Conference misery::feline_v1

    
    	Lisa, do they play in the tub?? I just caught sarah with my
    	razor, batting it around the tub. Yours could have done 
    	something similar, left the pawprints, and cleaned themselves
    	up before you saw it. Razor cuts bleed a lot but are very
    	tiny...
    
    	Sherry, Rosie, Missy, Squeek, and Sarah
    

    Sherry,
    
    Percy likes to sit in the sink and the bath (weird!), but there are
    no razors in the house and I don't leave the bathroom door open.
    
    Good idea though!
    
    
    Lisa plus P&P who are fed up with being "inspected" :-)
    

    
    An intruder through the cat flap??
    
    Geoff
    

    Funny, I found the same thing when I got home from the show in NJ.
    Bloody footprints - which cat?  Gee, it has to be one of the 18,
    oops, 19.  I pick each one up - examine everything - NOTHING.
    I know I saw the blood - all cats are fine and acting ok.  I then
    go in to the kitchen, and spot the broken bowl on the floor.
    PANIC, TERROR, fear, etc.  I reexamine each cat, only this time
    I concentrate on feet and paw pads.  Sure enough, it's none other
    than Lara.  I should have known.  It's a serious miracle that 
    this cat ever made it to a show.  I always thought she would 
    self-destruct 5 minutes before every show.  She had a small
    cut on one of her front pads - it was very clean and not
    infected, didn't have any bits of glass, but out came the
    peroxide, betadine, and antibiotic cream anyway, much to
    Lara's dismay.   I think I was cleaning her foot and 
    vacuuming the glass at the same time !!!  I never checked
    so many paw pads so quickly ever.  Thank God everyone else
    was fine.  That was the first time in 5 years that anything
    like that happened.  I think I have a clue which one knocked
    the bowl over.  It probably was my graceful, free-feed Rex baby,
    Terror.  No more water on the sink - this past weekend I bought
    a huge stainless water bowl - no more glass bowls either.

    Re: .3       An intruder through the cat flap??
    
    Can't be that - we have an electrinic cat flap! Another good one though!
    
    
    Re: .4
    
    I think this is the answer - a minor cut. There is one thing that
    puzzles me - there was only blood on the window sill. Nothing
    on the carpet or furniture and nothing on the kitchen floor which
    is VERY pale and shows EVERY mark! Perhaps P&P have discoverd
    how to teleport!
    
    Beam me up Pookie!
    
    
    Lisa plus P&P.
    

    You know, I just thought of another thing.  Seeing that it
    was on the window sill, did you check all of their toe nails.
    Maybe a nail got caught, and ripped a little bit.  That's
    happened to mine before.  I usually don't even notice it
    until I go to trim their nails.  Or I will see one of them
    pulling at their nails like they are trimming them.  It's
    not a serious problem.  Nails seem to take care of themselves
    pretty well unless the whole thing is hanging.  My WeeZoo(Alex)
    lost the whole nail and would NOT let me near him so I could
    fix it or help him and the whole thing just healed up and
    grew back.  D&mn cat is very stubborn and doesn't like to
    be messed with.

    My Willy bites his nails - it's the funniest thing.  He really gets
    into it.  I was going to enter this as a seperate entry.  Almost
    every morning he leaves a little dot/speck of blood in the sink
    as if it was coming from the tip of a nail - when I take a look there's 
    no blood to be found.  I wasn't sure how concerned to get over this.
    
    Are there many others out there w/ a strange habit like this?
    Should I be real concerned?
    
    We usually tell him not to bite his nails - but he just looks at us
    funny!  Maybe they get too long for him, maybe I should trim them for
    him?  Suggestions anyone?
    
    Thanks,
    Sonia

    
    yes! i would try trimming his nails.  even my crew allow me to do that
    (although stella emits her low-throated growl when i do).  since mine
    are indoor cats, they probably need me to do this; i don't think they
    could keep up with it themselves...
    
    diane, stanley & stella
    

    re: 7
    
    I usually try to trim nails every two weeks - by three weeks they
    have what I call 'hookers' 
    
    E.T.

    ET - they arn't hookers ----- they're lethal weapons!!!!!
    
    	Michele (whose been maimed ;^) by them lethal weapons) & Nippa 
    

    Boy are you right!  I swear that inside of a week they can get
    an inch long.  I sit there and say, Lordy, I just did those..
    Could I have missed that one!  Unreal!
    
    E.T.

    With Carrie it seems to take me 2 weeks to get all the nails on
    each paw trimmed.  I have to fight with her to do it and so I
    get to the point where I do a few then let her alone, do a few
    more, etc.  By the time they're all done, I have to start over
    again.
    
    Jan

    Re: .7
    
    Are you sure the speck of blood is from Willy's nails?  An early sign 
    of FUS can be a tiny speck of blood left here and there.
    

    Re: .6  Missing nails
    
    I checked their nails last night - they're all there. I think I'll
    keep looking for the rest of the week just in case I've missed
    anything - wierd!
    
    Lisa plus P&P
    
    PS I don't have to trim their claws because they both go outside -
    hooray!! Sounds like a bit of a tough job and they can both be
    very spikey!
    
    

    Where does the blood come from w/ FUS?  Their paws?  Wow, I guess I
    should be a little more concerned about this.  What other signs should
    I look for?  He seems very healthy!
    
    Thanks in advance,
    Sonia

    The blood comes from the bladder, and can be mixed with urine
    or "straight" depending upon the severity of the problem.
    
    If the cat strained, and left a drop of blood and then stepped
    in it, the result would look like bloody paw prints, even though
    the original source of blood was the urinary tract.

    And, if the cat is a long hair, there could be a few drops on the cats
    britches when s/he comes out of the box.
    
    One of the first things I do when I think that a cat is spending a lot
    of time in the box is wait for the cat to leave, grab him and sort of
    wipe his rear end with a white tissue. Is it looks pink, off we go to
    the vet.
    
    Deb

    The little droplets of blood look like they come off the tip of a
    needle.  Usually there will only be one in the sink.  It's not on his
    butt or in the litter box.  I think he has hangnails (if that's
    possible) as his nails are very rough and I find them all over the
    house.
    
    Sonia (Willy & Mitty)

    Bones, my cat, has a bad flea allergy.  Occassionally it would flare
    up and since he will *only* drink water out of the *bathroom* sink,
    *only* on the *right* side, when he would walk in the sink, he would
    leave little blood spots.  This, I think, was from his various scabs
    on his skin (he would lay in the sink, scratch by the sink, etc).
    
    I think you've already said you've gone over the cats, but if you
    haven't inspected their skin closely, you might want to look for
    small scabs.  Just a thought.
    
    ---kim

    If I remember correctly from what my vet told me, those tiny specks are
    flea droppings.  Check your kitty for what looks like tiny specks of
    dirt in his fur.  If you see some, then the cat has fleas.  When they
    get wet, you can tell their blood.
    
    Judie
    

    You're right Judie, about the flea droppings--they call them flea
    dirt.  When our 3 cats and dog had fleas badly last summer, there
    were specks of blood all over the bathroom--sink, counters, floors!
    That's how we know to start looking the animals over for fleas--if
    we start seeing specks, they start getting combed!
    
    Barbara

    We refer to Isis as "the self de-clawing cat" since she's removed
    a rear nail twice now fighting through the screen.  Amazingly,
    the nail grew back perfectly and we had no infection problems.  Of
    course, she was on anti-biotics during her recovery.  (Silly cat!)
    

    Since Oliver is going through the de-fleaing process now, I know
    about flea dirt. The vet showed me the little specks and if you
    look very closely they are "u" shape.
    
    Maybe a magnifying glass would help?????  
    
    
    Flo and getting rid of fleas Oliver.