I was wondering if maybe you or your readers had any insight into a problem I’m having with my big cat? I’m going to start this by saying that my vet is mystified, and he’s undergone a whole bunch of tests, all of them negative. Before I start paying for more tests, I’m hoping to have something to try to look for, instead of, “Well we could try x, y and z…”
Big cat is 9 years old and weighs 22 pounds. He’s half maine coon and at his slimmest weighs around 19, so he is slightly overweight, but not as bad as 22 pounds actually sounds.
He has a nearly white mouth interior. Pink gums, but the roof and bottom of his mouth is chalk white. This is very recent. He also has started having his front legs shake uncontrollably in the evenings. This can be when he’s walking or sitting. He’s not very active – never has been; he has a blanket, and he enjoys laying on it. Lately, however, I can’t get him even to attempt to play with something. He still jumps up on things and can run up the stairs pretty quickly when the dog looks at him funny.
Again, all tests have been negative. Any ideas at all, since I’m worried whatever is causing the shaking may be causing him pain, would be appreciated. Thanks!
I have no suggestions here, but I wanted to post this because surely someone out there has an idea of what to look for? Anyone? Please chime in in the comments!
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Tell us more about your first cat Suzy…. please. You both look SO SO SO cute in that photo!!!
Suzy was a black cat (with a little white – I don’t think she was actually a Tuxie, I think she just had a few small bits of white on her, but to be honest I don’t remember and there aren’t any more pictures of her that I’m aware of – this was almost 40 years ago, when digital cameras didn’t exist. And if they did, they would have been the size of a Mack truck.) She was my (I think) 6th birthday gift, and ended up having a litter of kittens. One of those kittens was an orange tabby named Charlie, who kicked off my life-long love for orange tabbies. Suzy went to live elsewhere after her babies were weaned. We found homes for the rest of the litter and kept Charlie. Charlie eventually ran away – again, almost 40 years ago. I don’t think there was such a thing as indoor cats back then, and we lived on Guam (my father was in the Air Force).
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I was wondering if you could tell me a bit more about the straws your cats love. Are they milkshake straws? My little boy loves to chew on straws but I won’t let him have regular drinking straws because he chews through them so fast but I thought maybe the harder plastic ones would work. I’d really appreciate your help! Thanks!
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The BOINKS! OMG! Cat toy heaven when the boinks are pulled out from under the couch, the chairs and wherever they might have boinked off too. Thank you for mentioning them last month!
and
For folks in the greater Cincinnati area, you can get Kitty Boinks at Confetti Cats, on Madison in Oakley.
If you hold the end against your thumb, and pull the tube back with your fingers, then let go, they will launch across the room (with kitties chasing after them). Awesomeness!
The Kitty Boinks, which are not straws, but are shorter, straw-shaped toys, hold up better than plastic straws against sharp kitty teeth, but will eventually shred. Even when they shred, though, they stay together so that there’s not a fear of the cats swallowing little pieces. This is one we’ve had for a long time, that they’ve slowly been shredding. You can see even though it’s shredded, it’s holding together pretty well (but just to be safe, I did throw it away after I snapped this picture.)
We do also have regular drinking straws around here, too, but I try to keep an eye on them and toss them when they’re starting to fall apart. (Side note: kittens have got REALLY sharp and destructive little teeth, don’t they?) I think McDonald’s and Wendy’s have the best straws, and probably most fast food straws are pretty decent.
You can get Kitty Bonks at Nip and Bones, Amazon, and the Boinks page – and if you’re in Cincinnati, get ’em at Confetti Cats. (Also, of course, it never hurts to Google and see if you can find them cheaper elsewhere!)
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Is it just me or has the face of the Corbs chubbed up some?
His daily catnip shakes have NOT caught up with him. It’s the angle. The angle, I tells ya!
Corbie is a really large-framed cat, but he carries all his weight from the “waist” up, so he might look a bit chubby. He’s certainly not the skinny kitten he was two years ago, that’s for sure.
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Question for the crowd: I’m thinking about building kitty shelves for climbing purposes and sort of a catwalk around the top of my office so that the cats can get to and sit on the top of my bookshelf. I’m looking at a 20 pound tom (yes, he’s overweight, think Garfield and you’ve got the idea) and a pair of young girls with much more agility.
From Doodle Bean: One of my favorite sources for ideas is IKEA Hackers. Just click on “Pet Furniture” and you can see all sorts of things people have come up with on the cheap!
If there was an Ikea closer to us than Atlanta, I would be there ALL the time, buying things to make life more exciting for the cats.
You guys, if you have suggestions, feel free to chime in (Fred loves it when I tell him we need something cool that you guys have suggested)! I know that Fred thinks the easiest way to go is to buy wood at the store, cut it to length, and then use brackets (like such) to hold up the shelf. That’s what he did in the foster room, to get the “steps” leading up to the wall basket the kittens (and Emmy, last Spring) like to sleep in. If he had it to do over again, he’d probably use brackets under the shelves in the front room (and kitchen) since they’re so simple.
However, I should add that we live in a house where the walls in most of the rooms are wood and we don’t have to search for studs before drilling holes (hush up, you people with your dirty, dirty minds. Oh. Was it just me?) to hang the brackets.
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Also, I have a Drama Queen who likes to be held but only on her terms thank you very much and a mellow guy who doesn’t like to be held at all and practices passive resistance better than Ghandi! What has worked for both is to periodically scoop them up, turn them on their back and gently push their head back so their throat is exposed. When they relax, give them a treat. It may seem mean, but it isn’t. It does work well to establish dominance in a way they can understand… and rewards them for putting up with it. If you do it every day or so, they’ll be more relaxed when you have to clean their ears, clip their claws or, gasp, give them medication!
Fred did this last night, and it actually worked out okay. Well, in that Baby Beans allowed it, even if he wasn’t crazy about it. Fred did it a total of three times, and then Baby Beans was WIRED, racing around the room looking crazy-eyed. I guess we need to just do it once or twice at a time, because three times seemed to overload him a bit!
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Jakey is a kitten magnet! Such a good boy. I wonder if he misses his brudder? Have you seen him acting any differently? I guess with that many kittens to keep him company, and all the other perms around, he probably doesn’t ever get a chance to feel lonely, does he? Which is a good thing!
The only difference I’ve noticed in Jake’s behavior is that in the evenings he’s a little more vocal. He’s always occasionally brought toys to us to throw for him (and then he brings them back, but drops them just out of reach. Hasn’t really got the hang of “fetch”, I guess), but now he’s doing it just about every evening. Not for long, just two or three throws, but he wasn’t doing it every night before. Otherwise, he’s acting the same as he ever did. I really think that he – and the rest of the cats – probably knew that Elwood was sick before we did. I could be wrong, though – I know that cats grieve in their own way on their own timeline, so maybe they’re grieving in ways that we don’t realize.
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I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned this, but do you know Alice Morgan from the show “Luther”? She has pretty, pretty green eyes, and, oh, is a psychopathic killer. And not without her charms.
Is it wrong that when I see the green-eyed Alice Mo, I think of her?
I haven’t actually watched Luther – it’s on our to-watch list – but I did see a short teaser with her. Alice Mo might have a bit of the psychopathic killer in her personality. 🙂
Also, how weird is it to see Stringer Bell as a cop, and with a British accent? I know he’s British, but he was American in The Wire, and that’s how I’m used to hearing him sound.
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If I can poll your collective wisdom here – my cat Jack has become increasingly aggressive. We moved from Texas to Rhode Island in July. He’s 8 years old and he’s moved around the country with me. From a small studio in Boston to the great big open of Texas. He’s always been an indoor cat and always been a bit of a grump. The grumpiness lately has turned to more aggressive behavior. Jack’s not spraying and he’s using the litter box fine, but he is hissing at just about every person that crosses his path, including me on several occasions. I’ve tried spending more time with him, I’ve tried Feliway, I’ve tried more play time. None of it is making a difference. Medically he’s fine. He just saw the vet and he’s recently had a full blood/cardio work up and there’s nothing medically wrong with him that we can determine. Ideas?
Random Felines suggested: He may be freaked out by the new space – there could be something you can’t smell or even cats outside. Try confining him to a smaller room and let him calm down and then SLOWLY reintroduce him to the rest of the house.
This sounds like a really good reason – and suggestion – to me. If anyone has more advice, feel free to share!
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Please post a link to your game cam…as which one you bought.
It’s the Bushnell 8MP Trophy Cam with night vision.
I did get it off Amazon, but I think if you looked around on eBay, you’d probably be able to find a better deal.
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Hey LH community! wanted to give you an update on the Jack situation: I took him to the vet today and had him checked for an infection. It came back negative for infection, but he is a little inflamed. she said that can be caused by him holding it (which he apparently did for most of the day there) and stress. She offered to give me anti-inflammatory medication and Prozac, but I declined them for now. Over the weekend I purchased two new litter boxes and mixed in some cat attract litter in with the old (That stuff is EXPENSIVE BTW!!!), and I’m going to limit his access to just my bedroom and bathroom, and keep the kids away from him. We’ll try this for a couple of weeks (in addition to the Feliway plugin and keeping the litter box cleaned out nightly) and see how he does. My vet did say she can tell he’s a little bit of an anxious kitty and that a move and the holidays combined was enough to push a sane cat over the edge, so it sounded like I was doing all the right things and that the behaviour should hopefully stop in the next month or so. Thank you ever so much everyone for all the advice you left here though! I’ve read everything about mine and the comments left for the other Jack (who’s marking the dog beds) and appreciate all the input and support. Made an impression on my vet that I was a good kitty mama too! 🙂
Thanks for letting us know how it’s going, Sherry! (For those of you who don’t remember, you can read Sherry’s original question in this post – scroll down to the third section.)
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I wanted to let you and Kelly and all the other fosters out there know about this other thing I saw on FB over the weekend: Tax breaks for pet foster parents…make sure you claim yours. It’s not “new” news, but it may be new to some of you, as it was to me. I know most of your rescue groups cover the fostering costs, but there may be some stuff that isn’t covered that you could claim.
Thanks for the link!
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As a practical person, I know that I am going to need to start watermarking my photos before long. Any recommendations for an inexpensive program that’s easy to use?
I use Alamoon (alamoon.com), but I do have gripes about it. For one, I wish that it would change the color of the font depending on the background, as lots of watermarking programs do, and for another, every time I reboot my computer I have to go and paste in the registration number so I can use the program to do a bunch of pictures at once. Also, I have to change the size of the font (Alamoon apparently wants me to take up half the picture with the watermark, which I do not want to do) every single time I want to change anything (ie, the font color) on a single watermark. ANNOYING. But I do like that it’s simple to use, and I can set the position of the watermark manually if I want to.
As of 1/23/13, I use (and like a lot!) UMark 3.
Trudy said: I use the Batch Watermarks. Very easy to use and only $27.00. I tried Alamoon, and could not get it to work properly, tried contacting the company and never received a reply. Finally gave up and got my money back from paypal. I do really like the Batch watermarks. Easy to use and can watermark in batches. It also chooses white or gray text according to the background of the picture…..
Are there other watermarking suggestions out there? Chime in in the comments, please!
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On Xmas Eve, I got Cystitis diagnosis on my 6yr female (ER Vet@ $675, OMG!) & I was given antibots. I can’t pill this little monster to save her or my life, so the pills are sitting on the shelf. 2 weeks later, poor thing is still in/out of the box every 10 minutes. We are struggling to hydrate her; adding water to her wet food, Drinkwell fountain is on its way, along with Feliway. We are running out ideas to get h2o in her. Any other suggestion out there? Would love to hear
As for getting water into her, I think that fountains are your best bet. Regarding the antibiotics – maybe you could get liquid antibiotics or the shot from your vet? Or – and I’m sure you’re aware of these, but I’ve got to mention them anyway – Pill Pockets might work?
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I make self-heating mats – very easy. Go to an auto parts store and buy a windshield sun shade, the kind with a silvery reflective surface on a thin foam backing. Cut to desired size. Then make a “pillow case” – fleece from a fabric store is nice, a couple of (old) dish towels work too.
Place silvery side up, slide into fabric cover. When cats lay on it their own body heat will be reflected back up to them. My elderly arthritic old lady especially likes it but so do the two 2-year-old boys.
This is awesome and brilliant, and I am going to try it ASAP! Thanks for the idea, Judy!
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hey, did you see this? (cat rescue in NC, w/slideshow)
I just saw that yesterday when someone shared it on my Facebook page. I’d heard of Goathouse Refuge, but hadn’t seen pictures of her house. I’ve looked at the pictures 6 or 7 times now, and I want to go live there!
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Those game cam video’s are too adorable! Did you ever find the rogue pee-er?
No, I never did – as soon as the game cam was set up, the spraying stopped. OF COURSE. (I’m just glad it stopped, because it was driving me CRAZY.)
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Barney’s wondering if my finger might be a good snack (he discovered that it was not.)
Barney, having Deep Thoughts.
Barney, playing with a Kitty Boink.
“Look at it roll!”
Baby Beans, keeping an eye on the goings-on.
Barney picked up the Kitty Boink for more chomping.
And then watched it roll again.
Baby Beans couldn’t stand it, so had to come closer. He knows there’s something different about the Kitty Boink, but isn’t quite sure what (I pushed the ends in so it would roll more easily).
He had to go flop down in the sun and think about it.
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“Am trying to sleep, lady.” Sungold, with attitude.
‘Maters Boys (Sungold on the left, Mr. Stripey on the right), settling down for a mid-afternoon snooze.
Mr. Stripey.
And Sungold.
Mr. Stripey and Sungold are going home tomorrow morning! Lynn has promised that she’ll let us know how they’re doing, and of course I’ll pass any info along to y’all.
It’s been fun having them here these past few weeks, they’re such sweet, friendly, snuggly boys that the house is going to seem empty without them. I’m so glad they’re finally going to their forever home – together!
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Last month, Connie pointed out that Fab had Pei Pods for $52. I convinced Fred that the cats needed one (I promised him that if the cats didn’t use it, I’d sell it on eBay, and he gave in so I’d stop talking about it) and I ordered one. Then I fretted because that’s a lot of money to spend on something the cats didn’t really NEED, and I just knew they weren’t going to use it.
It came, I set it up, and it’s been in use ever since.
Sugarbutt gives the egg two thumbs up. If he had thumbs, that is. Also, nanoo, nanoo.
If Sugarbutt’s not in it, Alice is, or Jake, or Spanky, or Miz Poo. They love it!
So, Connie, the cats (and I) thank you for letting us know that it was on sale. 🙂
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Today’s game cam video (the last of them! Though I’m sure there’ll be more in the future.) is Corbie, Jake, and Miz Poo. The best part is either Corbie in the beginning or Jake at the end (his crazy little face cracks me up!)
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Previously
2012: He likes to run around with it in his mouth and growl at his brothers.
2011: (But I’m sure Anderson Litter Lung will still get me in the end. I’ve been inhaling that dust for years now.)
2010: Hydrox blew them out of the water at a hefty 5 pounds!
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: Poor Cosette – she runs from us now because almost every time we go into the kitten room, we grab her up and shoot stuff down her throat.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.