Pet Ailments

[Bruder Cuzzen]

He was just on my lap , he hops on when I'm sitting at the computer , he's been licking my arm a lot and trying to head butt me .
I'd just been rubbing my knuckles into his head to get him off , but he stayed and tried biting me , he wasn't successful with the cone in place , but his scratching ability was undiminished . When the claws come out that is the signal that he wants me to put on the gloves and fight , or snake a string around for him to catch .

I gave in and let him out yesterday .

[anthrobabe]

Cats seem to have no problem at all letting us know who is boss. I mean I wouldn't let my kids lay on my paperwork or laptop- but any old cat that wanders along is simply going to be allowed the run of the place.

We used to have a cat that would get into the box of any game we were playing- like if we had Monopoly out she'd have to lay in the empty box (or lay on top of it and smush it) so we learned that in order to keep her off the desk or homework or whatever we would just get a box top from a game and she'd be content to hang out in that. It worked for all- she was still the boss and we got our stuff done.

Her name was Boo-- I miss that cat- she was my baby before I had my real daughters.

[Opsa]

Aww, what a nice kitty story.

I love old cats. They're so good at hanging out and making their people feel relaxed. My Mom had a persian cat named SomeLove. When he got old he decided to live on the edge of the kitchen sink. We just worked around him.

[Earthling]

We currently have 32 cats, mostly rescued from some dire circumstance or other. Skin conditions can be caused by many things, we had one instance where it was diet, and an ongoing situation with Spike that is idiopathic, but responds well to steroids (prednisone). One thing we never do is let the cats out - too many potentially fatal hazards out there. We chose our house knowing we needed space for a large herd, so it's not bad in here, and having (currently) 12 litterboxes helps a lot, too. The missus is pretty good at figuring out what's wrong with a sick cat, so if folks have questions I'll be happy to ask the expert...

[Bruder Cuzzen]

Great , thanks ET ,I forgot about the huge pride you have , I should have thought of asking you in the first place .

[Bruder Cuzzen]

Oy Earthing !

There has been little improvement with my old pal's tummy , it is still inflamed and blotchy .
The vet gave me Hydroxzine to administer , but it has done little .
I believe his underside is warmer than I remember it to be , it seems a bit a heat is being generated down there .
Have you come across this with any of your pride ?

[Earthling]

Sorry about the delay in replying. It seems that I'm not getting any email notifications of anything from anywhere except fecesbook.

Have you tried changing his diet? That did work for us once, back a while ago. Spike has the itchiness, but not the loss of hair or blotchiness. I'll try to remember to ask the wife for additional insights tomorrow, unfortunately she's already down for the count tonight.

BTW, they just had a recall of Nutro Max Cat dry cat food, so if you're feeding him on that you should return the bag and go to something else. We had to return $120 worth of it and switch over to Meow Mix. Made for some stinky poops, lemmetellya.

[anthrobabe]

  fecesbook! You got that right-but I gotta check mine everyday.

Adn you have to get 'stink stopper' to put in the Meow Mix-- I do think it helps.

[nefyuBB]

The beastie's diet consisted of food the vet recommended and canned tuna . He is now eating a duck and peas mix .
He's begging a lot these days , he wants more tuna .

[Earthling]

Duck and peas? [holds left eyebrow down with left forefinger while pushing right eyebrow up with right forefinger] That's a pretty fancy feast, there. (HA!) We'd probably try various types of food for a week or two each to see if anything had a positive effect. I would think that you'd need at least a week of diet change to see a response if there was going to be one. Has the vet considered the use of steroids?
The belly may seem warmer if the fur is gone. Fur acts like an insulator, keeping his heat inside. Without it you get more direct exposure to kittywarmth, and their normal operating temperature is higher than yours so it would naturally feel overly warm.

Look! Email notifications! Yay!

[pieces o nine]

We were out of town for a long weekend and returned about suppertime on the 4th day to find "Silent Bob" hiding out in my closet, grinding his teeth, and acting like he was in bad, bad shape. Jumped back into my car and kind-speeded back across town to the vet, who discovered a 4" stick stuck in his throat.

Dom thee Danger Catte and Silent Bob were sleeping on her houseplants, so housemate put "pungee sticks" (12" long turkey skewers) to keep them out. It worked well enough that she took them out after a month and threw them away. We *think* she may have missed one on the counter and Silent Bob got hold of it, jumped off, and was lucky not to skewer his brain. (*shudders*) The big mystery is: where is the other half of the stick? We've been searching diligently to avoid any future injuries, but haven't located it yet. The 'good' news part of the search was finding a Bob hairball on the tile; from it's condition, it was hocked up that morning. Therefore, Bob wasn't scared and in misery for more than half a day -- although that was half a day too long!

He's off his pain meds, finished his antibiotics, and back on his regular food. He's also back to wildly leaping across furniture to play, so we're thankful. This is the fourth life he's used in his first year -- still semi-feral at heart, despite being such a sweet kitteh!


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Back to Brudder's cat ... sending kind thoughts his way in hopes the ETs can give you helpful suggestions.

[Darlica]

And I thought only dogs ended up with strange object in strange places...

Some years ago a then neighbours dog managed to impale herself of a tree root while running through the woods like a juggernaut on her evening walk. She had the good sense not to wiggle and try to escape once impaled but stared to yelp instead, her owner quickly found her and called his wife who came with the car and a saw.

It took a couple of hours on the vet surgeons table a week with a drainage and a fortnight of rehab and then "Sussi" was back racing the lawn with our dog...

Items found in Terrier poo or Terrier tummies could easily become a book. 

[Earthling]

One other thing that could be contributing to Bruder's kitty's problem is some kind of mental stress. Is there anything different in the house/neighborhood/lifestyle at the Cuzzen place? Change in work schedule, new boyfriend, new refrigerator, new brand of litter? Painting the house? Anything like that?

[Bruder Cuzzen]

I can't think of anything here that is out of the ordinary .
Beastie is a happy guy these days since I found homes for the two abandoned cats that used to be here .
I'm thinking it might be a fungal infection .

[anthrobabe]

Oh i'm glad the stick was removed safely.
Oh cats and swallowing things--- string isn't really all that fun after all. I've seen reports of cats with a string going in the mouth and out the back end-- sometimes it kills them. So if you do the string/ribbon thing make sure it is supervised and hidden well away from them- and remember how adept they are at getting into things that they shouldn't be able to get into- like drawers and such. (this actually has a name- linear foreign body ingestion)