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socketwrencher posted:My sister has adopted two six-year old cat siblings from a friend of a friend. The cats were used to free feeding and are fat. My sister has been slowly decreasing their food for the past 3 weeks, and feeding them at 7 am and 7 pm. From about 10 pm until midnight when my sister and her husband crash, the cats pace around and meow for food like they're starving. Her husband is working from home and he says that they follow him around all day meowing for food, to the point where he sometimes will give them snacks so he can work. I'm assuming they'll eventually adjust, and maybe wearing earplugs and ignoring them is the way to go, but I'm just wondering if there's anything else that might be helpful. The cats have lost about a pound, with maybe another pound or two to go (their bellies hang low in an unhealthy looking way). Thanks! feeding them via a treat ball may help. i use it with my cats to stretch out meal time and to give me a break. plus, they have to roll it around to make the food fall out, part exercise and part mental stimulation. i use this: PetSafe Interactive Feeder
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Jul 6, 2021 02:01
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| # ? May 15, 2024 04:49 |
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How worried should I be about my 17 week old who has some eye discharge? No other symptoms. I am taking her to the vet for her first post adoption checkup.
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Jul 6, 2021 04:15
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teen witch posted:Needless to say I came home from IKEA to a surprise  Good on you for doing right by your cats, even if it hurt. Also good to see introductions to the other set going well!socketwrencher posted:Thanks for the reply. Ok just need to give them time. They're fat saggy bellies though, not just the usual, and the snacks do quiet them down for an hour or two. Forgot to mention that they start meowing for food at about 5 am as well, so as with kids, even an hour break can feel like paradise. This is a situation where giving the cats treats will reinforce the screaming, and so will yelling at them or basically any reaction at all. You can discourage this behavior by parking the vaccum cleaner next to the bedroom door, threading the cord under the door, and then plugging it in any time they start yowling at the door. (This teaches them howling at the door = scary bad thing, but it's not from the human.) I don't recommend this unless everything else has been tried but it sounds like they're at that point.
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Jul 6, 2021 09:50
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Bean knows when it's about to be food time and opens her dish for us I think it's because she's impatient and thinks she's starving My other half thinks it's adorable and she's trying to help
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Jul 7, 2021 01:40
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Len posted:Bean knows when it's about to be food time and opens her dish for us My two boys had morning and evening wet food and knew the sounds of the dishes. After this move I thought “finally I can get them off this”, and yet when I made breakfast this morning, clanging entirely different dishes… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwwm8NDH9Ls
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Jul 7, 2021 09:14
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So our cat eats grass like she was born a cow. Normally it's fine, it'll show up in the box or she'll throw it up or nothing. Every now and then she walks around with a bit hanging out of her mouth like a farmer because it got stuck in her teeth. Today she's been licking her chops a bit much and I got a hold of her and managed to see a small bit of grass stuck somewhere along the roof of her mouth. I figure it's stuck between her teeth but the blade is inside and not outside so it's very hard to remove and she's obviously not having any of it. She seems otherwise fine, but the grass seems to be well in there. Any advice on how to remove something from the jaws of a cat, or will it be safe to assume that in her normal activities of eating, drinking, and cleaning it'll eventually dislodge itself? If it does remain for a longer time would it pose a risk to her dental health or something (much like we try not keep things among our teeth).
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Jul 7, 2021 13:47
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I might have to give the kitten to a friend. 2 of my dogs get along fine with him. The third is obsessed. Just stares. Licks her chops. Any advice?
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Jul 7, 2021 15:14
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RC Cola posted:I might have to give the kitten to a friend. 2 of my dogs get along fine with him. The third is obsessed. Just stares. Licks her chops. Any advice? Is it aggressive toward the kitten? Does it bare its teeth and growl? It may take some more time to get acquainted. Obsessed is not necessarily bad. It may just be trying to figure out what it is and how to react to it.
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Jul 7, 2021 15:17
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But does the dog actually do anything? Staring at the kitten is unnerving but it sounds like she is merely curious.
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Jul 7, 2021 15:18
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Isn't licking chops a sign of nervousness in dogs? I thought "I want to eat that" looks more like vibrating in their skin. I don't know dogs though just read people talking about their dogs wanting to eat things.
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Jul 7, 2021 15:50
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Feel like you need to introduce them like other cats, separate rooms but with a clear barrier between the two so there's a safe way to acclimate both the kitten and the dogs without fear of harm. A dog gate and you monitoring them while the door is open. If there's any sort of aggression, remove the kitten and try again later. If it persists then you can re-home the kitten, but this sounds hasty when I'm not sure what steps have been taken to show the dogs their new weird puppy.
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Jul 7, 2021 16:00
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durrneez posted:feeding them via a treat ball may help. i use it with my cats to stretch out meal time and to give me a break. plus, they have to roll it around to make the food fall out, part exercise and part mental stimulation. Thanks for the suggestion and link, I just ordered one :o)
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Jul 7, 2021 17:22
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So far my wife has held the kitten while I held the dog fairly far apart. She sniffed and didn't bite. We kept dog in a cage and let kitten walk around. The dog did growl and bark one time over a half hour. She was mostly concerned when she lost line of sight. I'm going to keep working on this for sure. She's dog aggressive, which is why I'm worried. But she seems to react differently than she has to other dogs and puppies. Which is a good thing.
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Jul 7, 2021 18:02
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RC Cola posted:So far my wife has held the kitten while I held the dog fairly far apart. She sniffed and didn't bite. That sounds like the dog is mainly curious and worried that the kitten might be a threat until it figures it out. Keep giving them supervised time together.
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Jul 7, 2021 18:05
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An update on my cats: Oreo--still chonky, still sneezing, on antibiotics for a couple of weeks. I'm pretty sure I can handle him. Toffee--pricey dental work done, painkillers till tomorrow, wet food and soft toys only for a week and a half. All of a sudden he's expressing some destructive behavior that he never did before. He's hopped onto the counter before, but he hadn't attacked plastic bags, including biting a bag of treats hard enough to tear it open. It's like he's got even more energy now that his teeth aren't bothering him! I'm not sure if I can keep up with him for long; I already felt a little ragged before. The vets seemed to suggest that he would mostly be sleeping off anesthesia and be a bit loopy because one of the painkillers has a mild sedative effect, but that doesn't seem to have happened. Is this normal for cats after dental work?
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Jul 8, 2021 03:34
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Cats getting super energized after their teeth don't hurt anymore is pretty common, I can think of a few stories like that in the thread (and my Sam was the same way, he perked up a LOT after getting his dental surgery after the initial recovery day.) I'd probably put anything cat-edible inside a cupboard so Toffee doesn't get used to jumping on the counters, but otherwise you might just need to tucker him out with some feather toy action. If he's still young he's going to be a big ball of energy so you might need to schedule some dedicated play time so he isn't bouncing off the walls. Not sure what you're already doing though.
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Jul 9, 2021 06:16
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Good to know that that's normal at least. But now Toffee has to go back to the vet because (kinda gross) he's not pooping completely in the litter box and a bunch of it is clinging to his back end and tracking everywhere. I knew it wasn't great before--he's on probiotics--but this is even worse, and it makes me fear that the teeth and the poop issue are related to some underlying condition that's not good.
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Jul 9, 2021 17:34
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Is he a long haired cat? Or is it pure diarrhea? It's an unfortunate side affect of being furry, not-dry poo is gonna stick to fuzz. Our long haired cat had that problem as a kitten and weeks of probiotics didn't really help to firm things up. The only thing that helped was a dry food with fiber in it (sold as a weight management option). It also turned out she loves to eat grass so when I take her out on her harness she typically eats a handful of blades of grass and that seems to get her enough fiber to self manage. It does suck to have to manually clean her up when things went poorly but the way I see, it's less poop management than with a human baby. If it's really bad the vet can do a "sanitary shave" which is exactly what you imagine it to be.
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Jul 9, 2021 18:02
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My fluffy cat would get a poopy butt every time she was about to hork up a hairball until she was around 5 years old, then it just stopped 
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Jul 9, 2021 18:08
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xzzy posted:Is he a long haired cat? Or is it pure diarrhea? Short haired, and thanks to dental work done this Monday he's on wet food only, too. And he's eating less than he was the previous few days. And the vet advises that I keep my two cats separate until they can confirm whether the diarrhea is infectious or not, which is added stress for Oreo (the other cat). I'm in full panic mode and I think I want to refer Toffee to a vet for medical boarding 
Davin Valkri fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Jul 10, 2021 |
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Jul 10, 2021 02:06
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The diet change, stress, and meds is probably doing a number on Toffee. Keep him eating, keep him drinking, make sure he's eliminating, and do what you can to help him be comfortable while the vet investigates. Poor Oreo, too! Hope he can get some extra snuggles.
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Jul 10, 2021 04:59
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  A year or two ago, he was at 18.6 lbs. it’s been a struggle, and he’s spent a lot of time yelling at me that I am starving him to death (as he tries to dig through the trash for scraps), but Tuna’s hit his target weight! Very gratifying to have it all work out.
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Jul 10, 2021 18:29
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Congrats! As someone who also has an overweight cat who has lost a lot of weight recently, I know it's definitely a challenge but absolutely gratifying. It's not something I've ever gotten used to - at this point Jackie's lost over 5 pounds in the last two years or so, going from a massive 17-pound chonk to a relatively svelte 11.5 pounds. It's still shocking to me whenever I pick her up or she cuddles against me, and I realize just how much less of her this and how much lighter she feels in my arms. I'm hoping it adds years to her life, frankly.
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Jul 10, 2021 19:59
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Anyone here switch to dry food only during the summer? I've had real problems with flies just instantly finding their way into the house and laying eggs into the wet cat food whenever I put it out which is incredibly gross and makes my skin crawl just thinking about it (my cats don't eat that much in one sitting, they prefer to come back for multiple nibbles throughout the day). I've had to throw so much wet food away because of it and I think I'm just going to switch to biscuits for now. Hydration is a key concern but I recently got a cat water fountain that they've taken to so I know they're getting a good amount of water in them.
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Jul 10, 2021 23:33
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I got good news, cat that went missing from my house has been found. She's living outside by a special needs home. Lady has been sending me pics. Now i just got to catch her
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Jul 11, 2021 00:42
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Follow up on the kitten I found a month ago. I put up flyers but no one contacted me, so I started looking for someone to adopt him. I found someone at work that was interested, so after a vet visit that found him in good health he is now with his new family. It didn't take long for him to settle into his new home, and it sounds like he's enjoying it. Thanks to everyone in the thread that gave me advice. Here's some photos from while he was living with me: 
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Jul 11, 2021 01:49
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I can't remember if i've posted about it in here or not so apologies if this story is a repeat we bought heated cat beds for the cats a while back and noticed recently that bean had some weird skin issues so took her to the vet. they looked at it and asked if she was an outdoor cat because apparently chunky cats laying on hot ground get chafing on their belly areas. she's strictly indoor but does lay in her heated bed a lot, so we unplugged the beds she now yells at the thing every time she goes to lay down. steps into the bed, meows a few times, and then lays down and just looks so sad but her skin is getting better sooooooooooooo
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Jul 11, 2021 03:52
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We had a heat pad loving cat and never saw that. She did go bald on her belly over it, vet said it was just too hot. No signs of chafing though but I guess it's the same basic problem. As a compromise we got a pet specific heating pad, it was pressure activated and a much lower temperature and the belly fur grew back in. She basically spent the last four years of her life cooking on it.
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Jul 11, 2021 04:29
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xzzy posted:We had a heat pad loving cat and never saw that. She did go bald on her belly over it, vet said it was just too hot. No signs of chafing though but I guess it's the same basic problem. yeah her paunch lost all her hair and a couple nipples got real inflamed. since unplugging it her hairs grown back and the nipples are back to normal. it is one of the ones with a pressure thing that turns on when she lays in but when she spends all day in the thing apparently that adds up. i should probably invest in a timer so that it periodically turns itself off and on so that she can't just bake all day https://www.chewy.com/kh-pet-products-thermo-kitty-cat-bed/dp/54489
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Jul 11, 2021 04:54
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Cats do not charge via USB, and you should not stick a cable in there  .
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Jul 12, 2021 04:01
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pairofdimes posted:Follow up on the kitten I found a month ago. I put up flyers but no one contacted me, so I started looking for someone to adopt him. I found someone at work that was interested, so after a vet visit that found him in good health he is now with his new family. It didn't take long for him to settle into his new home, and it sounds like he's enjoying it. Thanks to everyone in the thread that gave me advice. Here's some photos from while he was living with me: :3 :3 :3 i love him
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Jul 12, 2021 06:33
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Welp my record for injury this year is just amazing. I got nailed bad by my cat Bug, she bite me twice on the right hand near the thumb, so I got two small punctures now. I cleaned them out with a ton of water, soap, and after dry, sanitizer, and the area is sore now a day later, but other than some redness, I am hoping this peaces out okay. Everything I read online varies between "keep an eye, infection can spread after 10 days" to "GET YOUR rear end TO AN ER NOW YOU ARE GONNA loving DIE." Also reading online that hand bites are the most commonly infected bites from cats....but they are also the most common area to be bitten. So not sure how that wouldn't be a cause/effect thing. And of course you go down the hole more and every kind of animal bite will kill you or give you rabies or blood poisoning. Now if this was a stray cat, or a raccoon or coyote, or a loving mouse, I would be far more anxious, and a wild animal bite I would head in for...but I just don't know that the Little Clinic or Urgent Care is going to be able to help much.
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Jul 13, 2021 00:41
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If the bite isn't too deep then you're probably okay, just keep an eye on it. Everyone gets caught by a scared/startled cat and it's no big deal. It's when you get caught by a scared-shitless-out-of-her-mind cat that they demonstrate what a cat bite is like as an actual medical emergency. That doesn't sound like the case here.
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Jul 13, 2021 00:48
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Yeah, if it's a very shallow bite then it's ok but if she really sank her fangs in and it's a deep puncture wound then yeah you need to go to an ER.
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Jul 13, 2021 01:04
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Nah she didn't sink in, she was fighting to get away from me trying to dry her off (she had poo poo on her back leg fur and had to get a quick bath) and in the thrashing got one tooth in at the base of my thumb, then yanked it out, and got a second slightly closer to the wrist, same deal. If she had bitten and held on, then yeah, would have been a lot deeper, I think. Still I'm keeping an eye on it. Liquid bandage is gonna have to work for now because the standard ones get sweated off this time of year.
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Jul 13, 2021 01:10
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From the description it sounds like you'll probably be fine, but if you notice anything amiss then go to a doctor. Better safe than sorry. A real, deep cat bite is not something to gently caress around with. though. A terrified kitten sunk his fangs to the hilt in my mother's hand, the tendons got infected, and >10 years later she still has trouble with that hand.
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Jul 13, 2021 09:07
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mistaya posted::You can discourage this behavior by parking the vaccum cleaner next to the bedroom door, threading the cord under the door, and then plugging it in any time they start yowling at the door. (This teaches them howling at the door = scary bad thing, but it's not from the human.) I don't recommend this unless everything else has been tried but it sounds like they're at that point. This is genius, thank you for suggesting it.
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Jul 14, 2021 00:32
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Sadly not my actual cat, but I finally managed a good photo of him. This is Dexter, the friendliest (and not coincidentally the fattest) of the cats who live on the campus of the college I work at. Photographing him is normally really hard because he usually reacts to the cell phone coming out by wrapping himself around my ankles. My current circumstances do not permit getting a cat of my own, so I live vicariously through the friendly campus cat.
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Jul 14, 2021 13:15
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Luneshot posted:From the description it sounds like you'll probably be fine, but if you notice anything amiss then go to a doctor. Better safe than sorry. Noticed the area was a bit tender still. Tried to get to the Little Clinic, only to be put on hold, and when they finally picked up, was told "we're on break" so they couldn't tell me if they even looked at cat bites. Okay fine. I hit up our rescue director, asked her if I needed to worry about the bite. Sent her a pic; she told me to get to another doctor ASAP, not in a day or two. poo poo. Okay, got some amox now. 2 pills a day, and incoming yeast infection possible, but at least I got the pills.
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Jul 14, 2021 13:40
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| # ? May 15, 2024 04:49 |
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teen witch posted:the apartment is new so it’s new cats all around so to say. One of my guys was terribly curious about what was outside my studio and I gave him a peek…and then his brother followed. They explored all of the upstairs and a bit of the downstairs, with me tailing behind. It’s only the outside areas they’re a bit skittish on but yknow what, that’s fine. The devil you know is preferable to the one you don't. Your boys are in a new place full of unknown factors, whereas they each know where they stand. There's a truce while they figure out the lay of the land. As long as they have a safe and secure "home base" they'll adjust and adapt socketwrencher posted:Thanks for the reply. Ok just need to give them time. They're fat saggy bellies though, not just the usual, and the snacks do quiet them down for an hour or two. Forgot to mention that they start meowing for food at about 5 am as well, so as with kids, even an hour break can feel like paradise. You can try feeding more frequently but in smaller amounts. Portion what you normally would ahead of time and deliver a bit of it. Obviously this doesn't work if you can't be home, but timed feeders are a possibility. We couldn't do it with ours because only one of our cats was a food hog and they'd bully away the others or steal everything left when the normal cats did a partial meal.
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Jul 14, 2021 16:24
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