Cats: They Own You

[Elder Sister]

On 3/17/2022 at 11:51 AM, The Dragon Demands said:

Finished my cat's burial and funeral in our garden. The universe will not much mark the life of a cat, particularly one that lasted only five years, but he was a good brother and was the first cat my sister's children got to play with before they were old enough to go to school. From HIS perspective, as an indoor cat, our house/property WAS his "universe". 

By that standard, we just gave him a hero's burial, alongside all the other great cats who came before.

I'm barely holding it together now.

I'm so sorry.  I'm grateful for the places and people who understand how important our animals are.  They're family.  I'm living with a new kitten who's 6 months old and a total goofball, and a very old dog who is going on 14 and has been my best friend for years.  When he's gone it's going to be awful.  And I still mourn the dogs who went before him.

Hang in there.  I bet he had a wonderful 5 years with you.

[The Dragon Demands]

A friend's five year old dog died today - of autoimmune liver disease, totally unrelated other than that my cat died a week ago today.

Talking about it I realized something that put a better perspective on things: it's not that "the world doesn't care", just that it doesn't *know*.  MOST people are filled with total sympathy for a pet they've never even met when they hear that they've died. Even for a stranger.

.....I like to think the old cliche that "strangers are just friends you haven't met" is essentially true. That most people are generally good and care about the suffering of even the smallest soul, as it were - as soon as they find out about it. The world isn't a "cold bleak and desolate place" that is indifferent to my cat's life; even *tangential anecdotes* of his life and times are enough for people to care.
 

[DireWolfSpirit]

So I've been giving kitty a morning and evening wet snack for the last year. She gets quite excited and expectant over these and will really act disappointed if I run out occasionally.

I live in a smallish, rural area and occasionally I'll find the cat wet snacks out of stock. The dog wet snacks are always abundantly stocked, ergo I had been wondering whether it would hurt anything if I just substituted the wet dog snacks for the wet cat snacks on those occasions?

Well I googled it-

Can Cats Eat Wet Dog Food? Wet dog food is safe for cats to eat. It is palatable and won't pose a choking hazard. The ingredients do not contain anything harmful or toxic to cats.

So no more going home empty handed, in a pinch I shall substitute.

[Mentat]

So, I took my cat Mina to the vet yesterday. She was behaving like an absolute star. Went into the carrier with no issue, allowed the vet to look into her mouth and ears and auscultate her heart and lungs, even let her put a swab up her butt to do a feces test.

At one point, though, the vet asked me if she had gotten a leukemia shot, because it wasn't showing in the health card that my previous vet (I moved to a different city about a year ago) had given me. So I said I didn't know. She told me she would recommend one, but she needed to know the cat didn't have leukemia. Now, she had a blood test when she was sterilized and I think she was fine for leukemia, but the vet said she needed some actual proof. She offered to test Mina's blood herself. I agreed. Mina was behaving very well, but the vet failed to find a vein on her paw twice, and the second time really hurt Mina (the needle drew blood, but not enough to take a sample). Mina went understandably berserk, and refused to cooperate any more.

The vet said I should take her in another day when she was more calm, and gave me a tranquilizer pill (Gabapentin 100mg) to give to her 3 hours prior.

So, I want to try and get in touch with the other vet and have her send me the results of the previous test. If for some reason this wasn't possible, I'm loathe to put Mina through the same ordeal a second time. I would be okay with just giving her a booster for the shots she already has. I'm also not keen on giving her a tranquilizer. She's a lovely and well-behaved cat, and was behaving beautifully until she was actually hurt.

Am I being silly and should I just follow the vet's instructions or are my concerns warranted? For context, Mina is a house cat and never leaves my flat (except to go to the vet).

[VigoTheCarpathian]

Adopted a bonded brother and sister pair of 5-month old kitties, and are in the acclimation phase, they have been in our upstairs spare room for a few days.  They were feral, and fostered for the first months of their lives until they could be fixed.  The male is super sweet/curious and my daughters have been enjoying playing with him and letting him flop on their laps- it’s really fun seeing their youthful energy bounce off each other.  The female is really cautious, but is come out of hiding in the last day and sniffing at us, and wrestling with her brother - the kids are being very gentle and patient with her, and it’s heart-warming.  Adoption names were Bonks and Petals - girls already want to change Bonks to Loki, because he’s mischievous.
 

15 YO fluffy darling cat knows something is up, and wants to check out the room, but we’re some time away from introducing her to the new additions (we’re following a recommended schedule).

[Fury Resurrected]

2 hours ago, Mentat said:

So, I took my cat Mina to the vet yesterday. She was behaving like an absolute star. Went into the carrier with no issue, allowed the vet to look into her mouth and ears and auscultate her heart and lungs, even let her put a swab up her butt to do a feces test.

At one point, though, the vet asked me if she had gotten a leukemia shot, because it wasn't showing in the health card that my previous vet (I moved to a different city about a year ago) had given me. So I said I didn't know. She told me she would recommend one, but she needed to know the cat didn't have leukemia. Now, she had a blood test when she was sterilized and I think she was fine for leukemia, but the vet said she needed some actual proof. She offered to test Mina's blood herself. I agreed. Mina was behaving very well, but the vet failed to find a vein on her paw twice, and the second time really hurt Mina (the needle drew blood, but not enough to take a sample). Mina went understandably berserk, and refused to cooperate any more.

The vet said I should take her in another day when she was more calm, and gave me a tranquilizer pill (Gabapentin 100mg) to give to her 3 hours prior.

So, I want to try and get in touch with the other vet and have her send me the results of the previous test. If for some reason this wasn't possible, I'm loathe to put Mina through the same ordeal a second time. I would be okay with just giving her a booster for the shots she already has. I'm also not keen on giving her a tranquilizer. She's a lovely and well-behaved cat, and was behaving beautifully until she was actually hurt.

Am I being silly and should I just follow the vet's instructions or are my concerns warranted? For context, Mina is a house cat and never leaves my flat (except to go to the vet).

Your concerns are warranted- but so are the vet’s. Feline Leukemia is a condition that requires lifelong monitoring and extra precautions, and if she had it it may be very dangerous to give her a vaccination. Feline leukemia is very much like human HIV where a small illness can spiral out and be fatal. I would feel bad for my baby and not like doing it, but if I didn’t have 100% certainty she didn’t have it I’d follow the vets advice. Checking with the previous is a great idea.

[Mentat]

On 4/2/2022 at 6:32 PM, Fury Resurrected said:

Your concerns are warranted- but so are the vet’s. Feline Leukemia is a condition that requires lifelong monitoring and extra precautions, and if she had it it may be very dangerous to give her a vaccination. Feline leukemia is very much like human HIV where a small illness can spiral out and be fatal. I would feel bad for my baby and not like doing it, but if I didn’t have 100% certainty she didn’t have it I’d follow the vets advice. Checking with the previous is a great idea.

Thank you for this. I spoke with my previous vet on the phone today. She said it's complicated, because this was prior to the adoption, so she would have been filed as "Rescue Cat number XX". I've messaged the cat shelter to see if they have a record of what date they took her to have the tests, as the vet said that might help her find the info.

The vet said the only way a cat can get feline leukemia is from another cat, so if she doesn't have it already (in which case she shouldn't get a vaccine), I'm not sure it's truly necessary, as Mina never leaves my flat and has no contact with other cats.

[Fury Resurrected]

6 hours ago, Mentat said:

Thank you for this. I spoke with my previous vet on the phone today. She said it's complicated, because this was prior to the adoption, so she would have been filed as "Rescue Cat number XX". I've messaged the cat shelter to see if they have a record of what date they took her to have the tests, as the vet said that might help her find the info.

The vet said the only way a cat can get feline leukemia is from another cat, so if she doesn't have it already (in which case she shouldn't get a vaccine), I'm not sure it's truly necessary, as Mina never leaves my flat and has no contact with other cats.

Presumably, she goes to the vet though, and that is an environment where exposure could happen. Or, god forbid, something happens to you, and she must change households. The past couple years have shown us all we can get exposed to disease a lot more easily than we assume. It’s a physically uncomfortable end for cats most of the time and I’d personally never skip the vaccine because you just never know. You could also ask for a titer to see if she has immunity if you can’t get hold of the records

[DireWolfSpirit]

On 4/2/2022 at 9:16 AM, Mentat said:

So, I took my cat Mina to the vet yesterday. She was behaving like an absolute star. Went into the carrier with no issue, allowed the vet to look into her mouth and ears and auscultate her heart and lungs, even let her put a swab up her butt to do a feces test.

At one point, though, the vet asked me if she had gotten a leukemia shot, because it wasn't showing in the health card that my previous vet (I moved to a different city about a year ago) had given me. So I said I didn't know. She told me she would recommend one, but she needed to know the cat didn't have leukemia. Now, she had a blood test when she was sterilized and I think she was fine for leukemia, but the vet said she needed some actual proof. She offered to test Mina's blood herself. I agreed. Mina was behaving very well, but the vet failed to find a vein on her paw twice, and the second time really hurt Mina (the needle drew blood, but not enough to take a sample). Mina went understandably berserk, and refused to cooperate any more.

The vet said I should take her in another day when she was more calm, and gave me a tranquilizer pill (Gabapentin 100mg) to give to her 3 hours prior.

So, I want to try and get in touch with the other vet and have her send me the results of the previous test. If for some reason this wasn't possible, I'm loathe to put Mina through the same ordeal a second time. I would be okay with just giving her a booster for the shots she already has. I'm also not keen on giving her a tranquilizer. She's a lovely and well-behaved cat, and was behaving beautifully until she was actually hurt.

Am I being silly and should I just follow the vet's instructions or are my concerns warranted? For context, Mina is a house cat and never leaves my flat (except to go to the vet).

I would just Google the symptoms and absent any of the signs not proceed with anymore probing of the poor cat.

Hopefully that vet did not attempt to bill you for those disturbing jabs?

[Fury Resurrected]

52 minutes ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

I would just Google the symptoms and absent any of the signs not proceed with anymore probing of the poor cat.

Hopefully that vet did not attempt to bill you for those disturbing jabs?

The thing is that with Feline Leukemia, there are no symptoms for long periods of time, but special precautions need to be taken to keep them alive since small infections that would be no big deal to cats without it can be fatal for a cat with Feline Leukemia.

[Cas Stark]

On 3/17/2022 at 12:51 PM, The Dragon Demands said:

Finished my cat's burial and funeral in our garden. The universe will not much mark the life of a cat, particularly one that lasted only five years, but he was a good brother and was the first cat my sister's children got to play with before they were old enough to go to school. From HIS perspective, as an indoor cat, our house/property WAS his "universe". 

By that standard, we just gave him a hero's burial, alongside all the other great cats who came before.

I'm barely holding it together now.

That sucks,  I'm sorry for your loss, five years old is really young.

I was heartbroken when Max, aka the best cat in the world, died at age 15, because I had decided he was going to live to age 20 and get to retire to the suburbs.  He didn't.

However, anyone, cat, dog or human who gets to die in their sleep, that is a huge, huge blessing, so hold onto that.  I burned candles for Max for 49 days, and had my own private memorial for probably at least the first 3 years after he died and understood for the first time all of the horror movie tropes of people keeping the dead body for comfort.

Just let yourself grieve for a few days/weeks or even months.  It was many, many weeks before I stopped reliving his last week, where he had gone into a steep decline out of nowhere or where I could think or speak about the cat without crying.  

[The Dragon Demands]

6 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

That sucks,  I'm sorry for your loss, five years old is really young.

For two and twenty sons I never wept, because they died in honor's lefty bed.

But him, for this one, in the dust I write my heart's deep languor and my soul's sad tears.

Let my tears stanch the earth's dry appetite:

my son's sweet blood will make it shame and blush.

[The Sunland Lord]

I lost my buddy in my profile picture today. He was barely a year old and his name was Felix. Not the first pet I owned that died, but it just never gets easier.

If anything, I swear I've never been more sad for a pet. 

Removed him from my profile picture because I can't see him without a tear brought to my eye.

[Ran]

@The Sunland Lord

Very sorry for your loss. It feels especially harsh to lose them when they are young.

[The Sunland Lord]

2 hours ago, Ran said:

@The Sunland Lord

Very sorry for your loss. It feels especially harsh to lose them when they are young.

Thanks man.

It was heartbreaking. We live on the 5th floor of a building, and always kept the windows closed if he was in a room so that he wouldn't jump/get out of our flat. Yesterday, however, I was at my parents' house to take care of our dog while they are away on a trip, and my girlfriend forgot one window open before she went out. This one, fatal time...

We were searching for him all night, and this morning we saw him lying on the ground beneath our building. He wasn't there up until this morning, I know since I checked it 100 times down there and looking from the window as well. Don't know how exactly he ended up there, except he 100% went out the window.

It was too late, of course, when we ran off downstairs to check on him. 

Man, when I took him lifeless in my arms I wept like a baby. 

[The Sunland Lord]

I'll bombard this thread while I'm coping with this, I think.

[Fury Resurrected]

That’s absolutely terrible, my condolences

[The Sunland Lord]

2 minutes ago, Fury Resurrected said:

That’s absolutely terrible, my condolences

Thank you, it means a lot. Life is brutal. 

[Madame deVenoge]

1 minute ago, The Sunland Lord said:

Thank you, it means a lot. Life is brutal. 

I am so sorry for your loss. 
 

My boys are about to turn eight years old. They are starting to slow down.

[The Sunland Lord]

3 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

I am so sorry for your loss. 
 

My boys are about to turn eight years old. They are starting to slow down.

Thank you. It means a lot, really.

I hope yours are going to live for a long time and they are healthy.