Pet(s): Photos & Discussion

[MargeGunderson]

Fellow cat owners, I can use your wisdom. Sophie seems to be licking a spot bare on her tummy. The skin is red, but there isn’t a cut or sore there, although it looks like a red spot is developing, presumably from all of the licking. Is there something over the counter I can put on the spot to discourage her from licking it/heal the red spot? 

I think it is a stress reaction - my housekeeper was here yesterday, and it really upset Sophie. I try to put Sophie in the finished basement while the housekeeper is here (she comes every other week) but yesterday I couldn’t get Sophie down there before she arrived. For the rest of the day Sophie would run from me, presumably because she thought I was trying to catch her and put her in the basement. The basement is usually her safe space (she has a couple of favorite spots there) but whenever we want to put her there, she freaks out. She really hates anyone being in the house other than my husband and I (thanks to the pandemic, it’s only service people who come in, so it‘s infrequent). Any ideas to help Sophie? I’m thinking of trying Feliway, but what else can I do? 

[JustHereForFood]

We apparently don't care about the decorations.

[theredhead77]

4 hours ago, MargeGunderson said:

Fellow cat owners, I can use your wisdom. Sophie seems to be licking a spot bare on her tummy. The skin is red, but there isn’t a cut or sore there, although it looks like a red spot is developing, presumably from all of the licking. Is there something over the counter I can put on the spot to discourage her from licking it/heal the red spot? 

I think it is a stress reaction - my housekeeper was here yesterday, and it really upset Sophie. I try to put Sophie in the finished basement while the housekeeper is here (she comes every other week) but yesterday I couldn’t get Sophie down there before she arrived. For the rest of the day Sophie would run from me, presumably because she thought I was trying to catch her and put her in the basement. The basement is usually her safe space (she has a couple of favorite spots there) but whenever we want to put her there, she freaks out. She really hates anyone being in the house other than my husband and I (thanks to the pandemic, it’s only service people who come in, so it‘s infrequent). Any ideas to help Sophie? I’m thinking of trying Feliway, but what else can I do? 

If the bare spot is usually covered by fur it developed before yesterday. They can lick themselves raw but it would be pretty hard to do in a day. I'd suggest calling the vet if she doesn't stop licking it by tomorrow.

[bosawks]

I give you Batman and The Joker…..

[Mondrianyone]

4 hours ago, MargeGunderson said:

I think it is a stress reaction - my housekeeper was here yesterday, and it really upset Sophie.

Do you mean she managed to lick a spot bare and red in just a day? Or did this start before the housekeeper's visit? That seems like a lot of damage in a very short time.

Yeah, this:

16 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

If the bare spot is usually covered by fur it developed before yesterday. They can lick themselves raw but it would be pretty hard to do in a day. I'd suggest calling the vet if she doesn't stop licking it by tomorrow.

I haven't tried CBD oil on our cat, but lots of people have some luck with it. It's pretty benign, so maybe worth giving a try.

Also meant to say that we tried Feliway with no results, which doesn't mean it won't work for you.

Edited October 26, 2021 by Mondrianyone
edit headaches

[Katy M]

When she was about 7 or 8, my last cat started going bald on her tummy and scratching. It turned out that she had developed a food allergy.  My vet said that it was very common around that age.  So, you might want to check to see if that's a possibility.  I agree that unless your cat is pulling the fur out with her teeth, a bald spot probably didn't happen in 24 hours.

[MargeGunderson]

Thanks for the advice, folks! I made an appointment with the behavioral specialist at my vet practice. Poor Sophie gets so easily startled and scared, I think she might have some anxiety issues. At least she’s stopped running to the basement or under the bed when she sees me. I really wish I knew what I did yesterday to make her nervous of me; she’s getting better as the day goes on but she’s still a little wary. 

[SuprSuprElevated]

@MargeGunderson - Had a cat years ago with a similar issue.  It was intermittant, which led me to believe that it was an allergy of some sort.  She would lick it until red and irritated.  Eventually, the vet prescribed an oral steroid, which was effective.  Only took a few doses to work thankfully, so I never noticed any long-term side effects from the med (outside of the expected extra hunger).  We were never able to determine the cause.

[bilgistic]

Please look at the reasons I'm so glad I get to work from home a couple days a week.

Erin looks tiny here. She is really only a bit smaller framed than her mother, who is built like a brute, but they weigh close to the same amount. We joke about Lexi's upper body strength and musculature. She swings around on the cat tree like it's a set of uneven bars.

[supposebly]

39 minutes ago, bilgistic said:

She swings around on the cat tree like it's a set of uneven bars.

I would love to see a picture/video of that one day.

Now that Scully is finally an adult with her 3.5 years, they are about the same size. Still, Fox is much heavier. The vet thinks she weighs too much but it's all muscle with her too. There is no fat that I can see.

Scully with eye reflection.

Fox being interrupted.

 

[Bastet]

32 minutes ago, supposebly said:

The vet thinks she weighs too much but it's all muscle with her too. There is no fat that I can see.

Weight isn't the determining factor.  Body shape is much more effective in determining if a cat needs to lose (or gain) weight.  Basically:

-Looked at from above, there should be a visible waist
-Looked at from the side, there should be a visible abdominal tuck
-The ribs should be palpable, but not visible

Here's a guide (although, personally, I think six is fine, but the yellow is accurate if you think of it not as overweight, but as potentially heading towards being overweight - something to keep an eye on, and if the cat starts getting bigger, reduce their caloric intake [by 20%, that's the standard]):

 

[supposebly]

Yes, Fox is about a 5. And if I don't watch her, she will be going towards 6 purely because she is a food thief.

Scully eats in increments, it takes her three instances to finish her food with pauses of about half an hour in between. So, if I don't watch that and cover her food in between, Fox will steal it. And she eats really fast, even her own food. Sometimes, I'm not fast enough.

[bilgistic]

Because I can't let the opportunity pass...

Edited October 29, 2021 by bilgistic

[Scarlett45]

Halloween Pet Edition

 

[Suzn]

37 minutes ago, Scarlett45 said:

Halloween Pet Edition

 

They are adorable!

[Bastet]

LOL - I love that the dog is all in for his costume so that several pictures can be snapped, while the cat has only been photographically captured once, looking like she's plotting the appropriate punishment for putting that thing on her neck.  Because cats do not do undignified or silly unless it was their own idea (and then they'll still deny it).  Sleep with one eye open tonight!

[Scarlett45]

 

He had just woken up from a nap. 

[Bastet]

They don't like that, even the sweetest of cats when their beloved parent is the reason their nap was disturbed to take one of these silly pictures we humans are so obsessed with capturing.  Like when our acting as paparazzi means we interrupt sleep and cause a napping interrupted photo, and the best we can capture moments later is this combative stance: 

Edited October 31, 2021 by Bastet

[ABay]

The deluxe bird feeder pole. Standing in the window frightened off all of the birds but the squirrel was too busy to care. None of the squirrels have tried to climb it yet so I don't if the baffle works.

 

[MargeGunderson]

2 minutes ago, ABay said:

The deluxe bird feeder pole. Standing in the window frightened off all of the birds but the squirrel was too busy to care. None of the squirrels have tried to climb it yet so I don't if the baffle works.

 

That is the same kind my mother in law had, and it did deter the squirrels. She had to take it down because of bears. 

[Mondrianyone]

50 minutes ago, ABay said:

The deluxe bird feeder pole. Standing in the window frightened off all of the birds but the squirrel was too busy to care. None of the squirrels have tried to climb it yet so I don't if the baffle works.

Twinsies!

There was a lot of wing traffic when I went out just now, so I shot some video, but the email program on my phone said it was too big to send to my laptop (awkward way of sharing images, I know). So here's a still photo.

While I was on the deck, a bird came right up next to my arm. I thought it was my husband's boyfriend the nuthatch, but he says the description is off. So we apparently have some pretty ballsy birds around here.

Anyway, congrats on the feeder! If you see any squirrels actually climbing it, they should get a tryout with the Olympic team.

 

[ginger90]

[bilgistic]

2 hours ago, Mondrianyone said:

Twinsies!

There was a lot of wing traffic when I went out just now, so I shot some video, but the email program on my phone said it was too big to send to my laptop (awkward way of sharing images, I know). So here's a still photo.

While I was on the deck, a bird came right up next to my arm. I thought it was my husband's boyfriend the nuthatch, but he says the description is off. So we apparently have some pretty ballsy birds around here.

Anyway, congrats on the feeder! If you see any squirrels actually climbing it, they should get a tryout with the Olympic team.

 

I told my boyfriend a while back about the mouse taxi service and just told him about the nuthatch. He says your husband is "a regular Saint Francis of Assisi." Your posts are hilarious.

[Mindthinkr]

Yesterday was a big day here. The Mindthinkr kitties turned 18. 

[Mondrianyone]

13 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I told my boyfriend a while back about the mouse taxi service and just told him about the nuthatch. He says your husband is "a regular Saint Francis of Assisi." Your posts are hilarious.

I'm just trying to report life as accurately as possible.

Trust me, he's no saint of anything. But the birds seem to like him, and apparently his influence with them is starting to extend to me. I have a suspicion they now think that anyone who looks vaguely human is a source of nuts and seeds. As for the mice, though, I won't be driving any of them around in the foreseeable future.

[EighteenTwelve]

A while ago I remembered an advertising slogan for "the pfabulous pfaucet with the pfunny name" and, my brain being what it is, it went and turned it into "the Querulous Quirkus with the quizzical expression."  So here's the Quirkus with the quizzical expression (she's only querulous at mealtimes, and yes, she's overweight).

 

[MargeGunderson]

Happy birthday, @Mindthinkr kitties! You look marvelous.

@EighteenTwelve, she’s just big boned! 

[Bastet]

12 minutes ago, MargeGunderson said:

she’s just big boned! 

One of the only times in history I've let using the word "bitch" slide is when Cartman (South Park) fired back at Wendy with, "I'm not fat, I just haven't grown into my body yet, you skinny bitch."  A friend had a (fat) cat named Cartman back then, and she and her husband used to quote that all the time.

Edited November 1, 2021 by Bastet

[Mondrianyone]

My cat (also big-boned, and we're thinking of getting her a kitty treadmill), told me to ask--delicately--if Quirk is also quoss-eyed. Which actually makes her more adorable, if so.

We had a Price-Pfister faucet until recently. And my dad worked for Pfizer. Plus I had a friend named Pfefferman. I think that's the Pfat trick.

[EighteenTwelve]

Quirk is very cross-eyed.  And she really is overweight, because both of my cats are grazers, but not at the same time.  So they'll each eat some of their own food, and then eventually eat some of each other's, and Lily's has many more calories than Quirk's.  Keeping weight on Lily means putting it on Quirk, unless I shake up the entire meal routine and then neither one will eat. 

[Bastet]

5 minutes ago, EighteenTwelve said:

Quirk is very cross-eyed.  And she really is overweight, because both of my cats are grazers, but not at the same time.  So they'll each eat some of their own food, and then eventually eat some of each other's, and Lily's has many more calories than Quirk's.  Keeping weight on Lily means putting it on Quirk, unless I shake up the entire meal routine and then neither one will eat. 

If Quirk tried to eat out of Lily's dish while Lily was eating, would she let her share or push her out of the way/walk away herself?

Because unless they'll just let each other invade and share, you could get them feeders that are programmed to their microchips (or you can put a chipped tag on a collar for cats that don't have microchips, or whose chips have migrated farther down their bodies), so each feeder will only open for the appropriate cat.  That would let them graze as they wish, but only from their own food.

[EighteenTwelve]

They don't really push each other off food, they just both like each other's.  When Quirk decides she's had enough of hers, Lily says "Ooh, leftovers!" and goes and eats some.  Meanwhile Quirk says "Ooh, leftovers!" and goes and eats some of Lily's.

[ABay]

There's just more of her to love.

[Moose135]

47 minutes ago, ABay said:

There's just more of her to love.

Important safety tip: Never say that to a girlfriend... 😉

[Scarlett45]

Change of seasons means a new bandana. 

[Suzn]

1 hour ago, Scarlett45 said:

Change of seasons means a new bandana. 

I love this sweet dog.  😄

[MargeGunderson]

Cosmo’s expression is always so sweet. And I love his ears!

[SuprSuprElevated]

[Scarlett45]

59 minutes ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

I was thinking about that. This is my first “fall back” with a dog. He was fine during spring forward. Although that’s when my godmother had just died so I may have been in a daze. 

[tiftgirl]

1 hour ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

OMG!  The cats used to drive me crazy with time change.  Shlomo would be tapping my face and saying "NOW" (it sounded just like it) that got harder and louder if I didn't get up.  Like his 18 lb. self was going to wither and die because breakfast was late in his view.  All of them would be thisclose to me just willing me to wake up.

[Mondrianyone]

18 minutes ago, Scarlett45 said:

 He was fine during spring forward.

It's probably worth remembering that spring forward means he gets fed an hour early. So I wouldn't worry too much about that time of year.

10 minutes ago, tiftgirl said:

Shlomo would be tapping my face and saying "NOW" (it sounded just like it) that got harder and louder if I didn't get up.

I'm so jealous you have a cat named Shlomo. That name's been on my wish list forever.

Mora, one of our dear departed cats, had the most diabolical method of waking us up I've ever experienced. She would do the more normal stuff first, like tap you on the arm, for example, or lick your hand. And when that didn't work, she'd escalate. She'd put a paw against your face. No results, she'd extend one claw and slowly press harder and harder into your cheek. And finally she'd climb onto your shoulder so she could insert a single whisker into one of your nostrils and start to rotate it. I defy anyone not to wake up screaming from the one-whisker torture.

[supposebly]

1 hour ago, Mondrianyone said:

And finally she'd climb onto your shoulder so she could insert a single whisker into one of your nostrils and start to rotate it.

That is diabolical! And super smart!🤣

Mine just politely sit at my bed. But they have trained me well, I'm rarely more than a half hour late. And we don't have daylight savings time where I live.

[MargeGunderson]

So Sophie went to the vet today. The vet thinks it might be an allergy, so is running several tests. Sophie was sent home with Prednisone, an antibiotic salve, and a cone of shame. The cone was a source of great displeasure, so we are trying an alternative: 

She hates it slightly less than the cone. 

ETA: that lasted about 10 minutes. Back to the cone!

Edited November 3, 2021 by MargeGunderson

[Mondrianyone]

27 minutes ago, supposebly said:

That is diabolical! And super smart!🤣

We have no idea how she worked up that technique. We suspect she trained at a North Korean prison camp before she came to live with us.

 

16 minutes ago, MargeGunderson said:

The cone was a source of great displeasure, so we are trying an alternative: 

Pink is definitely her color. Get better soon, sweetie.

[smeds]

19 hours ago, Suzn said:

I love this sweet dog.  😄

Me too!

@Scarlett45 He always looks so happy and it makes me smile right along with him!

[tiftgirl]

23 hours ago, Mondrianyone said:

I'm so jealous you have a cat named Shlomo. That name's been on my wish list forever.

And finally she'd climb onto your shoulder so she could insert a single whisker into one of your nostrils and start to rotate it. I defy anyone not to wake up screaming from the one-whisker torture.

When Shana showed up at my apartment like she owned it I asked my best friend how to say Pretty Girl in Yiddish and that's what I named her.  When she had the babies he said "Let's give them all Yiddish names" and so we did.  It's odd how their names fit their personalities too.

Instead of a whisker, Shana once inserted one claw into my nostril and pulled!  Yes, I got up, but none of us were happy!

[MargeGunderson]

One of my dear departed kitties used to put both claws in my hair while I was sleeping and pull. She was an evil genius.

I bought Sophie a soft cone to replace the hard one, and she seems to hate it just a little less. She was so upset last night that she cuddled all night (unusual for her). But her tummy looks less red this morning. 
 

 

[Mondrianyone]

4 hours ago, tiftgirl said:

Instead of a whisker, Shana once inserted one claw into my nostril and pulled! 

Yikes! My cat was just a sadist. Yours is a bloodthirsty savage!

But she has a very cute name. Genius giving them all Yiddish names. Call me when you have a minyan. (You may have to ask your friend again. And I can't find an emoji with a yarmulke.) 

[tiftgirl]

On 11/4/2021 at 8:37 PM, Mondrianyone said:

Call me when you have a minyan. (You may have to ask your friend again. And I can't find an emoji with a yarmulke.) 

Ha!  No, the 4 were enough!  They're all gone now, I had them for 10, 17, 17, and 18 years.  We were a happy little family and I miss them everyday.

I once had to explain to my friend's brother what shpilkes meant when his niece wanted to name her new puppy that.  Their grandmother thought it was funny that "the goy has to explain the Yiddish to the Jew."  😄

[Mondrianyone]

1 hour ago, tiftgirl said:

Their grandmother thought it was funny that "the goy has to explain the Yiddish to the Jew."

That reminds me of a hilarious old SNL sketch--except in reverse. The setting was a Knights of Columbus event at Christmas. After the benedictions by all the local clergy were over, they started singing Christmas carols. And each song, the Catholics would know the first few lines and then trail off. The only voice booming out the whole song would be the rabbi's. I'm half and half, so I know all the lyrics to all the songs.

Shpilkes . . . 🐕