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Post by PigsnieLite on Apr 13, 2011 21:54:33 GMT -5
And there they go whacking, whacking at my chamber door ...
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Post by PigsnieLite on Apr 13, 2011 21:56:49 GMT -5
Haf I posted this already?
BROCCOLI KITTY!
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Post by dragrat on Apr 14, 2011 0:50:13 GMT -5
And there they go whacking, whacking at my chamber door ... Qoute the Raven
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Post by PigsnieLite on May 21, 2011 21:59:39 GMT -5
Someone just offered me a sphinx kitty. I looked up some youtubes and theyre WAY TOO Affectionate, it seems. Id like to be ignored once in a while. Plus its tail is very rat like and gives me the heeby jeebies.
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Post by sunfrog on May 21, 2011 22:09:08 GMT -5
Throw a rock at it!
How do you pet that? It doesn't have any hair.
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Post by PigsnieLite on May 22, 2011 3:05:51 GMT -5
Actually sphinxies feel very soft & velvety. I just didnt like that they seem quite needy. I saw a youtube when the cat sat on its owners shoulder and kept licking the mans head. I dont like lickers. Here is another hyper affectionate cat.
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Post by Avril on May 22, 2011 6:40:13 GMT -5
Hmm, having just spent an hour with an unhappy, partially bald Leah on my lap (it's a long story) while watching MasterChef and trying to eat, this looks painful.
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Post by Avril on May 22, 2011 7:05:34 GMT -5
The rather long and sad story of Leah. Here is an email I sent to my two supervet friends, Christine and Richard. Background: Leah is a two-year-old d/s f domestic long-hair weighing 4.7 kg who originally belonged to the corner house two doors up. However, we've fed her and taken her to the vet when needed, including speying and microchipping, since she was around six months old. It appears she is now our cat by default, although she doesn't get on well with our two housecats, incidentally her siblings from the next litter. She growls defensively when they are near and they are aggressive and spray territorially in the house as a result. This is another problem we are attempting to solve at the moment. Until the current problem, she just came in to feed and would leave immediately.
First apparent 'nervous' or poisoning issue: At six months, Leah's owner brought her to me for help. The cat was shivering constantly and appeared shocked. Christine, you came over and I believe diagnosed some sort of neurotoxin or topical poisoning and we washed her coat. I'm not sure what drugs might have been given then. She recovered over a week and appeared fine.
Current issue: wound About six weeks ago, she disappeared for three or four days. When she re-emerged (for food) it was with a severe laceration wound on her left hind leg, at the inner knee. The fur and skin was scraped off and the bone was visible over an area the diameter of a twenty cent piece. She was limping and unable to jump. I immediately took her to the local vet (Maroubra) and they found necrotic muscle around the wound that needed debriding. She was operated on and fortunately the vet was able to close the wound with five or six stitches. I brought her home the next day with a bucket on and she recovered well with 1/4 white or cream amoxycillin tablets 2x pd. (Not sure of tablet dose, sorry.)
Subsequent and current issue: apparent nervous symptoms During the two weeks after her operation, Leah was kept in a room in our house separated from the other cats, a bucket on her head. We put a Feliway dispenser in there with her, and groomed her long fur daily with a brush. About three days into this I noticed a crusty area on her skin on her flank and thought she must have had another wound, now apparently scabbing, which neither the vet nor I had noticed before despite careful examination of her whole body for other wounds. The fur came off with the scab, as it does on a healing wound, but revealing smooth unlacerated, unscarred skin. This bald area grew, even though, due to the bucket, Leah was not able to reach any part of her coat to groom. By the time we took out the stitches, took the bucket off, and let her out of the house, the bald area had grown to an oblong area of about six centimetres by three on her flank. More scabby crusting was evident on her back and other flank. The fur simply lifted if we pulled it gently. She was now able to groom, and her tongue on her bald skin created raw patches. More fur had lifted off. We took her back to the vet.
The vet tested the scabs for fungus and mites, both negative. She directed us to bathe Leah in Malaseb, which we did, and it appeared the cat was much calmer after this, though she hated being bathed. The vet gave Leah antibiotics by injection this time, diagnosing some sort of folliculitis. The bucket went back on and the vet advised that the scabs on Leah's back and flank would lift off in time and new fur would eventually grow back.
Current status: waiting Large thick 3 cm scabs are lifting off raw flesh on Leah's back and we dare not remove the bucket lest she exacerbate the wounds. We have not bathed her again, thinking that this would distress her more. In addition she would not be able to dry herself, so we would have to make sure she was carefully dried, avoiding the lifting scabs.
It appears that there are more crusty follicular areas on her back and the fur is still lifting off. The scabs from her grooming are lifting off but the skin beneath is not healing, but now looks ulcerous.
Since she was prevented from grooming when the fur started coming off, I don't believe over-grooming was the cause. At that time the attending vet said none of the vets at Maroubra Vet Hospital had ever seen or read about anything like Leah's condition. They don't appear to consider a neurotic condition or the effects of shock as the cause or are too uncertain to diagnose this definitively.
I have a video on my phone of her coat but for some reason cannot send it, and unfortunately cannot spare the time right now to work out how to transfer it to my computer to send it by email. Anyway, I think you need to see the folliculitis or whatever it is.
I hope this helps give some idea of the problem.
Possible long term solutions to one underlying problem: the domestic disputes between the three d/s f cats in our house We need to find a solution to the aggressive territoriality and spraying in the house, by now habituated, and to reduce Leah's nervousness. Four practical solutions present themselves:
~ We could find another home for Leah, since she is a sweet-natured, affectionate and gentle cat who would do better away from the other two and other environmental stressors. ~ We are trialling keeping the other two cats outdoors to prevent the territorial spraying. They are finding this difficult, especially these cold nights. ~ We could keep Leah and find other homes for the two sprayers, though since they are less sociable/house trained this might be difficult. ~ We could treat Leah with mood moderating drugs as Richard suggests.
Any other ideas?
Christine, who is an absolute genius and diagnostic wiz, suggested that the wounds on Leah's back were actually caused by the other vet's faulty heat pad burning Leah's skin while she was being operated on for her leg. The diagnosis fits. We've been treating Leah topically with Vitamin E oil alternating with Aloe Vera. She's slowing improving in that the scabs are healing. Oh, and Christine says her fur may never grow back. She currently is 1/4 to 1/3 bald on her back in a sort of saddle shape.
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Post by PigsnieLite on May 22, 2011 11:17:35 GMT -5
Awwww, poor kitty. Perhaps she could wear a vest over her furless parts. And where is her owner in all this? Are you paying for all of poor Leah's treatment? Fortunately Chairman Meow has never been ill, although in his old age, he just sits around like a statue in his different favourite spots (no touchee! no dusty! no decorating wid tchotchkee!), hardly ever moving until mealtime. PS. You would actually get rid of Pyewacket & Tombei over Leah? Goodness! I hope they havent been eavesdropping while you write your shocking emails.
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Post by Frito Freddie on May 22, 2011 15:02:05 GMT -5
Someone just offered me a sphinx kitty. I looked up some youtubes and theyre WAY TOO Affectionate, it seems. Id like to be ignored once in a while. Plus its tail is very rat like and gives me the heeby jeebies. They do resemble giant rats; and actually look a little demonic. Unfortunately, our family may be a little too superstitious to allow a Sphinx cat to live in the house!
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Post by Avril on May 22, 2011 15:10:45 GMT -5
Pyewacket and Tombei both spray like toms habitually wherever they go now, my birdsnest ferns, the deck, the front door - and if let inside, every door frame, the gas heater, and up on the kitchen benches. Hence their banishment. Wombat's many shelves of CDs, our bookshelves, all have been aromatically decorated by these two dedicated feline sprayers. Christine could not believe a) that they were so bad and b) that they were female, until she saw and smelt the evidence for herself. We've never had cats like this before. I think the trouble started with a marauding ginger tomcat we called Ghenghis Khan, who used to come in through the window to raid Teapot's bowl. He'd spray the windowsill and frame, and selected landmarks en route to the kitchen where the kibble bowl was. Teapot learned from him, we believe. Then the kittens arrived and since we could not find all the sneaky odoriferous deposits to eradicate them, the felines probably assumed this place was a toilet and simply kept up the habit while ignoring the cat litter tray conveniently placed for them near the back door. It means it's so much easier and nicer, for us, to keep them outside. Our books are safer and do not produce that moment of dread followed by a tentative sniff, disgust and damaging treatment with a deodoriser. Wombat does not have a meltdown looking for CDs on his lower shelves. Tombei was always an outdoorish cat who would only come in for a feed and take off like her namesake Tombei-the-Mist, Grey Ega Ninja opponent of the ronin Samurai Shintaro. Whereas Pyewacket is a sooky seeker of affection and quite sweet when not spraying the gas heater to create the disgustingly redolent effect that will clear a room of people in seconds. Quite unlike her namesake in Bell, Book and CandleI can hear PYe now, scratching at the front door with piteous miaous to be let in. I'll feed her on the back deck in a minute. But yesterday we discovered a stinky wet patch on the Nigerian woven wool rug, currently soaking in wool wash in the bathtub. It must be Leah - who after all can smell what the cats before her have done. It's probably simple cat logic. Oh, the sign tells me to pee here, so I will. Arghhh.
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Post by PigsnieLite on May 22, 2011 15:42:06 GMT -5
Oh dear, you haf a serious cat problem now. And it seemed not so very long ago that those two were angel kittehs. Perhaps you can build a little cat house for them outside wid quilts & windowboxes of catnip? Chairman Meow has never sprayed or if he has, he does it somewhere where Pigsnit cant catch him & cut off his peepee.
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Post by Avril on May 22, 2011 15:48:56 GMT -5
Yes, a kitty cubby outside seems the answer, though I've made one for Pye already and she's ignored it. I think Tombei sleeps under the deck or somewhere else in the neighbourhood. No idea really. She always seems to come over the rooftop from next door when we call. She doesn't always come.
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Post by Avril on May 24, 2011 15:56:20 GMT -5
It's wet and wild weather this morning. 11 degrees C that feels like 8. In Fahrenheit that's 51.8 that feels like 46.4 because of the wind chill factor.
I've set up cubbies for Tombei and the Pisser Pye out on the deck. Nice deep waterproof boxes lined with soft material. Pye went straight into them and sprayed copiously, then sat glowering under the chair near the door.
Tombei is drenched from having spent the night out in the rain, under the dripping deck, I assume. Pye won't let her near either box.
Sigh.
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Post by PigsnieLite on May 24, 2011 19:14:03 GMT -5
LOL. Pye sprayed both places. So naughty! I guess you better label their houses wid their names. After you teach them to read of course.
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