Pet(s): Photos & Discussion

[langway]

Alright, guys, I'm about to go on the rant of a fucking lifetime. I also need advice.

So it's coming up on a month of Piper's adoption. Piper has become much more trusting of us, so I was able to look in her ears. Disgusting. My mom helped me clean them out, but there was still some gunk, I was gonna order some ear meds from the internet until the next day, Friday, I noticed she was walking with a slight limp. She seemed to be able to put some weight on her back leg, but not much. I gave her the weekend just to see if she maybe pulled a muscle, she was still playing like a crazy kitty, getting to her litter box and food bowl, and all that, but yesterday she was still limping. I took her to my vet today to be looked at, and my god, the problems that this cat has. 

My vet was able to tell me, without even doing x rays and just by feeling her leg, that she has luxating patella. It's basically where the knee cap pops out of place/moves out of its normal location. They did x rays to confirm there was no fractures and everything was okay with her hips and what not. Everything is fine there. Also, Piper has a heart murmur. Piper felt a little bloated to my vet, and wants a stool sample because she thinks she might have parasites. Vet also think she might have another hernia (the rescue group I adopted her from said she had a surgery for a hernia at the same time they did her spay, so around mid September. I'm wondering if it's possible that this surgery was botched because I've heard many horror stories about the vet they took her to to get this done). Piper was running a fever that my vet thinks is from a bite (she could not identify the source of where a bite was, but that's her thought process). Guys, my cats haven't been around each other. Nibbler is indoor/outdoor, spends the majority of her time outside babysitting the neighbor's kids, comes in and sleeps in my mom's office when it's cold or too hot. We keep her separate from the dogs because she's made it clear she hates them. So if Nibbler didn't bite Piper, she must have been bitten before she even came into my care. So Piper has likely had a fever since before she even came into my care, which would explain her sluggish first month with us. Oh, and I was told that Piper's stitches were dissolvable and the ones that weren't dissolvable were removed. Guess who found a stitch in Piper's stomach today? Ear infection was confirmed as well. The vet wanted to gag when she saw what she did in the little ear magnifier thing. 

I can't BELIEVE those people read me the riot act about everything health related in animals and then give someone a cat in this condition! A possibility of parasites? That's putting the health of our other animals at risk! Never mind the fact she has a fever from a possible bite, and god only knows how long she's had that. A heart murmur? Was never told about it! A fucking STITCH LEFT IN HER BELLY? What the fuck?! A messed up knee?! ALL of these things were probably presented before they allowed her to number 1, let me adopt her, and number 2, allow her to be around other cats when she was with the rescue group! How can they not only put her well being at risk, but the well being of the other animals they have in their rescue as well?

Guys, I am so unbelievably pissed. It's been almost thirty days since her adoption and I'm considering contacting the motherfuckers at that shitty rescue and giving them the what's up. Good or bad idea? I love Piper very much and I will go broke doing whatever I need to do to get her healthy.  I'm just so completely devastated that she's basically been sick all this time! I thought maybe she was just one of those cats that sleeps a lot and had random bouts of energy, I thought everything was fine :( I feel like such a bad mother, and I don't think my vet was looking at me too highly, either. 

[bilgistic]

Could the fever be from the ear infection? Bilgisticat had terrible ear mites when I adopted him from the shelter. It took months to get rid of them. Somehow my other cat at the time didn't get them.

I'm so sorry you are going through this and you were grifted by the adoption agency. Here's the good part: Piper now has a good home and a loving owner who will ensure she is taken care of. She was fortunate to end up with you! All of her conditions are either treatable or manageable with little to no long-term effects. You and the vet caught the issues, and just need to develop a plan for her healing.

If I were you, I would definitely look into retribution against the adoption agency and the first vet. I assume you have her earlier vet records. I don't know how you would go about seeking retribution, but the adoption agency should be checked on. Maybe @AgentRXS can advise on that point?

[Bastet]

The shelter from which I adopted Maddie and Baxter did not disclose anything was wrong with Maddie, never mind that she was literally wasting away from an untreated infection.  (If they had, it would only have made it even more certain that I'd be adopting her.)  When I notified them as an FYI, they offered to let me "exchange" her for a different cat.  As if she was a sweater that didn't fit.  Yeah, really, I'll give you this sick cat, whom you'll euthanize, and take another one, because I don't want to be inconvenienced.  Fuck that; it was some intensive care those first few weeks, but my vet and I got her through it and she went on to be the picture of health until the illness that killed her at 16+ (her age at adoption was unknown, but she was an adult, and I had her 15 years, so she lived at least 16 years).

To me, it's worse when a rescue does something like this.  Best wishes to Piper!

[AgentRXS]

@langway I would definitely let the rescue know but I'm not sure either how you would go about retribution.First thing is first, and that is getting access to Piper's vet records. A lot of these (especially cat) rescues are $1000s in debt to their partner vet,and will only provide the very minimum care until they get adopted because they can't afford to add more to their tab then absolutely necessary. Vets that handle these rescue cases know they aren't going to get their money right away, and usually will breeze through them (if its a standard, healthy-looking animal) to get back to their paying patients. I could see how the bite, the stitch, the luxating patella got overlooked, but its ridiculous that the vet didn't pick up on the heart murmur. I'm surprised the rescue would adopt her out without giving dewormer or cleaning her ears.  I'm sorry about poor Piper's ailments, but like @bilgistic said, at least they are treatable.

10 hours ago, Bastet said:

The shelter from which I adopted Maddie and Baxter did not disclose anything was wrong with Maddie, never mind that she was literally wasting away from an untreated infection.  (If they had, it would only have made it even more certain that I'd be adopting her.)  When I notified them as an FYI, they offered to let me "exchange" her for a different cat.  As if she was a sweater that didn't fit.  Yeah, really, I'll give you this sick cat, whom you'll euthanize, and take another one, because I don't want to be inconvenienced

If this was a county shelter, not surprising. My shelter is in good shape now, but their was a period of time when we were completely understaffed and overwhelmed with the amount of animals coming through. The vet techs didn't have enough hours in the day to treat everyone who needed to be treated, and these were people that busted their ass day in and day out. If they were the lazy types, we would have been in really bad shape. Or this could be a shelter that is run by people who simply don't care. They don't want to deal with treating an animal, so if the adopter doesn't want it--euthanize it. I hate places like that, because they give all shelters a bad name. And sadly, their are many,many animals returned and euthanized because the adopter doesn't want to deal with treating a sick, recently adopted animal.

[Bastet]

City shelter, and shit like that and far worse is why it was shut down about six months later.  There were some good people there, but they didn't have the power to overcome the horrible leadership.

[bilgistic]

This morning, I found a chewed silver IKEA label and a circular thin metal thing about the size of a silver dollar. The metal had little evenly spaced holes in it, and looked like a drain cover. I couldn't think of what drain in my home had a cover like that. I also couldn't place from whence the label originated. Because of my untold wealth, I have several IKEA pieces, but they all have white labels, I thought.

I finally figured out the drain cover fits in the bathtub. It sits fairly snugly inside the drain, so a determined young claw must have pulled it out. That same claw owner just tried it again. I told her, "No, ma'am!" (for some reason, this is the only time I use "ma'am).

I still don't know from whence the silver label came. What I do know is Little Girl is amused by shiny things. Bless her heart.

[langway]

Thank y’all so much for the kind words! I’m not really expecting a retribution from them; I just thought rescue groups were great because you have confidence that they’re giving you a healthy animal. Like I said, I love Pipes and I intend on doing anything and everything for her. It was just so upsetting to hear that she’s probably been in so much pain since I got her and I had no idea. 

Here’s the sickly girl being a little love bug. 

[riley702]

I saw a black kitten for sale on an animal adoption Facebook site. I expressed interest and then went looking a little closer to home (she was about 3.5 hours away and would meet me in the middle). Today, I told her I would look closer to home because I found this sweet baby with sad eyes:

Her name is currently Ophelia, and I'm waiting for a call back from the rescue, which is run by volunteers. Cross your fingers for me! She's 5 months old now.

ETA: I love her little jabot. Maybe that could be her middle name. Tallulah Jabot?

Edited November 2, 2017 by riley702

[Jaded]

Oh @riley702 she's so adorable. That face with those eyes. ?

[riley702]

I know! I'm a sucker for the eyes. That's how I ended up with Swiffer - she was looking at me with little people eyes saying "Get me the hell out of here!", so I did.

[Mindthinkr]

@riley702 She looks adorably extra fluffy. Lucky her to get you as a Mom! 

[DeLurker]

@riley702 - I think she's adorable!  And thanks for teaching me a new word - jabot.

@langway - sorry to hear Piper has been in pain.  I hope everything gets cleared up for her quickly.  While pet rescues are wonderful and I am glad they exist, it seems contrary to their goal to be so ___________ (I don't even know the word I want to use here, so fill-in-the-blank). 

[riley702]

I haven't heard back from the rescue yet. I told my SIL, "You wait - they'll reply on the weekend when I'm working." Which may be true - they may do this when they're not at their regular jobs. Someone has to be there caring for the animals, but the bosses, maybe not.

[isalicat]

Oh, Riley702 I so hope you are able to bring Tallulah Jabot home...she is too adorable to be in a cage besides anything else. Our local county animal shelter is a horrible place, long overdue for replacement and now the three cities in my county that had agreed to get together and build a new shelter (ground to be broken early next year on land already purchased and approved) have now "broken apart" with the northern two cities pulling out to do their own shelter and our area left without sufficient funds to put something worthy together. I so relive the day in January when I was found by our Louis, currently asleep on the chair next to me, as he was living in the top cage above four other cats (on that tier) in a cold and noisy (many dogs barking from all the places in the next corridor) cement room. I'm still not sure how we got out of there without me bringing home at least another two or three cats there just to get them out of what must seem like cat purgatory.

[riley702]

Still no word! I hate this.

[Mindthinkr]

Crossing my fingers for you Riley702. 

[DeLurker]

Got an appointment to take Kook into see the vet today.  He hasn't been eating much, but I thought it was because he didn't like his new food that I got a week ago - same brand, just a different flavor and a limited ingredient version.  And after a few days, he started to show signs of digestive upset (trying to hack up something). 

I got him his normal one yesterday and he seemed to be eating like normal again.  Last night he was breathing funny - kind of panting and/or huffing sometimes and this morning he only ate about 1/2 of his normal food again.  He vacillates between being his normal self and being lethargic (being lower energy is normal for him during the day after he's had his morning outing and has burned off energy, but this is different).

Tried doing a bit of research on the breed and they can be picky eaters, but I've feed him the same brand, flavor and version of his dry food since I got him and supplement it with plain yogurt or Honest Kitchen dehydrated food mixed in.  He's been quite content with his diet, even though he supplements it with eating the leftover cat food.

[AgentRXS]

1 hour ago, DeLurker said:

I got him his normal one yesterday and he seemed to be eating like normal again.  Last night he was breathing funny - kind of panting and/or huffing sometimes and this morning he only ate about 1/2 of his normal food again.  He vacillates between being his normal self and being lethargic (being lower energy is normal for him during the day after he's had his morning outing and has burned off energy, but this is different).

I'm hoping its not, but this behavior sounds to me like he might have a heart issue. Perhaps a murmur or an enlarged heart.  Only going by the panting and the lethargy. Or it maybe an early sign of bloat. Hoping its not either of those things and its just a minor issue. Keep us posted.

[Mindthinkr]

DeLurker  Hope the vets visit went well for you and Kook. You know him well (catching the change early) and I'm glad that you made the decision to get him seen right away. Whatever it is I hope that they can nip it in the bud. 

[riley702]

I thought of heart issues, as well. Hope we're all wrong. Virtual hugs.

[Bastet]

A third "Uh-oh, maybe a heart issue" reaction here, so I'm very glad he's going to the vet and eagerly await a report, hoping it's something easily resolved.

[Random Noise]

My cat loves watching a dripping faucet. Sometimes she'll sit in the sink wondering where the water goes.

Edited November 7, 2017 by Random Noise

[DeLurker]

The vet appointment went ok - the vet gave him a thorough physical and said he seems fine based on what he can see, hear and feel.  And of course Kook was acting perfectly fine when we went in for the visit.  He suggested we can do blood work and/or get imaging done if I want to take an aggressive stance, but what would be really helpful to him is if I can take some video of when the irregular breathing starts so he can see what I am seeing especially since these things are all so recent and not consistent.

I've decided to wait a few days to see what happens.  He's was fine last night and so far this morning, so I'll just keep a close eye on him and my phone handy to take video.  I'm leaning towards getting the blood work and/or imaging done, but my head is a big old mess right now (other things, not pet related) that I know I may not be thinking through things clearly.  Not helping things is that I had a doc appointment after Kook's vet appointment and I have an unexplained rash on my stomach (most likely stress related, because not an allergic reaction nor shingles) and found out I have strep.

I forgot to ask whether the imaging/x-rays can be done without giving him any kind of sedative -  he's good sized at 29 inches but lean at 72 lbs which the vet thinks is a healthy weight for his build at this stage in life.  When I had his hips x-rayed it was at the same time they were doing the neutering so he was already under when they did it.

Thanks for all your good thoughts for my big, silly dog.  You guys (in the gender neutral way) are fantastic and I am very thankful to have benefit of your shared insight.

[bosawks]

I get it, I was doing a mild freak out on Sunday that Alli seemed excessively tired out of proportion to how active we were.

It took me an entire day to realize that her bedtime is her bedtime and daylight savings time is not a concept that she is conversant in.....

[harrie]

I hope the Kook's health issue (and your strep) is just a passing thing, @DeLurker. But if he does need x-rays, they can be done without sedation. My dog gets them twice a year for his heart, and he stays awake the whole time. Drools all over the place due to his nerves, but he's awake.

Crossing fingers for good news, @riley702.

[riley702]

Tallulah is NOT available. :( I'm incredibly bummed, yet happy that she has a forever home. In the rare case that it doesn't work out, they'll give me a call. My SIL wants to cheer me up and is actively looking for a kitten we can get.

[bilgistic]

@riley702, I found my girls on petfinder.com. Lots of shelters and rescue groups list their animals on the site. Several in my area do, including my city/county shelter (high-kill). I think the local Humane Society lists on their own site. You can search by animal type, age, breed, miles from home (shelter location), housetrained, good with other pets, etc.

The girls went for their first new vet visit today. I liked the place. It's small, cats-only, and a single-doctor practice.

Little Mama probably has the herpes virus, which I suspected, because she gets a little eye snot and a little sneezy now and then. It's pretty common among strays, and with all the cats going in and out of the foster mom's house, it'd be pretty expected they'd have something. I got some antibiotic drops for her and lysine for both of them.

They'd previously tested negative for FIV and FeLV, and they're doing great overall. The doc didn't see any fleas, so I hopefully got all or most of them with the treatment a couple weeks ago. I got more of the treatment, but I'm not wild about continually treating indoor cats. I'm going to treat at least once more and evaluate after that.

The vet's office had two GIANT Maine Coon resident cats. They were by far the biggest cats I've ever seen. They were easily the size of a bobcat, but with a way thicker and fluffier coat. I should've taken a picture, but I didn't want to be "that person". They looked like the cats on this page. They were sitting on a counter that was waist-high to me and their heads were level with mine. It was like prehistoric dinosaur cats. They were so sweet, too. Super purry!

[riley702]

Those Maine Coons are gorgeous!

[riley702]

Paula has located white kittens about 3 hours away. We're debating...

[shanndee]

I'm getting close to my wits end. :(

We have had Chelsea for a year now. We adopted her right after her front leg amputation. Between her surgery and a really bad case of mastitis she needed a lot of care. She would wake us up every morning at 3 am. We would get up to get her what she needed (usually meds).

It has become a habit. After she recovered, we ignored her cries. That didn't work. We started to spray her with water. No change. Slowly, she seemed to come around. The week before we went on holiday she was letting us sleep until 5. (Hubby gets up at 5:45, so that wasn't bad).

We went on holiday. 

We're back to 2:00, 2:30, 3:00...early (and sometimes multiple) wakings.

Any suggestion? i love her dearly, and I will put up with this...but I really need sleep. Work performance is starting to suffer.

(we live in a 1 bedroom apartment...so locking her in a different area of our place is not an option)

...I'm sure she'll get better as she gets older, but it has been a long year...

[Mindthinkr]

@shanndee Is there something that you could give her or do for her last thing before y'all go to bed? A hot water bottle perhaps to keep her warm and cozy? I'm sorry that it's upsetting your sleep cycles and that gets really old fast. Good luck. If I can think of anything else I'll come back and post it. Good luck. 

[DeLurker]

@shanndee - I'm guessing her stress levels went up when you went on holiday, so she is reverting to the routine that made her reassured when you first got her.  Do you have a really good play session with her a bit before bed and then give her some food or a treat? 

Kook Update - He's been more normal but not completely, but my cat (Sir Robin) has also been off behaviorally (world's most horrible sentence. Apologies to Good Grammarians everywhere).  I'm thinking they are both stressed because I am stressed to the Nth right now.  Since the odd breathing patterns are gone from the Kook, but he has managed to throw up a bit (green so I am guessing he's been eating some grass), I am going to take him in for the blood work.

[riley702]

22 hours ago, riley702 said:

Paula has located white kittens about 3 hours away. We're debating...

Quoting myself to say we're going to do it! Tomorrow. Paula talked to the lady some more, and she bought a property with an old barn on it and then realized there were 3 skinny white cats in the barn that had been left. (Grr.) Worse, they were all pregnant. She says two are the half-grown kittens of the other and were nursing off their pregnant momma until the lady started feeding them all. They had 13 kittens within days of each other (9/11, 9/14, and 9/15). One's litter had two kittens much tinier than the others in the litter and one died shortly after birth. Here we go!

ETA: She has applied to a rescue to get the mothers spayed after the kittens are weaned. She has moved them all into her basement to provide shelter and steady food, so they won't get pregnant again before she can take them in.

Edited November 10, 2017 by riley702

[Random Noise]

23 hours ago, shanndee said:

I'm getting close to my wits end. :(

We have had Chelsea for a year now. We adopted her right after her front leg amputation. Between her surgery and a really bad case of mastitis she needed a lot of care. She would wake us up every morning at 3 am. We would get up to get her what she needed (usually meds).

It has become a habit. After she recovered, we ignored her cries. That didn't work. We started to spray her with water. No change. Slowly, she seemed to come around. The week before we went on holiday she was letting us sleep until 5. (Hubby gets up at 5:45, so that wasn't bad).

We went on holiday. 

We're back to 2:00, 2:30, 3:00...early (and sometimes multiple) wakings.

Any suggestion? i love her dearly, and I will put up with this...but I really need sleep. Work performance is starting to suffer.

(we live in a 1 bedroom apartment...so locking her in a different area of our place is not an option)

...I'm sure she'll get better as she gets older, but it has been a long year...

I used to have a cat named Casper. One day, he swallowed a small rock which became lodged in his intestine and the vet had to perform surgery to remove it. Exactly why he swallowed the rock in the first place is a complete mystery and the vet had never seen it before.

When he came back home again, he was no longer content to lay in his favorite spot. He would continually wake me up and had to be around me continuously. One night, I pulled the chair from my desk alongside the bed near my pillow and folded my coat into a little nest for him. He curled up in the coat and went to sleep. Every night afterward I just made sure the chair was beside the bed and the coat folded on the seat. He slept and I slept and the both of us were happy.

Don't know if this would work for you, but it's worth a try.

[bilgistic]

I thought giving Bilgisticat subcutaneous fluids was bad. Now I'm having to give Little Mama eye drops. I can barely stand putting drops in my own eyes.

I purritoed her, wiped her eyes and did the drops. I tried to win her trust back with a new catnip toy. I feel so bad for her because she's so reserved. I don't want to stress our relationship, but I've got to get her eyes cleared up.

It took me a day to work up the courage to do the drops by purrito method. I tried just doing the drops while she was relaxed and barely got one in one eye.

At least the girls are eating the lysine supplement in their food (knock wood).

[riley702]

I love the word purrito. That is all.

[walnutqueen]

10 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I thought giving Bilgisticat subcutaneous fluids was bad. Now I'm having to give Little Mama eye drops. I can barely stand putting drops in my own eyes.

I purritoed her, wiped her eyes and did the drops. I tried to win her trust back with a new catnip toy. I feel so bad for her because she's so reserved. I don't want to stress our relationship, but I've got to get her eyes cleared up.

It took me a day to work up the courage to do the drops by purrito method. I tried just doing the drops while she was relaxed and barely got one in one eye.

At least the girls are eating the lysine supplement in their food (knock wood).

Don't sweat it - she'll forgive you (eventually!).  ;-)

The same week I had to say farewell to my soulmate Beanie Baby, his outdoor semi feral clone Tiger Baby had a horrible eye.  I managed to capture him and take him to my vet - it turned out he had part of a foxtail jammed up in his eye and needed to be medicated for an entire week (eyedrops 3 x/day included).  Poor little thing had to be locked in a room and traumatized; when he was finally released he barely gave me the stink eye, and was soon eating deli treats out of my hand like nothing happened.  It did take some months before he let me pet him again, but that was to be expected. 

Cats teach us patience, and the necessity of delaying gratification.  They also teach us how to administer the most incredible medical interventions - I can't begin to count the many "procedures" I've performed on my guys over the years.  Nowadays, pills and injections twice daily are barely a blip on my radar screen (and this with a cat who needs two vet techs to help my vet draw blood; he is THAT strong).

[Bastet]

As I've shared before, Maddie was in terrible shape when I adopted her, and while I was able to stay home with her for a while, by the time I went back to work she was still on one medication - eye drops.  She needed them several times a day, including a dose during the day.  She took medication like a dream, and was incredibly friendly with my parents, so I asked my mom to go do the mid-day dose rather than me leaving work.  Well.  Completely different cat when it came to getting medication from Grandma versus from Mommy.  Little stinker.  She did it, but it wasn't worth the hassle for either of them; I just came home at lunch for however many more days she needed the drops.

Little Momma will feel better, and forgive - after you offer suitable penance, of course.

[riley702]

We're home with the kitties (yes, plural). We decided a little one would need someone their own age as they acclimate. There were 8 white ones, one black, two grey and white and then she pulled out this other baby and we both went "OOH - her, too!" So, without further ado, meet surviving runt Pearl:

who is feisty and mouthy and hungry!

From a different litter, Opal:

She is chill and laid-back. She had a tiny black spot on the top of her head, which the lady cut out because she was afraid we would think it was grease.

And our "bonus" kitty, Wren:

She goes limp when you pick her up, but purrs her head off while doing it. She is allegedly the youngest by a few days, but is the biggest, overall. She may be a big, magnificent girl. Ragdoll or Himalayan blood?

We gave them all baths with Dawn and combed out a few fleas. We're going to give them a few days to acclimate to lots of food before we deworm them. We are also giving them as much kitten milk replacer as they want, for extra calories. Pearl, especially, is fur and bones.

Edited November 10, 2017 by riley702

[Moose135]

What sweethearts, @riley702!  I wonder if they have any idea about what a wonderful home they are moving to?

[Jaded]

Oh my @riley702. Those furry little faces along with their bodies of course are so cute. They lucked out today and don't even know it.

[Bastet]

Yay!  And, yes, with kittens, it's best to get a pair (or, you know, three).  It's better for their socialization - and usually easier on any older cat(s) in the home.

You are going to be so busy - and so entertained.  I can't wait for stories.

[bilgistic]

What sweet little babies, @riley702! They are adorable! I need lots of pictures of them playing together and sleeping in a cuddle pile. Congratulations on their adoption!

[EighteenTwelve]

Years ago my housemate and I got three kittens (two black and white sisters and their brown tabby brother). They were hilarious!  I laughed more in the six weeks after they came home than I had in the previous six months. 

[riley702]

We have them set up in the spare bedroom in a dog crate, aka kitten nursery. It's up on top of the bed, with milk and kibble bowls, litter box and a cushy sleeping bowl, along with a few toys. Wren has discovered feathers and she likes! Opal is having some diarrhea since she got kitten milk, so we are going to hold off on wet food for now. It might be best to introduce things slowly.

[AgentRXS]

@riley702 They are gorgeous! Congrats on the new additions!

[emma675]

Aw, Riley702, look at those little faces!

[riley702]

We dewormed them all this evening. Opal... ejected a live worm.

[bilgistic]

Bring me my fainting couch!

[walnutqueen]

1 hour ago, riley702 said:

We dewormed them all this evening. Opal... ejected a live worm.

Love means sometimes having to deal with something nasty coming out of your pet's butthole.

(Which might explain my spinster cat lady status)  ;-)