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1 week ago I went to pick up my new Kitten. Male, neutered. He is now a 13 week old pure bred ragdoll. I got him from a ragdoll breeder. They had him to the vet a few days before pickup with a clean bill of health and second distemper shot, along with all documentation of prior visits and past test results. He sneezed a few times during the pick up process and they told us this was normal during his new transition. He is still sneezing regularly each day with no change now 1 week later. No coughing. He also has some very bad smelling gas daily but not constant or consistently. I feel that his breath is a tad stinky too but my nose is very sensitive to smells and odors so it may just be my sniffer. I kept him on the same food diet as the breeder with no changes. His bathroom habits are normal, tootsie rolls, no diahrea or vomiting. He eats normal. Plays hard like a kitten. Sleeps at intervals between eating and play but changes positions alot during sleep sessions. He is snuggly, purrs happily but during his full on purring seems to snort or stall his motor slightly. No discharge of nose, ears, mouth or eyes other than a spray from a sneeze occasionally and dark brown eye crusties that have been present occasionally since adoption. He seems very happy and not lethargic. No coughing. He has a vet appointment in 2 weeks the soonest they can get him in and they didn’t seem extremely concerned with the symptoms to arrange a sooner date. This is a single pet home. I may just be overly paranoid but any bit of information is always appreciated to a new cat mom.
We adopted a rescue cat named Fluffy about 6 months ago. We slowly got her used to our house and about a month ago we let her expand a bit onto the main level of the house (where the other cats are) they all met previously but they’ve only been out and about all together for about a month.
1 of the 3 original cats (Ben) is having territorial issues with Fluffy. He is obsessive over her. He follows her, stares at her, chases her, corners her, and just doesn’t seem to want to stop. She minds her own business but he always finds her.
We’ve gotten extra litter boxes, extra perches, separate feeding areas, feliway diffusers, everything we can think of. But Ben won’t let up.
What can we do?
Hi there!! I’m wondering if he might just need more time? Perhaps supervised visits and then keep those two separated when you cannot supervise? Then try again to go unsupervised and figure out what works. It sounds like you’ve really done your homework and prepared for multiple cats with the perches and extra litter boxes, etc. I’m hoping they get used to each other. I know sometimes things never get “lovey-dovey” but they can learn to coexist and tolerate one another…
Hello,
I agree about needing more time. And I also think that things like feliway catnip, toys and even time out areas where your new cat can retreat to might help. Also talk to your vet about anxiety medications to help bridge the gap. I use a lot of gabapentin and fluoxetine. It really can help while they are getting used to each other.
My eight year old rat terrier went in for a dental cleaning and a single tooth removal, but ended up having to have fourteen teeth pulled. My vet said they were baby teeth that never fell out and had died. She did comment that he had a very unusual mouth. I was wondering why no other vet had ever noticed he still had baby teeth for all these years. Is this common?
Hello,
I will say that every pre op dental exam I do I notify the pet parents of any residual baby teeth before undergoing anesthesia. I also check at every exam I do. I think it might be helpful to ask your vet to clarify and explain why you weren’t notified of this in advance.
Good luck.
Our three year old spayed kitty Serafina (longhair buff and white tabby, 11.5lbs, utd on all shots) expelled her first hairball a couple days ago, and it was huge. Then she hacked up a couple smaller ones. The problem is she’s still throwing up. It’s only once or twice a day, never much in it, usually mucus or foam, sometimes a little digested food. Other than that her behavior is normal, her appetite was normal but has waned a bit, her drinking seems normal, but because we have multiple cats I don’t know if her bathroom habits have changed. There’s nothing alarming in the litter box though.
I’ve already sent an email to All Paws (it’s the only one we can afford with all the animals we care for) to make an appointment for her, but they’re not open on weekends and the auto-reply email said they have to go through a lot of emails on mondays so it may take up to 48 hours to even respond to my appointment request. I was sure to include all the details of her ailment in my email to them.
My question to you is this: In your professional opinion, is it okay to wait for their response, or should I seek an immediate appointment elsewhere? If so, I’d prefer it to be with your office. Other than the throwing up, she seems okay. She’s a low energy cat to begin with, so if she was lethargic it’d be hard to tell, but she seems normal to me. What should I look out for?
I’m just worried, I tend to panic over the smallest things. Thank you for reading all this.
Hi there-
First stop worrying ???? Easier said than done. It sounds like you’re on top of it and monitoring her behavior. I would continue that and if you see something alarming then reassess… or take to emergency. If she is eating and drinking best you can tell and acting normal, then I would think it is safe to wait to hear about an appointment if necessary. I would just keep a close eye, and again if things worsen then contact emergency. Hope things improve????????
Hello,
I don’t think this is an emergency. There are lots of things I often recommend in cases like this. One make sure your pet is able to groom appropriately. If they have an excessive amount of hair consider a shave down to help make it more manageable. Two brush often to remove the dead and shedding hair. Three add a hair ball formula like cat lax. Three switch to small watered down canned food meals. Make sure fleas, parasites and allergies are not adding to the feeling like she needs to be over grooming. I see cats who over groom (we call it barbering) and this can cause hairballs. Itchy cats groom. Also make sure she has toys and lots of mental stimulation as some cats groom due to boredom or stress/anxiety. There is also a hairball formula food that I think helps.
I got my cat Leila in December and since she has had runny eyes and lots of sneezing. I took her to a vet and we did a course of clavamox which helped while she was on it. A few days after she finished it she was back to sneezing and having runny eyes. Then we tried azithromycin and famciclovir which did nothing and she began to sound super congested. Then we tried a longer course of the clavamox which worked well while she was on it. A week or so after she finished it she was back at it. She is now sneezing up a lot of snot. Other than those symptoms she eats well and plays like a healthy kitty. We took her to another vet who suggested it may be a polyp. I was looking for quotes for a rhinoscopy and possible surgical removal. I got a quote from a vet for $2000-3000 for the CT, sedation, and rhinoscopy but no quote if they need to do surgery. And a lot of other places refused to give me one unless I pay $150-180 for a consultation first. Any advice on where I should look for reasonable prices would be great! We are in Michigan but are willing to travel out. Thank you!
Hello
How old is your cat? Any other signs of illness or concern? Sounds more like chronic rhinitis then anything else.
She’s 11 months old. The only other symptom I’ve noticed is she’ll sometimes hunch over and cough? I’ll attach a video! Thank you
It’s not letting me attach the video on my phone sorry, I’ll post it when I get home from work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O9yFwtiVe8
I uploaded a video of it to youtube, I’d really appreciate your opinion on it, thank you!
We have a young dog who will not stop licking our older dog in the mouth. She is out of control with this, its not a normal greeting type of lick its always full speed jumping all around & non stop licking. The older dog hates it & tries to get away but cant so then it turns into the older dog getting loud & aggressive but that doesn’t even stop the other dog…
We don’t know what to do, or how to make her stop. She’s very bullheaded & stubborn almost impossible to train. Any advice would be wonderful. Thank you for taking time to read my cry for help
JoAnn
Good morning☺️ My first bit of advice would be basic obedience. I know you said that she is nearly impossible to train, but dogs are smart and want to please you. It’s just a matter of finding a good motivator for her to learn- whether it be treats, praise, play…etc. all positive reinforcement. Once you know what makes her tick, I would just work on the basics, really. Come, sit, down, stop. There are a ton of YouTube videos and write ups online about how to train and what to do. Those basics will help you keep her off your other dog. Second, you might want to make an area just for your older dog if you have the space. We keep baby gates around just for that purpose. For instance, one of our GSDs needs surgery in the near future. She will need to recover, so we will set her up with a space of her own to rest. The baby gates are nice because they can still see everything that is going on and remain part of it all. Sidebar- having said all that, we are actually going to be brushing up on training out other GSD so that when our other one comes home from surgery things will be more calm and safer for recovery. Sorry for the long reply. I hope it helps.????☺️
Leash the younger dog and let them drag the leash. Correct immediately with the leash. Be consistent. If you aren’t already crating the dogs when you aren’t supervising, I’d start doing this to give the older dog a break.
Hello! I will try to keep this as short as possible but is hard because so much has happened.
I have 3 cats. My male cat is the one I am worried about the most right now. About a month ago all 3 got URIs and went to the vet. They were treated with antibiotics however they weren’t helping much so I had to bring them back a few times! Due to financial issues I ended up bringing them to our local shelter/humane society where they have a free clinic right now due to Covid. Biggest mistake EVER! They were so mean to my cat and overly rough with him completely stressing him out. I wasn’t allowed to go in the room with him however was able to watch some of what was going on through a window. This stressed my cat out so much that a week later he got a urinary blockage (2 weeks ago now)… I have never had issues prior with the other vet. He is 8 yr old. Anyways the vet cathed him and sent him home since it was the weekend and they are closed… where he ended up going to the ER the next day because he was crying all night…. They took the cath out… gave him pain meds and fluids… and kept him for 5 hours… He came home that night and has been on pain meds as needed and prazosin 2x a day. He is also on Hills C/D wet (with minimal dry of the c/d) He has been seen 2x since at the vet and Monday they did a urine sample/culture…. They said he has white blood cells so was put on antibiotics…but once the culture came back it showed everything to be normal…so was taken off of them…. Prior to all of this he was free fed however I have been switching all my cats to meal times 2-3 times a day… and will continue with that because of weight issues . He has been peeing, however, sometimes when I am peeing he will come pee in his litter box at the same time… He shakes his back end and puts it up in the air kind of and the pee shoots or sprays out …. this isn’t every time he pees but it has happened 3 times that I have seen. His pee clumps aren’t as big as they were prior to all this and now vary in size… sometimes a golf ball size give or take a little bit bigger/or smaller. I also will see his back end/tail twitching randomly in the day. The vet said this happening more than likely was due to stress. I have been making sure to keep the stress level low at home, use feliway (idk if it helps) and new toys/cat nip.
My questions are…
1. When switching to a wet food diet…. Will cats pee more than usual? They were on a 90% dry diet before. Sometimes I add a little water to it as I don’t see him drink a lot.
2. He only has a few days left of the prazosin… Should he been weened or go off cold turkey?
3. Is the shaking and spraying like pee normal? He does so in the litter box however because of his angle sometimes it gets on the wall.
I am new to this… and have talked to/seen several vets however they all say different things so I am confused… I just want to know if this is normal….. I think he is probably irritated from being cathed and such… due to licking his private sometimes and whining (both aren’t as bad as they were before however still happen)
Thank You for taking the time to read this.
Hello,
I’m sorry all of this has happened. I will try to answer your questions BUT you really need to stick with a vet you trust and be prepared for this to take a while to resolve. In some cats it is a lifelong issue.
I prefer wet to dry as it is a much higher water content and usually much less fattening. I even recommend adding water.
I also advise clients to try to give Sq fluids at home.
Prazosin is a question for your vet. Some stay on this medication long term as it seems to be very beneficial.
I am not sure what the shaking is. Maybe try to get it on video and discuss with your vet. Maybe pain?
You should also ask about anything you can try for stress? Like Feliway? Catnip? Toys? Confinement at night? An anti anxiety medication? This is a discussion for your vet. What really matters is that you have someone advocating for you and your cat and you do everything you can to avoid another blockage and learn how to manage this long term.
Best of luck.
If possible can you share your vet experience (with the costs included) in our storyline section. It might help others.
My 11 year old indoor cat has started a snoring sound when breathing over the past year. A local vet said it was not in her lungs and that he saw something while looking in her nose. She is eating and drinking fine with no other problems. Steroids and antibiotics helped pretty well, but the symptoms returned afterward. We think it could be a nasopharyngeal polyp (all of the symptoms are there[the sneezing fits, the head shaking, the constant swallowing like she has something in her throat) but we just got quoted 5 grand for a CT and surgery at the specialist. No other local vet will do an exam under anesthesia to look. Someone please help. We feel like our days are numbered for our sweet Sadie girl. ????
Good morning- sorry you are going through this. Is your vet able to do this or are you referred to a specialist? I vaguely remember another Pawbly friend having the same issue a while back, and they found a vet that did an exam under general anesthesia for a much more affordable cost. Have you spoken to your local animal shelter to see if they know of a vet that can do this? They may be able to offer some advice on who else to reach out to in your area. I am sorry that I cannot offer more concrete advice.
We’ve asked several local vets, but they all say they don’t do that. They always refer to the specialist clinic and no joke they are quoting 5 grand. Mind blowing! We’ll keep asking around. We’ll start with the animal shelters as well.
Hello,
I agree with Sarah. Start calling rescues and shelters and ask if they’ve had a case like his and who they used for it. There are lots of vets who will look and remove a polyp if it is there but you have to be persistent. If you find someone please share it with us so we can pass it along. Also I would ask your vet to have the radiographs reviewed by a boarded radiologist. It might help. At my clinic this is about $70.
Dr. Magnifico! Thank you so much for responding! Your YouTube videos have provided us hope that we can potentially fix our cat’s problem at a reasonable cost. You’re the best. ????
Thank you. Please let us know what happens.
Dr. Magnifico, we are having difficulty finding any vet willing to do an exam under anesthesia to diagnose/ perform a potential polypectomy. Do you know of anyone in the southeast that will do this? We’ve made so many calls. We’re seriously considering driving across the country to see you. Please let us know. Thanks!
Hello,
I was wondering if you have had experience with Dr. Jeff’s Daily Canine Care? My 13+ year old Beagle has some health problems and bad teeth. He currently is on proviable-DC and also takes 1/2 tablet of pepcid AC with each meal. Because of his age and health problems he is not a good candidate for teeth cleaning. Dr. Jeff’s Daily Canine Care advertised that it includes a probiotic, will help with teeth care including bad breath and other additional benefits. Wondering if this is worth a try? It costs about the same as the proviable-DC.
Thank you
This is what they advertise
l-carnatine rendering
L-carnitine
Weight control and energy
sea kelp rendering
Sea Kelp
Supports teeth and breath
probiotics rendering
Probiotics
Digestive/immune health, anti-allergy
fiber rendering
Fiber
Bowel and colon support
omega-3s rendering
Omega-3s
Reduce inflammation, condition skin/coat
Hello,
In my opinion bad teeth only have one good option. Dental cleaning and extractions. Everything else over the counter is false hope and wasted time. Sorry. Brutally honest. I have done loads and loads of bad dentals on older dogs. Every single time I really fretted the anesthesia and every time I have seen these guys flourish after it’s done. The longer you wait the worse it gets and the more afraid you get about doing it. There is no other good option. Sorry and good luck.
I live in a studio apartment with two female cats (ages 1.5 & 5) and when I’m not in the apartment, they get along fine. During the day if I’m home, they only compete when they are hungry. But all of a sudden between 12am and 1am if I’m home, they start to chase each other to the point of some scary yowels. I can only assume it’s jealousy-triggered. My question is, how do I mitigate the fighting if i can only separate them between a cold bathroom and the huge main room (that has me in it)? Would separating them like that only make things worse? Any herbal remedies to calm newly competitive kitties?
Hi there- there may be an underlying issue that is unknown or unrealized to you that is causing this change in behavior. So that might be worth investigating. As far as keeping them separated in your studio- have you tried to make places where they can “escape” to? For instance, we used to have a cat that was very sociable, but when she needed her alone time she would go up on the window sill of our basement window (high up) where no one else could bother her. When the cat we currently have needs a break from the dogs, she goes on the shelf in our closet where she can be alone. Maybe a cat tree or a high shelf might be helpful? ????????
Hello,
It is not uncommon for the stress of going to a new home and the changes in a kittens lifestyle once there to cause an upper respiratory infection. It is best to see a vet ASAP. Call your vet. Express your concerns and if they can’t get you in within a day or two call other vets. We are all busy right now but waiting until an infection becomes a life threatening illness is unethical. We always fit people in even though we are very busy. If all else fails go to the ER. Better safe than sorry.