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So our large male tabby swallowed a sewing needle, that probably had some thread on it (just a couple feet of really thin stuff). This OF COURSE happened Saturday night at 11pm. I saw the needle in his mouth for a second but couldn't grab it before he thrashed away and then it went down, but from what I could see it would have gone down round-end-first so I don't think it got stuck in his throat at all. We called the emergency vet and he really played it down, said to feed him some vaseline to lube things up and call him again in the morning. But not to feed him in case surgery is needed, since that's better for them. He thought that unless there are signs of distress (vomiting, pain, odd positions, etc...) we can just wait until monday to get an x-ray and go from there (and save the almost $450 emergency fee for taking him in on a sunday). But it's not like I can't feed him for days, and if they need to do surgery won't we want to avoid food again? So is it stupid to wait until monday if we don't see any signs of distress? The horror stories of blockages or perforated intestines you see online make me think we should be bringing him in there immediately. On a semi-related note, this cat can pass some enormous turds, so I would say if the needle happens to stay round-end-first and he gets some food, he's got as good a chance as anybody of passing it.
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Aug 11, 2013 05:49
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So a quick follow up for my cat that swallowed a sewing needle. He was fine all weekend and we took him in this morning for an x-ray, vet says the needle appears to already be down in the lower intestine area and it's pointing dull-end first so he should be fine to pass it in the next few days. We were lucky that there was only a small amount of thread (3-4 inches) attached, as when there is a lot of thread that's very dangerous. That we noticed it happened and fed him a bunch of vaseline right away helps too ('hairball medicine' is really just flavored vaseline, I guess).
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Aug 13, 2013 01:16
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Anyone have suggestions for water fountains? I've used a couple of the petsafe/drinkwell ones, the current one, a 'Platinum' gets mildew in the seams of the reservoir that is impossible to clean, and now it appears it has a leak and air gets in, letting water overflow the bowl.
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Jul 2, 2018 14:23
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Thanks for the suggestions on the fountains, both the multi-tier and the cat mate especially look vastly easier to clean than the platinum.
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Jul 2, 2018 23:51
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ILL Machina posted:For people with feeding time craziness, consider automatic feeders to distance yourself from the food giving moment. I guess I'll ask for suggestions on this one too. We have two cats, and one is more skittish. We tried an automatic feeder, but it made noise when rotating which frightened her. I'm sure she'd get used to it eventually but the other cat is such a glutton I'm sure he'd eat everything from both machines the instant they dispense, and end up throwing up. I was picturing some kind of crazy collar RFID or raspberry pi & webcam with machine learning to identify which cat (one is orange and one is black) and open/close separate feeders. Could be a fun winter project I suppose.
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Jul 3, 2018 00:47
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My wife is considering fostering kittens that need bottle feeding (we have two cats right now) because she's around enough to do it. Is there extra vaccinations or anything we should consider for our cats (normally just rabies and distemper)? I'm paranoid about this stuff because I'm immunocompromised, so I guess I'd have to worry about toxoplasmosis? I don't want to end up on Daraprim (considering what it costs these days).
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Oct 25, 2018 01:59
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Trying to figure out what to do with a new(ish) kitten. We have two adult cats that get along reasonably well but don't really sleep together or cuddle. The male is very friendly & often wants to be held, etc... The female is very skittish but never aggressive. The new kitten is ~3 months (from a foster situation, was comfortable with multiple adult cats). We're past any initial hissing/aggressiveness, but of course she's a kitten and wants to play all the time, but neither of the adults do. We have lots of toys that she likes, but the reality is whenever the other cats are around all she wants to do is attack them constantly. It's just playing but they aren't interested at all, and just get aggravated & eventually hiss at her, but she doesn't take a hint. The male fights back a little, and mainly it's only a problem when he wants to sleep on his cat tree and she won't stop attacking his tail. The adult female though is absolutely stressed to the limit, hiding under the bed all day, not eating, etc.. Any tips on discouraging her from attacking other cats that clearly aren't interested in fighting? It's really looking like we're going to end up with 3 cats, none of which get along at all and none of which are friendly and/or stress-relieving for each other, but instead just all constantly stress each other out.
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Jun 30, 2019 16:54
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We do tire her out as much as we can. The reality though is she's already more agile than either of our other cats, so there's nowhere they can go that she can't follow, so she gleefully invades all their previously safe spaces.
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Jun 30, 2019 22:09
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I've got a younger cat (2yo) that is seriously stressing out the older one (13yo) with fairly mild attempts at play/stalking and I'm not sure what to do. Mainly it consist of stalking/charging/jumping on the back around meal times and when we're getting ready for bed. Normally the older cat will hiss/walk away but has gotten some minor scratches here and there, and is now terrified of the upstairs hallway leading to our bedroom because the younger one always jumps out at her in there. The older cat now has some opportunistic respiratory infections due to stress and has to go on antibiotics. My thoughts/theoretical solutions: a) There's no real way to create a space that only the older cat can go, using microchip cat doors isn't a great option as I suspect the older cat will just end up trapped in whatever room. But it's in theory possible? b) It's virtually impossible to 'tire out' the younger cat through play. She likes to stalk and watch and occasionally attack, not run around constantly. And even extensive play sessions don't get her to calm down for more than half an hour. c) Trying to yell/spray the younger cat doesn't work, as a lot of it happens when we're in another room or otherwise can't react quickly. She just learns to pounce and then run off, still stressing out the older cat. The older cat also gets really freaked out by us yelling/spraying near here even if it's not at her. d) There are small shock collars and though I would never consider using a shock on her, I'm I guess intrigued by the idea of the ones that produce an annoying noise/vibration since we could react quickly when she lines up an attack. When she's zeroed in and crouched watching the older cat, I just can't distract her in time normally, but in theory a remote control collar could. I don't know if the noise 'works' if they don't associate it with pain from the shock though, which I'm not really comfortable with. e) Getting another younger cat for her to play with. This SEEMS good in theory and we're open to the idea of three cats, but if the two of them together both gang up on the older one, that would be catastrophic (ha) I'm sure. Any suggestions? Rescue Toaster fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Mar 1, 2021 |
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Mar 1, 2021 21:25
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Man I got a litter robot, and the design is great and it works really well, and the cats used it initially. But ever since plugging it in and they've seen it move... nope. No loving chance they'll go in it again. So $600 paperweight now. The delay doesn't really matter because they can hear it anywhere in the house and when it runs they come running to check it out and watch it and get jumpy as hell. Anybody else get past something like this? I can't decide between: Unplug it again and see if they ever start pooping in it? Put a regular litter box next to it and keep running/cycling it occasionally so they hopefully get used to going in the vicinity of a thing that can make noise? (Not while they're in there, obviously) Block off access to other litter boxes during the afternoon (when they often go) to try to force it? Obviously wouldn't leave this all evening/night because that would be a recipe for disaster.
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Feb 24, 2022 20:26
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Does anyone know how much eucalyptus or pennyroyal it would take to actually harm a cat? I have a really high quality wool blanket that's been packed up for ~20 years, I was going to get it out again before this winter and wash it with wool wash. But the two kinds of natural wool wash I got from my mom have either eucalyptus or pennyroyal in them (as a moth repellent, mainly). If I use the blanket on the couch or bed, my cats will definitely lay on it and/or clean themselves while on it (though not likely to actually lick the blanket itself much).
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Jul 26, 2022 17:54
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Why take the chance? Eucalan unscented is cheap in the US and Canada. Good call, not sure how I missed that. Thanks!
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Jul 26, 2022 18:28
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Hey I could use any suggestions here. My cat is on c/d (probably forever) and has been to two different vets. At this point basically both vets are refusing to confirm the prescription with petco/chewy/whatever because they want me to buy the food from them or the Hills-to-Home service, which won't ship the big 17 pound bags, and is significantly more expensive. Anybody have any luck getting prescription hills food ordered/delivered when your vet is uncooperative because they want their cut?
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Oct 16, 2022 16:35
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BaronVonVaderham posted:Never seen a vet do that, that's a pretty big red flag to me. Are you really married to staying with them? I'm open to changing but my wife is less so. I need to get something ordered sometime this week and at this point I'm sort of pissed enough to refuse to buy from them, but also I can't let my cats starve.
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Oct 16, 2022 17:05
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My cat seems to ever so slightly be squinting with one eye. Just doesn't quite open it all the way sometimes, and ever so slightly blinks it a little tighter. No sign of any infection or goop, no swelling/puffyness, no redness, not runny/watery, doesn't seem to be bothering her, she's not rubbing it or scratching it. Been about 24 hours or so since I first noticed it. I guess give it a week or so if there's no other signs of infection, and maybe talk to the vet then? I keep picturing all the horrible things that cause that in humans like stroke or cancer or horrible degenerative neurological things, but yeah she probably just got poked in the eye or something...
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Oct 24, 2022 18:57
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Any advice on making a decision for older cats w/ arthritis? She generally is getting around and doing all the cat stuff she normally has done, but just walking funny (rear end up higher, presumably doesn't like bending her knees as much?) The vet says she's definitely in some pain and is going to try that new Solensia arthritis drug. We're also waiting for labwork that would help inform a decision, if she has any other problems like kidney failure or anything going on. It's tough, with our other cats it's been more obvious they aren't enjoying their regular routine, but with her it's been tough because cats always hide pain, so it's really hard to know how much and where the balance is.
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Nov 23, 2022 17:50
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We have four (4!) of those heated cat beds, ha ha. Our house has poor southern exposure so there's only one spot that sunbeams come in during the winter and she's there on a cat bed any time she's napping. I have extra stepstools and boxes positioned in key places already, I'll keep an eye out for other places where she's jumping more than climbing. She got the first shot of Solensia today, though they didn't suggest any more quick-acting anti-inflammatory meds, which was a little surprising, since I think this takes like a month to really kick in.
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Nov 23, 2022 18:50
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Tulalip Tulips posted:I think my grey kitty has worms somehow because she had a weird small rice grain sized thing by her butt today. Neither of my cats go outside so I may have tracked some in. Either way I'm calling vet on Monday. She's in a good mood, playfull, and has a good appetite otherwise and I figure I'll have to treat both of them. The litter boxes are cleaned 1-2 times a month with bleached, plus I wash their blankets and all the human bedding/couch covers weekly on top of vaccuuming so hopefully with meds this will clear up. We had one cat randomly get some kind of small worm at one point, same story. The vet claimed it was some kind that is commonly hitchhiking on fleas? Which then freaked me out even though we never noticed fleas, obviously. He said it was probably just one flea coming in through a screen window and the cat would have had to eat it to get the worms from the flea. I have no idea how plausible this story actually is.
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Jan 5, 2023 00:18
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I don't know if anyone else uses these brushes that are sort of silicone bristles/cones... https://www.amazon.com/Doggiez-Pet-Supplies-Silicone-Bristles/dp/B0BKMHY6CH One of my cats absolutely goes ape poo poo for them. I wish I could find a big sheet of the material with all the little cones on it so that I could wrap a leg of the cat tree or even make a rotating cow scratcher brush out of it for her.
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May 28, 2023 18:28
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Is there a go-to dry food I can get shipped that isn't like >$5/pound? My oldest passed away yesterday and since she was eating only prescription c/d, our 4 year old was as well since they were impossible to keep separate. But that bag will run out in less than a month and I wanted to look at options. It seems like every single cat me or my parents or people I know have had always end up on prescription c/d eventually though, so I guess something that's not terrible for urinary health? I don't know... Any concerns transitioning her from c/d back to a more 'normal' food? I don't want to suddenly gently caress up her urinary PH or w/e and cause a problem.
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Oct 13, 2023 00:38
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I'm REALLY lost on what to do for cat food. Every single 'good' brand I read about as like 'This is the best nutrition content blah blah blah' is followed up by recent reviews saying the formula changed and the cats won't eat it or it's trash now or whatever. It's like a new brand of 'Best food ever' shows up every month and another turns to poo poo every month. Not to mention the whole 'grain free vs not grain free' that every single person has an opinion on. It feels like it's all just designed marketed to drive loving engagement on youtube cat review channels rather than actually be decent food. Get the reviewers to promote it for a few months, then after a year start adding in the sawdust filler and once it tanks change brand names, all out of the same factory. Lacking anything else I guess I'm just going to get Hills Indoor from Chewy since it most likely won't be actively bad for them I guess. I'd like to introduce some wet food for her (since she doesn't drink very much on her own) but it's basically the same problems.
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Dec 8, 2023 01:50
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No my girl is like 4 y/o now and she regulates her weight pretty well free feeding dry. But she was mostly eating prescription C/D because the older cat was on it and the vet said it was fine for her to eat it too. Now the older cat passed away and it's time to sort out her diet. I'm a little worried since C/D is I think partially just using salt to drive thirst and make them drink more, but even with that she doesn't seem to drink much water. So we'd like to do something like give her a scoop of dry in the morning for her to eat at her leisure, and then a fixed amount of wet food at dinner time. So that means I have to find TWO new foods... Though like I said I'm tempted to just do Hills Indoor since she's been perfectly happy on the Science Diet c/d she's been eating.
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Dec 8, 2023 03:42
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We have a 5 y/o girl who has a bump near one nipple and licks that area a lot, so the hair is thin. The Vet said: 2MM Firm mass cranial to last R nipple, Evidence of licking, no skin injury. DDX: Sebaceous cyst or hair folicle infection So that was a few months ago, and it's basically unchanged. No skin damage, but she keeps the hair thin there. And now she's started licking a circular spot (like 3/4") a little to the side of that area, but there's no visible bumps or anything at all in that area, just a single round thin spot. It SEEMS like, when she sits upright, if she just lowers her head and licks that's sort of the natural convenient spot, if that makes sense. Rather than she's working to get at a specific spot. So I kind of wonder if it's a behavior thing now rather than an actual problem spot. Would something internal cause her to lick like that, if there's literally nothing visible on the surface in that new area? When would it be time to take her back to the vet if there's no visible external injury or problems (the original bump that seemed to set it all off is unchanged), and/or what would I even ask them to screen for.
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Dec 20, 2023 17:18
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VelociBacon posted:Speaking as a human healthcare person with no vet training, a sebaceous cyst would be like a pimple for us, she could feel it and maybe is just licking it because that's what cats do. I don't think you need to stress about there being an 'internal' problem if a vet has already found there to be a small cyst there - that's the firm mass. Yeah there's no sign of anything getting worse/inflamed/infected at all. And no change in her behavior, appetite, etc... So we might give it another month or so, maybe just make a regular appt towards end of January/Feb unless anything changes before then. I'm guessing it's just stress a bit, with holiday poo poo going on. It doesn't even appear to be bothering her, when she's laying there grooming normally we don't notice her like chewing/attacking that spot at all. Just sometimes when she's sitting upright on her butt looking at us she just kind of reaches down and licks in that area even though she's not otherwise grooming.
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Dec 20, 2023 22:10
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Man we're having a surprisingly hard time integrating a couple cats that I thought would go better. We had an older cat that was very standoffish/loner, would hiss when someone else tried to initiate play, didn't reciprocate grooming attempts, etc... she passed away in the fall. The younger cat was the more confident, tried to initiate stalking/play behavior (and got hissed at for it), attempted to groom the older one, etc... she's about 5 now. We had an even older cat around when this one was just a kitten, and they got along great. So history of reasonable interactions with cats. However it's notable she's *terrified* of people other than us. If my parents visit she'll literally hide under a dresser all weekend. She hates being picked up or held/restrained at all. New cat is a boy a couple years younger (2-3) than the girl, very friendly with people, doesn't mind being picked up. Playful, wants to initiate play. No 'aggressive' behavior at all, zero hissing/growling, never gets his fur up. Sometimes if he walks past/near the girl, she'll just observe and he'll go on his way. But if he sticks around too long or runs at her, she hisses/runs/growls. If he runs after her it'll go on for a couple loops around the main floor until we break it up or she gets cornered and yowls at him. The girl recovers quickly when he moves on or is put back in a bedroom for the night, so she's not endlessly stressed. She just seems very worried about him coming after her to play whenever he's out. Which is rich considering she used to constantly stalk the older cat(s). But cats can be hypocrites too I suppose, she just wants to be the one in control/initiating and she's not right now. It seems like this is something that'll improve over time, but my main worries: A) Every time he chases her and she runs instead of standing up for herself, how much is that setting things back? B) Even though I WFH the amount of times we can be closely monitoring them is limited, which is going to restrict the time they are exposed to each other and mean he has to spend a lot of the day in a bedroom. C) Trying to 'tire him out' is a ridiculous proposition. People online will say dumb poo poo like "Play with him for 10-15 mins 2-3 times a day." Are you kidding me? Playing with him for less than 45 minutes just riles him up, and it lasts barely long enough for him to take a nap and he's ready to go. He's like a kitten even though he's over 2 y/o now. Plus another cat is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more interesting than toys, and the bedroom is really just where he sleeps, so he doesn't really want to play if we separate him in there.
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Jan 4, 2024 20:16
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It's only been two weeks so far. If he chases her more than a few seconds then the hissing/growling sort of transitions to screeching. There's no real sign of serious brawling/biting, just batting at each other which I totally get is normal. I guess 'set things back' in terms of, I perhaps naively would really like them to actually be, you know, friends eventually. I'm mainly afraid of establishing the ongoing dynamic of he chases her, she hisses/runs away will settle into the same dynamic SHE had with the older cat, where she would stalk/chase and they hissed/ran, and never ever got past that point, never even would sleep near each other, would get territorial over parts of the house, etc... And so maybe this is a question for 3-4 months from now, assuming they seem to just settle into that habit, how would you ever break it or try to improve it? Or are there any steps now we should take to avoid it long-term.
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Jan 4, 2024 21:02
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Yeah we did feedings through a door and then with a baby gate. We try to feed/treat them near each other when we can, but he's used to fixed feeding times and she's used to free feeding, so it's an adjustment. He eats MUCH faster too, so he immediately tries to go for her food when he finishes. If we use a slow bowl he tries to leave his bowl and take hers. I'm wondering if we should keep doing fixed feeding times with them separated by a baby gate, even if they're together most of the rest of the day. It'll put them in proximity but unable to reach each other.
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Jan 4, 2024 21:28
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Due to weather my order (had some both wet and dry food) from chewy has been sitting on a Fedex truck for like, a week straight presumably freezing to -10F every night. If the cans burst that's obvious, but if they're only slightly bulged or whatnot will that still be safe? Or should I try to get chewy to replace them either way? Supposedly arriving tomorrow but they've said that like 4 days in a row.
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Jan 16, 2024 02:23
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I'm really stressed out with the cat we got a month ago. He's pretty playful and wants to chase our older (I mean I say older, he's 2-3 and she's 5-6) girl cat around often. For a while it kind of got to the point where they're comfortable around each other most of the time, but when he wants to play and jumps at her, it's progressed from just hissing to outright shrieking from her, and he chases her pretty relentlessly until she's entirely cornered or we catch him. As a consequence she's sort of back slid a bit and is more tense around him the rest of the time, where she used to be curious. Now him coming anywhere near her almost always results in some hissing and swatting, even if he's not trying to play. So as a result we've made zero progress on him being out of the bedroom at night, feeding together, etc... We're sleeping in separate bedrooms so one cat can be with each of us (he's locked in the other bedroom at night). Which is getting exhausting to deal with too. On the one hand she is standing up for herself, or at least trying to, which is better than her hiding all day. But on the other hand, it frequently escalates DRAMATICALLY and that sort of thing happens at least 2-3 times a day. And honestly it's hard to know how far it would go if we didn't stop it, I'm not willing to let her get stressed to the point she starts peeing around the house or something. The ultimate karmic irony is that our girl cat used to stalk/hunt/harass the older girl cat we had (who has passed away now). I still feel a lot of guilt about that cat being chased around in her elder years when she had straight up arthritis and such. I'm not willing to just settle into this being the new normal, but I don't know what else we'd do but return/re-home the boy cat and just not get another cat.
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Jan 22, 2024 23:40
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That's fair but my thinking is: Their interactions are basically either A) Virtually ignoring each other B) Screeching cat fight and chasing in circles around the house. Doesn't seem to leave a lot of potential for exposure therapy. It's true that 95% of the time they're fine and she just avoids him or whatever. So I'm having trouble picturing what re-introductions would look like. They're pretty much fine as long as he doesn't ever try to play/wrestle with her. Early introductions went really well actually, it wasn't until he became more comfortable in the house that he started wanting to play more and really stress her out. At some point (3 months, 6 months, ?) we'll have to pull the plug if he just won't stop trying to wrestle with her and she's freaking out this bad every time. Both these cats are (hopefully) going to live another 10+ years. I don't know what's a good time range to try this out before rehoming him would be too difficult on both him and us. I'm sure I sound like I'm majorly jumping the gun but I'm just trying to figure out what sort of time span is realistic and understand how difficult it will be at that point if we had to make a horrible decision then.
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Jan 23, 2024 01:05
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I'm not sure how I could do something like that. We have baby gates and such, (and I can block the area above the gate) but there's no reason for them to hang out near the door for more than a couple minutes to eat. I can't figure out how to 'force' some kind of ongoing exposure/presence where they have to be able to see each other and yet can't get in a fight. If I put a gate in a room of a door, the other will just wander off. I would need like, a small room with a giant screen down the middle. How the hell would I do something like that? Or two small rooms with a connecting door that I could put a screen/gate in. I can't imagine most houses would have something like that. Putting one of them in a pen of some kind in a room with the other, maybe? I'd have to buy some large expensive crate and whoever is in the crate would probably be miserable. tldr: It feels like more of an incompatible personality issue than a introductions issue, it would seem. He wants to roughhouse (it's definitely play behavior) and she absolutely does not. If he can't get at her to tussle, then fine. But the second he can reach her if he's in an excited mood, it's a disaster. I don't know how long it's going to take him to learn not to attack her, if he ever does. Her hissing/swatting/screeching only seems to dissuade him momentarily, he still wants to play 20-30 seconds later. And the advice to 'play with him to tire him out' is ridiculous. I play with him a lot but really it just riles him up. Even if I run him around like a maniac for 45+ minutes and he seems tired out, if I then let them in the same room he bounces back in like 5-10 minutes and wants to have a go at her. Rescue Toaster fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Jan 23, 2024 |
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Jan 23, 2024 03:23
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Organza Quiz posted:You might just have to accept that this is how cats are. It doesn't really sound like a disaster to me though? I think you're just having a hard time seeing your existing cat unhappy, which does make sense but is it just in the moment that she's being bothered or is she generally unhappy? Yeah this is the difficult question. She's generally OK, but she's no longer playful at all unless he's locked away. She used to actually love me to chase her around (she'd run around a bit and then lead me to her brush), and would chirp at me all the time when she wanted to play. All that behavior has completely stopped, which is upsetting. She'll tolerate me brushing her, and will occasionally play with a toy sort of halfheartedly, that's it. When he's locked away for the night I open the bedroom she and I sleep in, and she's very relaxed/comfortable on the bed in there. But there's no way to really give her a safe space during the day where she can get away from him, other than manually putting one of them in a bedroom and trapping them in there. Weird Pumpkin posted:Edit: oh actually come to think of it we had a super similar thing after socks passed and we got Pavarotti. Introductions went super great and they were fine together, but every once and awhile when pav was excited he would chase Sage down and try to play too rough. We were super worried because sage would make some terrible hisses and growls and they would go on insane chases around the rooms with Pav cornering sage. We broke up the really bad wrestles and eventually I guess they negotiated it out, because it's almost entirely stopped now. This sounds pretty familiar. They will generally sleep/ignore each other, can eat near each other (treats or wet food, he eats dry food too fast for us to feed them that together), etc... and there's only an occasional hiss and slowly backing off. But it's specifically his behavior wanting to play with her, starting with running directly at her or jumping on her from behind that kicks things off. Rotten Red Rod posted:There's also one idea, if it's feasible. Are you able to get another cat? Maybe a kitten? The new cat may focus more on a playful kitten to get his energy out, and the old cat will find it difficult to feel threatened by a kitten. Not guaranteed, but it is something to think about. We had considered getting a bonded pair for that reason, but 3 cats is a lot. Also, when I was younger we got two cats and still had an older one, though the age gap was more like 10 years rather than 3, and as the girl got older the boys absolutely terrorized her until she basically lived in a room alone, which we definitely didn't want to risk something like that. I mean 'older cat' in my case is only about 5.5 years. Honestly she seemed bored and thought she would enjoy someone to play with, especially considering SHE used to chase our older cat around (who passed away last year) and seemed bored since her passing. But apparently she's a hypocrite and/or just rear end in a top hat who only wants to be the one doing the chasing, she apparently didn't want someone who could fight back.
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Jan 23, 2024 15:39
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Our new cat has a little lump (smaller than pea sized) on his leg where he got a vaccine about ~3-4 weeks ago. Vet said it was most likely a reaction to the shot, and wait another month or so to see if it goes away or obviously if it gets bigger. I know cats can get vaccine site cancers. Is it reasonable to wait another month? Should we have pushed to get a biopsy already? Unfortunately it's too late we'd have to just make another appointment anyway. Any advice on how much longer to wait to raise a stink? If it IS one of those vaccine-site cancers, are they super fast and aggressive or will another month not make a big difference?
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Feb 15, 2024 18:58
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I guess it's more that the vet's motivation seemed financial (biopsy is like $100) and my wife was tired and just went along with it. Whereas I'm thinking... it's just money do the biopsy now while he's in there. All our cats have always been stressed as hell by the vet, so it always drives me crazy when things get pushed off to extra visits if they could have just been done then and there.
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Feb 15, 2024 19:15
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phosdex posted:What's it like moving cats long distance? I may be moving from nm to mn, just thinking ahead of ways to move my 2 cats. Flying seems like it would be easiest to me but scary as hell to them. Or I can drive it, make a spot in back seat and hope they just sleep through it. We had a cat ~10 years ago who was really bad with even short car trips to the vet. So we did a test run ahead of time of some of the medicine to help them relax and it seriously hosed him up, like couldn't hold himself upright or sit still just like faceplanted, rolling around, crying for hours and hours, it was honestly pretty horrific. IF you want to try the medicine (either for flying or car trips) please, please try a half dose first at home and see how he reacts, and then a full dose at home to see how that goes. So my wife did the ~4 hour car trip without the medicine, and he chilled out after about ~45 minutes of crying and was OK after that. Thankfully the trip was short enough they didn't really need a litter box or food/water.
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Feb 15, 2024 19:42
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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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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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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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