITHER DON'T ASK ME
College Slice
Porchcat is doing a lot better; no infections were found. He's content living in my backyard apparently, which is fine.

I'm not really sure what to say to my neighbor, I'm not sure how he got hosed up, but I feel like it wouldn't have happened if hadn't kicked him out of my yard last Saturday. :smith: He freaks out over the sound of my neighbor's truck though, so I'm not sure he's happy with them either.

Hella Nervous
May 13, 2005
You must be joking.

Deteriorata posted:

They will do that until feral cat starts defending herself. The hissing and swatting is about setting boundaries. Until she sets them there won't be any.

Something you could try is bopping* the aggressive cat on the nose on the sly while he's acting out. He may not realize it comes from you and might think the feral is defending herself. At the very least he'll realize that feral cat has a big brother/defender and he has to be more tolerant or more will come.

*by "bopping" I mean a light tap with a finger. The intent is not inflicting pain, but startling. It's the equivalent of a claws-in swat from another cat. Mother cats do it do discipline a rambunctious kitten, so they all understand intuitively what it means - "Mom says 'NO'".

Absolutely, and thank you for your reply! This has been the most recent approach-- I allow them to be in one room together, and lie next to/around feral cat so she feels safer. She will now lie, tense and with huge pupils, but not run away when they come in (as long as I am completely surrounding her). PROGRESS!

Terrified cat is also petrified of all humans walking around/standing up, including me and my partner. If he and I are sitting or lying down she is all love and rubbing her face on us, but she seems to forget we are "safe" the moment we stand up. Not sure what happened to her but she's clearly pretty traumatized.

Jerk cat gets bopped, then attacks ME. She's too clever for her own good.

Gorgar
Dec 2, 2012


That is an insanely handsome cat. Also: aww, biscuits.

Gorgar
Dec 2, 2012

Hella Nervous posted:

Absolutely, and thank you for your reply! This has been the most recent approach-- I allow them to be in one room together, and lie next to/around feral cat so she feels safer. She will now lie, tense and with huge pupils, but not run away when they come in (as long as I am completely surrounding her). PROGRESS!

Terrified cat is also petrified of all humans walking around/standing up, including me and my partner. If he and I are sitting or lying down she is all love and rubbing her face on us, but she seems to forget we are "safe" the moment we stand up. Not sure what happened to her but she's clearly pretty traumatized.

Jerk cat gets bopped, then attacks ME. She's too clever for her own good.

I have a similar cat. Not feral, came from some hoarding situation. Her brother bullies her, but if I pick him up and relocate him, she'll blink at me. I think they both understand that he's not allowed to menace her, which he always wants to do when she's being petted. He's got his own issues, which seem to center around abandonment.

She's also afraid of walking people. I'm wondering if she got kicked or something. She's more afraid if I have boots on, and also doesn't like it when I'm on the phone walking around, because I'm talking but I'm not reassuring her. I've had her for about 2.5 years now, and she's a lot better, but still prefers to avoid walking people.

In short: if you figure out any tricks to make your terrified cat more comfortable with people walking around, please share. Also, congratulations on the progress, and it's really great that you're putting in all this effort to make her feel better.

Fearful scaredy-girl and her big oafish brother:

Fortis
Oct 21, 2009

feelin' fine
So I'm about to rename Stella to "Princess Piss Problems".

About a year ago she was making a lot of attempts at peeing in the litterbox to little to no avail and going in inappropriate places. At that time, the vet diagnosed her with Feline Interstitial Cystitis... or at least that was the best guess; no sign of infection or anything else, so she was sent home with 5 days' worth of Buprenorphine and a recommendation that I try cosequin moving forward.

Well, she won't eat any food covered in cosequin, and also doesn't finish her food ever, so I couldn't do that. She's always been a champion water drinker, so I'm not particularly worried on that front.

A couple days ago, it started happening again. I've moved since, so I took her to a new vet, who also didn't find any sign of infection and also prescribed Buprenorphine. They said it didn't look like infection but they couldn't really say much else, so they recommended prescription food (either Royal Canin SO or Science Diet c/d). We bought both to see which one she would eat.

Since FIC is still the best lead I've got, I'm trying to reduce her stress levels and slowly transition her to the Science Diet (since she seems to be eating it). I'm giving her the buprenorphine every 12 hours as long as she appears to be in pain (i'm taking going tiny amounts frequently as a sign of pain; she never yowls or anything), but she really hates taking it so I don't want to keep it up if I don't have to, what with trying to keep her stress levels low and all.

So far it seems like overnight she pees a bunch but then during the day (or at least in the mornings) she's going tiny amounts over and over. It's only been a couple days since the vet visit, though.

Here's what else I've done so far:

- Feliway Diffusers in pretty much every room
- Litter replaced with cat attract
- Towels on the couch (her favorite new wrong peeing spot) that I hit with nature's miracle and wash if she happens to go there
- A second water bowl in her favorite room of the apartment (it's where she usually naps, so I think she feels safest there, plus I think it was in this thread that I read some cats don't like their water to be next to their food)
- I also ordered Dumb Cat spray per the vet's recommendation, which I guess I'll use in place of the Nature's Miracle? I dunno.

Is there anything else I can be doing?

Finger Wagon
Nov 25, 2009

Three heaping helpings of finger for you, sir.
Hey, cat thread- I have a question that sounds dumb and potentially obvious and probably is, I'm just not sure.

I have one cat, an eight-year-old indoor tuxedo who hasn't been to a vet since I adopted her when she was two. I've always intended to take her to one, but I don't have a ton of money or a car, and she's always been almost aggressively healthy. However, I woke up this morning to notice that her left eye is watering a bit and seems to be photosensitive, judging by the squinting. This has happened before, maybe last year sometime, but... that was before my roommate moved her cat over to her boyfriend's place, so at the time I just assumed it was a scratch resulting from some particularly energetic wrasslin'.

Now, the discharge is just water- totally clear, not gummy at all- and she doesn't seem to be in any pain. She's not rubbing at her eye (she stills rubs that side of her face on my hand when I pet her, even), she only does the regular amount of "uuuUUGH STOP HOLDING MY FACE STILL" when I try to get a look at it, she seems like she's eating and drinking normally, still affectionate and demanding, still vocal (she's yelling at me right now because I'm ignoring her to write this post), still wants to fight every bedsheet and balled-up piece of paper in existence, and the eye itself doesn't look swollen or red, as far as I can see. She purrs, but only the usual way, which is after she co-opts my attention, so I don't think it's a self-comfort thing. I've tried to get a better look at her eye, but she's squirmy and I'm afraid of hurting her, and even when I get her to look at me in lower light when she's less squinty, she makes things difficult by doing blinky eyes at me, which is very cute but decidedly unhelpful.

What concerns me is that in one of the brief moments I got a proper look at her eye, it kind of looked like the surface of it towards the outer corner was kind of... puckered? I only got a glimpse and haven't spotted it since, but it's understandably kind of concerning. Could it be old scarring or something? I mean, she seems completely fine aside from the wateriness and photosensitivity, so my plan right now was to keep an eye on it and start looking into scraping my money together and taking her to a vet if it hasn't gone away in a day or two, but I am not a vet and I don't want to screw up. Thoughts?

Macichne Leainig
Jul 26, 2012

by VG
I'm curious about something.

We have two litterboxes for our two boys - one litterbox is clay, non-clumping litter. The other is clumping litter, unscented. Good stuff, both of it, but there was a dark spot in the clay one. It smelled like piss, but the whole box kind of did before I replaced the litter. It's only in the clay one, and this actually wasn't the first dark spot I've seen in this box, only the second, but both cats have been to the vet since the first dark spot and both are fine and healthy. That said, neither visits were in-depth, and I never mentioned urinary problems to the vet since I wasn't suspecting them.

So to summarize so far - two dark spots in about a 4 week span in one litterbox, never the other. Younger cat went to the vet 3 weeks ago and older one 2 weeks ago. Both left with a clean bill of health (vet's words.)

I'm keeping an eye on them to make sure they both piss today, but should I even be worried?

They aren't eating bottom barrel foods, and usually get wet food in the morning and dry food at night, and I change the water frequently, whether it's gross or empty.

e: I should mention it wasn't tinted red at all, and it's entirely possible I'm freaking out over no reason - but after losing a kitty to FIP two months ago and another kitten between now and then, I get a little overprotective.

Macichne Leainig fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Oct 25, 2015

duckfarts
Jul 2, 2010

~ shameful ~





Soiled Meat

Fortis posted:

So I'm about to rename Stella to "Princess Piss Problems".

About a year ago she was making a lot of attempts at peeing in the litterbox to little to no avail and going in inappropriate places. At that time, the vet diagnosed her with Feline Interstitial Cystitis... or at least that was the best guess; no sign of infection or anything else, so she was sent home with 5 days' worth of Buprenorphine and a recommendation that I try cosequin moving forward.

Well, she won't eat any food covered in cosequin, and also doesn't finish her food ever, so I couldn't do that. She's always been a champion water drinker, so I'm not particularly worried on that front.

A couple days ago, it started happening again. I've moved since, so I took her to a new vet, who also didn't find any sign of infection and also prescribed Buprenorphine. They said it didn't look like infection but they couldn't really say much else, so they recommended prescription food (either Royal Canin SO or Science Diet c/d). We bought both to see which one she would eat.

Since FIC is still the best lead I've got, I'm trying to reduce her stress levels and slowly transition her to the Science Diet (since she seems to be eating it). I'm giving her the buprenorphine every 12 hours as long as she appears to be in pain (i'm taking going tiny amounts frequently as a sign of pain; she never yowls or anything), but she really hates taking it so I don't want to keep it up if I don't have to, what with trying to keep her stress levels low and all.

So far it seems like overnight she pees a bunch but then during the day (or at least in the mornings) she's going tiny amounts over and over. It's only been a couple days since the vet visit, though.

Here's what else I've done so far:

- Feliway Diffusers in pretty much every room
- Litter replaced with cat attract
- Towels on the couch (her favorite new wrong peeing spot) that I hit with nature's miracle and wash if she happens to go there
- A second water bowl in her favorite room of the apartment (it's where she usually naps, so I think she feels safest there, plus I think it was in this thread that I read some cats don't like their water to be next to their food)
- I also ordered Dumb Cat spray per the vet's recommendation, which I guess I'll use in place of the Nature's Miracle? I dunno.

Is there anything else I can be doing?

You try getting a new, additional litterbox yet? She may be associating the old location and litterbox with pissin' pain if that was a problem.

Fortis
Oct 21, 2009

feelin' fine

duckfarts posted:

You try getting a new, additional litterbox yet? She may be associating the old location and litterbox with pissin' pain if that was a problem.

We've already got two, but she does seem to be regarding one of the boxes with... suspicion. I'll see if I can put it somewhere else.

Vestral
Dec 30, 2008
My cat is broken. I bought her toys, but she doesn't want to play with them. I tried a feather wand with her, she looked at me with disdain, then grabbed the string in her mouth and walked off with it. She likes string, and the wand handles. SHE LIKES CHEWING STICKS. I think my cat is a dog. Please help.

The question here is, if my cat isn't a fan of most toys, what could be a way to pass her boredom?

Hyperlynx
Sep 13, 2015

Vestral posted:

My cat is broken. I bought her toys, but she doesn't want to play with them. I tried a feather wand with her, she looked at me with disdain, then grabbed the string in her mouth and walked off with it. She likes string, and the wand handles. SHE LIKES CHEWING STICKS. I think my cat is a dog. Please help.

The question here is, if my cat isn't a fan of most toys, what could be a way to pass her boredom?

That sounds like 100% normal cat behaviour.

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floofyscorp
Feb 12, 2007

Vestral posted:

My cat is broken. I bought her toys, but she doesn't want to play with them. I tried a feather wand with her, she looked at me with disdain, then grabbed the string in her mouth and walked off with it. She likes string, and the wand handles. SHE LIKES CHEWING STICKS. I think my cat is a dog. Please help.

The question here is, if my cat isn't a fan of most toys, what could be a way to pass her boredom?

In my experience my cats hate 90% of toys for the first few days after we buy them. They totally ignore the exciting new mousey toys being dangled in front of them or enticingly twitched around on the floor, then a week later I find them busily murdering and/or facerubbing the thing at 2 in the morning. I think they just dislike and mistrust new things, so give her a few days to get used to the new toys before deciding she doesn't like them.

The exceptions to this rule are string(shoelaces and hoodie drawstrings are always popular, especially when still attached to the clothing in question) and the Flying Frenzy toy which ever since the moment I took it out of the packaging they have been obsessed with. I keep it in my wardrobe outside of playtime and now just opening the wardrobe door brings both cats running into the room, practically climbing over each other in excitement.

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