| Mia and her girly bits |
[Nov. 29th, 2009|10:03 pm] |
Posted awhile back about Mia and her issue. Its been about a month now and her vulva is still swollen and irritated, otherwise she is perfectly healthy. We are using the same litter we always have (arm and hammer unscented clumping) so we don't think it is that and neither does the vet. At first the vet thought it was maybe an allergic reaction to something and gave her a shot. I wasn't at this first vet visit so not sure what all he did, but he said it wasn't infected or a yeast infection. Also he doesn't think its a tumor or anything like that. We waited a week with no results, so went back to vet. He gave us some antibiotics to try to see if that will make a difference. We just finished them up Friday and haven't seen really any difference, maybe a little less red. Calling the vet tomorrow to set up another appointment, he wants to do a biopsy to try to figure out finally what the hell it is.
Just for the hell of it I'm switching her to feline pine on the slim chance she spontaneously developed an allergy to the litter she has been using for ever.
Any suggestions? Anyone ever heard of anything like this?
Also she is spayed.
 |
|
|
| Old People & Bald Cat |
[Nov. 27th, 2009|05:18 pm] |
As the years go by, mom's house is turning into a home for geriatric kitties. <3 Sunny and Shadow are 13, Silver is 14, Shasta is 15, and Mom-Cat (Sunny & Shadow's mom) is ?? Around 15-16, we estimate (not entirely sure since she was a stray). My mom has switched them to senior kibbles, and is feeding wet food more since their teefs aren't what they used to be, but what are other ways to keep weight on an elderly kitty? Some of them have gotten a little bony in their elder years.
Also, an update on mom's cat who is losing all her hair... the vet has done tests for everything he can think of and she's totally healthy. Just...going bald. So...?!?! We're thinking it must be some kind of emotional issue. She does have very severe separation anxiety. They have a Feliway diffuser and my mom gives her kitty calming drops on wet food, but she continues to lose hair. :\ |
|
|
| Spraying? |
[Nov. 26th, 2009|09:11 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
Hi everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving!
I have a question...recently, my cat Bela Lugosi started "spraying." I put it in quotes because even though he is quivering, it doesn't seem like anything is actually coming out. He only started doing this within the last month.
He is neutered, and I believe it was before six months. I started noticing him doing it to a chair in my apartment. I brought him home this weekend, and he's been "spraying" my brother's bed. But again, after touching it, it doesn't feel like anything is there, and there's no smell.
Has anyone else had experience with this? I have another male cat who is an older rescue who is neutered, and he doesn't do this (although he does do territorial peeing sometimes). I'm concerned that something may come out eventually :P |
|
|
| Fleas and an older cat |
[Nov. 26th, 2009|10:24 am] |
Hi and happy Thanksgiving!
Apparently when we traveled across the country on a move, our cats got fleas from the hotels we stayed at. I know they weren't in the house we moved into, since the previous owner didn't have pets and lived here for 10 years.
Anyhow, I had noticed one of my cats scratching a lot, but since I didn't see any fleas or black flecks on her I figured she was having allergies. My other cat isn't easy to pet, so we can't check her. Anyhow, I now have found black dander where they sleep and I also managed to comb the skittish cat a little and she has black dander and I'm pretty sure it is from fleas, even though I still haven't seen an actual flea. I'm really surprised how well my older cat has been able to remove the black dander and fleas from herself. Really weird, since when my cat was a kitten and had fleas I saw them all over her.
Anyhow, I'm taking them to the vet on Monday for checkups and to get some flea meds. My only worry is that my one cat is 13 years old and I worry about putting chemicals on her. Since I've already lost a cat to renal failure I'm really careful about them ingesting anything that could tax their kidneys and I make sure they drink a lot of water. Do I need to worry about certain flea products with her due to her age?
Also, once I get something to treat the cats we will start treating the house. Luckily only one room is carpeted and the rest is wood floors. We plan to hand scrub all the floors/floorboards, wash our bedding and the cats bedding in hot water and vacuum the cat trees. I was also thinking of getting some sort of spray for our furniture and the cat furniture, but will that hurt our cat? Is all of this necessary to get rid of the fleas.
Thanks!! |
|
|
| Felv + FIV cat with neurological issues |
[Nov. 24th, 2009|03:15 pm] |
Hello all. I'm in a situation where I'm wondering whether my cat can be helped by a vet or if he has something untreatable. After dealing with a Felv cat and the entire situation of seeing him waste away and eventually putting him down, my other cat now has Felv AND FIV. He was vaccinated, but I had a choice of trying to keep him in the house away from the Felv cat or have him come home every night beaten up by outside cats. So, took a gamble and the cat managed to get TWO serious disorders.
Here's the situation. He really only shows signs of the sickness now with neurological issues. He will get up too fast or just suddenly move and then lose control of his motor functions. He can stay upright but he seems to be a little off balance and dragging his feet,...and it takes him a couple of minutes to be able to walk like normal again. Typically he bounces back from this, sometimes he acts under the weather for a few hours, but most days he has no symptoms at all.
Is this just a progressive issue with Felv/FIV cats? Is this something that can even be treated by a vet? I ask because of a couple of reasons. First and foremost my cat gets INSANELY distressed when he gets into a car. And with these illnesses, stress is really bad for the cat. Second, with my first Felv cat, I went to a few vets and for most of his symptoms they'd either just shrug and say "well he has Felv so this happens" or just throw antibiotics at me. I'm curious if anyone else had a Felv or FIV cat with these symptoms and whether it could be treated or not. Thanks! |
|
|
| Territorial behavior? |
[Nov. 24th, 2009|09:52 am] |
|
I have two cats, one is a year and a half old neutered male and the other a not old enough to be fixed yet male kitten (he's about 10-11 weeks old now we think). This past two weeks the older cat has taken to sleeping in the litter box and the cat food dish and growling at the kitten when he comes near. He's not sick and he was previously not only not territorial towards the kitten but protective and nuturing. Is this because the kitten is maturing and smells like a 'threat'? Will it stop once we have the kitten fixed? Also, any advice on how to UN-paper train the kitten or shall we just try to not put any paper on the floor ever lol? Thanks! |
|
|
| Update on Baron |
[Nov. 22nd, 2009|06:07 pm] |
(cross-posted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) kittypix)
Thank you all for your thoughts and good wishes. I just heard back from my mother - apparently, Baron's blood tests (they did the full senior cat blood tests) came back normal, and the vet thinks that it's just his teeth that were bothering him, and that's why he wasn't eating and why he was clicking his teeth. They seem to be doing better now, and Mom gave him some baby food that he ate right up. He seems to be back to his normal self a bit.
Mom's going to be watching for the next few days to try and decide if it's worth the risk to put him under and get his teeth cleaned or possibly pulled. He has been pretty shaky lately, and I think she's just worried that he isn't strong enough to handle being under right now. Either way, she's going to keep an eye out, but she's just relieve it isn't something major.
( Baron-cat ) |
|
|
| Diet issues |
[Nov. 22nd, 2009|06:14 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  curious | ] |
I feed my cats Arcana and Orijen, and I usually have no problems, but lately I have noticed that the cats have been having really runny poops and very stinky ones too. I like Arcana and Orijen because the cats seem to like it, there are no or little fillers, it is made in the next province over and was only recalled once and that was because when it was imported, it had to be radiated which destroyed the Vitamin A in it and animals got sick. My sister, who also feeds her cats Arcana and Orijen, has noticed her cats having the same problem as mine and has been thinking about putting her cats on Royal Canin. I don't really know much about the brand, but I am a bit skeptical about it... She likes the idea of having foods for younger and older cats and says that she knows people who have there cats on it and they are doing very well on it... One of her cats is really old (17) and has Renal failure, where the others are 2 years or younger, mine are 7years old (2 cats) and a 4 month old. My sister's older cat has a special diet for herself, but she leaves food out for the other cats and Princess, the old cat, has been seen to eat it from time to time...
So, I was hoping to get some suggestions on good brands... and whether I should switch mine at all...? |
|
|
| First post |
[Nov. 20th, 2009|02:58 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  worried | ] |
(cross-posted to kittypix and my personal journal)
I just got an email from my mom about her cat Baron (he's in the icon). He's getting older, about 12 now, and he's not been doing so well since Milky-cat (they may as well have been brothers - Baron lived with him his whole life) died a couple of months ago. This is what she said was happening:
( email from my mom )
Has anybody heard of anything like this before? Baron's always been kind of a sickly cat - he has a very sensitive stomach, and can only eat certain kinds of foods or else he'll throw up all over the place. The last time he had a physical (or "mature cat checkup", I think the vet called it), everything came back just fine. Any info you guys may have, or even just some good thoughts, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, all! |
|
|
| Bad kidneys, crf? bad heart, bad vet? Dietary problems.. |
[Nov. 20th, 2009|05:45 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  anxious | ] |
I've tried everything on forums but didn't get enough of a response there so I'm trying here now after finding this community.
Hi there. This may be longwinded but I'll try and explain things as best as I can. Last Thursday we adopted a lovely older male cat called Bailey. The shelter think he is around 12 or more, after this I'm gonna give a guess around 15. We were told by the shelter to not switch his food, and they gave us Felix Senior. The first night we got him home he threw up all his food. For the next few days he also had soft stools (not completely runny) We put it down to perhaps nerves, but a couple of days later (Sunday night) he threw up alot of bile, twice. He then excreted a really large amount of really smelly diarrhea. He'd earlier that night refused to eat his Felix, so we'd given him a small amount of Almo Nature seeing as it was pretty much just chicken breast. We took him to the vet the following morning. (Monday just gone) They suggested a plain fish and chicken diet, and gave a small course of antibiotics. He also had suspected hyperthyroidism but they couldn't take blood that day because he completely freaked out. She took blood for his kidneys to test them.
A couple days on the antibiotics went fine, except that from that time he'd had the diarrhea Sunday night he hadn't actually gone since (he'd been urinating as usual though.) We were advised to bring him in again yesterday.
This visit was very testing for us, and the vet (a different one this time) checked him over and told us he hadn't gone but it didn't matter too much at that moment. Unfortunately he also said in the same breath that the cats kidney results had come back bad. Also he had a very bad heart (which was apparently seperate from hyperthyroidism even according to him). He told us not to expect much more from the cat at all. ever. He took blood for the hyperthyroidism this time and gave him a shot to try and get him more interested in food (he'd been off his chicken that day but we assume maybe he was bored of the same damn food every day because he was eating otherwise)
I was very disappointed with the outcome of this visit yesterday. Not only had we been told not to expect anything but he also didn't give us any advice for the bad kidney/heart problems and concerning diet just told us to feed him "whatever agrees with him".
I'm a bit concerned he might have CRF, not that I know for sure considering the vet didn't confirm anything so we have no idea what his bad kidney problem is.
As it is, Felix doesn't agree with him so we took him off that. He wouldn't touch Whiskas the other day and this morning he threw up bile again after we tried him on it last night but he does seem to eat Almo Nature occasionally. We're trying to feed him plain chicken after mixing it in an almo nature can to fool him. But the other vet previously had suggested James wellbeloved, royal canin, etc.
Someone also suggested Royal Canin Sensitivity Control wet food, but as I'm not sure about whats right for him I don't want to buy loads to have it not agree with him. I'm at a loss. Whats the best thing that may agree with him to not make him ill? Or that he won't ignore? I don't want to try feeding him plain chicken forever. Probably want something with low phospherous content?
Any advice would be great on anything I've brought up. We're awaiting the results from the hyperthyroidism but when we take him in for check up in a week I'm going to ask them more about this. I don't want to just give up, like the vet made out we should. It's silly. I'm sure he could live another few years?
(btw I live in the UK.) |
|
|
| Eosinophilic granuloma |
[Nov. 20th, 2009|05:27 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  awake | ] |
My Yoshi (in the icon) has Eosinophilic granuloma which normally manifests itself with lip ulcers and bumps on her head, ears, and neck. (She's at the moment got a
She responds to cortisone shots, but they don't last very long.
Does anyone know a natural therapy I could try on her? I keep her (and my two other cats) worm and flea free.
Other than that, anyone else have a kitty with this condition and want to chat? She can sometimes look a bit alarming. |
|
|
| question about fleas, the prevention and killing thereof |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|12:10 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | concerned | ] |
I'm wondering about flea prevention/flea killing products. My kitty is 14 years old and in good health, generally seeming like a much younger cat. She's indoor-only, and I've never used anything such as Frontline, etc, on her because we've never had a problem with fleas.
Problem is, for the last two weeks I've been staying at my mother's house to look after her dog while mom is recuperating from knee replacement surgery. Mom told me she bought some BioSpot for the cat while we are here since they've been having a problem with fleas that is bad enough she thought they were getting carried inside on her clothes, not just on the dog. I decided to wait and see as far as this goes since I really didn't like the idea of putting toxic chemicals on my cat. (Especially not for the first time at her age.)
So. She hasn't been scratching crazily or seeming to groom more than normal but I did notice today that there are a lot of tiny black specks in her fur (her fur is white and orange so they were easy to see) and I recall reading that it is a major sign of fleas. I read all the packaging on the BioSpot stuff and then went ahead and applied it.
It's been twelve hours or so and she seems fine, she's even forgiven me for putting nasty wet stuff on her and making her reek like she's been doused in DEET, but now I'm feeling concerned about having put it on her and wondering if anyone else has used this product and what the results were/is there a better or safer brand or method to use? I'm not one to necessarily believe that if something is more expensive it must be better but I would feel better if it had been a brand I'd heard of. I probably should have been more calm and waited to check it out first, I realize, but I was kind of like "yikes! she's got fleas."
Any information or general adivice regarding flea infestation would be much appreciated! |
|
|
| Shocked? |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|10:58 pm] |
Hey everyone. This may sound a little strange... but I think my little guy was shocked earlier after pulling a cord from a socket. Normally I would call the vet but unfortunately she's not in until Monday and this is my first time dealing with this type of situation... so I figured a good opinion would help me a lot.
About 45 minutes ago my fiancee & I were in the living room when we saw Felix chewing on one of our lamp cords. I quickly got up to stop him.. but as I did, he pulled the cable right out of the socket which literally caused a visible spark before blowing the light bulb. He didn't show any immediate signs of injury: he was just a bit surprised and ran behind the couch. The socket was actually smoking at this point. We kept a good watch on him after cleaning everything up, checked his ears, the inside of his mouth, face, paws, etc and at least on the surface, he didn't suffer a scratch. The only thing that's concerning me right now, is that he reeks of a musky, burnt smell around his face. Obviously if he was caught in the smoke it would make sense... but I'm a little worried if this is the sort of thing that could cause physical harm without actually seeing it. His behavior seems pretty normal: he's still hyped up, playing with his toys and acting as usual. He doesn't like it when I touch his face though: he squirms.
My main question is, are there specific signs I should be looking for? I do work tomorrow pretty much all day so I'd rather not have to call out and bring him to an emergency room if this is something that can wait until Monday for me to ring his usual vet. If this is something really serious though, I'll definitely get him there asap.
I'm -really- not sure why he was chewing on the cords. We've had him since he was a little guy two years ago and this is the first time he's ever done this. Thanks for any and all help! |
|
|
| What's Wrong With My Cat's Behind? |
[Nov. 13th, 2009|02:32 pm] |
This morning my beastcat started to scoot. I got alarmed because shes had problems with worms in the past so I immediately ran over to her. I didn't see any sign of worms however I did notice feces stuck to her fur. I helped her with that and then I noticed that she looks really red and irritated down there. I don't really have the money to go to the vet which is why I'm asking here first if this looks like a problem. If it does, I'll find a way but if it doesn't look major, if anyone knows anything I could do at home or anything, I'd greatly appreciate it. I may just be paranoid though as I get that way with her.
Shes not acting like shes in any pain however when I left this morning she wouldn't let me look at the area and kept running around with her tail down. Shes fixed so shes definitely not in heat or anything either. Its weird to post pictures of, I know but I'm worried!
Any feedback would be great, thanks! |
|
|
| Good News! |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|09:32 pm] |
Hi everyone, thought i'd post some good news!
My boys are both eating again, their bowl movements are still catching up! but they are much better and have a massive appetite again!
Hopefully they won't relapse and won't need to go to the vet (but i'm still keeping a close eye on them!)
( Thought i'd show off some cute pictures of them as well xx ) |
|
|
| Atopic Dermatitis, Allergies and Autoimmune Disease |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|12:54 pm] |
As usual, my post is more like a term paper or medical study. This is a synopsis of the last 4 years of testing and treatment, and is intended for people interested in information on Atopic Dermatitis, Allergies and Autoimmune Disease.
But thank you to all the message boards and cat communities that have been giving me their ideas and support through out all of this. I’m going to post the “working treatment” here so people can reference this in the future in case they are going through the same thing. I will post updates with progress, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
|
|
|
| Lost her voice |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|09:59 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bored | ] |
Since Baggy was still without a voice, took her back to the vet's and they could still see nothing. So, she's on a week of steroids to see if that helps. She did squeak at me yesterday but it sounded painful. She's eating like a champ, probably from the steroids, and is very playful and alert. She was chasing a tumbleweed bigger than her across the drive yesterday. Hope this works. If not they want to do Xray and more bloodwork. All blood work they did was fine. |
|
|
| Kittens suckling each other |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|11:08 pm] |
Last Saturday we took home 2 kittens, now named Bella and Hobbes. They're roughly 9-10 weeks old, and considering their rough start (found dumped at a pet store at ~4 weeks old, no mom, living in a foster home since then) they're pretty well adjusted now. They've bonded with my fiance and I nicely.
Because they were abandoned at such a young age, Bella (who is also the runt) has retained a habit of suckling. Obviously if she's just suckling on a toy or her bed, I don't mind. The problem is she's suckling on Hobbes... ( in a place that I'll put under a cut so people reading at work don't get in trouble ) |
|
|
| Any comfort for a cat with kitty pink eye? |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|08:33 pm] |
Hihi. I have a cat, and he has (what I assume is) kitty pink eye. He is scheduled to go see the vet on Friday (my vet had surgery, so she isn't available asap), so I'm not looking to fix the problem or diagnose it.
It's just... he's wiping it a lot, and he's holding his eye closed, and he doesn't seem very comfortable. That makes me sad. :(
So I am wondering if any of you have a suggestion for what I could do between now and when he goes to see his vet to maybe make him a little more comfortable? I read on this here internet that saline solution (like for contacts) can be used to flush the eye, but I'm not going to do just any old thing I read.
Also: is kitty pink eye contagious? He loves to play with one of my other cats, and I don't want her to get it, too. I am assuming it is, since human pink eye is contagious, but you never know.
Thanks in advance! |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
