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Precambrian Video Games posted:I've flown with three different cats and while they were all fine in the end (even trans-Pacific with a senior), the last time I had one cat panting in the car on the way to the airport and the other was very agitated and had a solid meowing session every 10-15 minutes. The latter cat has also gotten less chill about being in a carrier and going to the vet, unfortunately, and even 100mg of gabapentin isn't enough to calm him down so we figure he's better off without it now... Poor little fellas. I just found out from the vet that they pant when really stressed out, because I've of my guys was doing it at the vet for the first time 
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Feb 19, 2024 08:17
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GlyphGryph posted:I was sick this week and every time I stirred from my fevered rest to drink some water it had something gross in it, come on! My cat picked up a habit of dipping his paw in any glass of water I had sitting around. I ended up just switching to sports bottles 
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Feb 19, 2024 12:13
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Still having a lot of trouble integrating a new boy cat with our existing girl. There's a common theme of 'to a degree, they have to sort it out themselves'. Which sounds good in theory. But although he is just playful, not otherwise aggressive, he can not learn when to stop. She hisses, growls, walks away, swats at him, outright scratches him (not too bad but once or twice he's had a little mark on his face or neck). And he just absolutely will not take a hint. It never discourages him at all from trying again 5 minutes later. Also seems interesting, even when they're both relaxed/chill then he just has no interest in her. There's never any attempt to sit near her, groom, etc... even when she is relaxed and lets him near her (before he's attacked her for the first time that day, usually). He doesn't know how to interact with a cat other than just jumping at her, basically. So the flip side of that either they are ignoring each other, or having a negative reaction, there's no positive experience at all. So she's getting more and more stressed, doing less and less of her usual routine, openly hissing and swiping at me just because he's nearby, etc... She's not coming to bed anymore so she sleeps alone downstairs which sucks. I kind of don't want to admit it to myself I guess, but there's been zero improvement or progress for a month now. I'm not sure we'll be able to keep him. I'm worried we're just setting it up to be even more painful to re-home him 3+ months from now when we're in the exact same place. He's not a bad guy but he can not take a hint and I don't know how to help them find a balance. EDIT: To be clear 'ignoring each other' isn't saying they are fine most of the time and sometimes have an issue. Basically unless he's either asleep or actively distracted by something else, then he's stalking her or lurking around a corner waiting to jump at her. She's 100x more interesting than any toy, and he doesn't have any way to interact with her other than jumping on her and freaking her out. Rescue Toaster fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Feb 19, 2024 |
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Feb 19, 2024 16:31
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Rescue Toaster posted:Still having a lot of trouble integrating a new boy cat with our existing girl. There's a common theme of 'to a degree, they have to sort it out themselves'. Which sounds good in theory. But although he is just playful, not otherwise aggressive, he can not learn when to stop. She hisses, growls, walks away, swats at him, outright scratches him (not too bad but once or twice he's had a little mark on his face or neck). And he just absolutely will not take a hint. It never discourages him at all from trying again 5 minutes later. He might be under-stimulated and bored and taking out his energy on girl cat. Do you regularly tire him out with something like a wand toy? Honestly for cats, being near each other and ignoring each other is a positive experience for them but if you wanted them to potentially bond more maybe try giving out special treats whenever they are together and chill/he's not jumping on her. Edit: reading some of your other posts in this thread, if you've tried tiring him out and treats for being nice my only real other suggestions would be feliway or a third cat. My big male orange tabby would harass my female cat constantly before we got a third younger male cat, then they would happily wrestle together while my female cat would happily laze about ignored. hypoallergenic cat breed fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Feb 19, 2024 |
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Feb 19, 2024 18:31
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Counterpoint to Feliway, I spent a lot of money on it and it didn't do poo poo for us. Not saying it can't work, but if it does it obviously doesn't work for all cats and situations. I think it's totally ok to rehome a cat that isn't working out. If you're going to do it, be SURE that the situation won't resolve - and from the sound of things, with your old cat getting MORE stressed over 2 months, I think you can argue you've hit that point. If you do, just make sure you don't just dump the cat in a kill shelter - look for a local cat rescue charity that can help you adopt him out. Getting another cat (I would specifically recommend a kitten) is a nice idea, but not a guarantee it will work. And it could end up you have 2 cats you have to rehome.
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Feb 19, 2024 18:45
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Yeah we've had the feliway diffuser going in the main living room area (where she hangs out a lot) for the past 4-5 days. And doing a couple sprays in the common sleeping areas daily. Haven't noticed any difference so far. I don't know if it's just bad luck or whatever, I never in my life of 10 or so cats had one I could 'tire out' with toys. Playing with them almost always just gets them more riled up. This guy usually loses interest or only will play in lazy-mode with string/wands (where he lays on his back and basically only reacts if you dangle it near him). The only play that really exercises him is self-initiated flinging a mouse or my wife's hair clip around. There's always plenty of little toys like that around the house and he does play with them lots. It's not nearly enough, and if he's playing with something and comes around a corner and sees her, he just bolts for her and she freaks. We've thought about the third cat thing but if they both started harassing her then what, we take them both back to the shelter? We really thought our girl was going to be excited about a chance to play with someone, as she used to chase our older cats around who have now passed away (they weren't thrilled about it, so the irony is palpable). But I guess she grew out of it in the last year or so, or she can dish it out but not take it. Either way, I don't know if she'll get along with anybody except a couch potato maybe. Rescue Toaster fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Feb 19, 2024 |
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Feb 19, 2024 18:46
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It might be that the girl cat is a single cat person and that's that. Were it the case that she doesn't like the boy cat and still interacted with you as normal then I'd argue for sticking it out a little longer, but her behavior towards you has changed enough that I would not blame you for considering the situation a lost cause.
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Feb 19, 2024 18:51
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I wanna ask a question again that I asked earlier - what behaviors made you think your old cat was bored and actually needed a friend?
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Feb 19, 2024 18:52
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Rotten Red Rod posted:I wanna ask a question again that I asked earlier - what behaviors made you think your old cat was bored and actually needed a friend? I wouldn't say that's the reason we got another cat. My wife definitely wanted one that was a bit more cuddly than our girl, who is never wants to be held or anything. We assumed since the girl used to chase the older cats around, she'd at least be open to someone, and she vaguely seemed kind of bored and less interested in toys and such since they were both gone. She never ever hissed at or growled at the older cats, but they didn't really try to attack her, she was usually the one on the offensive. In particular she LOVED hiding and jumping out at our even older girl (who passed away). But she's never shown even the slightest hint of wanting to stalk this boy. I guess she just wants to hide and jump out at other cats, but never actually wants someone to do it back, or wants to wrestle at all. Which is going to make finding a second cat who is OK with being repeatedly startled but also won't actually fight back pretty tricky, if not impossible. In terms of her behavior, it's extra hard because she's never liked being held, so when he comes after her, I can't just like pick her up to protect her (she'll be so freaked out she'll scratch the poo poo out of me), all I can do is chase after him and put him back in his bedroom for a while or something. So also now he's already just learned that he chases her -> I move to grab him -> he has to run from me or get stuck in the bedroom. So he already is starting to hate me, when initially he would hang out with me and sit on my lap and stuff, that's all gone now too. Rescue Toaster fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Feb 19, 2024 |
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Feb 19, 2024 19:08
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litter robot 4 question: i just got one a few weeks ago for my two cats. i've been able to throw out the old litter box entirely and it's working fine so far except for one issue: it somehow got the idea that my one cat is 7.5 lbs when she's really 13.5. i set up the profile for both cats before they used it, and put their weights in at 16 and 13. it has figured out the brother just fine and is tracking his weight and usage, but sister it decided was actually 7.5 lbs and refuses to change its mind even though it hasn't gotten a 7.5 lb reading in almost a week and i'm seeing 13 lb readings all the time. will it eventually fix itself or do i need to somehow wipe and set it up again?
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Feb 20, 2024 21:26
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I repaired my cat tree scratcher, I ended up going with the hot glue since I was worried about them getting their claws stuck in the staples. Fortunately they weren't bothered by the different look and started using it immediately.
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Feb 21, 2024 05:59
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pairofdimes posted:I repaired my cat tree scratcher, I ended up going with the hot glue since I was worried about them getting their claws stuck in the staples. Fortunately they weren't bothered by the different look and started using it immediately.  I just picked up (yet another) cat tree from the trash at my apartment complex and I need to go get like 400ft of sisal rope and redo a bunch of posts on several of mine.
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Feb 21, 2024 06:44
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Takes No Damage posted:
I'm always too worried about that in terms of it having fleas, heartworm larvae, communicable disease of any kind. Cat trees are so cheap it just doesn't seem worth the risk. I also just ordered a bunch of replacement scratching posts from amazon today. They're available in every size so that seemed convenient.
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Feb 21, 2024 07:32
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Anyone here try a greenie? Are they good?
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Feb 21, 2024 08:01
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mawarannahr posted:Anyone here try a greenie? Are they good? That's the only treats that my cat gets, you can get them in larger rigid plastic containers. Why not use a treat that purportedly cleans their teeth I guess.
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Feb 21, 2024 08:04
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They're my cats' favorite treats and were also the only ones a cat I had for 18 years would eat other than those fish slurry gogurt pouches that have become big in the last few years.
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Feb 21, 2024 09:10
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Have you eaten one?
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Feb 21, 2024 09:21
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Haha, I've never tried one. I got 1 cat that so far the only treat I can find she likes is freeze-dried chicken bits.
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Feb 21, 2024 14:48
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Pet food tasting is an actual job that people have to do so maybe this is your big chance! After they do all the testing to make sure the nutritional content is correct.. someone's gotta chew that stuff to make sure it doesn't taste like an unimaginable horror.
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Feb 21, 2024 14:55
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My vet sends me home with a small bag of greenies after every checkup so I took that as a sign that it's a good brand. My cats love them and can distinguish the crinkle of a greenie bag vs all other types of crinkles
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Feb 21, 2024 15:04
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Can confirm that our cats love greenies, though they get excited for any sort of treat or cheese, or once I let them taste a tiny little bit of whip cream and now they're obsessed.
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Feb 21, 2024 15:11
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PIZZA.BAT posted:litter robot 4 question: i just got one a few weeks ago for my two cats. i've been able to throw out the old litter box entirely and it's working fine so far except for one issue: it somehow got the idea that my one cat is 7.5 lbs when she's really 13.5. i set up the profile for both cats before they used it, and put their weights in at 16 and 13. it has figured out the brother just fine and is tracking his weight and usage, but sister it decided was actually 7.5 lbs and refuses to change its mind even though it hasn't gotten a 7.5 lb reading in almost a week and i'm seeing 13 lb readings all the time. will it eventually fix itself or do i need to somehow wipe and set it up again? Update on this: I guess I just had to wait one more day. I looked this morning and it fixed her weight and is now tracking it correctly
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Feb 21, 2024 15:13
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If your cats are super treat motivated, consider working them into an activity. One of ours will sprint across the house if I throw one and it seems like a good way to get them some exercise. She can have issues tracking it though, it needs to bounce off walls or hard floors because it blends into our carpet and I guess kitty vision isn't perfect, even if it's moving. I also got a novelty slingshot which seemed like a good idea at the time but it can fling treats so fast she can't see it. So it takes some finesse.
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Feb 21, 2024 15:15
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I’ve been throwing kibble at my cat for like a year now and she has gotten really good at catching it mid-air. Often I think that she likes the catching part more than eating it, even.
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Feb 21, 2024 21:40
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A vet from Guelph, Ontario was able to get get approval to import remdesivir from the UK to treat cats with FIP, and will help other vets do the same so Canadians don't have to buy black market drugs to treat an easily curable disease. This story remains incredibly stupid for many reasons but it's good news for Canadian cat owners and maybe Americans close enough to the border until this fuckup is resolved.
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Feb 21, 2024 23:04
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PIZZA.BAT posted:My vet sends me home with a small bag of greenies after every checkup so I took that as a sign that it's a good brand. My cats love them and can distinguish the crinkle of a greenie bag vs all other types of crinkles mine can't. one of them cut me because i had a bag of skittles. he was very let down when i let him smell one.
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Feb 22, 2024 05:08
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also, and this isn't gimmick posting, but do you know who else loves greenies? raccoons.
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Feb 22, 2024 05:10
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Hello. First-time cat owner and possible idiot. My little guy hates being picked up. He's nervous around strangers but affectionate around me, chilling on my bed, rubbing up against my legs; but the moment you try to pick him up for even a single second he thrashes around like a bat out of Hell, scrambling, biting, scratching. The last time I took him to the vet to get vaccinated he was still a kitten, and it took me an entire hour to get him in the carrier. Anyway, he's six-months-old and I need to get him neutered (I was explicitly told to wait that long by the vet). Please recommend me some method for wrangling or sedating him without losing both my arms or taking a million years. I love this little fella but I just had to cancel an appointment after he thwarted every single attempt to get him in the carrier. For the record: I bought a new, larger carrier about a month ago in preparation for this event, leaving it out for him to explore and putting treats in there so he forms a positive association with it. I'll see him poke around it regularly and even occasionally wander fully inside, but lucky me he decided to only stand halfway inside today, and reacted poorly to my attempts to usher him in the rest of the way.
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Feb 23, 2024 09:22
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Bad Seafood posted:Hello. First-time cat owner and possible idiot. Oh god welcome to my life. The most secure way I've found is to start feeding them a delicious treat in the carrier every night while sitting right next to the door so that they start to lose suspicion and go all the way into the carrier to eat the treat. Then on the required day you slam it closed and deal with the guilt of their howls of betrayal. That's how I got my scaredycat into the carrier when I last moved house and absolutely had to make sure she went in on the exact day I needed her to. Last vet visit I also had many postponed appointments while I tried multiple different methods I saw on youtube, but in the end I just simply grabbed her and held her in machinegun hold (one hand holding front legs and the other holding back legs) and carried her to the carrier and dumped her in (make sure to tip it upright before you grab cat) and slammed it closed. If you take that route I recommend wearing several layers that cover your arms and neck. I did not and I Regretted that.
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Feb 23, 2024 09:30
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Throw a cardboard box over him, then dump him from the box into the carrier?
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Feb 23, 2024 12:33
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You probably won't have time to make him amenable enough to being picked up in general, so it's probably going to have to be the purrito: throw a towel/blanket over the cat, quickly wrap him up, throw the bundle into the carrier, accept your fate.
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Feb 23, 2024 13:56
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I can't recommend a top loading carrier enough for difficult cats, though it's still a tricky job cause they just try to jump out instantly
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Feb 23, 2024 14:17
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Weird Pumpkin posted:I can't recommend a top loading carrier enough for difficult cats, though it's still a tricky job cause they just try to jump out instantly I use a top loader for the Good Child, who believes in non-violent protest only and will allow me to put her in it on her back and then gently push her head down after she rights herself while I zip it up. I genuinely believe that the Less Good Child thinks her life is genuinely in danger when I try to get her in a carrier, she acts like she is fighting for her life. She is for sure an outlier though.
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Feb 23, 2024 15:22
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You can try all the above. One of ours will let me pick her up no problem and another will, briefly, with protest. The little tux though? Gabapentin, at least 3 doses over the previous day and morning of the visit.
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Feb 23, 2024 16:12
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Organza Quiz posted:I use a top loader for the Good Child, who believes in non-violent protest only and will allow me to put her in it on her back and then gently push her head down after she rights herself while I zip it up. When I was a kid one of our cats was running around my dad's office, slipped and got her leg stuck between the desk and the wall and hurt herself. She was always good about going to the vet and they loved her, but since she had to go to the vet and was in a lot of pain it was like a totally different experience from then on out She would absolutely fight and hiss and attack at the vet's office because she was absolutely terrified of it. Eventually my parents gave up on it and the vet was able to do a home visit. She was perfectly fine there being poked and prodded and whatever. It was just the physical vet's office itself that provoked the response, poor girl
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Feb 23, 2024 17:21
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You can (and it sounds like you’ve already started to) do a lot of work to accustom them to being picked up and going in the carrier, but that all takes time for them to learn. It took our cats months to realize nothing bad was going to happen when we picked them up. A year later carrier is doable but not seamless. Once our vet(s) had seen our cats for an initial checkup they were comfortable prescribing a low dose of gabapentin for future visits. It’s probably worth a call to see if your vet has any recommendations along these lines. Otherwise your best bet is probably purrito and top-entry into the carrier, but another trick that’s worked for us is putting the carrier in a comfy hiding spot our cats would be inclined to go to anyway, like a closet, so once something weird is happening (e.g. why did you shut the door, what’s going on) they just go hide there to begin with.
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Feb 23, 2024 22:48
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While we're on vet chat, just a reminder that it's important to get your cats regular visits, especially as they get older. While there's some stuff that can start overnight there's also issues that can develop overtime or be so gradual you don't notice, but the vet does. My old 15 year old boy has been growing dehydrated and I didn't notice, but at the vet today they instantly did when he went in for his vaccine refreshers and checkup. I'll hear back about bloodwork soon, since he seemed to be eating, drinking, and using the catbox fine. So we want to make sure all of his organs are functional. However, I suspect he wasn't eating as much as usual, since he's been ravenous about snacks lately and the cat bowls haven't been emptying as quickly, like 25% or so has been left over when usually they'd be fully empty by meal time. Just giving him a bowl of wet food with a little bit of water over it today -and ensuring he was the only one who ate it- already has has him seeming less dehydrated. Similarly the amount of water my older cat who just died last year was consuming went unnoticed because of the multicat household, but after she was gone it was very easy to see that she'd been the one draining the water bowls and fountain. Now I'm worried he could have been eating far too little and it was masked by the other cats eating more lately. Coolness Averted fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Feb 24, 2024 |
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Feb 24, 2024 03:40
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Mine are fine in their carrier, but I also brought them home in it (with a blanket that smelled like mom) and used it as their safe space while they got used to the place, and then set it up as a nice comfortable area and semi permanent fixture. They just use them to nap in sometimes. I also make sure to bring them to places that aren't the vet as regularly as I can.
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Feb 24, 2024 04:34
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Anybody's cat got the 'betes? My old timer came back with a diagnosis a few weeks ago so she's been on a separate diet and getting daily insulin injections. Yesterday the vet tried to stick a Libre 3 on her to help monitor glucose, but apparently diabetes mobile apps are a special circle of hell to deal with, and regardless my phone wasn't compatible with the manufacturer's app so I couldn't even install it. This may all be moot as it took her less than a day to lick the sensor off of herself, but does anyone have any tips/tricks for monitoring cat glucose like this? Trying to avoid having to take her in to the vet office every few weeks to get stuck throughout the day so they can chart it that way. VelociBacon posted:I'm always too worried about that in terms of it having fleas, heartworm larvae, communicable disease of any kind. Cat trees are so cheap it just doesn't seem worth the risk. I never bring them directly inside, they always spend at least a few days in my car and I'll drive them out to my parent's house and hose them down with some disinfectant spray. Probably still not a perfect system but so far so good. e: GlyphGryph posted:I also make sure to bring them to places that aren't the vet as regularly as I can. I was thinking about something like this a while ago, has anyone tried just loading their cats up and driving around the block once a week so they're used to carrier travel? I had to take mine down to my parent's house for a few days and now every time I touch the carrier T&T runs and hides from me for like an hour
Takes No Damage fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Feb 24, 2024 |
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Feb 24, 2024 22:16
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My 20 year old cat has had diabetes for a few years now. We can't afford the fancy meters or human insulin, but she's used to her shots as long as she gets treats at the same time.
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Feb 25, 2024 06:11
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