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I always recommend like 6-8 months for spaying. Any later and you risk your cat going into heat, but sometimes cats do it sooner. I second the low cost spay and neuter clinic. Some clinics also have payment plans so maybe check that first. The benefits of spaying and spaying young greatly outweigh the risks of waiting or not doing it at all
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Oct 13, 2012 23:30
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I don't know if this has been mentioned at all, but I popped in to warn you guys about Kirkland Signature (Costco) brand of flea and tick medicine. Basically it's the same thing like what was going on with Hertz products a few years ago. Put simply, it'll poison your cat. Oh and it doesn't work on top of that. Amazon reviews: 66 total, 61 negative, mostly documenting how badly their cat was poisoned (or died) http://www.amazon.com/Kirkland-Signature-Fllea-Tick-Control/product-reviews/B007RG9MFE/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_link_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0 Wordpress featuring anecdotes of badly poisoned cats due to Costco flea medicine: http://costcofelinevictims.wordpress.com/ Please please please do not use this product. It is dangerous and Costco has made no attempt to take it off the market. I dropped the local news channel a line asking them to do an article on this so more people know about it. KIRKLAND BRAND FLEA MEDICINE MAY KILL YOUR CAT.
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Oct 14, 2012 03:11
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Holy poo poo. I'm actualy VERY surprised at that considering Costco's requirements for kirklands products tends to be higher than the actual brand. I wonder if they'll withdraw the product if enough people complain. 
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Oct 14, 2012 03:21
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Eggplant Wizard posted:3. Spaying a cat in heat is, I believe (vets, confirm?), a more difficult surgery. Yes, a cat in heat is more difficult than a cat not in heat, but it is still a pretty easy surgery. It's not as bad as normal dog vs. in heat dog. I would take 4 in heat cats over a single mature large dog spay. As far as the cancer stats are concerned, basically... Spaying a cat prior to 6 months gives you a 91% decreased risk compared to intact cats. Spaying a cat prior to 1 year gives you an 86% decreased risk compared to intact cats. Spaying a cat after 1 year gives you similar odds to an intact cat. Cat mammary cancer is a lot scarier than dog mammary cancer - they tend to be more malignant.
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Oct 14, 2012 04:16
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It really seems they need to re-study (and ban) the use of pyrethroid compounds, and more specifically etofenprox, for cat products. Sure when they are tolerated they seem to have a pretty good safety margin (although efficacy seems questionable) but it sure seems that a significant portion of cats have a very strong negative reaction to them. Until they pull them the various companies will keep coming out with formulations which include them (as they are listed as safe) and bunches of cats will have potentially fatal reactions to them.
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Oct 14, 2012 05:49
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Well the new cat full on attacked me again tonight. He lunged at my leg and bit down loving HARD. I have eight puncture holes from his teeth and several deep gashes from his claws. This is through my jeans. A cat fight broke out and I made a bunch of noise to break it up. After it ended he went for my leg and ran away. I thought I was supposed to make a ton of noise to break up a cat fight? I certainly didnt get too close or pick up and handle the two cats while this happened. Either way this is full on attack number 5 by this loving demon cat. What am I supposed to do with him now?
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Oct 14, 2012 07:28
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Goodpancakes posted:Well the new cat full on attacked me again tonight. He lunged at my leg and bit down loving HARD. I have eight puncture holes from his teeth and several deep gashes from his claws. This is through my jeans. A cat fight broke out and I made a bunch of noise to break it up. After it ended he went for my leg and ran away. 1. If those wounds are as bad as you're saying go to a clinic as soon as you can in case of infection. Cat bites and scratches are seriously nasty. 2. Unless it was a serious business cat fight with howling, blood, and fur flying, just let them work it out. For future reference use something like a spray bottle instead and keep your distance with serious cat fights. 3. Put him back in the isolation room you have and leave him be. Based on your posts this cat has been and still is really overwhelmed. Have you tried feliway yet? It doesn't always work, but if it does it can really help. Keep him isolated until he's obviously comfortable with you. Just spend quiet time with him and throw him treats and play with him if he's open to it. Once you feel he's ok enough to explore again, put your old cat in his isolation room while he does. And since I didn't see it mentioned: have you taken him to the vet yet? I feel bad suggesting that to an already stressed out cat, but if his behavior is illness/injury based it might be worth looking into. If nothing else you can rule it out.
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Oct 14, 2012 08:06
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Kerfuffle posted:1. If those wounds are as bad as you're saying go to a clinic as soon as you can in case of infection. Cat bites and scratches are seriously nasty. We have some kind of cat pheromone thing in his isolation room, probably that stuff. I managed to sucker him back into his isolation room with catnip. I've never had cats before, my GF is the cat person in this relationship and she has been out of town for work the last week and won't be back for several more days. He has to go to the vet regardless ASAP since the paperwork my brother gave me for this cat is incomplete. That said I can't get a vet appointment to save my life. He tells me he is up to date but I can't loving prove it, and I suspect he is overdue. This sucks even more since they kicked him outside for the summer. That and his claws are god drat syringes and they need to be cut - but I've never done that before and I have a poo poo track record of not getting myself bitten by this cat. Basically I am totally unprepared to handle this cat and it is really stressing the poo poo out of me.
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Oct 14, 2012 08:22
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Goodpancakes posted:We have some kind of cat pheromone thing in his isolation room, probably that stuff. I managed to sucker him back into his isolation room with catnip. I've never had cats before, my GF is the cat person in this relationship and she has been out of town for work the last week and won't be back for several more days. A couple things - first off, do *not* give this cat any more catnip, not even as an incentive. I don't think this is scientifically proven, but generally speaking cats respond to catnip by becoming considerably more aggressive when it comes to play. At least, this is my experience with literally every cat I've known - after ingesting catnip they start rolling around and acting very silly, yes, but they also start clawing and biting and attacking everything, including your hands or feet or legs or (god forbid) your face. That's what it can do to well-behaved cats, and I think with cats who have aggression problems it can have even more troubling effects. So just my advice - ditch the catnip until you know this cat a LOT better. Next piece of advice - do NOT clip this cats claws yourself right now. That's an accident waiting to happen. Your instinct to have the vet do this (at least initially) is a good one. At the very least, you want to try and establish a positive relationship, and there needs to be a good amount of trust there before you should clip his claws. Otherwise, I'd just hang on for your GF to come back home - she sounds like the one to consult before you do anything rash. You should just try and keep the peace and not make any waves in the meantime, I think. Also on an unrelated note my cat is SOOO cute. I've been sleeping in a sleeping bad lately (for various reasons) and being a cat, my cat typically loves climbing inside the sleeping bag with me and sleeping at my feet. Since it's a warm-weather bag (not a mummy bag) I zip open the bottom of it halfway so she has an escape route and some ventilation. But this morning when I woke up, she was sleeping happily with just her head sticking out of the opening. Like I had been sleeping happily with just my head sticking out of the opening on *my* side. It really made me wish a third-party observer with a camera was there because it probably looked *really* adorable.
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Oct 14, 2012 14:16
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Anyone else itt love to take their cat on a walk, I like to take my Maine Coon Jean-Luc out for walks and he is a pussy magnet no pun intended. i put him on a leash but honestly I don't even reallyneed it. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Oct 14, 2012 15:07
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My bf and I adopted 2 spayed female kitties about 3 months ago. They are now 7 months old. Yesterday out of the blue they decided they should try jumping on the kitchen counters. They realized it was easy to jump up there and it has been a non-stop battle ever since. I've tried the squirt bottle technique which works for about an hour before they're back up there again. They started jumping up there while I was at work yesterday and when I got home I realized they had been eating fat/grease out of a bowl that had been left on the counter to harden. (I had drained it off some ground beef and let it harden so I could scoop it into the trash.) Between the 2 of them they'd eaten about half of it. After this discovery we washed all the dishes and got rid of the remaining fat. I feel terrible for leaving it out, but at the same time, they'd never shown any interest in jumping on the counters before. Should I call the vet about them eating the grease? A quick google search told me to watch out for vomiting. Is there something else I should know? They have been acting perfectly normal. My boyfriend's stance is: "It's a losing battle. Even if we get them to stop jumping up while we're here, they'll just do it anyway once we leave/go to bed. We should just keep the counters clean and it won't matter if they jump on it." I disagree and think it's dangerous (for the cats) and unsanitary (for the humans) to have the cats come and go from the kitchen counter. Is he right? Is it a losing battle? Should we try to invest in an ssscat thing to keep them off when we're not home? If I get one, won't they just avoid the area of the counter that it sits on? I've heard of putting aluminum foil up but I'm not sure I want my counters covered in foil.
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Oct 14, 2012 16:29
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Scat Mat. Worth every penny. Once they've gotten zapped once or twice they'll avoid that area and you can put it on a different part of the counter. Store it rolled up without the blocky thing on it or you'll make it a bit wonky. I don't like the Ssscat because it goes off whenever you go near it, and you can only point it in one direction which isn't really what you need to cover a full counter area. I've also tried tinfoil and from that I learned that my cat Luna really really likes tinfoil. Don't worry about the grease, but avoid leaving tempting things like that out in the future even if you get them trained off the counters.
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Oct 14, 2012 16:35
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1337 haxxor pirate posted:She's a tortoiseshell, she's already annoying. We're in a third floor apartment with several doors on any exit point, I worry very little about her escaping. Yeah, I'd do it now if I was you. When she gets her first heat, you will wish you had done it sooner and vets will generally make you wait until it's over to spay her.
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Oct 14, 2012 17:13
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I have been around a cat in heat once. It was not fun. Basically, the cat has only one goal in life, and you're not providing it. She walks around the house yowling in a tone you've never heard before. Whenever you're around she presents itself in lordosis position, hoping YOU will do something about this ongoing itch. And she will make every effort -- more than she's ever made before -- to get out of the house and get bred, lunging at window screens, open windows, and doors. Simultaneously, every male cat in the neighborhood will making every possible effort to get in. Spay your cat before heat. For your sanity, for hers, and for those of the neighbors. E: BBCode fail Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Oct 14, 2012 |
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Oct 14, 2012 17:33
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Scat Mat. Worth every penny. Once they've gotten zapped once or twice they'll avoid that area and you can put it on a different part of the counter. Store it rolled up without the blocky thing on it or you'll make it a bit wonky. Scat Mats loving hurt, I don't see a cat even trying a second attempt at visiting that area after being shocked once.
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Oct 14, 2012 17:42
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I've heard of people bringing in their female cats before because, "She's definitely in pain because she's howling and her back is arched, and she keeps falling over in front of us!"
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Oct 14, 2012 18:38
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On topic: we rescued a female kitten when we were kids, and held onto it for a weekend until it could be given the SPCA. During the weekend we were CONCERNED and ALARMED when this kitten bled out of her butt - thank goodness we rescued her because what on earth kind of grievous injuries did she have to be bleeding internally!!!  Off topic: My cats are dicks. I finally admit defeat. I have literally tried them on every single premium brand of dry cat food available here and they don't eat any of them for more than 2-3 days. In sharp contrast, I let them try some Royal Canin yesterday and they were climbing on top of each other to get to it. Hugo, Decoy - I care more about you actually eating than what you eat, but if you guys get fat and greasy it's your own loving fault. At least they eat proper wet food. Tamarillo fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Oct 14, 2012 |
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Oct 14, 2012 20:28
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Eggplant Wizard posted:I don't like the Ssscat because it goes off whenever you go near it, and you can only point it in one direction which isn't really what you need to cover a full counter area. I've also tried tinfoil and from that I learned that my cat Luna really really likes tinfoil. Really? That's so strange that she likes it in sheet form. I know cats will play with balls of it but most seem to detest big areas of it. Sadie won't touch the stuff and I used it to keep her from using the underside of the sofa as a scratching area. Cat behavior question: Sadie loves destroying paper towel rolls if I put them on the floor. She never jumps up onto the counter to get them and completely ignores toilet paper but if I toss a roll of paper towels onto the floor she attacks. Is there any problem with encouraging this by tossing the roll on the floor when it is down to the last few towels? She doesn't eat any of it and it is easy to clean up. I'm just worried one morning I will wake up to entire-apartment paper-product carnage.
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Oct 14, 2012 21:28
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Shifty Pony posted:Really? That's so strange that she likes it in sheet form. I know cats will play with balls of it but most seem to detest big areas of it. Sadie won't touch the stuff and I used it to keep her from using the underside of the sofa as a scratching area. She comes running whenever she hears me unwrapping foil-wrapped candy. Cats, man. they're weird. Saint Darwin posted:Scat Mats loving hurt, I don't see a cat even trying a second attempt at visiting that area after being shocked once. Eh, they're not that bad. When I've stepped on it I've hardly noticed. That is on the lowest setting though.
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Oct 15, 2012 01:37
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Buggiezor posted:My bf and I adopted 2 spayed female kitties about 3 months ago. They are now 7 months old. Yesterday out of the blue they decided they should try jumping on the kitchen counters. They realized it was easy to jump up there and it has been a non-stop battle ever since. I've tried the squirt bottle technique which works for about an hour before they're back up there again. You should be able to condition your cats to not jump up on the table. Nobody's mentioned it yet I don't think, but cats also hate double-sided tape, so putting that on the counters might deter them. But I would also recommend keeping the counters clean anyways, jst because if the cats get into something up there that's dangerous, it's still your fault (they're just dumb cats).
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Oct 15, 2012 03:02
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I'm sure you guys get these types of questions a lot and I also noticed a section about spraying in the OP, but a lot of it can't really be utilized in my unique situation, so here goes. My cat is a male named Potato/Taters is 9 years old and I've had him since he was a kitten. He's fixed, eats Royal Canin, saw a vet in June, is indoors, the only pet in my household, and we have one litterbox, but I am aiming to find a spot for a second. As an aside, he is incredibly mean and hates all people, but he loves to snuggle with me when no one is around.  In October 2009, I had my daughter. He isn't too fond of her, but he has grown to let her pet him when he's in a good mood. Her behavior towards my cat is pretty good. She respects his space and if she doesn't, I am immediately there to tell her that chasing the cat (which is about the only not-nice thing she does to him) when he's not playful is not a good thing to do. She doesn't pull his tail or anything along those lines. In May 2012, my mom was babysitting for me while I was at a wedding. I got a phone call from her saying she heard a weird sound from my daughter's room and went in to find a power strip that was high up on a shelf sizzling and smoking. It also smelled absolutely horrible. I later learned that this is the smell of cat pee. Taters, for some reason, peed on the power strip. He was fine, but I couldn't figure out what initially compelled him to pee on the power strip. For months afterwards, he began peeing in my daughter's room on all sorts of surfaces. I made an appointment to bring him to the vet, bought Nature's Remedy and sprayed every section of her room that he had peed on, and bought a Sentry collar. I didn't yell at him about peeing all over because I had heard that this can lead to more peeing. Also around this time, I'd began dating someone new. My cat proceded to pee on my boyfriend's overnight bag when he stayed over. At his vet appointment, the vets were able to check for a UTI. This was a particularly interesting visit, because Taters freaked out so bad during his appointment that the only way they were able to collect urine was to use a syringe to suck it off the table that he had peed all over. He ended up not having a UTI, so the vet gave me Orchex and suggested I buy Rescue Remedy for pets. I did as suggested, but I have no idea if these actually did more than make him sleep far more than usual, because we moved into a new house that same week. The vet also suggested he began peeing on things in the first place because he knew something was going on, as my whole house was packed in boxes. Since we moved in June, Taters peed once on my boyfriend's overnight bag about a month ago. I bought him a new bag to use. Tonight, I was in my daughter's room getting her in pajamas and suddenly smelled that horrible, familiar smell. Taters peed in my daughter's closet, hitting at least 15 stuffed animals with his pee. I threw them all away except for one, which is her favorite, so I plan to put that through the washing machine several times in hopes that it won't stink anymore. He still wears his Sentry pheramone collar, but no longer uses Orchex or Rescue Remedy. I clean his litterbox every night before I go to bed. I will be calling his vet in the morning to talk to her about this situation, because I am at a loss about what to do from here. The only way I could prevent Taters from being in my daughter's room is to keep her door closed 24/7, but I feel like that's not really the best way to handle this situation. She's in there a bit and doesn't necessarily understand that her door needs to remain closed all the time when she's not in there. I also can't put things in there like foil or double-sided tape, because she will end up playing with those. I'm not entirely sure what my options are, so that's why I wanted to ask PI what alternatives there are besides 1) locking him out of her room and 2) using things to keep him away from my daughter's room that my daughter would inevitably end up getting into. I would like to fix this behavior rather than simply keep him away from an area that he apparently likes to spray in. DaisyDanger fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Oct 15, 2012 |
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Oct 15, 2012 05:01
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I will definitely be keeping the counters clean from now on regardless but I'll try to see if I can get my bf more on board for conditioning the cats not to jump up there. I think I'll continue the spray bottle for a couple more days and if it doesn't sink in, move on to tape If it gets really bad I may give the Scat Mat a try, though I am a little wary of things that shock. Thanks for the advice. As for cats in heat, I kept one for about a week for a friend before I'd had all I could take. She had to come get the cat and take it to her parents to keep instead. She would meow and howl all night long and rub on us constantly. The first day it was cute how much she wanted to have our attention, after that it got old. Fast. We called the friend and said we were sorry but we needed our sanity.
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Oct 15, 2012 05:25
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Eh, they're not that bad. When I've stepped on it I've hardly noticed. That is on the lowest setting though. Maybe we have different versions, because I've shocked myself on mains lines before and this was pretty much the same feeling.
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Oct 15, 2012 06:38
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DaisyDanger posted:I'm sure you guys get these types of questions a lot and I also noticed a section about spraying in the OP, but a lot of it can't really be utilized in my unique situation, so here goes. I can't claim any particular knowledge of cat psychology, but this sounds like the kind of thing an Animal Planet or A&E Cat-Show producer would be drooling over. Time will tell, but I'm not sure if SA has an animal psychologist of this sort around, or anyone who has that particular hobby. If not I'd think you would either want to consider finding one for real, or consider finding Taters a new home. It sounds like you seriously want to keep him around, though. I honestly wish I had more advice than just, "check Angie's list or something."
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Oct 15, 2012 07:52
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zxqv8 posted:I can't claim any particular knowledge of cat psychology, but this sounds like the kind of thing an Animal Planet or A&E Cat-Show producer would be drooling over. Time will tell, but I'm not sure if SA has an animal psychologist of this sort around, or anyone who has that particular hobby. If not I'd think you would either want to consider finding one for real, or consider finding Taters a new home. It sounds like you seriously want to keep him around, though. I honestly wish I had more advice than just, "check Angie's list or something." I have actually considered writing in to "My Cat From Hell," because even spraying aside, Taters really is a very unpleasant pet to live with! I don't know if that show is frowned upon in these parts, but like I said, I am entirely at a loss with him. He has never been a friendly cat and absolutely goes crazy around strangers to the point where I now generally put him in a big bedroom with his litterbox, food, and water when people are over. He will even go ballistic on me if I have people around, yet he is very affectionate towards me when it's just me and him. He sleeps next to me, climbs in my lap if I'm lounging on the couch, and follows me around the house after my daughter has gone to sleep. When she's awake, he's usually asleep under the blankets on a bed. There's a joke with my family and friends that as soon as my daughter is quiet and in bed, Taters gets out of bed and starts meowing at his food bowl. I try to get my daughter to do things for him that might be conducive to developing a decent relationship between the two, like having her pour the food in his bowl when it's time to feed him. His feelings towards my boyfriend are actually better and he will sit in his lap, but if my boyfriend moves a muscle, Taters will hiss and jump off his lap. We have made a habit of putting his shoes high up in a shoe storage rack in the closet in case Taters decides he would like to pee on those. Rehoming him was something I very briefly considered before I moved. It is not something I am even remotely willing to do. Aside from the fact that I know no other person in their right mind would put up with him, he is my cat and I do love him like a family member, so I want to help figure out how to stop this. He lived with my older brother for about a year in 2007 or so and he never fully accepted my brother. He wasn't happy and neither was my brother. There are times, like tonight when I sat in my daughter's room and shoved stuffed animal after stuffed animal into a trash bag, that I want to push him out the backdoor and tell him to gently caress off. Would I ever do that? Not in a million years! It is just an immeasurably frustrating situation, because you don't want to tell your kid that her toys are being thrown away because the cat peed on them and you can't very well tell a cat not to piss anywhere that isn't his litterbox. I think the worst part is that I don't think he is happy right now. I just know that he would not be happy anywhere else, either. Edit: Fixed some typos. DaisyDanger fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Oct 15, 2012 |
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Oct 15, 2012 08:12
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I understand. Rehoming would not only be the last solution, but would probably feel like something of a cop-out. It's a legitimate choice not to be discounted in certain situations, but in your case I imagine it would feel like telling a close friend that they need to find new friends because of something that could easily be worked out. What I will say is good is that you've resisted the urge to respond to Tater's as you'd respond to an annoying human. I hear so many of my peers rage about animals, but when you hear them talk it's all about why the animals just can't act more like people. Like...really? You're going to say that? Getting that idea out of your head is step one. Step two is finding someone who has some idea what the hell is going on inside his. SA never fails to surprise me though, so hopefully someone here has some tips. But really, if My Cat From Hell likes your story, I'd say "why not?" I mean, worst case scenario, they pay for the psychologist?
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Oct 15, 2012 08:20
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You can put natures miracle into washing machines safely, so give that a try if you haven't when washing cat pee things. Sorry about your whole situation.
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Oct 15, 2012 08:22
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zxqv8 posted:I understand. Rehoming would not only be the last solution, but would probably feel like something of a cop-out. It's a legitimate choice not to be discounted in certain situations, but in your case I imagine it would feel like telling a close friend that they need to find new friends because of something that could easily be worked out. Exactly. I know this can be worked out, I just don't know how to work it out. My mom tells me I should yell at Taters and bring him to where he peed, but that is not very effective at all and I don't feel like making him believe the only person who actually likes him is mad at him. So tonight, after all is said and done, of course I am still petting him and showing him that he's still my bud. I may very well end up submitting all of this to My Cat From Hell, because I feel like I have exhausted so many other options out there. Kerfuffle posted:You can put natures miracle into washing machines safely, so give that a try if you haven't when washing cat pee things. Sorry about your whole situation. This is very useful! I used the last of the spray bottle tonight on the carpet in my daughter's closet. I think they also sell it in a gallon, right? I should pick up one of those. Another part about all of this story is that I am renting. I can assume that if he keeps this up, I can kiss my pet deposit goodbye, but I can't really rip up the carpet and put new padding in or anything like that. I do have a carpet shampooer, but I know cat pee really gets into the padding and ugh, it's all such a nightmare to even think about. Thank you both for your help. I am hoping a goon pet psychologist comes out of the woodworks!
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Oct 15, 2012 08:32
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So we've had Leela for a while now. About a month. She comes out a lot for pets now and gives me squeaky meows. She even sort of rolls on her back for me to rub her belly, and then clings to my hand when I do, purring all the while. But she still mostly stays under the bathroom counter, speedily hides under the counter again when I stand up near her (I usually sit on the ground to give her pets) and she won't come out of the bathroom unless my husband and I aren't around, or are being very quiet on the couch. Should I be concerned at all, or just keep being patient?
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Oct 15, 2012 09:55
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uberwekkness posted:So we've had Leela for a while now. About a month. She comes out a lot for pets now and gives me squeaky meows. She even sort of rolls on her back for me to rub her belly, and then clings to my hand when I do, purring all the while. Keep being patient. Our little fellow Cave spent the first month of his time with us by sitting directly under the couch when we sat there. He never came up for pets, we let him be, and eventually he came to realize that there were laps to be sat in, and scritches to be had. He has a squeaky meow as well!  Do you have any lure toys, like the classic "feather onna stick" toy? Play like that might help draw her out in your presence.
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Oct 15, 2012 13:07
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four lean hounds posted:Keep being patient. Our little fellow Cave spent the first month of his time with us by sitting directly under the couch when we sat there. He never came up for pets, we let him be, and eventually he came to realize that there were laps to be sat in, and scritches to be had. He has a squeaky meow as well! I'm having a similar experience with Vlad the Impaler. I've had him for almost a week, he stays under my bed mostly but he's started exploring the house a bit, and will come out with a little coaxing. I'm just incredibly happy that he doesn't have a cold and is pooping in the box. Related, he's ten and a half months, about six pounds, neutered. I'm feeding him according to the bag, about a half cup a day, split into two feedings, but he is checking the food bowl a lot. Should I feed him a little more, or is this just one of his ways of manipulating me? He eats all the food I give him relatively quickly. I'll post pics when I'm not at work, he's adorable.
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Oct 15, 2012 15:12
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DaisyDanger , have you tried a Feliway diffuser plug-in? I didn't see anywhere if you had or not, but it's worth a try if you haven't already. It has helped as lot of people get their cats' issues under control. Also, you should try as much as possible to keep your daughter's room inaccessible, even if it's difficult or inconvenient. You really want to limit his opportunities since it's his favorite place to defile and cat pee can be bad for your health and sanity. Lastly, buy that gallon bottle of Nature's Miracle you mentioned and soak the carpeting down to the padding with it. Let it sit and air dry, and repeat as necessary. You may end up losing the deposit on your place if it's really bad, but the NM should at least get rid of most of the gnarly cat piss smell that makes life unbearable.
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Oct 15, 2012 15:18
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DaisyDanger posted:Exactly. I know this can be worked out, I just don't know how to work it out. My mom tells me I should yell at Taters and bring him to where he peed, but that is not very effective at all and I don't feel like making him believe the only person who actually likes him is mad at him. So tonight, after all is said and done, of course I am still petting him and showing him that he's still my bud. I may very well end up submitting all of this to My Cat From Hell, because I feel like I have exhausted so many other options out there. Honestly the cause seems pretty clear to me from what you're saying. You have a cat who is very attached to you to the point of neurosis. Other animals [boyfriend, baby] arrive and take away your attention and change his space, and then on top of that you moved so that's more stress. He is stressed out, so he pees on things. I know we say in here "oh cats don't pee out of spite" and that's true, but they sure as hell pee to show they're unhappy. Rescue Remedy is homeopathic and therefore probably bullshit. Definitely try Feliway. In your case I would put one in your daughter's room and anywhere else he's peed and also anywhere else he likes to hang out. They're expensive but they're made for exactly this kind of situation. If Feliway doesn't work, then you will have to make a hard choice. Chances are that if it were just you and him again, with no strangers, he'd stop peeing. But obviously you're not going to rehome your daughter, so he might do better being adopted out to someone who can give him a home without any other cats or children. He'd be hell to adopt out unless you can find someone who's willing to give him a chance, so I doubt he'd do well in rescue honestly. You might need to get in touch with local no-kills and say you need help rehoming him and you can foster until someone is found who can provide him with the sort of home he needs. I don't know how it'd work out for him if he's that attached to you, but anyway those are the parameters you need to outline if you do end up going this way: child-free, single-cat, low stress household. e: How old is your daughter? Is she walking/crawling yet? Does Taters have a cat tree or something that he can get on to get out of her reach? Does he have safe spaces that are just his where neither your daughter nor your boyfriend go? Maybe a hidey hole in your bedroom or something? e: vvvvvvvv Good idea! Eggplant Wizard fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Oct 15, 2012 |
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Oct 15, 2012 15:31
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You might ask your vet about kitty Prozac; it's worked for some people in the thread.
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Oct 15, 2012 15:38
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Serella posted:DaisyDanger , have you tried a Feliway diffuser plug-in? I didn't see anywhere if you had or not, but it's worth a try if you haven't already. It has helped as lot of people get their cats' issues under control. Also, you should try as much as possible to keep your daughter's room inaccessible, even if it's difficult or inconvenient. You really want to limit his opportunities since it's his favorite place to defile and cat pee can be bad for your health and sanity. I haven't tried the diffuser, because his Sentry collar is supposed to do the same thing. I don't know the truth to this, but that was my logic when I got his first collar. I tried that (and still use it) because I thought it might be better than a Feliway diffuser since it is with him in every room. I'll be leaving in a bit to buy a gallon of Nature's Miracle and a Feliway diffuser or two to see how that works out. When he first began peeing, I kept my daughter's room closed off from him and I also left her door closed for the first several weeks of living in this new house. I wanted to be able to trust him, but this is a dumb line of thought, because he is a cat and he peed in her room again. So yes, I am totally willing to prevent her from going in his room or my room when my boyfriend is in town and his bag is in there.Eggplant Wizard posted:Honestly the cause seems pretty clear to me from what you're saying. You have a cat who is very attached to you to the point of neurosis. Other animals [boyfriend, baby] arrive and take away your attention and change his space, and then on top of that you moved so that's more stress. He is stressed out, so he pees on things. I know we say in here "oh cats don't pee out of spite" and that's true, but they sure as hell pee to show they're unhappy. That is kind of what I figured with him. He's jealous of my attention going to other people, because for a while, he didn't have any sort of competition. I also didn't know that Rescue Remedy was homeopathic, but I will cross that off the list. The Orchex made him sleep more than cats usually do, which means I saw him maybe once a day when he emerged from sleeping under some blankets. My daughter will be 3 at the end of the month, so definitely walking/crawling/climbing/being a menace. He has a cat tree, though it is admittedly not incredibly high- around 3-4'. She can reach up and pet him while he is in it. My daughter actually refuses to pet Taters unless I tell her it's okay, because she knows he doesn't usually like to be pet. I talk to her to let her know things like Taters has a booboo and she needs to be extra nice to him and she listens to things like that. He likes to hide under an extra bed in the daytime, but he has no actual cat hideyhole aside from that. With his attachment to me and his attitude towards anyone who is not me, it is incredibly difficult to imagine rehoming him working out. Even if the person who took him in was the most patient, kind person on the planet, I think Taters would still be entirely awful and unhappy. While I've never considered him a happy cat, he wasn't peeing all over for a good 8-9 years of his life. I just want to get back to that. I don't want a miracle that makes my antisocial cat a social cat, just a pees-in-appropriate-places kinda cat. Arsenic Lupin posted:You might ask your vet about kitty Prozac; it's worked for some people in the thread. This was something my vet had mentioned at his last visit. She had told me that if the Orchex and Rescue Remedy didn't work out, cat Prozac was an alternative we could look at. I'm very interested in this, so I plan to mention this to her when I call her this morning. Thank you all so, so much for your advice. I want you all to know that I am truly appreciative and I will be doing everything you have suggested. I just want a tolerant (if not happy) cat. Edit: I also read last night that a good thing to do in cases like this is to put bedding of mine or his in the location that he has peed in. As soon as I dump Nature's Remedy onto the closet floor and let it dry several times, I'll be putting one of my blankets on the floor in my daughter's closet. I'm hoping something like this will help, too. Edit 2: I just got off the phone with his vet. I'm waiting to hear back from them for a price estimate, because his vet notes require that he be sedated to do a full exam on him and they want to test for another UTI before prescribing anything. I posted earlier that he peed all over the exam table when they tried to collect urine from him last time, so I can see why sedation would be required! DaisyDanger fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Oct 15, 2012 |
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Oct 15, 2012 18:15
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DaisyDanger posted:I haven't tried the diffuser, because his Sentry collar is supposed to do the same thing. I don't know the truth to this, but that was my logic when I got his first collar. I tried that (and still use it) because I thought it might be better than a Feliway diffuser since it is with him in every room. I'll be leaving in a bit to buy a gallon of Nature's Miracle and a Feliway diffuser or two to see how that works out. When he first began peeing, I kept my daughter's room closed off from him and I also left her door closed for the first several weeks of living in this new house. I wanted to be able to trust him, but this is a dumb line of thought, because he is a cat and he peed in her room again. Checking for a UTI with pee off a table is worthless. The only way to assess that accurately is to do a cystocentesis (pull urine out of the bladder with a needle and syringe). Your vet sounds like they're on the right track. You might also consider consulting a board certified veterinary behaviorist who would be a little more comfortable with dealing with concurrent behavior and health issues. They initial cost is a little higher, but would probably save in the long run. You can find one in your area here.
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Oct 15, 2012 18:58
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Enelrahc posted:Checking for a UTI with pee off a table is worthless. The only way to assess that accurately is to do a cystocentesis (pull urine out of the bladder with a needle and syringe). That was actually what their intention was. They had me in the exam room with him for a bit while we chatted about what exactly he was doing and then asked me if I would be more comfortable leaving the room while they extracted urine from his bladder. I opted to wait outside, so they told me it'd be about 10 minutes. After 2 minutes, they asked me to come back in. Despite muzzling Taters and wrapping him in a towel, he managed to get out and had peed all over the exam room out of fear and ended up worming his way into the far back of a cabinet. They collected the urine from the table as a last resort. That's why they'll be sedating him this time around. I'm still waiting to hear back from their office for an estimate. Also, I appreciate the link. There's several at UC Davis, which is about 45 minutes from me. Definitely worth looking in to more. I just returned from Target and Petsmart, where I got more shampoo for my carpet shampooer, a big bottle of Nature's Remedy, one Feliway diffuser (I need more, but they are about $15 cheaper online so I'm going to order them) and another Sentry collar. I think the collar is worth using, because the last time I took it off him was when he peed on my boyfriend's bag for the second time. Would it be worth putting the Feliway diffuser in my daughter's room if I am going to be keeping her door closed? I decided to put it in the hallway by all the bedrooms because he spends most of his time around there.
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Oct 15, 2012 21:09
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DaisyDanger posted:I decided to put it in the hallway by all the bedrooms because he spends most of his time around there. That makes sense. Good luck with the things you're trying. If you could clear off a bookshelf or something so he can get up higher, that might also help. Even if your daughter avoids him, he may still perceive her as a threat and do better if he can be "safe." Most cat misbehavior (that can't be linked to a medical issue) is due to fear, I think.
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Oct 15, 2012 21:32
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Eggplant Wizard posted:That makes sense. Good luck with the things you're trying. If you could clear off a bookshelf or something so he can get up higher, that might also help. Even if your daughter avoids him, he may still perceive her as a threat and do better if he can be "safe." Most cat misbehavior (that can't be linked to a medical issue) is due to fear, I think. I'll do just that. Thank you! His vet returned my call and I now have an appointment to bring him in tomorrow at 8:40. He will be sedated and kept there for most of the day. They're going to do his rabies shot and some sort of feline upper respiratory vaccine as well. It's more expensive than I expected, but fortunately I am able to pay for it. Hopefully the vet will have a little bit of insight and will consider giving him some cat Prozac. If that doesn't work, I'll be looking into a pet behaviorist a bit more.
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Oct 15, 2012 22:27
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My poor kitty was sleeping next to me this morning. She woke me up when she started claws out crawling over me, obviously distraught, and proceeded to fall off the bed back first upside-down basically. She then proceeded to have a full on seizure for about 10 seconds I spent the afternoon getting her into see the vet. Why does all the cat stuff happen when my GF isn't in town? Anyone have experience with a seizure cat ?
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Oct 15, 2012 22:34
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