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Ok, so me and the wife are making the leap into owning pets. We're heading over to a vet we did research on and came highly recommended by family members as well. We plan on adopting a pair of bonded cats, preferably about a year old. I have a list of questions for the vet (treatment schedules, vaccinations, etc.) and after reading the links understand the importance of fixing the cats and will in no way even entertain the thought of declawing. My question to you fellas is if my shopping list is looking good for what I plan on picking up on the way home. I know its petsmart, but its the only store near by. Litter: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2751594&lmdn=Cat (have a tupperware litterbox already prepared for the little things.) Litter Mat: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2755268&lmdn=Cat Litter Scooper: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2755435&lmdn=Cat Food: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2750282&lmdn=Cat Bed: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3077182&lmdn=Cat Scratching Toy: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754331&lmdn=Cat Grooming Brush: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2750594&lmdn=Cat+Grooming Nail Clipper: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752777&lmdn=Cat I'll probably get some toys once I'm there. Is there anything I'm missing? Anything I should swap out? Aside from a fish tank, I've only ever lived with dogs when I used to live home a few years ago. Trying to prep ground zero and all.
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Sep 10, 2009 21:50
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 02:40 |
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Fire In The Disco posted:Most Petsmarts, I believe, carry Blue Buffalo food. Consider that over the AvoDerm you linked, as the food you linked has corn as the second ingredient. Thanks for the recommendation. I wasn't sure what food would be best and figured that would work. If I see the Blue Buffalo stuff I'll grab that instead. I'm not locked into the flushing thing, just saw another poster mention it favorably. I'll try to find the Tidy Cats as allergies are an issue here. As for the whole taking care of them thing goes. I was planning on starting them out in the kitchen until they get used to the house. Eventually we were going to move the litter box into the basement as it's finished and where the fish maintenance happens. Does this seem like a good idea? The kitchen is roomy but not too big and generally free of wires and hanging things they can grab onto. Sorry if these make no sense. I just want to make sure all goes smoothly. Got that "standing on the high dive about to jump" feeling and all.
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Sep 10, 2009 22:24
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So the kittens are home safely last night and adjusting well. We ended up getting the Blue Buffalo food and will be transfering them over slowly as the vet gave us a good amount of food. I picked up some of the Tidy Cat Premium Blend and they took to it immediatly. Aside from that, the product reccommendation thread is great as anything I picked up from it has worked fine. Only thing I'm not looking forward to is having to give them a bath after work as one of them made a mess on the way home from the vet's last night and despite wiping them down, still is a bit stinky. Also, the whole Sssscat training cans do work well. We kept having Gary try to get behind the fridge. I put one of them about half way back and it got him out of there quick. Thank you everyone for helping getting the ball rolling. I'm sure I'll be posting with panic-y questions an all so thanks for your patiences in advance. Ssscat in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs1ktJGDn1A Picture of Leela (black) and Gary (striped) Inside Out Mom fucked around with this message at 14:45 on Sep 11, 2009 |
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Sep 11, 2009 14:26
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So things have been going pretty good for the past few weeks with Gary and Leela. Only trouble is Gary is constantly making GBS threads himself. He's good about going in the litter box, but it always seems like he's got it on his rear end. Theres times when he's sits down and leaves a mark where ever he sits. I've woken up to the scratching post thing they sleep on to find it covered in poo poo. We need to mop the kitchen floor every morning and when we get home from work. It seems like we're constantly having to wipe or bathe him. Is this normal? Leela doesn't seem to be having any problems and is getting the same food as he is. We're using Blue Buffalo Longevity Kitten food (http://www.bluebuff.com/products/cats/longevity-kitten.shtml) and feed them about a 1/4 twice a day. Please help as we've taken him to the vet like 2-3 times and haven't gotten info other than "Looks like he's got diarrhea."
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Oct 17, 2009 00:03
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HondaCivet posted:That sucks . . . I had this problem with one of my cats. Curing his chronic diarrhea seemed to do the trick. Does the little guy have diarrhea all the time? If so you should see about fixing that and that may take care of the problem. If the vets can't find a medical reason for him having the runs then I'd try changing their food. Yeah, it seems its all the time. We took him to the vet this morning and he gave us some prescription food called "Hills Prescription." We'll give it a try for a few days and see how he is. If it doesn't get any better a friend recommended a vet in our town that they've been using for years so we'll give him a shot. Thank you Civet and and CagedLiberty for the help. Hope this gets better soon. Sucks not being able to have him up on the couch sleepin and stuff. Edit- Finally did the right thing and went to the independant pet store in town. Picked up some cans of that wellness and innova evo food. Everything I've read online said higher protein and the vet said they might be alergic to fish so these seem promising. Hoping our little guy starts to feel better. Thanks for all the help again guys. Inside Out Mom fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Oct 17, 2009 |
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Oct 17, 2009 16:45
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Let me know if I'm a horrible person or on the right track here please. About 4 months ago or so we adopted two kittens, Gary and Leela. From the get go Leela has been your standard crazy little kitten and getting into all the usual mischief you'd expect. Gary on the other hand has had an issue with his digestive tract that causes him to not only poo poo constantly but not be able to stop once "finished." Because of this, we regularly find any area of the house he's been in to be covered in poo poo. We tried blocking him off to just the kitchen to save our carpets and furniture, but now that he's getting up on the counters we're finding messes in higher places now too. We've been to multiple vets, and followed their advice to the T each time. First we were told it was a food allergy, and he needed prescription food. After about a month we noticed no change in his bathroom hijinx. We were told it could be a stomach bug and we were told to give him some antibiotics. We gave them to him as directed for the extent of the prescribed term. No change. We tried just letting him got without any drugs to see if there was any change, but no, there has been no change. As it stands now we have to keep him in our downstairs bathroom, and need to clean it about once an hour. For the past 5 months we've spent nearly every hour at home cleaning, to the point where the flooring is warping and the kitchen constantly smells. We're scheduled to go in to get them fixed today, and both my wife and I have been discussing telling the vet we can't take care of him anymore. I breaks our heart as he's a great little kitten otherwise, but having to clean poo poo every waking moment is straining our patience, and our wallets due to going through clorox wipes like its cool. Our big dilemma is that we don't want Leela to be alone, and if we do give up Gary, what effect is that going to have on her, and what sort of issues and things should we look out for when introducing a new cat. How long should we wait? Am I horrible for giving up on the little guy? I don't want to, but the strain of constantly having poo poo covering everywhere is straining my wife and I and making being in the house almost unbearable. Am I on the right track or am I missing something?
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Jan 7, 2010 15:32
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Unfortunately the whole food allergy was ruled out by the new vet we went to. You guys weren't kidding about difference in quality from office to office. They said it's some type of infection and they gave us a pill first then some white liquid we had to spray in his mouth from a little injector. He had been on the liquid stuff off and on since we adopted him in September. As far as his waste goes, it tends to be liquidy loose and shotgun blasted around the litter box then trailed where ever he decides to run to next. Our vet said to give him rice to try and firm things up but it hasn't really changed a thing. She has brought up the steroid option and warned us that it could cut his life expectancy in half. If it cures him thats great, though I'd only want to do that if we absolutely have to. If it doesn't stop though I don't know if we're really cut out to handle this much craziness. If we can't care for him, we'd rather see him either adopted by someone who is able to deal with it or I don't know. We're heading in to talk to the vet in about an hour. Hopefully we'll find something out.
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Jan 7, 2010 22:25
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Fire In The Disco posted:How was food allergies ruled out? If he's been on an antibiotic for an infection since Semptember and it's not going away, there's something else going on there. I'm not saying it's for sure a food allergy, but switching him to a limited ingredient diet could help either way, and at any rate, NB LID foods are good quality foods that can be stuck with for life. The food allergy was ruled out because he was on ID and he was making GBS threads everywhere. We then transitioned him to ZD as per our vets instructions. We let that go for about a month or so and no change. We then got them on Innovo Evo and let that go for a few weeks and still nothing changed. I'll give the pumpkin stuff to him once they get back from their fixing if things go well and all. Also, is it better to give him wet food over dry food? As for medications we'd been giving him Metronidazole since we adopted him. We also put FortaFlora in his food and were giving him Clavamox Oral suspension, and Panacur. About to head out. Thanks for all the help. Hopefully we can solve this mystery. Don't want to see the little guy go.  Just the messes.
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Jan 7, 2010 23:44
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Fire In The Disco, first I want to thank you for your patience and help with all this. As a first time cat owner, I'm a little overwhelmed and am happy I have a resource like this to turn to. It was science diet ID. If things don't improve I'll definitely ask about Natural Balance LID when we see the vet again Just got back from the vet and wow, this new vet is 10x better. We were in there for an hour. Leela, was taken in and is going to be spayed. She decided not to neuter Gary, but instead ran a second set of tests to compare to the ones taken 3 weeks ago. She recommended high fiber diet, pumpkin, yogurt, etc, and is going to call us with the results asap. She did say he's not a lost cause and for us to not give up. I'm just glad we had some help all around. Felt like I was lost in the woods for a bit. I'll try to keep you guys updated on the adventures of these two. Thank you again.
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Jan 8, 2010 01:14
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We have two cats named Fry and Leela. Reccently we also had our first child about five months ago. Since then Fry has taken to peeing on couches. Today in fact the third couch of our set may have been lost despite my best efforts at shampooing the hell out of it. In addition to the peeing there are a bunch of other issues Fry has been giving us, namely scratching the poo poo out of anything that isn't a scratching post. Long and short we're going broke trying to fix all the things he's destroying and it looks like we may have to give up one or both of them. My question is, would it be wrong to separate the two cats and only give up Fry? Also where would I look to find a place that will not euthanize and find them a suitable home? Also am I a horrible person for having to do this?
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Apr 15, 2012 00:13
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Arkham Angel posted:I'm going to start with the obvious question of: is your little guy neutered? Yes both have been snipped.
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Apr 15, 2012 13:12
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 02:40 |
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Yeah I understand about the litter boxes and all that. The peeing is really the straw that broke the camels back. With everything else that's going on we really can't afford them anymore. We found a good rescue here in town. No cages, open house type place. I do hate to lose Leela but I'd rather know she will go to a good home and be taken care of. The sad lesson is that we're not cat people.
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Apr 15, 2012 17:32
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