Awesome post, and I'm so glad you seem to be taking the bengalness in your stride. I can relate to all your comments about Satai's personality and issues with cat-proofing very much. It is an ongoing thing as they are so intelligent and are always finding new and exciting ways to annoy the shit out of you to get what they want or to potentially damage themselves. haha. We've been looking for a house to buy for around 5 months now fairly intensively and some of our main requirements that have been hard to find have been to do with layout related to the cats needs... so whipped. "Airlocks" everywhere is a big thing we wanted. Because 1 door just isn't enough... Double doors to prevent escapes when we come and go, outdoor areas that can easily be netted in, airlock to separate them from us at night, airlock to separate them from my office during the day, suitable litter area, high ceilings for potential high cat runs, the list goes on. Oh, and a house that the humans actually like too would be nice.
A couple of weeks ago my 13 year old cat came down with cat flu for the first time. He refused to eat & had an ulcer on his gum line on the right side of his jaw. He also continually oozed mucus from the corner of his right eye. Reading up about it the illness can be serious & the oozing of mucus from his eye could have been permanent. He must have a good immune system because he got over the worst of the symptoms in a day or two & yesterday the runny eye cleared up after I spent two weeks repeatedly cleaning up the runny eye with tissues. It was good to see my little fellow healthy again. According to what I read he's a carrier now! Next time I take the cat to the vet I'll ask about having him vaccinated against cat flu. They apparently catch it from other cats yet my cat is an indoors cat who has never mixed with other cats. After I took him to the vet he got fleas. It makes me wonder if he picked up cat flu from the vet place as well! Has anyone else on the forum had their cat come down with cat flu?
Luckily not. I've had several cats over the years, not had any get that, but my cats have their annual injections. No way of knowing whether their immunity protected them, or whether they have been lucky enough not to have been exposed. I think when our cats get older, their immune systems might be less robust and they are more likely to succumb to this or that. I'm glad puss is ok now.
That's why I'm going to ask my vet about having him vaccinated. It never occurred to me to have him vaccinated when I first got him because I only learned it existed when he came down with it and he was pretty crook for a couple of days. Had he been a stray he could have died from it but I look after him so his immune system fought it off. I'd like to have him around for as long as possible and I'm afraid that if he gets it again he may not recover like he did this time given his age. Based on what I read even after they get the flu it's still worth having them vaccinated because there are many strains with some worse than others.
There's other stuff in the vaccine "mix", 4 or 5 things they get innoculated against. It is bad enough when you lose a pet, it would be worse if they succumbed to something they could have been innoculated against. It is a good idea to get the shots.
You'll find that you can't vaccinate against cat flu if they are already a carrier. There are several different strains and it's very expensive to test for which one they have had and which one they're a carrier for. Some strains are for life and some aren't Did he have cat flu according to the vet or dr Google?
He had cat flu according to Dr Google! His symptoms fit those of cat flu perfectly. I'm guessing that he had the milder calicivirus version but a test would be required to confirm it. The eye with the discharge took a couple of weeks to stop and the ulcer on his gum line took about a week to resolve itself. He looks to be completely back to normal and the following is encouraging. https://www.bluecross.org.uk/pet-advice/cat-flu The following contradicts what you wrote about vaccinating being a waste of time after a cat has had the flu. It's from a vet clinic however and they make money from things like vaccinations. http://www.catclinic.co.uk/cat-flu.html It's good to know that it can't be transmitted to humans so I can keep picking him up and cuddling him!
I did what it suggested at the websites I looked at. I tried to give him food that he could smell to encourage him to eat (he wouldn't eat it) & I bought multiple cans of beef in gravy that I knew he liked which I hoped would see him eating the next day. When he began eating again the next day I figured that he was on the mend and I kept cleaning his weeping eye multiple times each day and monitored his condition. The worst of it was over so quickly I saw no reason to take him to the vet where he probably picked up the virus in the first place like he picked up fleas. Had he not improved so quickly I'd have taken him to the vet who probably would have confirmed that he had cat flu and advised me to continue to do what I was doing.
After losing our previous cat earlier in the year, we felt it was time to adopt another old girl. We managed to find this gorgeous thing in Cat Haven. I present Kilo, a 10 year old domestic medium hair (maybe with a bit of Maine Coon in her!) It didn't take her long to find her voice, and her confidence. She loves to chase anything resembling a string (getting shoelaces on in the morning can be a challenge!). And as the pic/video below shows, she absolutely loves a belly rub! https://www.facebook.com/rodney.thomson/videos/vb.530210040/10155012318405041 The only downside is she is a bit food obsessed. She is on a diet that is maintaining her current weight, but she doesn't like it much! She gets very meowy in the morning / evening around dinner time. We have been trying to train her out of the meowing, by ignoring the meows, and only feeding her when she has been quiet for several minutes at a time. It seems to have helped a bit, but if either of us makes a move vaguely in the direction of the food, she sprints off meowing! We were also thinking that an automatic feeder may help, in that she might meow at it instead of us!
From my googling I've read that Maine Coons are a chatty sort. I think the ignoring training is actually training me to ignore her. So at least I'm not waking up in the night all the time!
Mine is. She's also a hisser. I've never had a cat who hisses until her. She also sits up and begs. She's kind of strange, but I love her. She does seem keen on her tucker, but I just ignore her if I've got better things to do than chase around after her. She'll usually just give up and go and lie down until it really is tea-time, but it won't stop her suggesting that tea-time is 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Good luck with that
Out of curiosity do people have nicknames for their cats? We have quite a few for ours but I wasn't sure if it was just a thing we did.
A lot of people give their cats names as if they were humans but that's always seemed odd to me. When the receptionist at the vet clinic asks me my cat's name I say his name is cat. That doesn't mean I'm not fond of my cat. There's a guy in the block of townhouses I live in who lives alone and he had a cat he called Lucky and when he recently invited me into his courtyard at the rear of his townhouse I found a grave with a wooden cross with the name Lucky on it. I never figured the guy to be the type to do something like that. The cat was the only thing in the world he loved.
I could name the nicknames i have given my cat... but not sure that they are appropriate for this forum. Asshole, bastard.... etc etc But i still love him... Cooper
Sort of. They have their proper names, but I call them shorter versions. And then I'll do a rhyming thing with it. Melanie=Mellie=Mellie Belly. I've given my other cat a middle name she doesn't really have. They aren't really nicknames, but variations of their names.
Mine has a name, Gallifrey, and a nickname, mischief. I find it surprising that people wouldn't name their cat when there are people out there that even name their car, but I'm sure their cat is still special to them.
Richie's nickname is prince, because he has a fair bit of attitude to him, and he looks regal AF. Finn's nickname is donut - he's always in that circular sleeping position, and 'donut' also sounds about as dumb as he is.
