- Joined
- Mar 2, 2009
- Messages
- 12,952
I gave him a small bowl of rinsed canned chicken as a post vet treat and he ate it! Hopefully that means he’ll be ok changing to wet food. Might do a bit of both to transition smoothly.
Updates!!!
So went to the SPCA bright and early this morning. Got shale checked by the vet. I mentioned the flea dirt.
They ran the flea brush through him, no eggs and no adults. They don’t think he is actually infested but they dosed him with Revolution and said I don’t need to bathe him or use the Capstar I ordered. Phew! They also said I didn’t have to bug bomb the house or anything, low suspicion that fleas will be an ongoing issue.
He weight 9lb and 9oz, and estimated 8-10months old based on his teeth. Which they said looks great.
They noted he is quite clean and that they agree he doesn’t seem like a feral cat. Confirmed again there’s no chip.
I scheduled him for neutering and vaccinations and more flea prevention treatment next Wednesday!
They said they don’t need a stool sample and no blood was taken. I’m guessing because he has no symptoms and looks very healthy.
So yay!
He used to refuse to eat wet food but just this week has liked it again, and luckily I got the last flat the vet had. I've tried him on a raw diet as a supplement since it's really easy to get the nonstandard proteins in raw pet food or just, like, people food, but he doesn't seem to recognize any of it as things he can eat. I can't seem to find other limited protein options that seem reliable (ie, not contaminated by chicken or whatever).
Also what foods do you recommend for cats in general?
Updates!!!
So went to the SPCA bright and early this morning. Got shale checked by the vet. I mentioned the flea dirt.
They ran the flea brush through him, no eggs and no adults. They don’t think he is actually infested but they dosed him with Revolution and said I don’t need to bathe him or use the Capstar I ordered. Phew! They also said I didn’t have to bug bomb the house or anything, low suspicion that fleas will be an ongoing issue.
He weight 9lb and 9oz, and estimated 8-10months old based on his teeth. Which they said looks great.
They noted he is quite clean and that they agree he doesn’t seem like a feral cat. Confirmed again there’s no chip.
I scheduled him for neutering and vaccinations and more flea prevention treatment next Wednesday!
They said they don’t need a stool sample and no blood was taken. I’m guessing because he has no symptoms and looks very healthy.
So yay!
if I were you, I'd do a stool sample now, if negative, a second one in 3 weeks.
Giardia? Worms could be eggs now? and cat poop is like little doggy tootsie rolls, so god forbid the dog ate one.
Also I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by all the options in cat litter! How do you guys pick one?!
Also I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by all the options in cat litter! How do you guys pick one?!
Hugo's poops give off toxic fumes so regular litter was a must lol.
Haha i just ordered one! I have no baseline for how smelly poops are for other cats but his are quite fragrant to me. I’m currently using something a friend grabbed for me but I’ll probably experiment with others when this bag is done.
I got a hooded litter box and he knows how to use it but prefers it when I take the lid off for him lol
Updates!!!
So went to the SPCA bright and early this morning. Got shale checked by the vet. I mentioned the flea dirt.
They ran the flea brush through him, no eggs and no adults. They don’t think he is actually infested but they dosed him with Revolution and said I don’t need to bathe him or use the Capstar I ordered. Phew! They also said I didn’t have to bug bomb the house or anything, low suspicion that fleas will be an ongoing issue.
He weight 9lb and 9oz, and estimated 8-10months old based on his teeth. Which they said looks great.
They noted he is quite clean and that they agree he doesn’t seem like a feral cat. Confirmed again there’s no chip.
I scheduled him for neutering and vaccinations and more flea prevention treatment next Wednesday!
They said they don’t need a stool sample and no blood was taken. I’m guessing because he has no symptoms and looks very healthy.
So yay!
To get him to recognize new food, start by mixing the new protein into his existing food, just a few pieces at a time or coat the new food with the existing food until he learns to eat the new stuff. Whenever I transitioned a kitten to a new food, I started by adding a 1/4 tsp of the new and increased the amount by 1/4 to 1/2 tsp every week while decreasing the old food by the same amount.
I feed a whole prey diet of rats, mice, quail, chickens, guinea pigs as well as chunked meats such as bison, venison, alpaca etc. I get the meat from https://hare-today.com/
IMO the best diet for an obligate carnivore is one that is as closely matched to what their natural in the-wild-diet would be. That's why I feed whole prey. In general canned food is healthier for cats than kibble.
Brands that haven't had major issues to date are: Ziwipeak, Stella & Chewy's, Darwin's, Nature's Variety Instinct. There's no guarantee anymore that any commercially prepared pet food will stay safe from contaminants which is why I always recommend making home made food where one can personally source the ingredients. In the US (I don't know about other countries), the pet food industry still uses 4D animals (diseased, dying, down, dead) and an increasing number of pet foods are being contaminated by euthanasia as well as other drugs. It's disgusting.
Yeah he’s waking me at 4am to play. I try to engage him in playing during the day but he doesn’t seem very tot motivated. He’ll swat at something a few times and then wander off. On the bright side he also doesn’t seem to be much of a scratcher. I ordered some laser pointers to see if he’d go for those to chase around.
See how he does with the laser pointer. I’m no longer a fan of those because most of the cats seem stressed when we stop and they start looking all over for the laser light. It’s aggravating to see them going crazy unable to find it once we stop playing with it with them. That’s why I no longer use it.
Hard for me to imagine how a cat gets lost miles into a state park. There isn’t that much residential area around. Unless people like to take cats camping? You’d imagine that anyone with a cat they let outdoors though would have a chip or collar :/
I did the same thing..I bought the laser pointer when he was a puppy.Bailey was frantic chasing the light so I put it away. I took it out again when he was older..same reaction..He would cry for it..and frantically chase it.
Sometimes nasty people will trap other people's cats and drive them to a remote place and dump them. Parks are a prime place. Then the cat will often wander looking for food or people or a way home, and can end up pretty far from where anyone might think to look for them. We've had a number of these incidents here where I live (in once case the neighbour eventually fessed up to the trapping and dumping, even though it is illegal to take the trapped cat anywhere other than the Humane Society, but the cat has yet to be found). And some people do take their cats camping (crazy, I know) and lose them. Some take them camping and deliberately 'lose' them - because people can be horrible sometimes.
But it sounds like you have done everything you can do to make sure that anyone looking would be able to reach you, and that Shale has a wonderful new home in case no-one does. What a lucky boy!
I just learned from coworkers that cats will sometimes pre out of spite. Hoping my bedroom isn’t now soaked from Shale being mad that I left him to go to work today. First time I’ve been away from him this long. And this is a cat that follows me to the bathroom :/
Yeah I heard this about dogs but not about cats. Good to know! So far he doesn't seem obsessive about toys or anything aside from following me around, so fingers crossed the laser will do ok.
Today is his first time home alone for 7.5 hours, fingers crossed I don't come back to a destroyed bedroom with pee everywhere. My coworkers were saying that sometimes cat will pee out of spite haha.