Please send some good vibes my way

[Tienne]

That is fantastic, Flyby!! Congratulations! Way to go, Jack!! Is little Cleo playing offended at being left home alone while he was gone or is she over the moon to see him?

If I have been gone for any extended period of time, my cats will be extremely happy to see me (for about 2 minutes) and then they wander off like; "Good. You're home. Now follow me and I'll remind you where the can opener is."

When one of my cats was in the hospital once, her blood sibling sat at the front door and waited, meowing intermittently and looking up at the door handle. She stayed there until her sister was home again. Then she went over to her, sniffed her and her travel basket all over and then just wandered off, aloof as ever, as if she'd never been gone. Man, I love cats. LOL I'm so happy for you that Jack's home where he belongs.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

CLeo very much played it cool and was all, "Oh good, you're home. Things can get back to normal now."

Jack has very much been giving me the cold shoulder, though he did cuddle up after I had fallen asleep. (I fell asleep with Cleo on me, woke with Jack having taken her place.)

They like the change in foods, but it's being a little stressful on me... I can't just leave their food out because they're getting different foods, but between the bulk of the wet food and the water I'm mixing into it (which they love, and gives them more hydration), they can't finish their meal in one sitting. Which means I need to watch them and then go out and put their food back out when they want more.

Also, Jack peed three times last night before I took the garbage out and went to bed, and twice more while I was sleeping. And then again after I gave him his morning meds and scooped the boxes. It's more frequently with smaller amounts at any given time than I'm used to from him, but as long as he's doing it I'm not going to worry.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

So I'm taking Jack back in as soon as the vet opens up this morning (which is in only a couple hours). He was doing so well, but he's started having problems again latelatelate tonight. I woke up in the middle of my own sleep time to use necessities myself, and he was back to the scratching-at-but-not-using the litterbox followed by genital licking. He did ask for and eat more of the wet food mixed with a bit of water when I went to check to see what the non-painkiller med was.

And Carty-- A friend of mine suggested CareCredit after I was telling her about his heart murmur after his visit to this vet 2.5 weeks ago. I hadn't applied then because I wanted to look into it more, but I just did this morning. If needed, I can run next door to my work to print out the page they gave me with my account number. I'm hoping that won't be necessary, though.

ETA: Or maybe I'm getting a false alarm and scaring myself. While I haven't seen him use the box other than when I didn't see any fresh pee spots this late night, there was a huge pee clump where only he pees, that looked to me made of three separate uses. Definitely keeping an eye on his litterbox usage, though.

ETA2: And just a couple minutes after I added that note, I heard him scratching at the litterbox and checked when he was done. There was a well-covered fresh pee clump that could only have come from him, so definitely false alarm on my part. Phew.

 

[katiesue]

My thoughts are with you.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Thank you, katiesue.

 

[Hazel]

I'm glad to hear it was a false alarm and Jack is doing better.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

I'm definitely being very paranoid about his health! My cats are my babies, so I really want to do right by them.

 

[jules92207]

Yea!!!

 

[FlybyStardancer]

So Jack doesn't seem to like the new stone-dissolving food. I've offered both the wet and the dry versions. Any tips for how to make it more appetizing to him? My only other plan is to just keep offering it to him until he gives in and eats it because he's hungry and it's the only food.

 

[navigator9]

I understand both the financial straits and the fact that for those of us who are animal lovers, our furry friends are as much family as our human family. My heart goes out to you, and my two rescue cats and I send lots of good thoughts your way. Wishing for a happy outcome.

 

[Tienne]

So Jack doesn't seem to like the new stone-dissolving food. I've offered both the wet and the dry versions. Any tips for how to make it more appetizing to him? My only other plan is to just keep offering it to him until he gives in and eats it because he's hungry and it's the only food.

Cats are creatures of habit and don't always take too kindly to change. Try mixing a little of the new food into his old brand of food and make the transition gradual by increasing the amount of new food in the mix a little at a time and see if that doesn't help him along.

I have just had to wean my yearling "kittens" off their kitten food and they were not happy campers, LOL but by gradually increasing the amount of "grownup" food they got at each meal, they are now full-fledged grownup food eating cats and not my fuzzy wuzzy little kittens anymore. The transition took a week / ten days. T'was just as hard for me to see them leave their childhood behind as it was for them! They just grow up way too fast! LOL

 

[Winterspring]

My oldest girl has a heart murmur, too. She's 14. She's also blind, has high blood pressure and a little benign tumor leaning on her thyroid.

She's also an ornery little snot that hisses at the other cats when they've moved away from her and beats them up when they get too close. She's also spoiled rotten. She is my baby!!!

While the murmur is cause for concern, I'm sure you and your vet will work something out. Jack probably doesn't even notice a difference. Definitely follow up, but you probably don't have to panic. If Jack is anything like Kibitz, he's going to be just fine!

 

[FlybyStardancer]

It turns out that the whole reason for switching from one prescription diet to another was wrong. Heh. THe one vet he saw last week thought the S/O food wasn't a dissolution diet... Turns out it is, so he's back on that and eating it happily. And he's back on the meds from last week, and that seems to have improved his mood.

He's also being very spoiled, not finishing his meal and then demanding it again an hour and a half later.

 

[Saponista]

My beloved baby was run over and killed last night, I am in pieces. Don't know what to do with myself. I know it is common in America to keep cats inside, but in Europe we always let them roam unless they are pedigree so please don't judge me for that. I feel broken and empty right now.

 

[jules92207]

Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. My heart goes out to you.

 

[CaraBou]

Soponista! How awful! I am so sorry! :cry:

 

[Ruthie]

I am so sorry! Here in rural U.S., we do often let our cats roam, and once a cat gets used to that, they will never be happy inside. So no judgement here, just a sadness for your loss.

 

[Hazel]

Saponista -

I'm so sorry for you and I understand your grief. I don't know about other areas of America but it's not common in my area to keep cats inside. I've had neighbors and friends who let their cats out. I've had numerous cats who roamed and several who were hit by cars. I would have preferred to have kept them inside but they wanted out. It was heart-breaking and I felt guilty although intellectually I knew I couldn't always keep them inside. If cats want out, they get out and they were miserable if kept inside.

 

[Saponista]

Thanks everyone, with my epilepsy recurrence, redundancy and now my baby boy being cruelly ripped from me I don't think I can take much more misery at the moment. Hopefully things will start to improve soon.

 

[neeners]

oh, I'm so sorry Saponista! how devastating! good news is bad things happen in 3's, and it sounds like you've hit your 3 already.

I just don't know how drivers aren't more careful. how fast are you going to not see an animal darting across the street?!?