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Pragmatica posted:Just a note to add to the supervised introduction: Bring some toys as a distraction! I always use a laser pointer during introductions because they are so focused on playing, that they kinda forget the other cat is there or even start playing together. It has always helped in my experience. I usually use treats as well. I'll sit on the floor and put a treat on each side of me and then continue giving treats, moving them closer and closer, until they're sitting next to each other waiting for more treats. This usually either ends up in them being completely unconcerned or one of them suddenly realizing I've tricked them into sitting next to that other cat! and hissing and running off. Over time I've found it to be effective however. I was doing this the other night with Iggy and Ramona and she started cleaning his face for him, whereas the day before she'd been hissing at him if he got within a foot of her and she wasn't on higher ground.
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Jul 23, 2009 16:32
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We're also having cat bladder issues. About 5 weeks ago, we noticed Iggy straining in the litter box (thought he was constipated, though, since we noticed him peeing). The vet checked him out and didn't notice any problems anywhere. She did go ahead and check his bladder, but didn't do a urinalysis because it wasn't blocked, enlarged, etc. Three weeks ago it all started again, but this time he was definitely having trouble peeing. Frequent litter box trips, obvious straining, obsessive cleaning, lethargy, etc. Rushed him to the vet. They tried to do a urinalysis, but couldn't because his bladder was COMPLETELY EMPTY. Since he wasn't blocked, they said it was either a bladder infection or stress-related inflammation, so they went ahead and gave us Clavamox to give him, and after 3-4 days he was all better. This morning we noticed him doing the same thing again, same symptoms. I know for a fact that he peed like a loving champion yesterday, I heard it happen. It was a LOT of pee. I also know, because we've been through it with our other male cat, that a blockage can happen extremely quickly. The last two vet visits cost us about $300 total, because he's such an idiot at the vet that they have to knock him out in order to examine him AT ALL. Obviously, he needs to go back to the vet, and obviously we'll pay the $150 or whatever it takes to make sure he's okay. HOWEVER, I'm kind of at a loss, because we cannot continue paying $150/month to discover that the cat may or may not have a problem that may or may not be making it difficult for him to pee. Any recommendations for things we should ask the vet to do or check on?
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May 6, 2013 23:24
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Thanks, Dr. Chaco. We've got an appointment in 20 minutes with a new vet, I'm hoping that he might not completely overreact if he's at a new office. It's also a cat only clinic that's 8 blocks from our house, and they have good reviews, so hopefully they'll be able to figure it out. I was going to wait, because I really don't think he's blocked, but when I got home tonight he was just so MISERABLE that I knew he needed something. We have 3 litter boxes and 3 cats and don't really have room for another. We do need to scoop more often and have decided to do it twice daily from now on (we were doing it daily or every other day, as needed). He won't eat soft food, we give it to them every night and he just ignores it. I will look into a fountain, though, it's something we've been talking about for a long time now. Nothing else has changed, though, in the last 6 months that could cause this. I'm guessing it's just the litter boxes.
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May 7, 2013 00:25
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Well, I just got home. It's a very good thing I took him in when I did, he was completely blocked. They're doing a urinalysis and will call me tonight to let me know what they find, but they're thinking it might be crystals. It's scary how quick this all happened, because last night he was his usual self, it wasn't until this morning that he started showing signs of trouble again. He's at the vet tonight with a catheter, I really hate leaving him. I stayed until he was awake and got to see him. They'll be keeping him for 48 hours at least. Fingers crossed he doesn't manage to pull the catheter out tonight. He doesn't have a tail, so they had to tape it to his leg. Anyway, thanks for your help, guys. They also mentioned that the blood panel they did showed elevated glucose levels and they'll be retesting him when the catheter is out because they're worried about diabetes.
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May 7, 2013 02:19
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Cats are assholes at travel. Just put the cat in a carrier and go. She will probably refuse to eat, will decide that hotel rooms are full of murder traps, and will wait until you're 45 miles from the next rest stop to barf. Take a small litter box for stopping at night. If you think she needs it, you can stop along the way and let her out of the carrier to use it, but she probably won't. If there's a food she likes more than every other food, bring that, because she MIGHT eat it. Oh, and when you get to where you're going, she'll hate that too. Take some wet wipes or paper towels/cleaner just in case. 10 days is a long time. Make sure she's got a blanket or towel in the carrier. Make sure she stays cool, a carrier is going to have reduced air flow. And as much as she wants to, don't let her wander around the inside of the car because she will either try to climb underneath the brake pedal or she'll wedge herself into a spot you had no idea a cat could fit into and you'll spend half an hour in a dark parking lot trying to fish her out. I own a very chill cat. Not much phases him. But he still hates to travel.
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May 8, 2013 04:01
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ISUCHARESLOLO posted:How difficult is it to get a cat to wear a harness? Is there a particular brand of choice? It's actually not that difficult at all. Put the harness on the cat for short periods of time on a regular basis and soon your cat won't even notice it's wearing the harness. (e - I SHOULD mention, however, that one of my 3 cats absolutely refuses to even stand up with a harness on, no matter what, but she's kind of like that. The other two don't mind it at all, so it does depend somewhat on the cat.) We use a "walking jacket", because I think it's more secure and comfortable for the cat. They're a little pricy, but I think it's worth it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfqairxDKRo Here's a video of Iggy when he was about a year old learning to wear it. We'd put it on and then get out his favorite toy, he never even noticed he was wearing it. Now we can take him outside on walks and take him to the vet in it and he walks just like a dog, although it is significantly more difficult to get him to walk where you want him to.
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May 9, 2013 13:10
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Update on Iggy Hop: The vet removed the catheter this morning. They reran the urinalysis twice since the initial one, once yesterday morning (because the vet was curious that the initial test didn't show crystals) and again this morning. They did find traces of struvite crystals, so he will need to be on a urinary diet. They also reran the blood panels to check his kidney function and glucose levels. GOOD NEWS. He is not diabetic. The sugar in his urine is completely gone and his blood glucose is only slightly elevated now. It was, as many of you suggested in the nutrition thread, stress related. I am SO glad that he will not need to be on insulin. He has a slightly elevated white blood cell count, so he'll be coming home with antibiotics as well as pain meds and something else. Fortunately, he's good at taking medicine. He's also behaving a little better. Still being noisy and cranky as hell, but not trying to harm anyone. He even let them remove the catheter without having to knock him out. This is fantastic news as in the past, the vet couldn't even give him his vaccinations without having to put him under. As soon as he pees on his own, he gets to come home! I'm hoping he does this today as we all really miss him and want him back. If not, then tomorrow. drat it, cat, PEE ALREADY! Edit: Went and saw him tonight. He's not happy... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJNIDAh2aVY But then the vet's office called a few minutes ago and told me he peed! So he gets to come home tomorrow, which we are all really happy about. Nione fucked around with this message at 01:05 on May 10, 2013 |
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May 9, 2013 21:33
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Well, Iggy's back at the vet. He came home Friday night and spent 16 hours cuddling with me nonstop. Saturday morning he was back in the litter box, straining and crying. We took him back to the vet he had been at and they felt his bladder and said it was enlarged and nothing was coming out when they tried to express it. Since they close at noon on Saturday and aren't open Sunday, they transferred him to an emergency clinic (the clinic waived the $90 emergency fee since he was a transfer, which was nice). The e-clinic felt his bladder and same thing. They put him in an oxygen chamber and while he was in there he peed on his own. Since he wasn't blocked at that moment, they just ran an IV and started pumping him full of fluids, watching him to see if he peed on his own or re-blocked. He was doing fine all day, but by 2am Sunday morning, he was reblocked. They ran the urinary catheter again. Since the e-clinic doesn't accept Care Credit and we were completely out of money, we transferred him to another animal hospital (this one is actually our normal vet, we didn't take Iggy there in the first place because the cat clinic is much closer to our house and could see him immediately, plus he'd been to the first vet twice for urinary problems and we wanted a 2nd opinion). They have him there now, pumping him full of fluids and anti-inflammatory medication, and things seem to be going okay. He's producing plenty of urine, the catheter is flushing it out, and as of this morning it's less bloody than it was yesterday. He's also become accustomed to being at the vet's office and is much calmer, doesn't yell and scream as much, and freaks out when we come visit because OH MY GOD I MISSED YOU SCRATCH MY HEAD. Honestly, his reaction to us is the most heartbreaking thing. We're now at almost a full week at the vet's, with only a 16 hour break at home. This is the second time he's blocked, if it happens again he'll have to have a perineal urethrostomy. We've currently spent $1900+ in the last 5 weeks and we're all just exhausted and stressed. The only good news is that he LOVES the canned Purina UR. It's the only wet food I've ever seen him go nuts about. Of course, it also seems to be the most disgusting of the canned urinary food options (1st ingredient is "meat by-products" LOL). Here he is in the carrier with his catheter/IV being transferred from the e-clinic to the hospital he's at now. Poor baby slept in there for like an hour with us taking turns rubbing his face. 
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May 13, 2013 16:22
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Saikonate posted:Hey dude, just saw this post and looked at your history in this thread and had a few comments. Lucas was prone to struvite bladder stones - I found this out after he was straining like hell to pee in a small cardboard box in the corner instead of his litterbox, and there was blood in his urine. It seems unclear to me from your posts - do you know why Iggy's getting blocked up in the first place? One of the first things my vet did with Lucas was to X-ray him, which showed a giant-rear end bladder stone causing his issues. He needed surgery to remove it, and between that and the X-ray it was $1000, but he was completely fine afterwards. I didn't see any mention of that in your posts, and it sounds like you're still not really sure what's going on. I'm not a vet though so I have no idea what the conversation between you and your vet has been like so far. I really hope you can get things figured out so your kitty can be healthy again! Sorry. I posted some stuff here and other stuff in the Nutrition thread. Iggy has had an x-ray and no stones. He did test positive for struvite crystals. He's currently on a urinary diet to try and make his urine more acidic to dissolve those and prevent them from reforming. Part of the problem was he was refusing to eat ANY food at first. He's now eating well and hopefully this will help with the situation. Thanks for the well wishes.
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May 13, 2013 17:45
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Feel better Iggy Yep. Iggy Tater Bug Hop. The vet called this morning. They removed the catheter at 2am and he's already peed 3 times since then, so things are definitely looking up. As long as he doesn't reblock in the next 4 hours, he's coming home!
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May 14, 2013 20:38
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That's the artist formerly known as Tater Bug, yeah? Or was that a different Iggy?
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Dogen posted:Does he still have a wang? If it reoccurs they might consider a wangectomy. Hopefully it won't, though. Wangectomy is next if he blocks again. Hopefully it won't come to that. (Wangectomies cost over $1000.)
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May 14, 2013 22:52
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Oh holy poo poo, my cat just peed in the litter box. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW EXCITING THIS IS.
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May 15, 2013 00:41
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Home for 25 hours and still peeing. Don't want to jinx this, but I think we're out of the woods! So as not to tire anyone with constant cat urine updates, have a kitten picture.  This was him before he cost us all of our moneys.
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May 16, 2013 01:39
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Ugh, so for those of you who have gone through this cat urinary blockage thing, how long did it take your cat to fully recover? Iggy's been home for a week now. He's still on antibiotics (Baytril - 1x/day) and a urinary relaxer (Prazosin - 2x/day). He's peeing fine, if somewhat frequent. We've kept him separated from the other cats with his own litterbox so we know exactly how much he's peeing. This morning there was a lump about the size of a lime and two smaller ones about the size of walnuts. That's pretty common for him for a 7 hour period. HOWEVER, when the prazosin starts to wear off (10-12 hours since his last dose), he starts going to the litter box and crying when he pees. He's peeing, but he's in pain while it's happening. Once he's had the prazosin, he calms down, eats his special prescription food, drinks some water, and is fine. We've decided to take him to the vet tomorrow if things aren't any better because it's not right for him to be in pain twice a day. But, has anyone else dealt with this? Is this going to end up in surgery for him? The vet told us that even if we do the surgery, he can still have the chronic irritation and crystals, just without the blockage. That seems to be where we are right now, he's obviously irritated but not blocked. If it's crystals that are causing the irritation, shouldn't the UR food be helping that? And if it's not crystals but idiopathic cystitis, what can they even do for him?
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May 22, 2013 18:39
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Mad Pino Rage posted:My cats clawed a hole through the bottom of the couch. This is why when we bought a bed we got a platform bed with no box spring. Ramona has destroyed 4 box springs by clawing up the bottom and crawling up inside. It's like a secret cat fort of awesome or something. Iggy also managed to get himself trapped inside a sofa bed once at my dad's house. It was folded up the entire time.
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May 24, 2013 02:48
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Mandals posted:That food looks pretty crap. Are the benefits of the CD food outweighed by the fact that it lists Brewers Rice and Corn Gluten Meal as the first two ingredients? Yeah, prescription foods that prevent urinary problems work really well despite their lovely ingredient list. We are feeding Iggy the Royal Canin SO and it seems to be alright. It at least has chicken meal as the first ingredient. And, since he's been on it and off all his medications, he seems to be doing really well. No more peeing problems! At this point, I kind of miss going to the vet's office 2-3 times a week. Nione fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Jun 5, 2013 |
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Jun 5, 2013 20:59
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Ouhei posted:Well I picked up my little guy from the vet last night. I know it's normal that he's still going to have some straining issues due to having the catheter in and all but it's really hard not to freak out every time I see it. I'm horribly paranoid that he's going to block again since this is the second time it's happened; which would mean he'd need surgery that I'm not sure I'll be able to afford. I'd feel like a monster for not getting it done since he's otherwise a young, healthy cat. We got him the CD diet stuff, so hopefully he makes a nice recovery over the next day or 2. We literally just went through this last month. Did the vet's office give you pain killers / muscle relaxers for your cat? We brought Iggy home with both (after his 2nd blockage in a week) and he did alright until the painkillers ran out. Then the straining and yelling and crying started up again. We rushed him to the vet, thinking he was blocked for the 3rd time (with our hearts sinking because of the surgery) and it turns out he was just in a LOT of pain. They prescribed another 5 days worth of painkillers and by the time those 5 days were up he was back to being an Make sure he's drinking lots of water (get him a fountain, mix water with his food, leave the faucet on in the bathtub - Iggy likes the faucet, whatever it takes). The more fluids that go through him, the faster he'll clear up. We're rooting for you. I know how stressful all of this is.
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Jun 7, 2013 15:12
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Ouhei posted:They have, I gave him them this morning but I'm hoping that the ones I gave him last night had just worn off a bit. We got a fountain a week or so ago, which he seemed to take to. In an effort to make sure he has as much water sources available I've set out a big bowl of it too, he's never been much for faucets but I'll try that as well. Yeah, Iggy's pain meds were 1 every 12 hours. At around the 10-11 hour mark he'd start grumping a bit and using the litter box more frequently. The vet told us that as he healed, his bladder was still very irritated and any urine in there at all would make it hurt. That's why when the pain killers wore off, he'd start using the box more frequently (trying to get rid of the teeny tiny amounts of pee) and yelling a bit. We kept him separate from the other cats so we could track how much he was peeing each day. We went through a week of grape to golfball sized pee clumps. But, as long as there WERE pee clumps, we were happy. Good luck!
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Jun 7, 2013 16:18
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In my experience, syringes are actually harder to use than just shoving the pill down the cat's throat. A pill is relatively mess-free. Using a syringe/pill popper thing is going to take just as much cat wrangling as the pill would and you now have to worry about the pill falling out/liquid getting pushed out while you're trying to wrangle a cat. My method is to wait until the cat is asleep and go in for a surprise attack. It's even easier if you can manage a two person surprise on a sleepy cat. One person holds/scruffs the cat while the other pries the mouth open and shoves the pill in the mouth. The goal is to get the pill into the back of the cat's mouth since they don't have cheeks and are really good at flicking the pill sideways out of their mouth. Shove in the pill, close their mouth, and then rub their chin/throat. Sometimes I blow in the cat's face, which makes them swallow. Hang on to them for a while and make sure they don't spit the pill out, because I've had tricky cats do that after I thought they swallowed it. If there is a treat that your cat likes, give them a treat after they take their pill. My eldest boy cat will now sit still and let us shove pills in his face because he can see the piece of ham he gets after it's over. Meanwhile, Ramona will never like pills, she will never accept treats afterwards, and she considers it a personal affont to her dignity to be forced into doing anything. Cats 
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Jul 6, 2013 03:06
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Lofty132 posted:My girlfriend adopted a kitten 6 weeks ago from a shelter, she already has a 2 year old, they're both female. The kitten is still pissing off the older cat. She chases the older cat around apparently playful, but this can result in hissing and fighting. Will this calm down soon or is it time to start looking at rehoming the kitten? The older cat seems extremely unimpressed since the arrival of the kitten. The kitten seems oblivious to any rejection. I'm assuming the fighting is the typical growling, hissing, chasing, smacking kind of cat fighting (which is normal) and not screeching, blood drawing, real fighting? If so, then that all sounds completely normal to me. Your kitten is an rear end in a top hat. Your older cat is teaching it manners. As long as no one is getting injured, it's fine and your kitten, as it gets older, will get along better with the older cat. I'd actually be more concerned if the older cat didn't put the kitten in its place when it got to be too much. Our cats are 4, 11, and 12. There are times when the youngest still irritates the older ones, but there are other times when they all cuddle up and clean each other. It just takes time for them to figure out where they stand in "cat hierarchy."
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Jul 26, 2013 12:57
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Blimpkin posted:So the dog is gone, and my cat has been eating better already. She also pooped last night which makes me feel a whole lot better. I took her bell-collar off and she seemed to feel alot better about it all now that she is silent once more. Glad your cat is happier. As for her drinking your water, my cats do that too. The main risk, in my experience, is when the cat turns the glass of water over on top of you while you're sleeping. After the 4th or 5th time, I got a cup with a lid and use either that or a water bottle when as my bedside water cup. The Happy Hyperbole posted:The problem is, within the past 3 months or so they have periods of time where they become exceedingly aggressive with each other. It typically starts with the female beginning to yowl and hiss whenever she sees her brother, which leads to him chasing her and her shrieking like he's trying to murder her. They don't really fight, just swat each other a bit before one of them takes off, but she goes on high defensive and the sight of him sets her back off. After this happens they both will spend hours or days where they are constantly looking over their shoulders for the other. The male tends to try and find her, but then just sits a bit away and stares while she kicks up a ton of racket. This has lasted a few days at a time before, but just as randomly as it begins they'll just stop and go back to behaving normally. Two questions: When was the last time the female cat went to the vet? It's possible with any behavioral change that there is something wrong and the cat is sick/in pain and reacting to the other cat because of this. Definitely worth checking out. Are there lots of strays outside? My youngest male cat gets really upset when stray cats (presumably not fixed) are outside and he can see/smell them. It makes him lash out at the other cats and everything (including us) freaks him out and makes him yowl like crazy. After a few hours, he typically calms down and is fine again, but the first time it happened we couldn't figure it out. The second time, we saw the stray cat outside the window. He also did this when a new neighbor with a dog moved in next door (apartment building, so he could smell the dog through the door). After awhile he calmed down and the dog coming and going was no longer a threat. So I'd check for any things that have changed in the environment that may be causing this. If a vet determines nothing is wrong and you can't find anything that might be upsetting the cat, you might try Feliway. Others have had success with it calming their cats down if they're upset. Nione fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Jul 26, 2013 |
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Jul 26, 2013 17:50
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