Kitty Help?

[Der Cute]

Is anyone in here a vet tech or vet?
I got a kitty the other day, her name is Ivory. She's from the local shelter, as a stray. She had humans before, she was fixed when she was picked up. She spent about 3 weeks at the shelter, and her papers said 7 yrs old, 6 or 8#? Underweight for a kitty. I can feel her spine and hipbones, she's that skinny. She's long hair lynx/silvery mutt cat, and she grinds her teeth. She turns her head, and starts grinding her teeth. I can reach up or touch her, and that breaks the train of thought, but she does it again. (so far only at night). I have never heard of bruxism in a cat, of all things. (I do it!)
Right now her coat isn't shiny and spiffy, it's a bit rough and she sheds like a mofo.

She currently eats Science Diet dry food (and likes it so far). Today was her first gooshyfood with me, and I gave her a fish one. She likes that.

Someone watched a movie I'd made of her and said she's got arthritis. How can you tell, and how can that be treated? Friend said fishy things, omega 3 fatty acids for kitty in food.
It's been a long time since I've had a cat. I'd forgotten how cat hair affects your life. Hehehe.
2nd pic is shit, I know.

[Draper Mel]

First off, I'm not a vet or vet tech. I would advise taking her to the vet to get checked out. Shelter volunteers don't always know what they're talking about when it comes to animal health. My Julie came from a shelter. They said, you might want to brush her and encourage her to groom, because she's not grooming herself. Turns out she had a urinary tract infection and a tapeworm. No wonder she didn't groom herself, she felt like crap.

She also was underweight, only 5 pounds. Luckily for Julie it was just because her former owner couldn't feed her. But any cat who loses weight or is under weight should be seen by a vet, because some diseases can cause serious weight loss.

If her health is good, the vet can give you calorie paste to give her. It comes in a tube and you can either mix it with her food or have her lick it off your finger. I also fed Julie kitten food for a few weeks. It's higher in calories and apparently tastes super yummy, so getting her to eat it wasn't a problem.

At Julie's last vet visit, I was told she needed to lose a pound or two, so she's filled out just fine over the last 9 years.

[Andara Bledin]

I second getting a proper and thorough check by a vet.

She could just be out of sorts from being picked up and adopted out, or she could have some underlying problem.

Cats are tricky; they're small predators, so they try to hide when they're sick and by the time you can tell, they're usually either better or really bad.

As an aside, you should feed kitties primarily bird-based foods... with a little bit of fish and not much beef. You can't really get rodent meat in your canned food, so you go with the other primary meats that they'd get in the wild.

^-.-^

[Der Cute]

As an aside, you should feed kitties primarily bird-based foods... with a little bit of fish and not much beef. You can't really get rodent meat in your canned food, so you go with the other primary meats that they'd get in the wild.

^-.-^

Speaking of wild...we were playing "snag the moving thing" last night. She's FAST. And she picks it up, chews on it to kill it and makes sure it's dead. And stays dead.

I've got a phone # for a vet for tomorrow, I'm a little bit worried about her, but, so many variables in it. Guess I've been lucky, all my cats so far have been low-maintenance, really. No special needs/diets, just..being a kitty.
Ivory loves to be held. I can pick her up, hold her, and she snuggles in for a ride.

[Seshat]

Hang on a moment... you guys have animal shelters which don't come with attached vets?

I was about to say 'call the shelter and get their vet's advice'.

All three of the shelters where we got our pets, we got free treatment for the first few months if the problem was something they should have picked up. (Vi - our dog - had kennel cough. They warned us of it, told us how to treat it, gave us her course of tablets, and coordinated with our local vet until she recovered.)

Here, it's sort of standard that the shelter quarantines new animals, their vets treat them, and the animals are only up for adoption if both healthy and past the legal 'lost animal' period - which is shorter than the quarantine period anyway.

Hm. If your shelters don't do the vet thing, contact animal welfare and ask about low-cost vets in your area. Or talk to the vet you intend to have as her usual vet.
If she's not healthy enough to be adopted out, your vet and/or animal welfare should be told that this shelter is adopting out sick animals.

[Mikkel]

Yes, find a vet. Walking funny doesn't need to be arthritis, though older cats often get that. It can be any number of diseases. Worms, intestinal or urinal infections or even a dislocated joint.
Treatment for arthritis, at least here, is painkillers and special food. The painkiller is called Metacam and is given orally. As soon as she stops hurting she will be back to normal (as would we).
She is a beautiful cat. With her long hair she will probably need some help grooming, even when she is well

[Sonoma]

Congratulations on the new baby. I'm also not a vet or tech, but my Himalayan would do that grinding thing. Never seemed to cause him an issue. Never noticed it with my Siamese mix, or my current orange tabby.

Definitely have her checked out by a vet - they are great at hiding illnesses.

[PepperElf]

I second getting a proper and thorough check by a vet.

Same.

Even though the shelter we got our doggy from was good, we still took her to the vet just for a baseline. Turned out... they really did take good care of her. No issues. Except that they forgot to tell us they'd registered her under Home Again, but that was straightened out.

Still, if she ever gets sick... we now have a vet that has a history started for her. Plus we ended up switching her heart worm meds and getting her a 3yr rabies shot vs a 1 year.

you guys have animal shelters which don't come with attached vets?

I think the difference is... some shelters are county-operated while some are just private shelters that individuals start up as charities. The one we got our doggy from was a private rescue vs the county shelter.

i don't know if there's requirements for that for private rescues. and... well don't forget you can buy your own medical supplies for animals anyway. the local farm store here has refrigerated penicillin you can buy to treat your own animals with. Farmers do it all the time. they have to really cos it would be too expensive to have a vet come in just to give the herds their regular inoculations etc.

[Der Cute]

Well, I took her to the vet today. She actually got into the carrier without arguing, and was very tolerant at the vet.
The doc told me she's older than 7 (as stated on her adoption form). She's more likely 9 or 10-ish. She needed 2 more vaccinations (wtf), a rabies and upper respiratory vac. Made no sense, since I thought the vaccines were done at the shelter. The doc wanted bloodwork from her to test for kidney and thyroid. I thought that was part of the exam. No. They wanted 130$ for the blood. AAAAAA. Her checkup was free, one visit for checkup free (coupon from the pound). Doc also said that she could use some chondroitin for her hip/legs. Because she's underweight, she might have parasites or the blood stuff. Doc wants a fecal sample for the parasite check.
I'm actually calling the city/county animal shelter on this and asking wtf why didn't you do this. Especially the 2 vaccinations, I was told she has everything she needed.
So, I'm feeding her dry food (the one she had at the shelter, she likes it) and gooshyfood. She likes that too! I've got to find $100 for the cat bloodwork. TBH, although I don't work or make any money, this is worth it to me. Having an animal is much like medicine for me.
Right now she's under the bed pouting. I did put out gooshyfood for her, hopefully she'll eat that. Since she was a stray, she does have a risk of parasites etc. Too bad I can't crack open a turd and look for squiggly things!

Oh. I bought a leash for her. I don't know if her humans kicked her out, left her there or she ran away. Plus she's only been here with me for a few days. She gets to wear this really humiliating thing when we go outside. She forgets it's on when she's sniffing/investigating. Still. Kitty with leash? Unlikely! I just do not feel comfortable letting her run around on her own. For a long time. There are other cats in the 'hood, she's older (middle aged is what the doc said) and not really strong. Doc also noted that her muscle tone isn't so great; could be due to the nutrition/food stuff she'd not been getting.

I think my next step is the chondroitin for her, and to possibly find some $ or way to get her blood tested. Poor girl, she's gonna feel like shit for the next two days, the vaccines do that. I'm just going to keep feeding her and loving on her etc. I put a blanket up on top of the dresser by the window. That's her spot. (Ivory doesn't jump so well. She goes to the bed, nightstand then the dresser. We'll see if that changes for her.)

Wish us luck, and I'll get more pics of her. With the leash thing haha.

[Scorpodael]

Longhair kitty! I'm going to have to recommend lots and lots of brushing, and even more adulation. If her fur starts matting, don't be afraid to pull or cut the mats off- if they get too bad, she'll need to be shaved, and no cat appreciates that.

[auntiem]

Jackson Galaxy has people use those harness leashes - we are "debating" getting one for our cat - never been outside on his own and we have lots of cats running around so I think it is the safest thing to do.
I hope the bloodwork comes back clean!
Rotiserie (sp?) chicken is on sale for $4 at one of our local grocery stores - maybe one near you has the same kind of sale. Roasted chicken is IMO a great way to get a cat to chow down (and spoil them rotten).
Apparently acupuncture for cats is a new big thing and apparently quite effective. (no idea on cost)

This is a listing of organizations that can help people in need with pet related expenses:
http://www.humanesociety.org/animals...rding_pet.html

[Andara Bledin]

Definitely keep up with the brush work.

Longhairs can get digestion issues when it's warmer, and that can be problematical both in diagnosing actual ailments and making it look like she has ailments that aren't there.

Our longhair is an old queen that was homeless at some point (and got her ear notched for her troubles) but is still feisty enough that she'll whoop either of the other two if they get on her bad side. She's well over 10 years old and they're 2 and 6, respectively, and both strapping lads. It's funny to watch them defer to her in pretty much everything.

ETA: We had a harness for the one cat that got out and ran off shortly after we moved. >_<

He took to it quite quickly and it's good that we used it on him, because he was prone to just running off to get into fights with the neighborhood cats every chance he got and staying out all night, making us worry. Dumb cat. Anyway, he'd fight getting the harness put on, the try to get it off his back for a few minutes, and after that, he'd just ignore it.

^-.-^

[MoonCat]

She is beautiful. If she does have arthritis, it can be treated. Ask about Cosequin.

OK. Now I'm going to say something about leashes and harnesses. Please, please, please, if you use one, DO NOT tie her up outside with the leash on. Bad things can happen if she tries to climb and/or jump while tethered. Don't ask me how I know. It has been over 20 years since I found this out the hard way and I have never gotten over it.

Walking on a leash, if she's willing, you can probably do. A guy down the street used to do this with his cat (at least he said he had a cat on the other end of the leash. All I ever saw was the his end of the leash, the other end was always under a bush...)

[Draper Mel]

You can get both Cosequin and Dasuquin on Amazon.com for a good 25% less than the vet sells it for. Dasuquin comes in capsules you can open up and mix with wet food. Much easier than trying to shove a pill down her throat. It's flavored so she shouldn't reject it. My vet also suggested fish oil, which has omega-3 in it. It's also supposed to be good for joints. You can also get that on Amazon.

Helping her keep moving can help her joints as well. Walking outside sounds like fun, but I doubt Julie would let me put a harness on her.

[Der Cute]

Hang on a moment... you guys have animal shelters which don't come with attached vets?

I was about to say 'call the shelter and get their vet's advice'.

All three of the shelters where we got our pets, we got free treatment for the first few months if the problem was something they should have picked up. (Vi - our dog - had kennel cough. They warned us of it, told us how to treat it, gave us her course of tablets, and coordinated with our local vet until she recovered.)

Here, it's sort of standard that the shelter quarantines new animals, their vets treat them, and the animals are only up for adoption if both healthy and past the legal 'lost animal' period - which is shorter than the quarantine period anyway.

Hm. If your shelters don't do the vet thing, contact animal welfare and ask about low-cost vets in your area. Or talk to the vet you intend to have as her usual vet.
If she's not healthy enough to be adopted out, your vet and/or animal welfare should be told that this shelter is adopting out sick animals.

Oh, our shelters do have vets.
An animal is dropped off @ shelter, put into quarantine, and checked for spay/neuter, diseases and treated if can, vaccinations and such. Like yours. But when you take the animal home, you have to find a vet for the kitty, and that's what we did today.
Ivory actually didn't argue much about the carrier. I'm surprised, honestly. She's now under the bed, feeling icky because of her shots.