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Had a really scary situation with my cat. Around Friday he started vomiting his food after eating. Now, he's a 10 year old cat and does that occasionally. Wasn't a huge deal and normally just eats too fast. Then he threw up his next meal. Then his next. Then he stopped wanting to eat dry food. I called airvet, and the vet told me to make a solution with pepcid AC to give to him in small amounts and get him into my vet soon. Seemed to help a bit as he ate a meal in the night. We gave him wet food which he ate then he finally stopped. I got an urgent care appointment with my vet, which got pushed to the next day right when I had a flight for work. He barely was peeing, and his poops were extremely liquid and small. Thankfully my wife could take him, but when they got there they ran tests and couldn't figure out what was wrong. They noticed he was bloating badly and thought he had a blockage. Either he needed an exploratory laparatomy, or medically treat it and hope it would go away. Vet recommended the former. We went with it. When they went in, they found his stomach to be filled with "rotten milk" and drained it, then pumped his stomach. Saw his lymph node was enlarged while in there (not the cause of his tummy problems) so did a biopsy on it which we should get results soon on. He's on the mend now but an extremely scary situation. One of the first things he did when he got home was go pee, and apparently had one of the biggest pees of his life (not surprised as the vet connected him to saline as the whole ordeal left him a bit dehydrated) and a huge poop, that while soft, wasn't diarrhea. So that's all good. He's gonna be on drugs and a cone for awhile.   My wife has interfaced with the vet but I still can't figure out where the rotten milk came from or what it is. We don't drink milk in our house, and while he scrounges the kitchen for scraps of food the most he'd probably find is small pieces of cheese from when we make pizza or something. We had a big party this weekend and had stuff sitting around but no milk. Still puzzled about it, as if it was a different substance or not. But I had home this morning and get to watch him going now. Still a scary (and expensive) situation but I'm glad he's okay.
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Jun 15, 2023 08:15
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^^^Glad he's okay. Appreciate the feedback. The apartment is very safe and secure. I’ll bring him up here and see how he does. Thanks all. Bulky Bartokomous fucked around with this message at 13:22 on Jun 15, 2023 |
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Jun 15, 2023 10:42
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Why do cats like chewing up audio cables so much? It’s like specific cables too. Jet is uninterested in my 1/2 inch TRS cables, but is absolutely infatuated with my headphone cables and has gnawed one of them to death, apparently just for the gently caress of it. I ordered a new one and hung the old one from a doorknob so he can play with it, but man this poo poo is so weird. I’ve heard that apparently there’s some sort of animal product used in plastic that pets will chew on? Is that real or a myth?
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Jun 16, 2023 15:54
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Pollyanna posted:Why do cats like chewing up audio cables so much? I honestly dunno, but it's super annoying for sure One of our cats has learned to chew cables for attention when he thinks it's food time. I know for a fact that's why he's doing it because it starts like 40 minutes before he gets food, and he only does it when I'm sitting at the computer and can see him doing it. I don't wanna give him attention to reinforce the behavior but I can't let him just chew through everything  I try and make sure that when I give him food at the actual time he gets it, it wasn't around the time he was chewing a cable so that he hopefully doesn't keep connecting the ideas together but..
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Jun 16, 2023 15:58
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Yeah, it’s possible that it’s an attention/frustration thing too. Which makes me wonder what makes audio cables in particular such a common target.
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Jun 16, 2023 16:00
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Pollyanna posted:I’ve heard that apparently there’s some sort of animal product used in plastic that pets will chew on? Is that real or a myth? I've heard the "there's proteins on plastic that cats like" theory a lot but I've never seen anything more than blogpost theorizing about it. If there's actual scientific research on the topic I haven't found it. The most reasonable explanation I've found is that cats will chew on stuff out of instinct, maybe because it's fun, maybe because it's a tooth maintenance thing. I think all you can do is deflect that energy. I've been lucky in that our cats prefer to chew on cardboard, get an amazon box and leave it out and they'll start putting holes in it. So maybe experiment with making alternatives available that they can chew on.. like cardboard, or maybe catnip sticks. You might still have to come up with a way to protect your wires so they can't chew on it though.
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Jun 16, 2023 16:06
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I'm glad that my attention-chewer just eats my houseplants, so as long as I don't leave anything toxic in reach it's not so bad. She did eat an entire maidenhair fern once though.
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Jun 16, 2023 19:39
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Just tonight when our cat TimTam was sitting on me I was feeling his back paws and noticed something sticking up from one of them. He's very fluffy so you can't see anything is amiss by looking at them, but having a feel and a closer look it seems like one of the claws on his back foot is sticking straight up instead of forward. He's acting perfectly normal otherwise, not limping when he walks around, still jumping up on stuff and sitting on me etc. but when we try to get a better look at it and feel around he gets pretty vocal so I suspect it's probably sore to touch. Not sure what it is and I don't think I could get a better look at it without holding him down and really manipulating the foot, which I don't want to do because it seems sore and I don't want to make anything worse. I'm thinking maybe one of his toes is dislocated or the claw is partially torn off and sticking up or something. I plan to take him to the vet to get it looked at but they're closed tomorrow, so I'm wondering if I can wait a day to take him in when they open on Monday or if this is something to take him to the emergency vet for. Currently leaning towards waiting until Monday as he otherwise seems fine and is behaving totally normally.
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Jun 17, 2023 09:22
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He's probably been dealing with it for weirdly long because cats are very good at hiding injuries and stuff. If he's acting generally ok, I'd leave it until you can get to the vet.
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Jun 17, 2023 09:27
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Martman posted:He's probably been dealing with it for weirdly long because cats are very good at hiding injuries and stuff. If he's acting generally ok, I'd leave it until you can get to the vet. Yeah I wouldn't even know how long it's been like that because I don't touch his back paws very often and you wouldn't see it otherwise. We literally took him to the vet last week for a normal checkup and they didn't notice anything but also I don't think they checked his paws (just his teeth because he has stinky breath and needs a clean).
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Jun 17, 2023 09:31
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Yeah I never realized how cats can hide their injuries until our little guy came down with bladder stones last week. He was basically dying and gave almost no signs. He's young so we hadn't even gotten him insurance yet, to our great financial loss. Get insurance for your drat pets yall  He's coming home today after two surgeries and an entire week in-patient of inpatient emergency care in one of the costliest areas of the USA, you can imagine what that bill was like, I don't even want to talk about it. Our little dude is such a social butterfly that if we have company, even if they've never met our cat before, he'll literally rotate laps; 5 minutes or so on each person's lap no matter how many people are in the room, with full on motorboat purring and biscuits. He also, instead of laying down like a normal cat, butt strikes the ground (like lays down really fast butt first) which is hard to explain but insanely funny and cute. There's a point to this btw, which is, through this whole time, he was 99% his usual self and just as cuddly minus some extremely subtle clues that I only picked up on after the fact. If your cat changes their behavior, take them to the vet, straight up. Cat's are not as domesticated as dogs, they have survival instincts so that they are not attacked and/or eaten for being weak. Sometimes the only tell you will get is a little weirdness around the litter box or things like that. That's probably been one of the hardest parts for us- we could have brought our little man in sooner and saved us a tremendous amount of money and stress (for us and him) if I had paid attention to the admittedly almost absent cues for his pain. And it's so easy to blame yourself. Caution trumps all with cats, be safe out there and there's nothing wrong with a little checkup from time to time. Personally I am installing a motion activated security camera downstairs so that he is recorded every time he goes to the bathroom, that way we can make sure he's peeing correctly and in a reasonable amount of time. He'll be on prescription foods for his entire life. Be safe out there and be cautious, don't be like us.
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Jun 17, 2023 10:33
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Come to think of it I haven't seen TimTam climbing the fences or trees for a while and he's been sleeping in our backyard more than he has in the past. Hard to say if that's just coincidence but it could be that he's not able to climb things with his toe/claw injured. If that's the case it's probably been like that for a week or two at least (and the vet missed it when I took him in for a routine checkup).
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Jun 17, 2023 20:41
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SHE GOT STUCK IN HER FOOD BOX (She's 18, has arthritis, and is Not Impressed that we took photos before helping her.)
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Jun 18, 2023 02:16
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poo poo. Wolfgang was finishing up getting a lap cuddle when he fell off the chair, getting a hind leg caught between me and the arm rest. It made a sound that didn't sound great, neither did his cries. He limped off on three legs for a lie down under the table and hissed at his brother coming to investigate. I immediately hopped in the shower to get clothes on to take him to the e-vet for a broken leg, but after coming out he's... fine? Walking on all four paws with no sign of a limp, tail up, happy to get scritches. Should I still rush him off to the emergency vet? Ordinary vet when they can next see him? Just keep an eye on him? 
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Jun 18, 2023 02:32
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Hyperlynx posted:poo poo. Wolfgang was finishing up getting a lap cuddle when he fell off the chair, getting a hind leg caught between me and the arm rest. It made a sound that didn't sound great, neither did his cries. He limped off on three legs for a lie down under the table and hissed at his brother coming to investigate. I think it's worth getting checked out yes. Cats hide pain etc.
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Jun 18, 2023 02:34
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Ha. I just looked on the emergency vet's website to try to work out what constitutes an emergency, and then realised I can phone them and ask (and they actually want people to phone ahead anyway). And the person I spoke to said if he's walking on it it's not broken, just monitor him, I could take him in to my normal vet when I can just for peace of mind but otherwise just keep an eye on him for signs of pain. Phew.VelociBacon posted:I think it's worth getting checked out yes. Cats hide pain etc. Absolutely. I mentioned that, when she said to monitor for pain, that it can be hard to tell, at which she suggested making an ordinary vet appointment for peace of mind. I think he's probably okay. He's actually been jumping up on things as normal (which I mentioned to the e-vet), which seems like a really good sign.
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Jun 18, 2023 02:44
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Our little guy is back from the vet after a week and now he has a little cloth cone of shame (which seems far better than the plastic one at least) but we have a new problem. When we rescued this cat (his name is Miles) he came with a bonded pair mate, a female named Molly. They are/were basically one cat. Bonded at the hip is almost an understatement, though they had been getting more comfortable with branching out as they have become bonded with my wife and I. Molly is healthy and stayed home with us. The cats are "mine" in the sense that I feed them and they live downstairs in my home office troll cave/floor level. I had been making good bonding progress with Molly and then Miles got whisked off without much warning to the vet for an entire week. She immediately bonded to me like... extremely strongly. Perhaps this is part of the "grief" process of losing such a tightly bonded brother; Miles has been with her forever, and she had no idea where he went! She immediately had to be touching me pretty much all day. Her bond with me is how insanely strong as I was also grieving and would lay with her all day so that we could both feel better while Miles was fighting for his life. Miles is now back and it hasn't gone well. When Miles tried to approach Molly, she hissed at him! The other issue is that they can't be together for another week because he has staples in his groin region from the surgeries and he simply can't rough-house with another cat. So they can't even really be reunited; he has to stay in a closed spare room, which is sad, but it's only another week and frankly this is far preferable to him dying, which was the other option Now I know this is probably normal, he can't groom himself due to his cone and he probably smells like tons of cats and dogs from the vet and he can't wash anything off. Molly hasn't shown a ton of interest in him, but my question is, will this get better? Should we just introduce them again like 2 stranger cats meeting in the same house, or what's the protocol here? I was pretty taken aback at the time, I didn't know how much a week difference could make, but I also understand that he doesn't smell like himself, or even look like himself due to the cone. So I get the reluctance but drat dude. They were the same cat for their entire lives and now it's been a week and so much has changed... On the upside Molly has been incredibly adorable now that she bonded directly to me...  
Taima fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Jun 18, 2023 |
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Jun 18, 2023 09:57
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It's probably just time. He's gotta smell like the scary vets office and like a totally different cat. Once he's back to smelling like himself and she's had more time to get used to him it'll hopefully go back to normal!
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Jun 18, 2023 13:33
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Yeah they should be fine. Even one day can cause cats to suddenly not recognise each other, they have little peanut brains. My two had to re-recognise each other when I moved house recently because I kept them in two separate rooms while furniture was being moved into the new place.
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Jun 18, 2023 15:37
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Taima posted:Molly hasn't shown a ton of interest in him, but my question is, will this get better? It almost certainly will. A poster just within the last few pages had a nearly identical issue*. It took about a week and a half for the pair's relationship to return to normal. * https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3169030&userid=122687
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Jun 18, 2023 15:46
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TimTam at the vets today for surgery, turns out he'd partially ripped one of his claws off and it was just dangling there with a bit of an open wound going on as well. No idea how long its been like that but based on microscopic changes in behavior I'd guess about 3 weeks. Problem with him is that he's so fluffy you can't see anything's wrong and he's not been limping or behaving strangely at all. Oh well he was scheduled to have his teeth cleaned next week anyway so they're going to do that at the same time today, he might need some teeth extracted as he has some extra overlapping teeth on the lower jaw which trap food easily and contribute to his stink-breath.
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Jun 18, 2023 22:08
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TimTam back minus 5 teeth and 1 claw. Should be all good now, teeth in his mouth are a lot less crowded. Have to keep giving him pain meds and antibiotics for the foot for a little while. He's currently trying to shake and lick the bandage off.
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Jun 19, 2023 05:10
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Aww poor baby, get well soon.
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Jun 19, 2023 05:34
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Hello Sailor posted:It almost certainly will. A poster just within the last few pages had a nearly identical issue*. It took about a week and a half for the pair's relationship to return to normal. Thanks that definitely helps and thank you to the other two who chimed in  it's loving wild how animals can just fail to recognize their own brother or whatever. My cat immediately bonded to me super strongly too. Strange creatures.I did some reading and have seen it suggested to take a towel to the remaining kitty for a while, then take that towel to the post-surgery kitty and rub it all over which would mingle the scents. Something that seems vastly different here though is that our cat was extremely hosed; like having bladder stones is bad enough, but somehow his catheter blew open his loving urethra or whatever, like it tore somehow, kinda feels like the vet's error to me? But wtf do I know, thinking in that direction lies madness. So he was not only at the vet in-patient for a week, he's still pretty hosed up and we are isolating him in a room for starting at another week and going from there because he has staples, and stitches and sutures and god knows what else. Anyways my point is that this dude's cat seemed to be relatively briefly be at the vet, unless I'm misunderstanding, this is like... a whole thing in comparison it feels like. I hope they pair again because they were sooo loving close and cute and honestly there's even a selfish aspect here because having them bonded made me so much more at ease to leave them alone for a while if I have to. It would be a tremendous loss in so many ways if they can't pair again but I completely have hope on this and I'll update progress. We can't really begin the pair process until his many wounds and in the meantime he has to wear this horrible cone. It's not plastic though at least it's more like some mix between cloth and plastic fiber. It's soft enough, but he's having a bad time. And we need to keep him alone at night which he is not used to. Whatever we'll get through it. Taima fucked around with this message at 10:05 on Jun 19, 2023 |
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Jun 19, 2023 09:06
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Can someone help me identify what kinda cats I adopted? They were super creamy with faint markings when I got them, but after a year one has started turning all colours, even ginger. I thought they'd just have their markings darken slightly, but this is like having a whole new cat. Exhibit A    Exhibit B  
Lanky Coconut Tree fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Jun 19, 2023 |
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Jun 19, 2023 09:09
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I am completely unqualified to answer but my guess for funsies is a cross between Khao Manee and an American shorthair or something. He's very pretty. May I suggest insurance? I suggest insurance. Haha.
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Jun 19, 2023 09:22
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https://youtu.be/mYWfIlzujIM They're not a certain breed or special in any way.
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Jun 19, 2023 10:16
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Wolfgang update: Doing just fine!
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Jun 19, 2023 12:07
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Lanky Coconut Tree posted:Can someone help me identify what kinda cats I adopted? They were super creamy with faint markings when I got them, but after a year one has started turning all colours, even ginger. I thought they'd just have their markings darken slightly, but this is like having a whole new cat. You appear to have cats. Outside of extreme physiological outliers like Persians, Siamese, and Munchkins, cat 'breeds' are very poorly defined.
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Jun 19, 2023 13:19
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Lanky Coconut Tree posted:Can someone help me identify what kinda cats I adopted? Torbie Colorpoint Shorthairs
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Jun 19, 2023 13:28
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Huh, learned something new today. I've actually never seen or heard of a colourpoint before, as far as I knew kittens just got darker markings as they aged.Taima posted:I am completely unqualified to answer but my guess for funsies is a cross between Khao Manee and an American shorthair or something. Haha just picked up insurance over the weekend for them.
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Jun 19, 2023 14:09
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Hyperlynx posted:Wolfgang update: I definitely want to brush away the crud from his eye.
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Jun 19, 2023 15:18
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Taima posted:I am completely unqualified to answer but my guess for funsies is a cross between Khao Manee and an American shorthair or something. Doesn't insurance suck? Is there good insurance?
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Jun 19, 2023 17:12
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Lanky Coconut Tree posted:Huh, learned something new today. I've actually never seen or heard of a colourpoint before, as far as I knew kittens just got darker markings as they aged. Siamese are colorpoints (tho not all colorpoints are Siamese?). It’s a heat sensitive mutation of albinism, iirc. Here’s Niko at 6 months vs 1 year old:   My other cat, Sinjin, just went in for a routine exam this weekend and he 1) needs to lose a pound (Niko too probably) and 2) needs his teeth cleaned. He’d been doing this weird chewing on the side of his mouth at random times and the vet said there’s a lot of plaque and some gingivitis, so that’s probably what’s bothering him. Probably no extractions at least. Kinda anxious about having him anesthetized but hopefully his mouth feels better. I guess… I need to figure out how to brush their teeth in the future?? 🙃
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Jun 19, 2023 18:13
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Chronojam posted:Doesn't insurance suck? Is there good insurance? Depends on your country. Not in the US but the pet insurance here covers 90% of the cost. Not great, not terrible. Crocobile posted:Siamese are colorpoints (tho not all colorpoints are Siamese?). It’s a heat sensitive mutation of albinism, iirc. Ahh, yeah I thought they were part Siamese after 6 months, but the orange coloration that showed up recently really threw me off. For gingivitis and plaque, I'm using a water additive from Oxyclean which seems to keep things under control. Might be something you could try? My girls did not appreciate the brush.
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Jun 19, 2023 18:24
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Chronojam posted:Doesn't insurance suck? Is there good insurance? I'd love a recommendation for a good one as well Luckily we could afford treatment for our older lady, but with our two younger boys it's probably good to get that early before they have any potential health problems
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Jun 19, 2023 19:25
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Taima, the cone alone will be enough to make the sister cat hiss. Just give it time. Once all the hardware comes off, the universe will realign for those two.
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Jun 19, 2023 20:30
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I need to move two cats about 27 hours of driving, or about 6 hours of flying including a layover. The cats have never flown but do well enough in the car, and fairly regularly take 3 hour car trips without issue. They have never gone longer. I genuinely can't tell which will be easier for the cats or us, and am not sure about extra costs I might not have thought of. As near as I can tell, it's about 100-150 USD per cat to fly them depending on the airline. How have people moved their cats with them for long-rear end moves?
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Jun 19, 2023 21:16
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Blackhawk posted:TimTam back minus 5 teeth and 1 claw. Should be all good now, teeth in his mouth are a lot less crowded. Have to keep giving him pain meds and antibiotics for the foot for a little while. He's currently trying to shake and lick the bandage off. TT update: Ripped the bandage off his leg in less than 6 hours (vet said he might and that it was ok if he did, so eh). Also tried to put the cone on him briefly and he spent about 30 seconds violently running backwards and thrashing around before managing to whip it off his head, so we're not trying that again (again, vet only said it might be needed if he was washing his face excessively). Otherwise he's acting energetic, affectionate, eating well, purring loudly etc. so seems like he's recovering just fine.
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Jun 19, 2023 21:17
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Ravenfood posted:I need to move two cats about 27 hours of driving, or about 6 hours of flying including a layover. The cats have never flown but do well enough in the car, and fairly regularly take 3 hour car trips without issue. They have never gone longer. I genuinely can't tell which will be easier for the cats or us, and am not sure about extra costs I might not have thought of. As near as I can tell, it's about 100-150 USD per cat to fly them depending on the airline. How have people moved their cats with them for long-rear end moves? I've never had to fly our current cats, but when I was a kid we had to move across the entire country and my family flew the cats. They seemed pretty terrified coming out of the baggage claim if I remember correctly (though I was like 12 at the time) and I can't really blame them, someone definitely peed as well. It was a direct flight though and only 3.5 hours If the cats enjoyed/tolerated car rides I've gotta think that might be slightly less stressful, but that's a long time for them to be caged up plus they'll probably have to sleep in hotels overnight at least once, that's a real toughie. I'd think shorter but scarier might be less stressful if they have somewhere to get out of the cages for a long time afterwards rather than spending days in them?
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Jun 19, 2023 21:19
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