Bridey

Alley cat with huge abscess on his face, took him to the vet and had him treated, teeth cleaned, tested for disease, treated for parasites, shots, and neutered. He's around 5 or 6 years old they guess. I didn't realize how strong his urine odor would still be. From what I've read online so far, it will dissipate once his hormones subside, but what until then? He's using the litter box religiously, but it smells awful!!! I'm changing it repeatedly throughout the day to help with the odor and I'm washing the box with Nature's Miracle. What else can I do to cut down the odor? I am using unscented clumping cat litter with baking soda. The odor is just room filling! I usually rescue kittens, females, or very young cats....this is the first time I've dealt with a non-neutered male this old so I am in new territory!

One week ago, I noticed that our 18 year old cat was looking quite thin and wasn't following his normal routine. I took him in to the vet and he had lost just over a pound within 4 weeks. We immediately had every blood test known performed. The only thing the results have shown is a low B12 and low folate level. Our cat does not have diarrhea nor vomiting. The vet has diagnosed him with IBD, but I am not one to jump to a conclusion before doing my own research. He wants to put him on prednisone for the rest of his life, but I am skeptical of the outcome. There is also fear of cancer....which he said IBD can lead to. Any suggestions would be appreciated. He is active, healthy, and strong otherwise except for a "senior moment" here and there.

Our neighbor has the sweetest APBT. He has now been exiled to a small pen on a chain and he is absolutely miserable. We really like this dog, and he just looks so unhappy. Talked to the neighbor to find out why he was chained up and if I could help and he told me the dog was chewing things up and had gotten out of the fence. He says he fixed the gate to the yard so the dog couldn't get out now, but the dog has chewed on things like....his motorcycle. I'm cat people, not dog people for the most part and my knowledge of specific APBT traits is limited. I just know that this dog is a dollbaby and is 2 years old. He's very large, but he's just as gentle as he can be. Tell me what to get or whatever so that I can help the neighbor fix the problem so this dog can get out of "jail"!!

We work long hours and the cats (all 6 of them) get pretty bored sometimes. I check on them during my lunch hour, but they need more to do. I need some new suggestions as to what we might be overlooking that they can play with on their own and with us when we get home. Anything to enrich their environment.

We have:

catnip mice, catnip balls, loofah mice, teaser wands with feathers, peek-a-prize toy box, cheese mountain motorized motion toy, 3 cat trees all in front of windows, various jingle balls, fuzzy balls to toss, flinga-ma-string motorized cat toy, da bird wands, then this little mouse in a wheel thing that I can remember what it is.

He ate his dinner, allowed the owners to pet him, jumped up on the bed as they were getting ready to retire and was purring, then suddenly went into some sort of seizure, meowed loudly a few times, and died. He was found in a swamp when he was a few weeks old and rescued by them. He had regular vet care, was an indoor only cat, and very large in body size, but not overweight. So, has anyone experienced this before? My guesses were aneurysm or heart defect, but I suppose a blood clot would be possible as well. They cannot afford a necropsy, so we are left to guess.

I have two kittens that I have been fostering since they were 4 weeks old. They are now 11 weeks, healthy, almost done with their booster shots, so by the time someone adopts them all that will be left will be their rabies shot and their neuter. We've advertised them in the newspaper, with flyers in local petstores, through chain emails with friends, and Craigslist. I finally got interest off of Craigslist. I had a lady contact me that owns a reputable business in my town. After talking to her, I found out she had a 10 year old declawed cat, and two young large breed pups, almost a year old each. She wanted to adopt kittens that she though were old enough to defend themselves against the dogs' "playing". I didn't feel that 11 week old cats would be able to do this, so I got a little nervous. We talked some more, and I found out that she lost a young cat about 2 years ago when it got run over by a car. My husband and I both feel strongly that cats should be indoor only unless walked on a leash outside or placed in a cat enclosure of some kind. As a result of her having two dogs that I felt she would not protect the kittens from and her being careless enough to let one get killed by a car, I called her and turned her down for the adoption as not being the right fit. Today, I have doubts because they might have been safe and it was a home for both, not just one. Did I make the right decision in trusting my instincts or was I being overprotective? This isn't my first rescue, but all the rescues I've done in the past have gone to people that I knew or that were a friend of a friend and I knew would take care of the animals.

One of my workers just found 3 kittens, approximately 4 weeks old. I currently have 6 indoor cats of my own and am fostering one that is to go to his new home in about a week. If I take these 3 cats in, it means round the clock bottle feeding, etc. We are almost maxed out time-wise as it is. There are no rescues in my area that will take them this young. If I don't take them in and leave them to fend for themselves, if they survive, they will turn wild and add to the problem. I have managed to trap/spay/neuter most of the cats that people have dumped at our place of business. There are so many out in the fields that there is no way to get them all and sometimes kittens pop up. Timing is bad. So, do I suck it up and take them home until they are weaned and healthy and then take them to the shelter or do I see what nature does? I'm so frustrated. This year we've seen so many dumped here it's unbelieveable. Please give me your kind opinions on what you would do.

I would assume regular primer would work, but I'm not sure since I'm only familiar with sheetrock walls and water based paints. Do we still use water based primer and paint? A friend of ours is renting a mobile home temporarily and we need to make it look as nice as possible. The previous tenants chose to sponge-paint one of the rooms bright pink and purple with some kind of glitter paint all over. We want to change it back to an off-white or some other subdued color. How do we do this? This is the old type of thin wood paneling with the ridges. Very old.

My husband's boss brought me an item I wanted back from Japan (he is Japanese) and I want to thank him properly. He is here in the US with no family and very few friends. How can I show our gratitude for his kindness?

How successful has it been for you? I just learned about it through the charity I support. Pretty good thing? Any experience with it? I've shopped through it a couple of times and while it's slow going, it seems like a really good thing.

To control pain and inflammation, particularly in the cases of arthritis and spinal issues. The reason I ask is that my 17 year old received a shot about a week ago for a bulging disc in his back (recent development) and now we have other issues that were not there before. Any information is appreciated.

We have a cat with an anxiety problem. We've used the Feliway diffusers to some degree of success, but he continues to have anxiety attacks. He will literally shake for 30 minutes or more, ears twitching all directions, and be super jumpy. He's frightened, but for no apparent reason. He was somewhat this way as a small kitten, but now he is about a year and a half old and more nervous than ever. He was neutered at 4 months old, goes to the vet every 6 months, and is in perfect health otherwise. Is this medication a safe option for him?

About a year ago I noticed that my 17 year old Maine Coon's eye was cloudier than the other. At his 6 months checkup he was diagnosed as having what the vet called a scleral cataract. He asked about his night vision, and said that over time it would decrease but indicated it wasn't serious. Our cat is now noticeably having problems seeing at night, and the cloudiness seems to have increased. He is extremely healthy, very strong, and a little overweight (we manage it). Other than a little arthritis which we manage with Cosequin, he has no other health issues. Senior blood panel is done once a year. I'm worried he will become completely blind and wonder if this is something that can be treated before it progresses? His next appointment is in 2 weeks, so I want to be prepared with information. I can't seem to find anything on the internet specifically about this.

I'm interested to see how you feel about it. As owner of 6 cats, I'm sure you can guess how I would respond.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091220/sc_afp/lifest...

I was reading an old answer posting about declawing being banned in some cities in California and had a really bad thought. Just because something is illegal doesn't mean that people can't do it or have it done. Will this procedure end up being performed by vets who are less professional and reputable or people that just "know how"? It seems to me we might be endangering cats more with legislation like this. I know we're (myself included to some extent) all on the "no-declaw" bandwagon...but what about the darker side?

Second part to this question: why do we tolerate the docking of tails and ears in dogs, but champion the cause of declawing alternatives? Isn't that practice just as barbaric? No one seems to ever mention it.

My friend has two cats, one was the established pet and he had her for about 2 months before getting another cat. Both are female, and both needed to be spayed, so we helped him get that done on Oct 9th.

The 1st female was a little aggressive before the spay, but now that all of that is over with, she's even more aggressive. Cat #2 does not fight back, she just cowers and curls into a little ball. Cat#1 is about 1.5 years old, Cat#2 is somewhere around 2 years. Both were rescued from neglectful owners, but no known abuse. I've gotten them Feliway spray and diffusers, and it's not worked. We've gotten separate territories for both cats, cat trees, sleeping beds, food dishes, water dishes, toys, etc. and nothing calms Cat#1 down. She's now showing some aggression towards the owner when he picks her up. She lays her ears back at him and everything. At times the cats get along and play, but its not a comfortable household by any means. I'm running out of advice to give him. Anything I am missing here? Any new ideas?

We've got a cat coming around outside because we are one of the very few houses in the neighborhood that does not own dogs. The problem is, the cat is causing extreme stress and behavior problems in our indoor cats. I don't know who the cat belongs to, but I'm pretty sure it must be someones cat since it looks very healthy. It runs away when we open the door. I hate to be mean to the poor thing but I have to put my 6 cats first. Anyone have experience with cat repellents? Humane options only please.

There is a neutered/spayed feral colony that live in the warehouses and fields where I work. I can usually touch them if they will allow it, and one of the friendlier ones (neutered male, about 1 year old) showed up yesterday evening obviously sick, but he ate a little bit and drank some water. He was missing for days so I have no idea what might have happened, or how long this has been going on. He's sick enough that he let me look at him and he's got yellow gums and yellow ear flaps. It's really obvious. He's just sitting around mewing. Is there real hope for him with treatment or should we just have him euthanized?

I am a cat person, so I know very little about dogs and I need your help. My friend has an 8 year old Beagle that has stool with blood and it is slightly like diarrhea, but not totally. She's a house dog, but normally does not have accidents inside. She's now had a couple over the weekend where she did #2 in the floor. He also says there are rice-like worms in her stool (which sounds like tapeworms to me) but he says they have given her puppy dewormer. Any ideas what could be causing the problem? I'd like to help him, but I don't know what to tell him. They are a very limited income family and do not have transportation readily available, so any vet costs would be incurred by me most likely if they are to get any care at all. I know a tapeworm infection can be pretty severe in animals, but I've never heard of blood in the stool, and I thought the puppy dewormer would take care of something like that anyway. Any help would be appreciated. Obviously I know she needs to go to the vet, but they aren't quick to accept help either, so if there's anything simple that might cure this, it would be helpful. Thank you in advance.

We have a 6 mth old neutered male cat. We discovered yesterday that he had sprayed by our front door. After searching the entire house with a black-light, we realized that he only sprayed by the front door. We cleaned it, used Feliway, and so far no more problems with the spraying. Stranger still, when our friend came by last night, the cat growled at him when he saw him through the glass door, and last Saturday we had our friend over for dinner, and the cat kept sort of attacking the guy's feet. This cat is completely friendly to everyone else that he comes in contact with, including our other 5 cats. Why the aggression towards one person? Anyone else have a "watch-cat"?