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Yeah, this is time for a second opinion, surely there is treatment for this. And I feel like the vet should be prescribing a tranquilizer before a visit because the alternative is a cat who might be put to sleep. Has the vet asked for a stool sample to rule out things like parasites, etc.?
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Jan 12, 2023 21:30
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owls or something posted:I don't see why your vet can't just prescribe the medicine for IBS if that's what they suspect. I'll get poo poo on (heh?) for saying this as usual but maybe your vet just loving sucks. kw0134 posted:Yeah, this is time for a second opinion, surely there is treatment for this. And I feel like the vet should be prescribing a tranquilizer before a visit because the alternative is a cat who might be put to sleep. Has the vet asked for a stool sample to rule out things like parasites, etc.? Both valid points and I 100% agree. I asked for this before and they wouldn’t do it without a stool sample but we couldn’t provide one that was “fresh” enough for them given it mostly happens in the dead of night and they couldn’t keep him overnight for observation because he would get so anxious. We previously did give him a tranquilizer before bringing him in but I guess it didn’t completely knock him out/enough because when they tried to examine him, he wasn’t having it. We have tried antibiotics, different foods, creams, you name it but with the exception of 1 medication they did prescribe without the full exam/test. I did just find out there are mobile vets that come to your house, as cats especially sometimes don’t do well going into the office. They are coming out tomorrow morning. My wife is an absolute saint in general and has been extremely patient since this has been going on for months and I’m ashamed that for a member of the family that I love so much, I haven’t been responsible and responsive to take more significant steps to address this, whether I was in denial or too anxious myself. My wife just called me and said she is absolutely done, she was resolute and said even if the vet was coming out, I should be prepared to say goodbye then. It might be too little, too late but my hope/gamble is to try to keep the appointment so I can at least be somewhat reassured that if this vet says yeah you’ve tried everything within reason and it’s not going to get better without significant procedure/money, then yeah that’s it. I now get to think about all of this during a 9 hour flight and then get in at midnight so I feel sad and nauseous and then possibly not spend too much time with him before the vet comes. This sucks.
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Jan 12, 2023 22:31
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Sorry to hear that. My wife just put her favorite cat to sleep today. She'd put up with him making GBS threads all over if it meant him getting healthier (because I'd have to clean it up). Her cat just couldn't keep up with the diabetes over the last eight years. Doctor said that his pancreas was just too taxed. He had lost 4 pounds since our last scare (he was having grand mal seizures from his high glucose levels). He was blind and as of last night barely could hold himself up. RIP Hopscotch. Honestly, reach out to a rescue if you think your cat still has quality of life besides some accidents.
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Jan 13, 2023 01:14
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velocirapstar posted:We have tried taking him to the vet but he gets extremely agitated and refuses to allow them to examine them, to the degree they didn’t try too much since they were afraid he could have a heart attack and they can’t really do much for him without that apparently.sleep One of mine also had 0 chill with our vet, it just meant an extra charge for them to sedate her before every exam. Is there a reason that isn't an option here? I'd say step 1 is to get him a proper examination so you're not just guessing at problems/solutions. Is there a small room or study or something you could keep him in as the designated Cat Room that he could sleep in or something so he's not leaving surprises all over the house? Or yeah like Kramdar said look for an elder cat rescue/foster resource. How the hell did your wife get through multiple human babies that a little bit of cat poop is grounds for termination?
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Jan 13, 2023 01:30
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It seems extremely weird that the vet just instantly gave up on examining your cat. I have a cat who's terrified of everything and won't let anyone touch her and the vet just sedates her in her carrier so she's asleep when she's being examined. I've also never heard of a vet saying a cat can't be kept overnight because they're too anxious, cats are resilient creatures. Is there something actually wrong with his heart that would mean there can't be extra stress on it?
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Jan 13, 2023 02:06
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Organza Quiz posted:It seems extremely weird that the vet just instantly gave up on examining your cat. It happens, we've had two cats die because we couldn't convince a vet to give a poo poo. One of them was a runt that realistically had no hope of survival but the doctor we went to was extremely dismissive and actually offended we wouldn't agree to putting it to sleep on her first checkup. The second one we got fired over it, doesn't bring a cat back to life but hopefully it gave that vet an attitude adjustment.
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Jan 13, 2023 03:20
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Our cat was banned from overnights/boarding after her first overnight stay for what turned out to be chronic pancreatitis. In the words of the vet, "I'm afraid she's going to stroke out. I've medicated her, but let's avoid doing this ever again unless it's absolutely necessary." There were some times where the vet would have preferred her to stay over for monitoring, but elected to take our chances at home because the chances for harm were greater with her boarded vs at home. She's a lot mellower now as an old lady, and could probably do it since she's seeing the vet office monthly for shots and it's no longer such a bad new terrifying place.
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Jan 13, 2023 16:06
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velocirapstar posted:Both valid points and I 100% agree. I asked for this before and they wouldn’t do it without a stool sample but we couldn’t provide one that was “fresh” enough for them given it mostly happens in the dead of night and they couldn’t keep him overnight for observation because he would get so anxious. We previously did give him a tranquilizer before bringing him in but I guess it didn’t completely knock him out/enough because when they tried to examine him, he wasn’t having it. We have tried antibiotics, different foods, creams, you name it but with the exception of 1 medication they did prescribe without the full exam/test. Is the cat otherwise normal and energetic, and just has poo problems? Or is it obviously on its last legs?
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Jan 13, 2023 16:55
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Anyone know of an automatic heating pad that will turn on and off as kitty gets on it?
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Jan 13, 2023 21:13
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drunken officeparty posted:Anyone know of an automatic heating pad that will turn on and off as kitty gets on it? I think generally these won't work because the cat won't sit on it unless it's already a bit warm. Even fort warms is already heated just a bit.
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Jan 13, 2023 21:59
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Yeah, they're always on and just barely warm. The cat sitting on it heats it up more through their own reflected heat. They're only like 4 watts so i leave em all plugged in year round.
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Jan 13, 2023 22:07
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We had a cat that worked fine with a pressure activated heating pad, but I guess the trick was we put it in a spot that was already her favorite place to sleep. So there was no training needed, she just got extra toast for doing what she already did. Eventually she did learn what a heating pad is for, whenever we pulled out a human heating pad to soothe our own aches she'd get all attentive and excited because obviously we were getting it out for cat use. Not sure which one we bought, probably whatever got decent ratings on Amazon. Search for "pressure sensitive heating pad."
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Jan 13, 2023 22:09
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The semi-enclosed bed my old lady cat used to spend a lot of time in worked like that, I think. "Heated cat bed" on Amazon or site of choice might work too.
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Jan 14, 2023 01:26
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K & H makes heated cat beds. They work. I’ve even got one outside that a couple of strays have found.
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Jan 14, 2023 08:58
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We picked up a stray last night. Dude is one of those over friendly cats, was just following people around in the street, and we're having our coldest weather of the year/our rare snow and the cat was too pathetic to leave behind. The area we found him, either he has no survival instincts or someone ditched him there. Chinese cities are actually designed in an accidentally very cat friendly way and most cats are smart enough to go along with it. Set him up in his own room until Lychee gets used to him being here and all that, took him to the vet to get all his tests. He's probably around 5 months old. Happiest cat I've ever met right now though.   Anyway, he was obviously super hungry when we picked him up and got him back from the vet, he's just been demolishing food. And I wanna give him all the food he wants this first couple days cuz it must have been rough for him out there but, do we gotta worry about overfeeding him the first couple days? Lychee is good about regulating her food and has only thrown up maybe 3 times her whole life. I don't wanna hurt this cat by overfeeding him, but I don't wanna underfeed him if he's starving.
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Jan 16, 2023 00:54
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BrainDance posted:We picked up a stray last night. Until you are able to make sure that cat doesn't have fleas/tapeworms I'd be cautious about putting him on fabrics that you can't clean easily like a couch. Thank you for doing this for that cat!
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Jan 16, 2023 02:32
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VelociBacon posted:Until you are able to make sure that cat doesn't have fleas/tapeworms I'd be cautious about putting him on fabrics that you can't clean easily like a couch. Thank you for doing this for that cat! I hope we're good on fleas, that was my first thing I was like "we have to take this cat, but I am not bringing a strange cat into our home before we take it to the vet." I was mostly concerned about FPV. Though I'm not 100% on what all the vet checked, my Chinese is good but you get in medical or technical situations and it's just not stuff I know, and my wife is a native speaker so she just handled it. The vet did say he didn't see any signs of fleas but it's not an easy thing to say for certain, and I dunno about worms. We gave him the flea medicine and plan to give him the worm pill tonight. Definitely none of the horrible terrifying cat diseases though. He is completely separated from our other cat for now, because of the whole introducing a new cat thing but also cuz of street cat disease stuff. No name yet, but he's living in our theater room for now. And if that couch has to get replaced oh well gives me an excuse to buy an even better couch for the ultimate theater experience. Weirdly friendly cat, my aunt has always had rescue cats and we had a couple growing up and so often they were either the scared or mean type. This dude is not at all. That's what was gonna get him killed out there, he was just walking in the street going up to everybody walking by, shivering in the snow looking all pathetic. Now he just seems like the happiest, friendliest cat I've known.
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Jan 16, 2023 03:17
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Gonna guess someone's cat got pregnant, was born in someone's home, and couldn't get rehomed in time before he was considered a nuisance and was put out. That's a cat who seems was raised underfoot because if you miss the socialization window at ~3-6 weeks they don't learn to that humans can be good and cool. Well, you are at least. (It's possible he's from a street cat's litter and someone cared for and played with the colony, and something happened to the colony to displace him, but they're usually not that friendly even with daily interactions with a human feeder.)
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Jan 16, 2023 17:06
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Slimy Hog posted:Ugh, I'm STILL trying to introduce my cats and we're trying to feed them both in the same room for the 2nd time. First time went okay but not great (no fighting and we ended it early) but tonight the resident cat stopped eating to sprint at the new cat and they fought. We fed them in the same room this morning! Due to Jack (new cat) being a bit scared of the new feeding scenario they actually ate WAY closer to each other than we originally planned. There were zero issues other than Max (resident cat) staring at Jack a bit longer than I would have liked at one point, but he ignored her and she went back to eating. We decided to end it when Jack finished eating because he's a dummy and would have tried to eat Max's food even though that's never ended well for him before. I think next time we'll try playing with him after he finishes eating so max gets used to him in the same room and doing something other than just eating. Thanks so much to the poster who suggested that screen thing. Even though it's an eyesore and a pain in the rear end to go in/out of, I think it's the reason we had success today!
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Jan 16, 2023 17:07
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morestuff posted:
Not trying to jinx myself but I think Rikki is close to fully settled. Never quite figured out the toy issue — she basically refuses to interact with something if I'm holding it — but she's got stuff to play with thrown around the apartment and that seems to be enough for her. Getting some treat-dispensing toys definitely helped. When she gets a little antsy, YouTube videos of birds/squirrels seem to chill her out. She's not a cuddler but she'll share a couch, and she can occasionally find a spot on the bed where I'm not going to roll over her all night. Sweet cat so far.  
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Jan 16, 2023 17:35
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kw0134 posted:That's a cat who seems was raised underfoot because if you miss the socialization window at ~3-6 weeks they don't learn to that humans can be good and cool. Well, you are at least. Speaking of, I find myself fostering 3 feral kittens that we TFR'd from my parents neighborhood. Very said they were about 2 months old. Wanted to give them a shot at getting adoptable before turning them back outside again. Any good resources for kitten socialization? Right now they're all just in a big cage in my bedroom. They got food water litter, some shelves to climb and a little cubby to hide in. They're still pretty skittish and hiss at me when I try to pick them up but I have managed to hold them all for a few minutes with only minor cuts and scrapes, but they aren't actually aggressive they just try to claw out of my grip.
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Jan 16, 2023 19:01
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST8dlkNGT9I This woman rocks and so do her videos.
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Jan 17, 2023 00:48
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Took my cat for a follow up for his poo issues. Vet thinks he's developed food sensitivities and will try a reduced ingredient food. Issue is he's got urinary issues, so I need to get the royal canin urinary SO / hydrolyzed protein, which I couldn't find anywhere in my state, nor was it on Chewy. I have to get it delivered from some farm store in Minnesota of all places. He gained weight since his last visit, so I guess he's still absorbing food at least.
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Jan 17, 2023 01:05
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seiferguy posted:Took my cat for a follow up for his poo issues. Vet thinks he's developed food sensitivities and will try a reduced ingredient food. Issue is he's got urinary issues, so I need to get the royal canin urinary SO / hydrolyzed protein, which I couldn't find anywhere in my state, nor was it on Chewy. I have to get it delivered from some farm store in Minnesota of all places. Let's hope he feels better soon! Glad to hear the vet has something to try.
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Jan 17, 2023 01:50
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I adopted a new cat around a month ago, the vet thinks that she's 2 years old but she looks like a kitten that has a little growing left to do before she's done. I've never had a cat that grooms as much as she does, easily twice as long as every other cat I've had as an adult or kid, but she isn't making any bald patches in her fur due to overgrooming, and she doesn't seem anxious at all. She barfs up a loose hairball every 3 days or so. I know every cat grooms to their own tune, but she just spends so many of her waking hours cleaning herself compared to all my experiences. She was a stray from a feral colony, and when she came into the shelter she had a pretty bad flea infestation, so I'm sure there's some trauma response there. Does anyone have any advice? I think she's fine, but it's something new to me so I'm a bit nervous. Am I worrying about nothing?
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Jan 17, 2023 02:27
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Lucky Guy posted:I adopted a new cat around a month ago, the vet thinks that she's 2 years old but she looks like a kitten that has a little growing left to do before she's done. I've never had a cat that grooms as much as she does, easily twice as long as every other cat I've had as an adult or kid, but she isn't making any bald patches in her fur due to overgrooming, and she doesn't seem anxious at all. She barfs up a loose hairball every 3 days or so. I know every cat grooms to their own tune, but she just spends so many of her waking hours cleaning herself compared to all my experiences. She was a stray from a feral colony, and when she came into the shelter she had a pretty bad flea infestation, so I'm sure there's some trauma response there. Does anyone have any advice? I think she's fine, but it's something new to me so I'm a bit nervous. Am I worrying about nothing? Is she long or short haired? You could get her used to being brushed or combed to cut down on the hairballs. Are you sure she's not got residual fleas or allergies? Sounds like she's pretty itchy.
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Jan 17, 2023 03:19
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Anyone have advice on getting a cat to let you trim his nails? I live alone and my cat is around 15 lbs of muscle, so I don't think I'd be able to burrito him very well.
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Jan 17, 2023 05:35
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Trim their nails when least expecting it/they are still sleepy or lethargic. And only trim a couple nails at a time if they get fidgety. No point in fighting them to get the last couple.
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Jan 17, 2023 07:34
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Kramdar posted:Trim their nails when least expecting it/they are still sleepy or lethargic. And only trim a couple nails at a time if they get fidgety. No point in fighting them to get the last couple. This is good advice, also start getting them used to it as young/early as you can starting by touching their paws and extending their claws. Occasionally I'll need to leave one or two claws alone but I can do 2 sets of front paws in minutes now. Make sure you have the trimmer out so you can seize the moment when it presents itself, treats also help.
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Jan 17, 2023 08:09
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eating only apples posted:Is she long or short haired? You could get her used to being brushed or combed to cut down on the hairballs. Are you sure she's not got residual fleas or allergies? Sounds like she's pretty itchy. Short haired. She was at the shelter for a month, and I've had her for 5 weeks, so I doubt there are any fleas left, but I hadn't considered allergies.
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Jan 17, 2023 11:41
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Lucky Guy posted:Short haired. She was at the shelter for a month, and I've had her for 5 weeks, so I doubt there are any fleas left, but I hadn't considered allergies. We had a cat start doing that, to the point where she licked herself down to the skin and bled a bit After a lot of vet work it turned out she had spontaneously developed an allergy to fillers in her dry cat food. Moving to a basic limited ingredient cat food fixed the whole problem
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Jan 17, 2023 13:37
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I ran through the OP and didn't see anything about this, but: does anybody have thoughts on/experiences with boarding cats? Due to some family health issues I very abruptly need to leave town, I don't know for how long, and anybody I'd ask to do catsitter duty is unavailable. There are a few local places here with mixed reviews, and petsmart apparently has a "petshotel" service as well, but this would be my first time leaving the little dude, and I'm anxious as gently caress about the whole situation. I called my vet for advice, but they didn't have any. He's about eight months old, I've had him for around six months. He's neutered, no behavioral or medical problems, indoor cat but I take him on walks daily. He's gotten along well with other cats he's met, but that's not many. This literally happened 20 minutes ago, I'm kinda just flailing here. So...boarding experiences, advice, alternatives I haven't thought of? I would enormously appreciate any kind of help at all. Alright, uhhh, namaste.
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Jan 17, 2023 20:41
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I think most boarding places are for a few days / typical vacations and not for "indefinitely". But if there's no one (friends, neighbors, family members) who can take the cat or house-sit for you, then you'll probably have to try a cat hotel or shelter / rescue. I'd call a bunch of different ones and see if they're willing to do long term boarding and what their conditions and vibe are. Depending on what your housing and finances situation is, a paid house sitter could be an option. You could also think about whether you can take the cat with you, some goons itt have reported living in motels with their cat for weeks, so it's possible.
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Jan 17, 2023 21:59
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POWELL CURES KIDS posted:I ran through the OP and didn't see anything about this, but: does anybody have thoughts on/experiences with boarding cats? Due to some family health issues I very abruptly need to leave town, I don't know for how long, and anybody I'd ask to do catsitter duty is unavailable. There are a few local places here with mixed reviews, and petsmart apparently has a "petshotel" service as well, but this would be my first time leaving the little dude, and I'm anxious as gently caress about the whole situation. I called my vet for advice, but they didn't have any. The longest I've ever boarded a cat was for three weeks when I moved to a new location and was waiting to get into my apartment building. It was fine, but it's definitely very stressful and she was a particularly chill cat These days, I always go with a cat sitter. It's just so much easier for the cat and so much less stressful. There are a few apps you can use I think to get it setup, and honestly I'd rather go that route if I couldn't find a local service. Especially if it's a "might be a few days, might be a few weeks" situation!
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Jan 17, 2023 22:14
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I used this site called rover.com to hire a cat sitter while i visited my parents over christmas and it worked out fine
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Jan 17, 2023 22:19
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Shear Modulus posted:I used this site called rover.com to hire a cat sitter while i visited my parents over christmas and it worked out fine There's also Meowtel which is cat focused, we used them recently and it worked out great. I don't think they operate in every city yet though. Whichever one you use, you'll want to sign up ASAP as they may need vaccination info and etc. on your cats and that may take a few days to process before you can book.
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Jan 17, 2023 22:49
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Thanks, everybody. doing registration stuff now, hopefully it'll be easier on the kitty/cheaper on me.
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Jan 18, 2023 02:46
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Lord Zedd-Repulsa posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST8dlkNGT9I Good info, thanks. Aside from not free feeding and using meals to power level familiarity I was doing just about everything else already. They're still pretty hissy but they've never actively attacked me while handling them, though I suspect that's only because they haven't realized that's an option yet. Some tiny cell phone videos of the gremlins in question: https://i.imgur.com/LaRbl6S.mp4 https://i.imgur.com/hwIcaa4.mp4
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Jan 18, 2023 22:46
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I moved from the US to Sweden three and a half years ago, and adopted a cat from a shelter a year and a half ago (he's turning 5 this year, I think). The little guy's always super-skittish around humans, and it wasn't until this past holiday season that he relaxed enough around me to accept and even ask for pets from me. In all the time I've had this guy, I've only taken him out of the apartment once, and he hated it, he hated traveling, and he hated anyone trying to touch him or pick him up to put him in a cat carrier. That's all something I can mostly work with, I've been patient and waiting and understanding with him, and he being a shy little guy who doesn't want to socialize all the time is fine. The problem now is that I'm considering returning to the States, and I just don't know how to travel with him in a way that won't traumatize him and be a massive struggle for the entire process. I barely know what I need to do to bring a cat from Sweden to the US, I know just getting him in a cat carrier alone is going to be a Big Thing, and I'm terrified that the whole thing would undo the timid progress he's made socializing. What could I do to make the move less terrible for him, if I go through with the move?   e: The other big complicating factor is that if I moved back to the States, I'd probably end up first at my folks' old place first before renting or buying something for myself, and the old family cat is still trucking at age 19:  And she's always been a territorial cat who hates other cats coming in on her turf. The family home's big enough that there's definitely room to keep her and my guy separate from each other, but I worry that'll be a constant source of tension and yowling. Ofaloaf fucked around with this message at 07:47 on Jan 20, 2023 |
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Jan 20, 2023 07:41
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I wish I had more advice for making your cat comfortable traveling. I'm no expert in that though. But, we got a pet group over here in China, and we deal with people having problems when they move back all the time, so what I wanted to say is make sure you start dealing with the legal parts of it literally months before you actually make the move. People underestimate how involved the whole thing is, wait until the last month, then they're screwed and it becomes infinitely more complicated. Do it as much in advance as possible.
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Jan 20, 2023 08:39
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