Feline Pine Forums

chronic meowing from a siamese

2010-06-25T15:47:01-05:00

Before you start telling me that it’s typical of a siamese to be talkative, you don’t know my cat. Yes I am well aware that this particular breed is fairly talkative. And before Oct. 31, 2009, he only meowed occasionally and there was various types of meows he would make. I knew my cat very well. However, on Halloween, I lost a cat to cancer and a week later he must have realized she wasn’t coming back home. Since then, he is constantly meowing at me and only me. My husband is home all day and the cat is completely quiet but when I come home, he just won’t be quiet regardless if I give him attention. I’ve even tried to wait until he’s quiet to pay attention to him to perhaps get him to realize that if he is quiet he’ll get the attention. But that hasn’t worked. It’s been rough since then. There have a been a few changes since her death one major change is that I had a baby but I’ve tried to set time aside for him so he would not feel neglected but it hasn’t helped on the meowing. It’s gotten to the point that my husband has suggested taking him to a cat shelter but I can’t do that. I’d feel like I gave up on him and abandoned him, especially knowing how he pines away for me when we go on vacation. I thought of getting another cat but I feel that will be too much change for him. He’s literally driving me crazy and I just don’t know what to do to get him back to his old self. Also, I’ve had him checked out and he’s perfectly fine healthwise. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

senoir cat and new kitten

2010-06-18T17:17:16-05:00

Hi! I have an 11 year old cat named Daisy. I have had her since 2000. Well, recently, I resuced an abandoned kitten and decided to keep it after bottle feeding it for 2 weeks (it was abandoned before it was fully weaned). I named her Angeliqa.
One big thing I am wondering is how long does it take before my older cat accepts the new kitten? I’ve had the klitten for almost a week, and though Daisy doesn’t hiss at her anymore, she still refuses to sleep on my bed when the kitten is up there. I’m also wondering how to get Daisy to stop eating Angeliqa’s cat food and vice versa? Daisy is eating senior cat food for weight control, and Angeliqa is eating kitten food. I don’t want them eating each others food and getting sick! I tried setting the dishes away from each other, but this hasn’t worked.

Jessie

My cat is grieving

2008-03-27T04:44:38-05:00

I had two cats until a few weeks ago. My boy cat went outside early in the morning and was attacked and killed by coyotes. My girl cat is inconsolable. She calls out the door to him several times a day. She walks around the house sniffing where he had been. Now, shes been trying to get out, I think to look for him. She never went outside before. Shes a little girl. It is so sad to watch her and she is lonely. She wont let me out of her sight and calls to me to be where she is. She hardly ever talked befor and I dont know what to do for her. She is part wild, I adopted her when she was only a few days old and just fed her with an eyedropper and nurtured her to live. It was hard for here to accept the boy kitty - she really dislkes change. What can I do for her. Why do cats get depressed and how can I help her.

What is the Best Way to Discipline a Cat That Was Abused?

2009-11-19T15:50:47-05:00

I’m sure I talked about when we found Courage here but I’ll recap so people who haven’t read the post won’t have to search for it.

The summer of 2008, we found a small 3 mo. old kitten crying on the top of his lungs at a wayside rest area. I talked to a landscaper working there about the kitten and during the conversation, he said he had to yell at some morons who decided to entertain themselves by kicking at the kitten and chase him when he ran. Courage was so terrified of our feet at first, we had to hide them with a sheet in order to be able to walk in his direction without him bolting and hiding under the bed in terror. Courage and I hit it off from day one but he was so fearful of my husband, it took several weeks to get him to start trusting Terry.

I don’t think that incident was the only time he was abused because of how he acted after we brought him home. The morning after his first night with us, he was sitting on the couch when we walked out of the living room. The second he saw us, he shot off the couch and acted like he fully expected to be beat for it. It took a good two months to convince him we don’t care if he sits on the furniture. Heck, we don’t care if he sharpens his nails on the couch. That is why we took my sister’s shabby couch and gave away our fairly nice one to someone who needed it. Our cats are more important than some object that can be replaced.

For the most part, Courage has healed mentally from the abuse he suffered. Somethings will be with him for the rest of his life I think, such as his phobia of strangers.

We recently added a rescued kitten to our small family. We introduced them gradually and when they finally got see each other face to face, it was instant best friends for them. In fact, I have never had an easier time introducing a new cat to a resident cat. The problem I am having with Courage is he gets carried away when him and Cinder are wrestling each other and gets a little too rough. When she squeals in pain, I yell in a deep voice “Hey” to warn them they better stop. Courage isn’t being aggressive towards her…he wants to play with her like a kitten but the problem is even though he isn’t much more than a kitten himself, he is a HUGE cat with lots of strength. Even his doctor is amazed at how big of a cat he is, especially his huge paws.

Sometimes Courage gets so excited when playing with her, I have to put him in a time-out to get him to settle down. His time-out room is our bedroom. I put him gently on the bed, make sure the curtains are open, then sit on the other side of the door and check on him every few seconds to see if he settled down enough to be let out again. The time-outs never last longer than 60 seconds.

The behavior I want to discipline him for started a couple days ago. When I go to put him in a time out, he grabs my ankle with his front paws and bunny-kicks my foot with his back feet so hard, if I don’t have shoes on, my foot would be shredded and I’d have to go in for stitches.

Squirting water on him does not work. He loves water and doesn’t mind in the least being wet. Other people have suggested I flick him on the nose with my finger but I really don’t want him to experience pain from my hand, especially after what he had been put through as a young kitten.

I tried grabbing the scruff of his neck firmly and press him to the floor until he stops, but it doesn’t seem to be getting the message across. Another person told me I was scruffing him wrong and in order to properly scruff a cat, I need to pick him up by the scruff of his neck while supporting his hind legs with my other hand. Courage does have a bad hip because he was shot with a pellet gun. He had a bad limp when we found him. We were on vacation when we found him and weren’t able to get him to see the vet until we got home again. I did move that leg in different directions to see if he was in extreme pain from his leg, but he didn’t react to it and I pressed my fingers gently down the leg he was limping on to see if he had a broken or cracked bone, but no reaction from that either so we waited until we got home so he could see my favorite pet doctor. The doctor didn’t find anything but a week later, a plug of hair and a scab fell off that leg and I saw a plastic pellet close to the surface that popped right out when I touched the skin around the sore to get a better look at it. The vet can’t find physical damage but sometimes Courage will end up sitting down when using the litterbox, plus he has a funny gate. I don’t think picking him up by the scruff of the neck while supporting his legs with another hand is safe for him.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to discipline him (that doesn’t involve pain) when he takes his frustration out on my ankle to let him know that behavior is unacceptable?

My 14 Year Old Cat Has Starting Grinding His Teeth

2010-04-03T14:22:47-05:00

This will be a question that will no doubt be asked of a vet very soon. But my 14 year old cat has started grinding his teeth. He does this at no specific time. It could be before he eats, after he leaves the litter box or when he wakes up from one of his many naps. He also compulsively licks our couch or loveseat to the point that the fabric has now changed. Does anyone have any ideas of what I should ask the vet when I take him in?

Dogs eating cat ‘deposits’ and FP pellets?

2008-03-20T13:53:56-05:00

Does anyone have suggestions on how to keep the dog out of the cat box, or from ating the pellets that come out on the cats’ feet? My dog is driving me nuts with her constant pellet eating. I am pretty good at catching her before she eats their ‘deposits’ but the pellets are harder to spot and keep cleaned. I am not going to check the outside of the box area to keep it pellet-free numerous times a day.

Throwing things off of the table

2008-03-26T11:30:40-05:00

Another one of Herman’s favorite games is throwing things off tables. In the morning, I will wake to find everything on my nightstand on the floor. He throws pens off my desk. He throws cups, books, medicine bottles . . . basically anything that he can push off. It’s like when toddlers start throwing things on the ground. He just knocks something down, looks at it, and then looks for something else to knock down. You can also play the game with him by picking up the object and putting it back. He just throws it down again.

changing over to feline pine?

2008-04-13T10:01:30-05:00

I am ready to change over and bought the FP scoop. I know on the original it says to transition your cats over to it, do you have to do that w/ the scoop kind as well? I really want to change it but don’t want to freak out my kitties! I have 2- Tyson, adopted from a shelter in 2003 and Girlie stray kitten rescued in 2004.

Let’s play fetch

2008-03-11T20:12:56-05:00

My cat loves to play fetch. I have some sheepskin mouse toys that he absolutely loves. They are soft and easily bitten down on so they make a perfect object to fetch. I’m worried because next year I will be living in a different apt. so the long hallway that makes fetch possible will no longer exist. We’ll have to adapt I suppose. Anyone else have a cat that likes to play fetch?

Cat eating clay-based clumping litter (Pica)

2009-09-18T16:21:45-05:00

I used to buy other clay-based clumping cat litter until about 6 weeks ago. I noticed my cat trying to eat the clumping litter. Several hours later, we were at the emergency vet, presenting with severe constipation.

Apparently, she had developed anemia and was eating the clumping litter to get minerals. This created a serious blockage in her system in addition to the anemia.

She received a blood transfusion and was sent home. I immediately bought Feline Pine to replace the litter so she would not try to eat any.

If you see your cat trying to eat any litter, they should IMMEDIATELY go to the vet.

My cat has IMHA at the level of the bone marrow, and she nearly died. We had to make a series of hard decisions to help her survive, including 3 blood transfusions, multiple medications, and high cost. She is now on 1.5 preds and her pcv is 30 and stable. Her last cbc/ reticulate looked good.

Buying Feline Pine was not recommended by any vet to me, but I read online that if a cat develops pica (eating litter or other things) due to an anemia, they will likely continue even if the anemia resolves. So I looked for non-clumping litter that would not be toxic to her. I got Feline Pine the day she first came home from the ER. Since I switched, she has not tried to eat litter anymore. Further, it smells better. I did not know how well pine combats the ammonia smell of cat urine.

I will continue to use this product for as long as my kitties are with me. For now, my cat is stable and all blood work indicates she is improving. We are lucky and also have had a team of great people involved in her diagnosis. As well, I have had to be very observant of her behavior. The litter eating part is a non-issue at this point.

I bought the clumping feline pine, but find that I prefer the original because it doesn’t track. Also the “clumping” function doesn’t really work that well. The original version is fine and a very small compromise.