| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 83.1 | | FRSBEE::ELLIOTT | | Wed Apr 03 1985 19:21 | 5 |
| often in the colder weather cats seem to become a bit dryer...or have you maybe
changed his diet lately? how's he acting? you might want to ask your vet
about it...
karen
|
| 83.2 | | GRAFIX::EPPES | | Wed Apr 03 1985 19:56 | 9 |
| Springtime is shedding time...
You might try adding some oil to his diet -- vegetable, wheat germ, cod liver,
something like that. Not mineral oil, unless he needs a laxative...
Also, shedding and skin flaking can be caused by stress, so the vet said.
Is there something in his environment that might be stressful to him?
-- Nina
|
| 83.3 | | PEN::KALLIS | | Thu Apr 04 1985 10:06 | 9 |
| The advice about consulting a vet is fine, and I andorse it.
The business about emotional stress is also good.
If your furnace is still on, see whether he likes to sleep on heating
grates; a cat often likes to sleep where things might be too hot for
him (or her) ... literally!
Steve
|
| 83.4 | | ADVAX::C_WAY | | Thu Apr 04 1985 12:03 | 35 |
| re .1:
Their diets haven't changed- canned (usually 9 Lives) with some
dry thrown in for variety.
re .2,.3:
He's not sleeping on the heaters- we have forced hot water heat with
baseboard registers.
Stress may be a possibility. About 2 months ago, we had both Smokey
and Bandit fixed (broken?), and Smokes didn't seem to like the vet
too much. Then, a few days after we got them back from the vet,
Bandit got hit by a car. Smokey really got freaked out when we had
Bandit sitting on the table bleeding all over the place as we tried to
get in touch with the vet. After that, he became really skittish. He
wouldn't let anyone near him, and at the slightest movement would take
off like a rocket. He spent most of his time hiding in the basement.
Then, when Bandit got home from the vet (minus part of one fang, a
piece of his tongue, and with a hole in his side where the chest tube was)
Smokey wouldn't go near him. If their paths crossed, Smokey's ears would
drop flat against his head and he would hiss at Bandit (what an evil
sound!). If anything, he started spending even more time hiding in
the basement. Bandit couldn't figure out why Smokey didn't like him any
more, after all, they were best buddies! They are litter-mates and have
never spent more than a few days apart from each other.
Well, things are more or less back to normal now. They're best buddies
again. We think that Smokey couldn't stand the smell of Bandit when
he got home, plus for a few days Bandit wasn't running on all cylinders,
and that may have scared him too. Smokey is still a lot more jumpy than
before he was fixed, though.
I'll try some oil in his food. What's a good dosage?
Charlie
|
| 83.5 | | GRAFIX::EPPES | | Mon Apr 08 1985 18:42 | 5 |
| I've read that about a teaspoon of vegetable oil or facsimile (NOT mineral
oil, remember, unless hairballs are a problem) per day is a good dosage.
Good luck!
-- Nina
|
| 83.6 | | PEN::KALLIS | | Tue Apr 09 1985 10:18 | 12 |
| Oil is good, and a teaspoonful might be okay, but this depends on weight
and eating habits. Actually, it wouldn't hurt to ask your vet.
On the freaking out: cats as a calss tend to be frightened of SICK cats.
It's a survival mechanism: in the wild, by fleeing an obviously unwell
animal, they're less likely to catch anything communicable. When one of
my cats had a stroke and collapsed, another spat at her; it was very sad.
(They were sleeping atop each other less than three hours earlier.) As
your one cat perceived his companion was recovering, he lost his fear.
You need to be particularly loving and compassionate to both cats during
such times.
|
| 83.7 | | PARROT::BLOTCKY | | Fri Apr 12 1985 04:13 | 2 |
| Besides plain oil, you can also get a fatty acid supplement from your vet.
That seemed to work better than plain oil for our cat.
|
| 83.8 | | SNICKR::BLIUDNIKAS | | Mon Aug 05 1985 11:51 | 9 |
| Cats are not only freaked out by the smell/sound of sick cats, but that
other cat has also been to the VETS and SMELLS like the VET and if it's
a normal healthy cat, wants nothing to do with VET smell soon after being
neutered. They have memories like elephants!
After a while the smell goes away and they will be best buddies again.
Gina
|
| 83.9 | | SMILEY::EPPES | | Thu Aug 08 1985 16:43 | 9 |
| RE .8 -- Speaking of smells, my Persian came back from the groomer a week
or so ago smelling quite strongly of shampoo. My other cat hissed at him
and wouldn't play with him for about 3 days. (And I didn't really blame
her -- the smell was strong, even to me. Imagine how the cats' sensitive
noses must've felt...!)
When the smell got less strong, they were playmates again.
-- Nina
|