We brought a re-homed cat home to our house one week ago. She is 4 years old, spayed, up to date on shots and healthy. She came from a multi-cat and dog house to our single-dog house. Her previous owner says she had no problem standing up for herself against other cats and the dog (reports the other cats are much more willing to come out of hiding since she has been removed). We have noticed that she is shy and skittish, but eating and drinking. She spends most of her day hiding under a bed.

Unfortunately she refuses to use her litter box (so far preferring kids closets and under desks). We’ve taken a step back and confined her to a single room. She has a clean litter box. Food, toys and bed are at the opposite side of the room. We’ve also confined the dog to a separate part of the house

None of this is ideal. We have few doors, so keeping them apart also keeps the humans apart. I can put food or litter in another part of the house, but the cat is more likely to encounter the dog if I do that.

Thoughts?

I rescued a kitten several weeks ago. He was said to be a female and to be 4 /5 weeks old. Took him to vet next day and she turned out to be a boy around 3 weeks old. Was very sick and had fleas really bad. He is healthy now but very aggressive. I have an 8 year old cat who has never been with any other cats. The kitten attacks him to the point he cries and I can’t get him to stop attacking my adult cat. Please help

Hi there, I’ve been feeding some stray cats near my work place and recently I noticed one of the male cats has crusty lesions on several places of its body like on the nose, the cheeks, the balls. I googled some pics online and his condition seems to match feline herpes virus. I tried to trap him for a vet visit but he just won’t let me. I asked some vets in my area but they insist on me to bring in the cat. So I think that option is pretty much impossible. Is there any kind of human antibiotics or supplements I can give to the cat? Something I can sneak inside his food? Thank you!

My Son’s cat Tom, is a rescue we have had approximately 12 years, putting his age about 13 to 13 1/2. Best cat I have ever had in my house! He thinks he is a member of the pack of 3 Jack Russells that run around here, and will not hesitate to stop one in it’s tracks to bathe them! For approximately the last 6 months he has developed a snoring noise, even when he is wide awake, and his local Vet says he has naso-pharyngeal polyps. Over the last month or so, he has had increasing difficulty swallowing his food. He has been on an Iams dry food for years and never had issues until no. We have switched to pulverizing the dry in a food processor and mixing it into some can foods he likes but he still eats very little at a time and always acts like he is starving. Having seen your videos of removing polyps from a cats throat area has led me to reaching out to you for help/advice. I certainly don’t want this cat to starve to death, and his discomfort is clear. Every local Vet I have contacted here in the Norfolk,Va. area has come back with estimates over $2000.00!!! I love this cat, but at 13 years old, I can’t do that and send my son to is first year of college. I am completely open to suggestions, and if need be, open to a 5 hour ride to see you.

Dr Magnifico, My mother in law has been feeding about 6-8 feral cats for about 10 years. Some of them we’ve brought to JVC clinic for vetting and snipping. She now has terminal cancer and dementia. She has for the last year been letting 2 of them into her house. They use the litter box and sleep in her house although she’s never touched them. She is about to be admitted to Gilcrest for end of life care and these cats will no longer be able to come inside. We will still go feed them but eventually the house will be sold. We are wondering if you have any suggestions on what to do with these cats. They are all very healthy, just not young anymore and need to find homes.

Hello! I rescued a stray domestic shorthair that came crying at my door about 6 months ago and named him Koda. He is the sweetest boy of about 5 years (not too sure about his age though) and I am so grateful of the love he has shown me. Since I’ve had him, there has been nasal discharge on one side of his nose. He began sneezing after a while and I noticed large chunks of hardened mucus would come out. I took him to the vet and he was put on antibiotics and they cleared out most of the build up. The vet also did an x ray and it showed that one side of his sinuses were completely backed up with mucus, so he did a blind bioscopy to look for polyps and could not find anything. The antibiotics seemed to work at the time, but now looking back I’m assuming it was because the they had cleared out most of the mucus, because the symptoms came back after about a week after stopping antibiotics. We are now looking at constant snoring sounds, occasionally gasping for air, sneezing and decreased appetite due to not being able to smell his food. The vet recommended us to someone that had the proper technology, which would be a scope and a ct scan to go in and look for any polyps, and remove them if found. This would cost me $1500-$3000 which I cannot afford since I am a college student 🙂 I went anyways to get their opinion and stupidly spent about $1000 on more testing, appetite stimulants, and more antibiotics that didn’t work. I am considering trying steroids to try and lessen the symptoms just so that he can have an easier time breathing if they worked, but I am afraid of the cost and especially the side effects, if it it doesn’t help that will be more wasted money. Recently, the nasal discharge has spread to the other nostril and he has more bloody mucus than ever before, and as of three days ago, a mucus-like mass has protruded from one nostril and has slowly turned black and bloody over these few days. I tried to remove it but it was very stuck and started bleeding, and I could tell the poor baby was in pain. It may be a polyp that has slowly moved out of his nose, so I will be calling a vet tomorrow to hopefully get it taken out.
I am looking for another opinion on what might be going on or of any similar stories. If anyone knows any good vets in the Tampa, Florida area I would be forever grateful. I am willing to take Koda anywhere in Florida if it means I can find help for less money or just more straightforward people who care about animals and not just the money! Koda is still a happy and loving cat but he has slowly become less playful, and I can tell he does not feel his best becsause of all of this. I am afraid of how much worse it can get. Thank you so much for any help in advance!

My 6-year-old cat has recently had some trouble breathing. She gets a deep sounding snore when breathing in and can’t seem to take a complete breath. The snoring only seems to occur when she is breathing in, and not out. The snoring does sometimes stop. This mainly happens when she is sleeping, her breaths are softer and she seems to be able to breath better. I have also noticed that when I hold her mouth open a little bit, she is able to breathe in and out without any problem. She occasionally has sneezing fits, but they are very rare to see. There is no discharge from her nose, eyes, or ears. She actually has a very dry nose. I have also noticed that she has been eating less than before, but she is still able to eat and drink water. We took her to a vet, but they told us they would only be able to diagnose her with an endoscopy, which they said would cost us around $1,300. I’ve looked online for symptoms similar to hers and cats that had similar breathing patterns/sounds. The closest thing I have been able to find is something called a “nasopharyngeal polyp”. I’m a little lost on what to do. Should I continue with the first vet, and get a concrete diagnosis? or get a second opinion and maybe bring up what I found while researching online? The cost of the first vet is kind of high for me as I’m a college student, but If it is what my cat needs to be able to breathe comfortably again I’ll pay it.

My 18 month old Tonkinese cat is blocked. Not fully but mostly. I can express drops at a time. He’s dehydrated and his levels are a little off. He’s had bloodwork and urinealysis done. We need to get him unblocked and we don’t have thousands of dollars ????????????

Hello, I have a 2.5 year old desexed female cat and a 4-month-old male kitten. We moved house 4 months ago, and adopted the new kitten about 3 months ago. In our previous house, we used to let the older cat out during the day to roam the neighborhood, although she never went too far.

Since we’ve moved, we only let her out once or twice a week as there are a lot of cats here and she gets into more fights and has gotten injured once. She seems very stressed out, wanting to go out constantly.

We have tried everything to ease her stress: playing with her a lot, brushing and cuddling her daily, giving her a mix of wet and dry good food (that she likes), putting up Feliway diffuser around the house, and she plays with the kitten daily.

However, she still exhibits signs of stress, ie hiding, minor crouching, hissing or growling from time to time to us or the kitten, sleeps more, meows more, generally less affectionate towards us.

Do we have to let her go outside daily like before, so she can be less stressed, or is there any other way to lessen her stress? It has been 4 months and I am worried it will become chronic stress for her.

My question is about food for my cats and dogs.

Cats
Ive always been told to keep dry food out at all times so I do but I also feed them in the morning and at dinner with a mixture of wet and dry. They are all 6 years old and they are putting on weight. Should I take up the dry food so they don’t graze on it all day and just feed them their 2 meals a day. Is that enough?

Dogs
I have always fed my 13 year old once a day with a mixture of wet and dry and of course he gets tid bits from our plates through the day. Lol. He’s always been a healthy weight and seems very happy. I rescued a dog a year go that was a stray and she was 1. I kept dry food out for her all day, as suggested by my vet, and also feed her with her brother at diner time with the same mixture. I have recently taken up her dry food and only feed her once a day Now with the brother.

Am I doing the correct things for my animals. I don’t want to overindulge them and have them become overweight and have the many problems that come along with that. But i also don’t want them hungry. Not sure what to do.

Thanks