Recent Entries

Dreamies cat treats.

My oldest cat, Rosie, suddenly wouldn’t eat any cat treats of any flavor. However, I have discovered she loves Dreamies with Catnip. My other two cats both like different types of treats, so, being an indulgent owner, I give them what they want. People say I spoil them, but, why not?

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advice

Radiation Therapy for cats?

( Cut for very sick cat )

Trick, Cory-Bear, Freya, and I say hi!

Heya, fellow cat-friends! My mature-to-elderly rescued trio and I are new around here and poking around looking for new friends!

( Cut because kitty pics x3 plus text )My roommate/best friend and I belong to them and do our best to spoil them hopelessly. This, of course, is all the important info about our household. If you want the less-important stuff about me, well, I write madly (fantasy), I have disabling anxiety/depression, I'm always a bit strange, I'm in my mid 40s, and she/her are fine as pronouns. So... hi! *waves*

Current Mood: moody

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hyperthyroidism

Hyperthyroidism and flame retardants

I was reading my Cat Health newsletter and found this information about feline hyperthyroidism being caused by flame retardants used in household upholstery and in gel air fresheners. And obviously if it's hurting the cats, it's not great for people sitting around on the upholstery and smelling the air fresheners. I'm not quite willing to abandon upholstered furniture, although I will avoid gel air fresheners going forward.

Current Mood: crushed

Very Sad News

RIP

Rest in peace, little Grumpy Cat. You were only 7.

Current Mood: curious

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Atopica?

I realize this community is not veterinary advice, but I wonder if anyone has given their cats a drug called atopica? That is the marketing name they are using for cyclosporine. It’s being suggested as an ongoing treatment for my cat Bridey’s chronic allergies. It works by suppressing her immune system so I’m just trying to think it through before making a decision. I would be glad to hear people's experiences with it.

Kittens!!!

During my run this morning, I happened to see four kittens playing around on one of the farms :3 The white one especially was running and pouncing on its siblings, and they kept running around and jumping in the brush. The one in the greenhouse seemed a bit shyer than its siblings, but they were all so cute.

Entry tags:

cats

Hot Cat Watch Out

It's been so hot lately, it seems all my buddy Lucky does is sprawl out and sleep! I've been considering giving him a shave, but the heat is supposed to break this weekend at last.

max comfort achieved

that's an interesting choice for your nap.

Cats in Summer

I have a balcony that catches the afternoon and evening sun. This time of year, on sunny days, it's at least 45°C (110°+ F) out there when I come home in the early evening. The cats want the balcony door to be open and enjoy the summer, the warmth, and the early-evening moths. I want to keep the heat out.

So, yesterday, I took a large bath towel, put it outside right in front of the balcony door and emptied a bucket of water on it to cool the air before it could get in.

Three guesses where the cats preferred to lie?
Yeah, right. On the soaking wet towel.

Only after the sun had set, they spend the rest of the night on the outside scratching barrel, where it was drier.

I took pictures, but they do not show how wet this towel was!

How do your cats deal with the summer?

Curiosity

Since I just added a new one to the tin this morning:

Does anyone else keep shed whiskers? My mother and my aunt both have little collections. In this house, there's a small tin that has ... probably a couple decades worth of shed whiskers, from a dozen or so cats. Sometimes when poking through, I can pick out an individual cat - the brown-speckled white ones are from my Siamese, the VERY long black ones are from Cayman, etc.

Current Mood: curious

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anyone have experience with Royal Canin prescription wet food?

Hi everyone!
Bridey (in icon) has food sensitivities, so the vet has prescribed Royal Canin alternate protein prescription foods. They use atypical meats that hopefully she won't have sensitivities to, and they are supposed to be easy to digest. The available flavors are venison, rabbit, and duck. They cost about $1/oz - $5 for a 5 oz can that lasts her a day and a half. I have to order them from chewy.com at $127/case.

And then she barely eats them and I just throw them away when they crust over. She eats the kibble.

She *kind of* likes the rabbit. She hates the duck. I thought she hated the venison, but when I gave her some of that after a day of disgusting duck, she ate some of the venison. Otherwise only the rabbit got a very positive response but she gets bored of it easily.

If I buy some Wellness brand turkey and put down, she eats it all.

I am thinking of either buying two cases - one rabbit, one venison - and switching them up OR just giving up and going back to the Wellness. Only the Wellness does make her sinus issues flare up and she starts sneezing.

My question is if anyone else has had experiences with the Royal Canin prescription and if cats got used to it or if you mixed it in or what? Thoughts or ideas welcome!

Note: There is no actual medicine in this food: it's just supposed to not trigger her sensitivities. Not sure why it's prescription as there's no drug in it.

Hello

I’m a new member to this community. I have four cats: two domestic shorthairs, one domestic longhair and one ragdoll. I’ll post pics later. :)

Current Mood: relieved

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admin

Thank you, and here’s your new administrator!

Thank you all so much for your kind words and understanding.

Please give a warm welcome to your new administrator

heartonsnow !

we need a new administrator

Hi everyone,
My cat died and I don't really want to administer this comm anymore.
Does someone else want to take over? I'm happy to transfer it to someone else's control, however that's done.

Cats and cucumbers?

Does anyone know if it is true that (some?) cats are afraid of cucumbers? And if so, why?

I am curious, but I do not want to experiment on my very gentle and easily impressed cats...

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toys

Weekly chat topic: best cat toys

Which cat toys have been most loved and are most entertaining? Discuss.

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books,
cats

Weekly chat topic: Cat books

What is your favorite cat book?

A book about cats? A book with cats in it? A book written by cats? Share in the comments, with explanations if you like.

Current Mood: variable!

Entry tags:

admin

administration update

I expanded the list of interests in the profile, because it was mostly a list of cat breeds. No pedigree required at

cats !

Although of course pedigreed cats are also celebrated!

I switched to a cat-themed style, although I am open to the idea of improving it if anyone good at styling communities is interested in donating their efforts. I like all your ideas so far and hope this community will grow and become a resource.

That said, I will share that my older cat's health crisis has reached a very sad point and I will be saying goodbye to her on Friday. So I may not be on here that much over the rest of the week and weekend. But I will be back -- I will have one cat (in icon) remaining!

Entry tags:

admin

New administrator

Hi everyone!

I succeeded in getting this community transferred to me since its previous administrator had been inactive for ages.

Unfortunately, the fall semester has taken all my time, and one of my own cats has not been well.

But out perhaps we can use this post now to start a discussion about what we like to see in a refreshed community.

What should DW's cat community be like?

Current Mood: determined

near silicon valley? you can "rent" a kitten

via

twistedchick

it's free, they even give you supplies necessary to take care of the kitten.

all you have to to is feed them, care for them & clean up after then for a few weeks.

not sure how to take care of a kitten? humane society silicon valley has a 2-hour orientation & will give you the phone number of someone that will answer your questions.

this article has all the info, including links the the HSSV page & calendar with the next scheduled orientation.

if you're not near this place, check with your local shelter, they might have a foster program of some sort.