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I've always heard that called the "primordial pouch" but I'm not finding a good source to refer you to. http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150341 If it's just a pouch, it should feel flappy and empty. If it's fat, it should feel more like boobs. Some cats have them, some don't. In my admittedly limited experience, there isn't a direct correlation to gender or sex status. She's young, so it's not as likely to be fat. If you are worried: make sure she exercises, give her a "tree" to climb, invest in good food, don't free-feed dry and consider giving wet only. Make sure you take her to the vet annually, even if she isn't having problems. It's easy for owners not to notice a gradual weight-gain. Honestly, your baby is probably fine, but it's good that you want to keep an eye on it. An extra pound or two doesn't seem like much to us, but on an 8 pound cat it has signifigant long-term health effects.
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Jan 12, 2008 20:50
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Lopside Fundip posted:I've always heard that called the "primordial pouch" but I'm not finding a good source to refer you to. We call it the "spay dangle" though even our boys get a bit of a dangle - that's obviously fat.
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Jan 12, 2008 21:17
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TheGreatFezini posted:I have a question about nail trimming and being restrained. I know everyone emphasizes playing with puppy's feet so they don't go apeshit when their nails need to be done, and I have tried playing with my dog's feet but he still doesn't really like getting his nails done. However, he'll be perfectly civilized about it as long as he's not tightly restrained. I just put him on the couch or bed and he lays there and lets me do his nails. The worst he ever does is pull back a bit or try to put his nose in my face so I can't see what I'm doing. Tightly restraining the dog no matter what seems awfully strange to me. My dogs (and I suspect most dogs) would flip out if some stranger has them in a super-tight hold. Between grooming and giving vaccinations at the shelter, I almost never found it necessary do to the tight restraint thing you're describing to get whatever I needed done. It seems counter-productive. I don't think I'd continue going to that vet, since their policy doesn't take the dog's temperament into account. The whole nail-clipping disaster sucks a lot; I'd be wary of how the staff would interact with Wrigley in a real emergency, if something as simple as a nail trim ends up being so traumatic for the dog.
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Jan 12, 2008 21:27
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MoCookies posted:Tightly restraining the dog no matter what seems awfully strange to me. My dogs (and I suspect most dogs) would flip out if some stranger has them in a super-tight hold. Between grooming and giving vaccinations at the shelter, I almost never found it necessary do to the tight restraint thing you're describing to get whatever I needed done. It seems counter-productive. I don't think I'd continue going to that vet, since their policy doesn't take the dog's temperament into account. The whole nail-clipping disaster sucks a lot; I'd be wary of how the staff would interact with Wrigley in a real emergency, if something as simple as a nail trim ends up being so traumatic for the dog. Some animals do just fine with a tight restraint...it's just important to tailor the technique to the animal, which obviously didn't happen for poor Wrigley. I'd probably mention something to the office manager or vet, just so that hopefully the people involved could be retrained a bit. I personally believe in using a muzzle and then less restraint. With a muzzle, the people working with the dog have no fear of being bitten, so they'll be more relaxed and comfortable, and less likely to work too fast or fight with the dog. Some people get freaked out about a muzzle, but it was always my best friend.
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Jan 12, 2008 21:35
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Could you ask to restrain Wrigley yourself, in future? My dog gets pretty agitated at the vets and basically clings onto me for reassurance while she gets her jabs, temperature taken etc. Obviously there have been times when she's needed anaesthetic and so on where I haven't been present, but for the most part I'm able to give her cuddles and calm her down for minor procedures. Same goes for the beagles and cats. If he's usually calm when you restrain him, then it would be appropriate for you to do so at the vets, surely? 
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Jan 12, 2008 21:48
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Lopside Fundip posted:I've always heard that called the "primordial pouch" but I'm not finding a good source to refer you to. Thanks for the info! Yeah, it's empty, and is just like a flap of extra skin hanging down. She's very hyper and gets lots of exercise; has a cat tree, gets scheduled "play times" and all that. I feed her a mix of wet and dry Innova Evo. I guess she's just one of the cats who gets those then. v:)v Thanks for putting my worries to rest, though I'll still keep an eye on it.
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Jan 12, 2008 21:51
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notsoape posted:Could you ask to restrain Wrigley yourself, in future? My dog gets pretty agitated at the vets and basically clings onto me for reassurance while she gets her jabs, temperature taken etc. Obviously there have been times when she's needed anaesthetic and so on where I haven't been present, but for the most part I'm able to give her cuddles and calm her down for minor procedures. Same goes for the beagles and cats. If he's usually calm when you restrain him, then it would be appropriate for you to do so at the vets, surely? In a word, no. In this country's current environment of lawsuits and people not taking accountability for their own actions, it's a huge liability to let an inexperienced person handle an animal for things like vaccinations and such, even if it's their own pet. Not every pet reacts the same way to these things and a dog who is "just so sweet" at home may turn into a fear-biter when presented with a thermometer or syringe. And cats are especially susceptible to redirected aggression to the person trying to restrain them, and if it is an owner who is inexperienced that can turn bad quick. Housecat is right, you have to tailor it to the specific animal. Some animals DO need very tight, secure restraint (especially a lot of cats) or else they realize they can physically "win" and the situation escalates to someone getting bitten or scratched. Others do a lot better with less restraint. Some are complete hellions when the owner is in the room with them but angels once you get them separated, others are the opposite. I don't think it's fair to say that every single animal should be treated the same way whether it's a lot of restraint or little restraint.
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Jan 12, 2008 22:07
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Ah, interesting. What about in agricultural situations? Over here farmers/staff are frequently roped in (sometimes literally!) to assist the vet with procedures, especially difficult calvings and foalings and so on. Do the farm hands qualify as experienced enough to lend a hand, or do the vets still work with professional assistants?
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Jan 12, 2008 22:26
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notsoape posted:Ah, interesting. What about in agricultural situations? Over here farmers/staff are frequently roped in (sometimes literally!) to assist the vet with procedures, especially difficult calvings and foalings and so on. Do the farm hands qualify as experienced enough to lend a hand, or do the vets still work with professional assistants? I couldn't tell ya about farm vets. I've only worked at primarily small animal clinics. I'd imagine that farm-hands would probably be fine for that though as they're a little more animal-savvy than your average peke-a-poo owner. The very few house-calls for horse euthanasias and calvings I've witnessed they've taken an assistant (ie me) but the farm-hands have also helped out as well.
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Jan 12, 2008 22:27
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My kitty is pretty pudgy, and has been for a while. We're slowly switching her to better foods, but as anyone who's ever dieted knows, you have to exercise as well. BUT. Kitty refuses to play. I bought a laser pointer, absolutely positive it would work, but all she would do was watch it for a little bit, then come over to me to rub up on my legs in a "cuddle time now?" manner. She kind of likes the dangly-thing on a stick toy, tears apart feather toys, and ignores jingle balls. Does anyone have any suggestions for getting my chubby kitty back into shape? She's an 8 year old tortie-calico pound mutt, if it matters.
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Jan 13, 2008 04:26
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I'm fish-sitting a ten gallon tank with (I believe) 5 mollies and a big fat mystery pleco. The girl who owns it told me to buy her an algae-eater to add to the tank. I asked her if she meant any one fish specifically, apparently she didn't. So my two questions: can this tank support some algae-consuming community fish and what could I get that would stay small? I've heard Otocinclus can be a decent fish for this purpose but have never heard of it before myself. Any thoughts? It's a heated, unplanted tank (around 82 F) with some generic Aquafin 10 gallon filter.
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Jan 13, 2008 04:49
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Cuddlebottom posted:I'm fish-sitting a ten gallon tank with (I believe) 5 mollies and a big fat mystery pleco. The girl who owns it told me to buy her an algae-eater to add to the tank. I asked her if she meant any one fish specifically, apparently she didn't. So my two questions: can this tank support some algae-consuming community fish and what could I get that would stay small? I've heard Otocinclus can be a decent fish for this purpose but have never heard of it before myself. Any thoughts? It's a heated, unplanted tank (around 82 F) with some generic Aquafin 10 gallon filter. That tank sounds at capacity, or will be before long. A pleco should eat algae and probably outgrow the tank as well. Otos might be ok, but they require some supplementation if the tank doesn't have enough algae. I personally wouldn't be comfortable adding any fish to this girl's tank, because frankly it doesn't sound like she knows what the gently caress she's doing. Maybe snails, that's about it.
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Jan 13, 2008 05:31
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sam.freak posted:I've got a cat that's all black with a layer of white fur underneath. My boycat Toto apppears to be really black but also has this layer of fluffy white/grey fur underneath his black coat which he often sheds in immense amounts. He also has a red tinge on the ends of his black top coat. I think it's because his mum was a persian black smoke, although his dad was a regular black moggy according to the lady we got him from.
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Jan 13, 2008 14:22
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Dr. Housecat MD posted:Some animals do just fine with a tight restraint...it's just important to tailor the technique to the animal, which obviously didn't happen for poor Wrigley. I'd probably mention something to the office manager or vet, just so that hopefully the people involved could be retrained a bit. Thanks for the replies. I'll try mentioning it next time I'm at the vet, but I'm not sure how it'll go over. I am shopping for a new vet right now for various reasons, although this is definitely one incident I'm not happy about. I like the idea about the muzzle too though, so I will keep that in mind for future reference. Notsoape, they specifically told me that they wanted to clip his nails away from me because they seem to think that animals freak out more when they're around their owners. Although they do have me help hold Wrigley when they do things like give him shots or draw blood - and he got very agitated when they drew blood, but I think he was more upset about the tourniquet than the needle.
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Jan 13, 2008 17:26
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I just bought a small 2-5 gallon aquarium heater (brand name: Jr. Aquatics) for my 3 gallon tank that holds one female Betta. I can't adjust the temperature, you just set it up in the water and plug it in. After buying it, I'm worried about the tank overheating. I heard somewhere that small tank heaters are known to kill fish. I'm thinking about returning it since the thermometer I bought with it says the tank's temperature is 78 degrees without the heater. Should I trust this cheap heater? If so do I leave it plugged in while I'm not around/sleeping?
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Jan 14, 2008 05:40
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I just got a kitten (8 weeks old) on Saturday, I took her to the vets today for a health check. The nurse said that her gums were pale and she had flea dirt on her coat. She said that her gums might be pale because of flea anemia. Is this the most likely cause as the nurse did not find any fleas on her? Since we got her she hasn't really had much to eat but she has had plenty to drink.
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Jan 14, 2008 13:19
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Dead Pikachu posted:I just bought a small 2-5 gallon aquarium heater (brand name: Jr. Aquatics) for my 3 gallon tank that holds one female Betta. I can't adjust the temperature, you just set it up in the water and plug it in. After buying it, I'm worried about the tank overheating. I heard somewhere that small tank heaters are known to kill fish. I'm thinking about returning it since the thermometer I bought with it says the tank's temperature is 78 degrees without the heater. If the room's temperature is pretty constant, and the tank is above 75 without a heater, I'd just go without. My 3 gallon tank maintains a pretty constant 76-78 degree temp without a heater in my room, and my room was double insulated when it was built so it stays in the 70s even when the heat is turned down to the 50s.
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Jan 14, 2008 20:57
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Are there any Danio experts here? I've had a school of zebra danios in my community tank that seem to come down with something every 3-4 months, but none of the other fish are affected. They appear to be good and healthy for a while, and then they start slowing down, hiding, and wasting away slowly. No flicking that I've seen, but the larger ones can become more aggressive and dart around a bit. The water quality isn't a problem, and I've tried a few copper-based medications that haven't made much of a difference as far as I can tell. I know these guys are prone to certain types of parasites. Has anyone had a similar problem, or found a reliable treatment for it? Edit: If it's "velvet", I haven't seen any of the visible signs except for the fish just not looking well. gross fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Jan 14, 2008 |
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Jan 14, 2008 22:12
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TheGreatFezini posted:Thanks for the replies. I'll try mentioning it next time I'm at the vet, but I'm not sure how it'll go over. I am shopping for a new vet right now for various reasons, although this is definitely one incident I'm not happy about. I like the idea about the muzzle too though, so I will keep that in mind for future reference. Dogs do tend to act different for a vet or groomer. It can swing both ways too. Sometimes someone will say "Oh he's terrible for his nails, be careful!" and I do it with no problems. Other times the owner swears he's a perfect angel (then why aren't YOU doing this at home?) and the dog is a total demon. Most owners do that baby talk thing which just feeds the dogs nervousness, so thats probably why they didn't want you there. I wouldn't worry that they have to restrain him, but sometimes you can come on too strong and it sets the dog on edge. In any case it shouldn't be hard at all for 2 people to completely restrain a medium sized dog and do its nails. It sounds like they got your dog spooked and then didn't know how to FULLY restrain him, so he was able to flail about. On the quicked nail, it happens. I look at it as you aren't doing it right if it doesn't happen every once in a while. Some dogs are hyper sensitive about it, others don't even notice. It should not have been bleeding when they brought him out to you though. Styptic powder stops it pretty much instantly and should always be on hand when trimming nails. In conclusion (drat this is getting long) from talking with my regular customers it seems like pretty much all vets have better (and more profitable) things to do than trim nails. If you are calm and just take your time most dogs are no problem at all. Don't get it done at a vet, go to a groomer. Many of them suck though, so check them out, watch them, and ask questions.
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Jan 14, 2008 23:47
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Stregone posted:On the quicked nail, it happens. I look at it as you aren't doing it right if it doesn't happen every once in a while. Some dogs are hyper sensitive about it, others don't even notice. It should not have been bleeding when they brought him out to you though. Styptic powder stops it pretty much instantly and should always be on hand when trimming nails. Can you elaborate more about quicked nails? I've never cut Wrigley's nails too short since I've had him - does that mean I'm doing something wrong? I just always try to err on the side of caution so I'll leave a little extra nail if I'm not sure how close I am. I do have the styptic powder at home just in case there is an accident but so far I haven't had any issues with bleeding. The worst thing that happened is that he yelped once but the nail wasn't bleeding so I'm not sure why he did that. I agree with you about the vets having other things to do than to clip nails. I feel really bad for accepting the vet's offer to clip them just so it would be one less time I had to do it. From now on I will be the only one clipping his nails and I'm really glad that he hasn't gotten spooked about it since then.
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Jan 15, 2008 00:06
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TheGreatFezini posted:Can you elaborate more about quicked nails? I've never cut Wrigley's nails too short since I've had him - does that mean I'm doing something wrong? I just always try to err on the side of caution so I'll leave a little extra nail if I'm not sure how close I am. I do have the styptic powder at home just in case there is an accident but so far I haven't had any issues with bleeding. The worst thing that happened is that he yelped once but the nail wasn't bleeding so I'm not sure why he did that. Yeah sometimes you can cut it close enough that they can actualy feel it. You get a little bit of the fleshy stuff around the quick, but no bleeding (sometimes it starts bleeding a little a minute or two later though). Since you are doing your own dogs nails yourself, you can get used to how much to cut. I'll do a hundred dog's nails before I see the same dog again in a month. So you have an advantage there. If you quick him or get him close enough that he yelps again DON"T MAKE A BIG DEAL. Thats just reinforcing his fear. That stuff Cesar says on The Dog Whisperer is totally true.
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Jan 15, 2008 00:20
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I have a few questions for sighthound folks, particularly those with experience of keeping a sighthound in the UK. I have pretty much decided that, when I am stable in terms of finance, transport and accommodation, I would ideally like to give a home to a Saluki - a breed I have quietly admired since childhood. This might be in 1, 2 or 10 years time, career dependent, but it doesn't hurt to plan ahead .My main worry is off-lead exercise. The UK doesn't seem to have the 'dog park' culture of the US, and securely fenced areas where you can safely exercise your dogs are a bit of a rarity. Is it possible to give a sighthound all of the exercise it needs on-lead? For example, taking him/her to a park with an extendable lead, or long line? Would it be necessary to jog/sprint/cycle with the dog? The literature I've been looking at seems to veer between 'salukis should not be let off lead if you want to see them again' and 'salukis absolutely need to run freely to be happy'. If I end up living near the beagles, which is a possibility, we have a few acres of land (good), however we also live within spitting distance of an airport which is overrun with hares and our neighbours are farmers with dairy herds (bad). We are also very close to a busy main road. Is it likely that I would be able to trust a saluki firmly enough on a recall to allow him/her to run and course rabbits on the property freely (under supervision, obviously)? Or would it be more likely that I'd have to keep him/her on lead in that environment? All the house dogs we've had in the past have been great with the beagles, however, I am aware that salukis differ quite drastically in temperament from our previous breeds (terrier, spinone, four glens, lab). How do you imagine a sighthound would deal with interacting with a large group of boisterous beagles on a daily basis? I realise this may be a tricky one to anticipate! Also; I'm intending to loiter around the saluki ring at Crufts this year. Would it be appropriate to actively approach people at this time, expressing my interest in the breed? Or should I just watch and make notes on breeders whose stock I like the look of, and contact them at a less stressful time? Any and all advice appreciated!
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Jan 15, 2008 01:25
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notsoape posted:Is it likely that I would be able to trust a saluki firmly enough on a recall to allow him/her to run and course rabbits on the property freely (under supervision, obviously)? Or would it be more likely that I'd have to keep him/her on lead in that environment? The greyhound rescue people I was in contact with for a long time seemed to think that no sighthound could be so well-trained that he/she would return to you rather than chase something. But if your property is fenced, I'd say go for it, mostly because I think that would be awesome. Not an expert by any means, though. The DVangels have experience with Afghans, which are supposedly very closely related and/or derived from the Saluki. Supposedly. They may be able to offer some insight. quote:How do you imagine a sighthound would deal with interacting with a large group of boisterous beagles on a daily basis? I realise this may be a tricky one to anticipate! The greyhounds I've met seemed totally disinterested in any dog that was not another greyhound, but that may have more to do with their socialization than a breed trait. In medieval times, hunters ran "running-dogs," which were much like today's foxhounds, in the same packs as sighthounds. Harriers were also being developed at the time, and were kenneled with the lymers (kind of like bloodhounds), greyhounds, and small breeds like terriers and spaniels. Given the history, I think it's not unreasonable to expect a sighthound to function well with a beagle pack. You may find that your Saluki is kind of aloof from the beagles - a lot of sighthounds have a reputation for being indifferent to what would normally excite other breeds.
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Jan 16, 2008 18:10
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A number of months ago I had been doing some research into aquariums and came across a brand of tank that was supposed to be the greatest tank ever. The problem is, I can't now remember what that is. What made it special was that all the tanks from this company had the rounded edges, and also I think were glass, or possibly some other substance that is not easily scratched. There was possibly an "X" in the title, for whatever that's worth. I have been assaulting google for the last 45 minutes trying to figure this out, but have had no luck. Curse my shoddy memory. I mean, it probably is not actually the "best tank ever", but I just recall that reading about its features made it seem like a no-brainer. I was especially a fan of the rounded edges. So, if anyone can pull something out of the cryptic fragments of memory I have on this tank, I would be extremely grateful. Edit: Aha. I am confident that it was SeaClear. PMan_ fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Jan 17, 2008 |
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Jan 16, 2008 18:44
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I was given a single gold fish and 2 snails for Christmas. Due to some traveling, I ended up not taking them home until Jan 7th. When I got them home, one of the snails just never moved. I did some research, decided that maybe it was just scared, but after about 6 days and no movement, I took it out having concluded that it was dead. The other snail seemed to be doing fine, it was always moving around, and I could see it's little mouth sucking whatever grime it could off of the glass walls. But this morning when I woke up, it was lying on the bottom of the tank, looking very much like the other one did. Is it just a fluke, or am I doing something wrong? The tank is a 5 gallon, it's just the gold fish and the one snail now. There's a penguin mini filter, a heater set to 68 (I know the fish doesn't need it, but I already had it anyway, so I figured, why not?) and I dechlorinated the water before putting them in.
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Jan 16, 2008 19:28
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Inverts like snails tend to be less hardy in terms of tolerating bad water quality or big changes in water quality. It takes a lot more to actually kill a goldfish. Are you doing large water changes? What are your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels?
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Jan 16, 2008 19:34
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Well, the first snail was already dead when I got it (I assume), since it didn't move from day 1. I have no idea what my levels are, I've never tested for them before. The only fish I've ever owned before now are bettas, which frankly I would have preferred becuase at least I know how to take care of them. I haven't done any water changes yet becuase it's been just over a week since I put them in the tank, and I have the filter going. Should I be changing the water every week? EDIT: Hooray, you were right! I was worried it might be too late, but I did a 50% water change last night and this morning he's back up on the tank wall. I guess I'll be changing the water every week even with the filter. drat, I had heard goldfish were dirty, but I didn't know they were that dirty! KasioDiscoRock fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Jan 17, 2008 |
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Jan 16, 2008 20:23
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RazorBunny posted:The greyhound rescue people I was in contact with for a long time seemed to think that no sighthound could be so well-trained that he/she would return to you rather than chase something. Thanks for the advice! The property is fenced to contain cattle, so we have hedges and some wire fencing, but it's not totally escape proof. That's very interesting that sighthounds were kept with pack hounds historically - I do know of lurchers and an Irish Wolfhound who are kept as house dogs along with foxhound packs and are quite happy, but they seem to be a little more robust in temperament than what I understand of Salukis. I think an overly sensitive dog could be quite traumatised by the 'swarm' of beagles - though I guess it would depend a fair amount on the individual Saluki and how we orchestrated the introductions .
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Jan 17, 2008 20:05
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KasioDiscoRock posted:drat, I had heard goldfish were dirty, but I didn't know they were that dirty! 10 gal/goldfish is considered standard and most suggest double filtration. You'll definitely want to keep on top of water changes, and you may want to consider upgrading your tank.
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Jan 17, 2008 21:32
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This might sound kind of crazy, but I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing here. There's a high school practice field directly across from my back yard (there's a fence separating the properties); construction was finished and grass laid down last summer. Ever since the field was finished, there's been a flock of about 20 Canadian geese out there, chowing down on the grass and eating the garbage there. They're there every time I go outside; if there's a team practicing, they move to another side of the field, but they never leave the fenced field. We've had some pretty heavy snowfall recently, and all of the grass is dead and under icy snow. The geese are still there, and over the past few days they seem to be getting more and more sluggish. (It's been a warm few days, so it's not below freezing.) They tend to do nothing but sit in the snow and occasionally, half-heartedly poke around in the snow looking for food. I don't know much at all about birds, so I don't know if they're losing weight. What I do know is that they're supposed to migrate, and supposedly the geese in this area don't anymore because humans leave food around for them to find. (Be it grass for landscaping, leaving garbage around, and the neighborhood college kids feeding them all the time.) According to what I've read, they don't fly south and eventually starve to death. Having a flock of birds starve to death in full view of where I smoke my cigarettes every day would weigh really heavily on my conscience, but I don't want to discourage them from possibly leaving the area by feeding them. Judging from past experience dealing with the city's ACOs (who are amazing people, but totally underfunded), I don't think this is something that they'd be able to deal with. What should I do?
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Jan 17, 2008 21:51
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One of our regular customers has requested we get hamster seed and bedding for her to save her a trip to one of the larger stores out of town. For bedding, our distributor only carries cedar, pine (I know those two are bad), corn cob, and aspen. Which of those would be best? Also, the brands of seed we can get are Higgins and Sun Seed. Any preference on those?
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Jan 17, 2008 23:49
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notsoape posted:I think an overly sensitive dog could be quite traumatised by the 'swarm' of beagles - though I guess it would depend a fair amount on the individual Saluki and how we orchestrated the introductions If you get an adult dog through a breeder or rescue, they should be able to tell you about temperament. A dog-friendly dog, introduced to individual hounds or small groups, would probably work out really well. If you get a young Saluki, and it grows up around the pack, then I would think the issues would be minimal. You might want to consider dominance when selecting your dog, since there's more of a definite hierarchy in the beagle pack than in most households. A very dominant dog might have trouble adjusting to the existing hierarchy (and might be hard to train), while a very submissive dog would get walked all over by the pack. Definitely something to talk to the Saluki people about, though. I'm sure more than a few of the Saluki showers/breeders have successfully kept them with other dog breeds in their homes and kennels.
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Jan 18, 2008 00:00
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I was wondering how to best introduce my kitten to my older scaredy cat. Cleopatra is around 4 years old and she is very shy and jumpy. She spends most of her days hiding and jumping at every noise. I think it is because when I got her as a kitten she got beat up a lot by my now deceased tomcat culminating in a flying tackle from about ten feet up. She is very sweet though and can't even kill the bugs that show up in our basement. I actually thought that getting another cat would help her open up a bit and stop hiding all the drat time. Corrine is my new kitten who I guess is about 7 weeks old. She is very sweet and loving as well but she is a kitten who runs around everywhere and absolutely terrifies Cleo. At first, Cleo stopped eating her wet food and stayed in the basement all drat day. I started using Feliway and she started eating again but she still freezes and hisses and growls when the kitten gets too close. I heard that I should keep the kitten locked in a seperate room and I did that to start out with but after a week I let Corrine run wild. They both seem very curious about each other and will stare at each other for long periods of time. Is this normal behavior? I saw the sleeping pets thread and I am jealous of all the cats that snuggle up and sleep together. Should I get more Feliway diffusers? Should I put Cleo on cat Prozac? Should I just wait and hope they don't kill each other when I am gone?(I don't think any of their confrontations ended in violence but I still get nervous and usually lock the little one in a seperate room.) I don't think I could give either cat away and my living space at the moment is large enough that they have plenty of territory.
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Jan 18, 2008 00:49
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I was standing in the kitchen a few minutes ago, and heard a weird noise. It was my dog's teeth chattering. He was shaky and was just sitting there, looking up at me, with his teeth loudly chattering. This has happened before, but it's always once in a blue moon, we snuggle him to make sure he wasn't cold, and then he's fine. It just seemed a bit worse this time. Also, he's a 14 year old poodle/shi-tzu mix. I picked him up, and he wasn't cold or anything, but his breath was worse than usual. He also has hypothyroidism, but has been on medication for that for a while. Has anyone else had this happen? I'm going to try to get him into the vet soon, because I'd bet he's got some dental problems. My only concern is the anesthesia if they needed to do dental work. I know there's a small risk involved, but does the risk increase for older dogs? Has anyone else had experience in getting dental work for older dogs? How did it go? Ugh, it's driving me nuts because I'm sure not doing anything could cause big problems, but anesthetizing an old dog concerns me as well. I always worry too much about the little guy.
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Jan 18, 2008 03:32
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Kusaru posted:One of our regular customers has requested we get hamster seed and bedding for her to save her a trip to one of the larger stores out of town. For bedding, our distributor only carries cedar, pine (I know those two are bad), corn cob, and aspen. Which of those would be best? I THINK aspen is the best out of those. Hamsterpeople? Thoughts?
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Jan 18, 2008 08:52
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MkalDahl posted:I was wondering how to best introduce my kitten to my older scaredy cat. How long have you had Corinne? Do she and Cleo seem to be making progress at all, or are they getting along just as poorly as ever? Sometimes these things just take time.
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Jan 18, 2008 08:55
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I have a 12 year old lab that was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He just underwent surgery but one tumor was too close to the adrenal gland to be removed. Can any vet tell me what to expect?
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Jan 18, 2008 13:37
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Hmm. Never mind.
BobKnob fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Jan 18, 2008 |
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Jan 18, 2008 19:54
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My dog chases flashlights. I searched the internet for some information about this but didn't find anything very reputable, just one post somewhere saying that this could give my dog OCD, and a whole bunch of youtube videos of dogs chasing flashlights. Is there a PI concencus on whether it's okay for a dog to chase flashlights? It's not entirely obvious whether my dog enjoys it or is frustrated by it. He gets very excited at the sight of any flashlight and wags his tail a lot and barks for me to turn it on, but I don't really know whether that's from happiness or stress.
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Jan 18, 2008 21:24
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Mr Plow posted:My dog chases flashlights. I searched the internet for some information about this but didn't find anything very reputable, just one post somewhere saying that this could give my dog OCD, and a whole bunch of youtube videos of dogs chasing flashlights. Is there a PI concencus on whether it's okay for a dog to chase flashlights? It's not entirely obvious whether my dog enjoys it or is frustrated by it. He gets very excited at the sight of any flashlight and wags his tail a lot and barks for me to turn it on, but I don't really know whether that's from happiness or stress. Since when do dogs wag their tails because of stress?  Just make sure he doesn't get hurt by cornering too sharply and too suddenly, or run into walls or anything.
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Jan 18, 2008 22:15
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