Hey CrazyCatLady! This thread is right up my alley! Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to be a vet. I’m planning on going to K-State after 2 years of a community college (Allen County) not too far from me. I’ve volunteered at a vet clinic where my cousin works and actually am going back later this week!
Anyway, I was wondering if you could give me some advice for caring for my elderly cat. She just turned 19 this month and she’s looking pretty bad. Things started getting worse just within the last year. She’s lost a LOT of weight (probably about 4 pounds) and she has fur loss from the middle of her spine to her tail in a sort of triangular pattern. She also has small red scabs all over, especially in the patchy fur areas. She just got a visit to the vet last month, and I got some medication to put into her food once a day, and was told to change her diet so it included canned food to help her put on some weight. Can you think of anything else I can do for her? She’s really on her last leg I’m afraid to say.
Oh and another thing. Callie was always a very quiet cat, but along the time she started losing all the weight and stuff, she started howling. I mean, this is LOUD. I can here her upstairs when she is outside. And the weird things is, she usually doesn’t howl for any apparent reason. She’ll sit in the middle of the kitchen and do it. She’ll sit in the hall and do it. She does it when I let her inside and she does it when I let her outside. Any idea on why she is doing this?
Zenster, the pet owner grabs the cat by the scruff of the neck and makes him let go of the hand, then orders dog to release cat. The pet owner then beats the hell out of both dog and cat. No, you don’t beat them, but you do make it very clear that their behavior is unacceptable.
Roadkiller, the first thing I wonder about in a cat that age is kidney failure, and a lot of her symptoms fit in with that. Has your vet done bloodwork on her? If she is in renal failure, she should be on IV or subcutaneous fluids. She should also be getting all the fluids you can get her to drink. We had a lady who swore by a lactose free milk drink for cats; she kept a kidney cat alive six months longer than we would have expected with sq fluids and CatSip. There’s also a pet-safe ice cream called Frosty Paws that can be really good for getting some extra calories in her.
The skin stuff could be any number of things, and if your vet doesn’t know, I’m sure not gonna take a guess sight unseen. The howling could also be a lot of different things. She may be in pain, she may have cat senility that makes her dysphoric and vocal, she may have a brain tumor. Or she could just be pissed off about something. Cats can be that way sometimes.
I know this is an old thread but I have a question: a couple of years ago I had a guinea pig that turned out to be pregnant when I bought her. I could tell she was after just a few weeks, but the vet swore she had “strange, large moving tumors” in her stomach. That’s when I lost faith in that vet. So anyway she gave birth to 4 babies, nursed them, and then I gave them away except one female, which I let stay in the cage with her mother. Here’s where it got wierd.
The baby, in the entire year I had it, never grew beyond the size of an adult teddy bear hamster. (Her mother was normal size.) She acted immature and would frequently pee blood. She and her mother got into odd dominance struggles that included climbing on eachother’s backs, rubbing butts, and making purring, mating call noises. The mother would pull fur out of her daughter’s back. I had no room for a second cage, or I would have seperated them.
As time wore on, it would get better, but the mother started losing patches of fur on her chest and stomach which never grew back. A giant cyst swelled up in her neck, popped, and whitish pus-fluid oozed out. I took her to the vet who gave her antibiotics, which didn’t help. Eventually, because I was moving, I gave them away.
Zev–IANA vet tech,but yes.We had a pair of $6 rats,Justin and Nicodemus. Last Sept when we went on vacation,Justin had an seizure caused by renal failure due to old age and was partially paralyzed. We took Justin to the vet we take our cats to (at the local Petsmart)and asked what our options were.We were more than ready to spend $200+ on hooking him up to an IV to get him rehydrated,drugs,whatever it took.But the vet told us to consider what his quality of life would be if we got him fixed up.In the end,we spent like $10 having him put down.
I also saw an episode of Emergency Vets on Animal Planet where a young girl spent a huge amount of cash to save her pet rat Mamarat from cancer.
So yes,Zev,people DO spend lots of money on vet bills(sometimes) for their little fuzzies.Just because they aren’t a dog or cat or lizard or bird doesn’t mean they are any less dear to the ones who love them.
IDBB
CCL–I just thought of a question.
We’ve had Buttercup since she was about 16 wks old.Adopted her from the N.Texas Feral group and she’d had all her shots and was fixed when we brought her home.Other than a slight upper respritory infection she had when we brought her home,she’s been perfectly healthy.She is a strictly indoor cat and is never boarded outside the home.She is also extremely overweight.At her last vet visit,she weighed in at a whopping 16 1/2 pounds.The vet prescribe a low-cal,low-fat dry chow for her (can’t think of the name…the vets sell it in their office,can only get by prescription).Unfortunately for both us and her,she refused to eat it.We couldn’t put BOTH cats on the low-cal food because Rumpleteazer is at a perfect weight (6.8 lbs at last visit).We tried unsuccessfully feeding them at seperate times of day and even putting one in one room and one in the other,but as soon as we closed the door,Buttercup would refuse to eat and sit there and whine until we opened the door before running out the door to go eat the other ‘normal’ food (IAMS hairball control adult maint.form dry chow).
My question is…how can we get this fattie to trim down?At the last checkup,the vet said that in addition to possibly causing future heart problems (she is almost 2 now),this excess weight is really messing up a gland on her bottom which she can’t reach to express herself when she poops(something I assume cats do normally.He said he had to express it for her while she was down because it was impacted or something from not being expressed normally.
I love my cat.I really do.She’s sweet and loving and very forgiving.Just really over weight. Right now we have them both on IAMS hairball control adult maint. formula dry chow,which both cats really seem to like.
Also…how can I break Buttercup of a bad habit?She LOVES to splash water out of her waterbowl and we had to switch to a heavier bowl because she kept knocking the other one over.I’ve tried only filling the bowl 1/4 of the way but that’s not really enough water for two adult kitties for an 8-10 hr period when CG and I are not home.Also…if the water level is TOO low in the bowl and Rumpleteazer actually has to stick her face in,she won’t drink.I hate to think she’d get dehydrated because her sister keeps knocking water out of the bowl.
Exactly,Across. I am a HUGE animation fan and RoN is one of my personal faves. Nico lasted longer than Justin,but not by much. We had them about 3 years before they passed on out of old age.I miss those guys.Sweet,funny,intelligent. snorks back tears
What kind of gifts to Vet staff like? I hate to give cookies and muffin baskets, because there are always people on diets, but coffee and tea selections seem kind of lame.
I am a HUGE animation fan and RoN is one of my personal faves. Nico lasted longer than Justin,but not by much. We had them about 3 years before they passed on out of old age.I miss those guys.Sweet,funny,intelligent.