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Even once they get along there's still gonna be hissing at first as they learn each other's boundaries, which really freaked my wife and I out but turned out fine
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Dec 14, 2023 02:56
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That's all good to know, thank you both.
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Dec 14, 2023 04:02
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one of my kittens has a distressing habit of trying to chew on my body jewelry, particularly when i am sleeping. it's accompanied by purring and biscuits so i am assuming it's an affectionate thing where he thinks he is grooming me but it's super annoying. i respond by yelping and pushing him away but he just comes right back as if i just made a mistake. this also occasionally happens during the day after meals, and he always has dry food available so i don't think it's exclusively to wake me up for food. i don't particularly want to keep my door closed at night because a) i like having them around when i sleep and b) it gets super hot in my room if i do. also i can't take my jewelry out since most of them are permanent installations that require professional assistance to remove. what other options do i have?
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Dec 14, 2023 15:26
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Try redirecting him to a soft blanket or stuffed animal. We've had 2 cats that started doing that, and we got them both to focus on a cookie monster toy instead, which we always keep next to my wife's pillow.
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Dec 14, 2023 16:57
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cash crab posted:one of my kittens has a distressing habit of trying to chew on my body jewelry, particularly when i am sleeping. it's accompanied by purring and biscuits so i am assuming it's an affectionate thing where he thinks he is grooming me but it's super annoying. i respond by yelping and pushing him away but he just comes right back as if i just made a mistake. this also occasionally happens during the day after meals, and he always has dry food available so i don't think it's exclusively to wake me up for food. I wonder if that bitter apple spray is jewelry-safe?
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Dec 14, 2023 22:54
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that's what im sort of wondering. i am going to try the blanket but he isn't suckling, he seems to be grooming. im flattered but goddammit.
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Dec 15, 2023 02:35
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My cat Wolfie tries to put his butt in front of my face so I'll sniff it. I said this before but my cats apparently sniff each other's butts to show dominance, and I guess since I'm the alpha Wolfie wants me to sniff his butt. It makes no sense. What do I do about that?
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Dec 15, 2023 07:02
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America Inc. posted:My cat Wolfie tries to put his butt in front of my face so I'll sniff it. I said this before but my cats apparently sniff each other's butts to show dominance, and I guess since I'm the alpha Wolfie wants me to sniff his butt. Don't just look at it. Sniff it!
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Dec 15, 2023 07:21
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small pair of jeans perhaps?
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Dec 15, 2023 16:34
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I usually blow air at my cat when he does that, often gets him to stop. But also: cats. You don’t need to sniff.
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Dec 16, 2023 19:46
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So beep has had a bit of an upset tummy tonight, he had diarrhea earlier on and got it on his tail, got him all cleaned up, then maybe 12 hours later he was gagging and looked like he was gonna puke but it was just some frothy spit looking stuff. keeping my eye on him, could be nothing but im quite concerned. hes eating just fine and nothing has changed about his diet...
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Dec 17, 2023 07:20
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One of my cats pukes up some frothy spit stuff every few months. Otherwise she's perfectly fine. Might just be typical cat hijinks.
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Dec 17, 2023 13:32
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Some friends of ours are looking to offload a young cat. I’ve always heard pairing up cats is good for their mental health, and we’ve been leaving ours alone for longer stretches lately, but she is otherwise doing fine and is one of the least neurotic cats I’ve ever run into. In fact the only real hangup she has is that she’s a bit food obsessed, which another cat would probably take some work to manage. Any thoughts on if it’s a good idea or if I’d be trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist?
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Dec 17, 2023 18:11
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I have an 8-year-old cat, Dorobou. Her miaous started sounding a little shrieky and low pitched to me lately, the vet said she had gum inflammation but that went away (she sounded normal at the vet, but at home it went back to shrieky). She normally wasn't vocal that much either but shrieky and low-pitched vocals, why does that happen?
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Dec 17, 2023 18:21
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morestuff posted:Some friends of ours are looking to offload a young cat. I’ve always heard pairing up cats is good for their mental health, and we’ve been leaving ours alone for longer stretches lately, but she is otherwise doing fine and is one of the least neurotic cats I’ve ever run into. In fact the only real hangup she has is that she’s a bit food obsessed, which another cat would probably take some work to manage. Any thoughts on if it’s a good idea or if I’d be trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist? Kittens should be paired up or they'll run you ragged. Adult cats vary, some need a friend and some are perfectly happy being solo cats. Some may even get territorial with another cat. I'd tread carefully at the very least.
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Dec 17, 2023 18:32
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update: i bit the bullet and took out all my jewelry. tandy still woke me up at six am to nibble my earlobes. apparently my friend also has this problem so i think this is just my life now. Oh well
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Dec 18, 2023 13:25
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We have a 5 y/o girl who has a bump near one nipple and licks that area a lot, so the hair is thin. The Vet said: 2MM Firm mass cranial to last R nipple, Evidence of licking, no skin injury. DDX: Sebaceous cyst or hair folicle infection So that was a few months ago, and it's basically unchanged. No skin damage, but she keeps the hair thin there. And now she's started licking a circular spot (like 3/4") a little to the side of that area, but there's no visible bumps or anything at all in that area, just a single round thin spot. It SEEMS like, when she sits upright, if she just lowers her head and licks that's sort of the natural convenient spot, if that makes sense. Rather than she's working to get at a specific spot. So I kind of wonder if it's a behavior thing now rather than an actual problem spot. Would something internal cause her to lick like that, if there's literally nothing visible on the surface in that new area? When would it be time to take her back to the vet if there's no visible external injury or problems (the original bump that seemed to set it all off is unchanged), and/or what would I even ask them to screen for.
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Dec 20, 2023 17:18
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Rescue Toaster posted:We have a 5 y/o girl who has a bump near one nipple and licks that area a lot, so the hair is thin. The Vet said: Speaking as a human healthcare person with no vet training, a sebaceous cyst would be like a pimple for us, she could feel it and maybe is just licking it because that's what cats do. I don't think you need to stress about there being an 'internal' problem if a vet has already found there to be a small cyst there - that's the firm mass. If she starts to seem unwell generally (lethargy, poor appetite, etc) and/or it seems to be bothering her more, or if you can feel that the area is abnormally hot/red/has discharge/is overly sensitive for her, it would be worth a vet visit to see about whether she needs it to be drained/possible antibiotics. You might also call them and ask that very question to see when they feel it's appropriate for them to take another look at her. VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Dec 20, 2023 |
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Dec 20, 2023 18:13
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VelociBacon posted:Speaking as a human healthcare person with no vet training, a sebaceous cyst would be like a pimple for us, she could feel it and maybe is just licking it because that's what cats do. I don't think you need to stress about there being an 'internal' problem if a vet has already found there to be a small cyst there - that's the firm mass. Yeah there's no sign of anything getting worse/inflamed/infected at all. And no change in her behavior, appetite, etc... So we might give it another month or so, maybe just make a regular appt towards end of January/Feb unless anything changes before then. I'm guessing it's just stress a bit, with holiday poo poo going on. It doesn't even appear to be bothering her, when she's laying there grooming normally we don't notice her like chewing/attacking that spot at all. Just sometimes when she's sitting upright on her butt looking at us she just kind of reaches down and licks in that area even though she's not otherwise grooming.
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Dec 20, 2023 22:10
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Dienes posted:And even with the same parents you can have a lot of variation. Yep, my 3 siblings are: Standard tuxedo print, Cait Sith print and grey tabby with black stripes. e: Oh this was from days ago  cash crab posted:small pair of jeans perhaps? 
Takes No Damage fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Dec 21, 2023 |
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Dec 21, 2023 02:19
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I am currently a loving wreck and I want to tell you all please get pet insurance. We're twelve thousand in and while we can cover it we wish we didn't have to. Our little girl might not even come out of this but I will not let her go without doing every single thing I can. Dua Bast
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Dec 22, 2023 04:11
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Following up from my kitten posting - I pulled the trigger and grabbed a half-blind 4 month old tortie kitten from the local shelter yesterday morning, she's been cloistered away in the closet ever since with the necessary amenities and some toys + things to climb on. So far she's near-exclusively stayed hidden away in either her carrier or the cat house I put in there for her, but this evening she responded well to my pets and even came out to rub on me and get some more (she didn't seem interested in playing with any toys though). She's very sweet but she's also quite vocal - she cried loudly all night last night (I'm hoping the people above me weren't kept up, I sure was though) and if left alone often vocalizes for 5-10 minutes before chilling out for the next 30 or so. Should I be worried about her late night crying? Should I be responding to it or would that just be encouraging her? Not that I really want to since again, it was like every 20 minutes from 1 AM until I got out of bed 6 hours later, but I'd rather that than ignore her if that's worse. She also isn't eating much, if anything. I did see she has both pooped and peed which is good, so I assume she's had at least some water, but she didn't touch the wet food I put out and only just barely ate some of the dry kibble. My older cat has been a mixed bag. He hasn't seen her yet and has mostly just ignored the new smells and my constant closet visits, but sometimes I catch him hissing or growling outside the closet door even if the kitten is nowhere near the door (I'm 90% sure she spends her time when I'm not in there in one of her hiding places). And when new cat vocalizes he tends to pay a lot of attention to the door as well. He slept in my bedroom last night which he never does, presumably to get away from the noise (though it sure didn't help me). I assume these are mostly fine behaviors but I wanted to check in case any of that seemed weird. And of course, some kitten photos - you can see her blind eye pretty clearly. Fortunately the shelter said no action was needed with it going forward and was likely an accident or infection when she was just a few weeks old.   boneration posted:I am currently a loving wreck and I want to tell you all please get pet insurance. We're twelve thousand in and while we can cover it we wish we didn't have to. Our little girl might not even come out of this but I will not let her go without doing every single thing I can. Dua Bast That's really awful, I'm sorry you're going through all that but good on you for doing everything you can. Countblanc fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Dec 22, 2023 |
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Dec 22, 2023 04:40
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boneration posted:I am currently a loving wreck and I want to tell you all please get pet insurance. We're twelve thousand in and while we can cover it we wish we didn't have to. Our little girl might not even come out of this but I will not let her go without doing every single thing I can. Dua Bast I’m so sorry, I’m hoping for the best for you.  Countblanc posted:She also isn't eating much, if anything. I did see she has both pooped and peed which is good, so I assume she's had at least some water, but she didn't touch the wet food I put out and only just barely ate some of the dry kibble. Our shelter cats ate and drank nothing for the first 24 hours. It was long enough we were starting to panic, but things got better from there. This seems pretty normal so far. Also she’s a real cutie. 
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Dec 22, 2023 06:58
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Countblanc posted:Following up from my kitten posting - I pulled the trigger and grabbed a half-blind 4 month old tortie kitten from the local shelter yesterday morning, Look up 'tortitude', you're in for a wild ride. Got mine a few years ago as a rescued adult and she's normally pretty quiet, but has no problems letting me know when she wants attention. boneration posted:I am currently a loving wreck and I want to tell you all please get pet insurance. We're twelve thousand in and while we can cover it we wish we didn't have to. Our little girl might not even come out of this but I will not let her go without doing every single thing I can. Dua Bast Oof, best of luck. I lost my tuxedo girl around the 3rd or 4th of this January after paying 10k to have her in hospital over the New Years holiday for a failing liver. She still died less than 24 hours after getting her home. The only thing I achieved was making her spend the last week of her life in a hospital cage. I'd give just about anything to go back in time and have her home maybe one more day then put her down without having to go through that. I don't know what your cat's situation is and the real motherfucker is you'll never really know what the right decision is until it's too late. The only advice I can offer is to try and do what's best for the cat not what makes you feel better. I hosed that equation up pretty hard and will probably never be completely over it.
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Dec 22, 2023 09:53
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boneration posted:I am currently a loving wreck and I want to tell you all please get pet insurance. We're twelve thousand in and while we can cover it we wish we didn't have to. Our little girl might not even come out of this but I will not let her go without doing every single thing I can. Dua Bast My Mothers pet insurance didn't cover the 12k she spent on her sick cat The cat at least is alive and doing well, sometimes things work out
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Dec 22, 2023 18:06
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Jet is already almost 15 years old with heart disease and either an immune disorder or cancer, he ain’t getting covered. Too late. I’ve saved up the entire time I’ve had him for this eventuality and I’ve already come to terms with how much he costs to keep healthy. If I adopt again, insurance for sure.
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Dec 23, 2023 15:26
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One of our always very well behaved cats has started aggressively and persistently pawing at the TV and I can't figure out what he actually wants (aside from food which he always wants) 
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Dec 23, 2023 18:54
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bltzn posted:One of our always very well behaved cats has started aggressively and persistently pawing at the TV and I can't figure out what he actually wants (aside from food which he always wants) It's instinctive behavior to pursue moving shapes. One of ours does it, too.
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Dec 23, 2023 18:56
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New cat update - things aren't going fantastic, unfortunately. I'm pretty sure she still hasn't really eaten, she's had a bit of diarrhea and urine in her litter but nothing solid since day 1, and it feels like none of the food I have out for her is getting eaten up. I'm giving her the same things she had at the shelter in a few different bowls. She has also thrown up a few times, but it's just been bile, I haven't seen any kibble or the like in it. I moved her into my bedroom instead of the walk-in closet this afternoon so I'm hoping that being in a less stuffy space will help her out, even with frequently cleaning her box and rotating food it was getting pretty musty in her closet. She still cries for attention if I leave the room. As for older cat, he hasn't really gotten any better. He saw her while I was moving her litter and such between rooms and went full hiss/growl mode. He didn't approach her thankfully but when he's normally an incredibly sweet cat it's pretty horrifying to see. His hair wasn't up and his ears weren't back so that's good, but it was still pretty ugly. Baby cat just hid behind her cat tree. I'm hoping with the room swap it'll give old cat some time to get used to the closet smells but given I've still caught him making bad sounds outside the door, I dunno. I spoke with a vet yesterday afternoon about new cat's lack of eating and they told me to be concerned if she hasn't eaten by Sunday. Unfortunately with the holidays all the vets near me are closed tomorrow (and likely monday, hard to tell which updated their hours online). A friend suggested I try giving her some tuna in the meantime but I'm really just super stressed out between the eating concerns, the constant crying, and older cat's issues.
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Dec 24, 2023 00:13
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Countblanc posted:New cat update - things aren't going fantastic, unfortunately. I'm pretty sure she still hasn't really eaten, she's had a bit of diarrhea and urine in her litter but nothing solid since day 1, and it feels like none of the food I have out for her is getting eaten up. I'm giving her the same things she had at the shelter in a few different bowls. She has also thrown up a few times, but it's just been bile, I haven't seen any kibble or the like in it. I moved her into my bedroom instead of the walk-in closet this afternoon so I'm hoping that being in a less stuffy space will help her out, even with frequently cleaning her box and rotating food it was getting pretty musty in her closet. She still cries for attention if I leave the room. This all sounds very normal for cat introductions honestly. Growling and hissing is normal and good, chasing and attacking is bad but growling and hissing is how cats establish boundaries with a new scary thing. It shouldn't be horrifying, it is normal cat behaviour and will happen whenever you introduce cats pretty much. Giving her tasty treats is also a good idea to make sure she eats something, but you will just have to accept that both cats will be scared and unhappy for a while, you've just made huge changes to both of their lives.
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Dec 24, 2023 02:25
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Have you tried hand feeding her? If she’s crying for attention maybe you can combine that motivation with food.
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Dec 24, 2023 07:28
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Beep loves to splash in his water fountain, he does drink from it but its like hes obsessed with trying to figure out how it works or something, soon as hes done drinking he starts trying to put his paw in it then shakes his now damp paw spraying water everywhere, is this something hes likely to grow out of or do we just gotta get him a regular bowl
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Dec 24, 2023 15:35
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Kullik posted:do we just gotta get him a regular bowl My cat does this with a regular bowl too, so, don't count on that being a magical cure-all. WONTFIX, cat.exe functioning as programmed
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Dec 25, 2023 01:43
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Organza Quiz posted:This all sounds very normal for cat introductions honestly. Growling and hissing is normal and good, chasing and attacking is bad but growling and hissing is how cats establish boundaries with a new scary thing. It shouldn't be horrifying, it is normal cat behaviour and will happen whenever you introduce cats pretty much. thank you for the advice, it's appreciated. Unfortunately things have taken a pretty dark turn. New cat still hadn't eaten so I took her to the emergency clinic. We were there all day, around 10 hours, and she was diagnosed with likely having feline panleukopenia. I'm sure the knowledgeable folk here know about it, but just in case, it's a very serious virus with no real cure beyond "suffer through it and come out better", with an exceptionally high mortality rate of 50-90% in kittens. I say "likely" because one of the tests was inconclusive but the others all pointed to it and her symptoms match. She was vaccinated but the vaccine was administered the morning I adopted her, so the timeline means she may have already been infected or was infected shortly enough after that it hadn't really had time to properly immunize her. The vets said she looked healthy/lively relative to the likely infection period (she said most kittens after 3-4 days would look on death's door, new cat was walking around and vocal). My brain was fried between the emotional stress and the long day so I paid frankly more money than I could justify to hospitalize her for 24 hours with an aggressive treatment plan and hope for the best - I basically wanted to get out before I could make the "rational" choice. But now that I'm home I feel like I've just passed the buck to tomorrow-countblanc and I'm not sure how to handle it. The trip cost me $3200 already and, frankly, even paying half that again is a really really difficult call for me. She's an exceptionally sweet cat but this isn't a beloved companion for the past 15 years, it's a sick kitten I took in less than a week ago, and I'm not making like, DINK dollars. If I get the call tomorrow that she's recovering and can come home with supervision, great. If they say she's deteriorated or looking grim, I think I can make the call to euthanize her. But I really don't know what to do with the in-between of "she's not better but she isn't worse, and she needs to continue treatment". I don't know if I have it in me to kill a potentially healthy animal, but I've already burned through all of my savings for the last year on this one visit. I'm not really looking for an answer here but I needed to get this out of my system.
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Dec 25, 2023 03:47
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no advice, but that sucks so bad, i am so sorry.
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Dec 25, 2023 03:55
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Kullik posted:Beep loves to splash in his water fountain, he does drink from it but its like hes obsessed with trying to figure out how it works or something, soon as hes done drinking he starts trying to put his paw in it then shakes his now damp paw spraying water everywhere, is this something hes likely to grow out of or do we just gotta get him a regular bowl Cats can't focus on objects up close so water right in front of their face is very hard to see for them and they use their paws to figure out where the water actually is.
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Dec 25, 2023 04:08
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My cat scoops water out of the bowl just to make a gigantic fuckin mess everywhere and flood the silicone mat surrounding it, and it's not because he wants to drink it from there. He also drowns toy mice there.
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Dec 25, 2023 04:32
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I just got a Litter Robot 4. The idea was to make my place smell less like cat box, but the thing reeks. I see they sell carbon filters. Do they actually help? Or has this all been an expensive waste of time?
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Dec 25, 2023 04:47
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I'm so sorry, CountBlanc. It's a horrible situation to be in. At some point, you do have to put your interests - including having emergency savings - above the pet's.
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Dec 25, 2023 05:20
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I'm so, so sorry countblanc Edit: you're doing everything that you can for that kitten, nobody should have to make those kinds of decisions Weird Pumpkin fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Dec 25, 2023 |
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Dec 25, 2023 05:30
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