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Deteriorata
Feb 6, 2005

Boris Galerkin posted:

Can anyone share their success stories with Feliway Multicat/Friends? I ordered a pair and it came in today and my two cats have been locked in my room with the diffuser running (I’m in here too just in case) and I’m just really hoping this does something. They “get along” in the sense that they don’t fight but they also show absolutely zero interest in each other at all. They have no problem sharing a plate of creamy paste snacks with their faces touching each other but they just pretend like the other doesn’t exist. And they generally don’t go into the same room as each other unless I’m in there too.

That's completely normal cat behavior. You seem to have unrealistic expectations for them.

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Boris Galerkin
Dec 17, 2011

I don't understand why I can't harass people online. Seriously, somebody please explain why I shouldn't be allowed to stalk others on social media!

Deteriorata posted:

That's completely normal cat behavior. You seem to have unrealistic expectations for them.

Thank you for your insightful opinion that I did not ask for.

E: It’s also normal cat behavior for them to spray piss everywhere to mark their territories but you don’t go around telling cat owners that they have unrealistic expectations for not wanting them to do that.

Deteriorata
Feb 6, 2005

Boris Galerkin posted:

Thank you for your insightful opinion that I did not ask for.

My opinion is that you're wasting your time trying to force your cats to change their behavior. They already get along as well as nearly all cats do. You can't force them to be cuddle buddies.

Boris Galerkin
Dec 17, 2011

I don't understand why I can't harass people online. Seriously, somebody please explain why I shouldn't be allowed to stalk others on social media!

Deteriorata posted:

My opinion is that you're wasting your time trying to force your cats to change their behavior. They already get along as well as nearly all cats do. You can't force them to be cuddle buddies.

That’s cool, but I didn’t ask for it. You know that you don’t have to chime in on everything.

Dienes
Nov 4, 2009

dee
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dee doot doot


College Slice

Boris Galerkin posted:

Can anyone share their success stories with Feliway Multicat/Friends? I ordered a pair and it came in today and my two cats have been locked in my room with the diffuser running (I’m in here too just in case) and I’m just really hoping this does something. They “get along” in the sense that they don’t fight but they also show absolutely zero interest in each other at all. They have no problem sharing a plate of creamy paste snacks with their faces touching each other but they just pretend like the other doesn’t exist. And they generally don’t go into the same room as each other unless I’m in there too.

That's already a success story. Accept the win and don't worry that they are not glued to each other 24/7.

my cat is norris
Mar 11, 2010

#onecallcat

It's a forum. People are entitled and encouraged to share their thoughts for the purposes of furthering discussion. Why such hostility? :psyduck:

Feliway has always had mixed results for me. It's worked to chill out some cats, it's done gently caress all for others. He's right that it won't do anything to change their current peaceful behavior. Feliway is meant to calm aggressive tendencies and to relieve stress, and your cats don't sound particularly stressed or aggressive, so I'm not sure what you're looking to get from this experiment. If they eat together without issues, I dunno that this will even do much to encourage the whole "be in the room together without me there" thing. Either way, good luck!

Boris Galerkin
Dec 17, 2011

I don't understand why I can't harass people online. Seriously, somebody please explain why I shouldn't be allowed to stalk others on social media!

my cat is norris posted:

It's a forum. People are entitled and encouraged to share their thoughts for the purposes of furthering discussion. Why such hostility? :psyduck:

Because it’s not furthering any discussion. I already bought the things, they’re already plugged in, I just wanted to know other people’s experiences with them.

Dienes
Nov 4, 2009

dee
doot doot dee
doot doot doot
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dee doot doot
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dee doot doot


College Slice

my cat is norris posted:

Feliway has always had mixed results for me. It's worked to chill out some cats, it's done gently caress all for others. He's right that it won't do anything to change their current peaceful behavior. Feliway is meant to calm aggressive tendencies and to relieve stress, and your cats don't sound particularly stressed or aggressive, so I'm not sure what you're looking to get from this experiment. If they eat together without issues, I dunno that this will even do much to encourage the whole "be in the room together without me there" thing. Either way, good luck!

Honestly locking them up together so they can't get some space if they need/want it is more likely to increase hostilities than friendship.

Fleta Mcgurn
Oct 5, 2003

Porpoise noise continues.
I've never noticed Feliway to be effective except when we first brought Luna home and she was so terrified that she hid in my closet for a full month. If I absolutely SOAKED the house in Feliway, which is expensive, she would come out and walk around for a while, but it didn't do much after the first three days. I do spray it on and into cat carriers, though, just in case.

Dienes posted:

Honestly locking them up together so they can't get some space if they need/want it is more likely to increase hostilities than friendship.

Agree. I don't think feliway will make them more affectionate with one another, either, but if they were agitated towards each other, it might help. I think it depends on the cat and their biology, honestly.

Boris Galerkin
Dec 17, 2011

I don't understand why I can't harass people online. Seriously, somebody please explain why I shouldn't be allowed to stalk others on social media!
It’s my understanding that there are two Feliways, Classic and Friends. The Classic comes in the spray (and diffuser) and is what you use to unstress a cat because it smells like “home” and the other (diffuser only) smells like back when they were kittens and nursing, encouraging them to play nice and accept each other.

Which one are you guys talking about?

Fleta Mcgurn
Oct 5, 2003

Porpoise noise continues.

Boris Galerkin posted:

It’s my understanding that there are two Feliways, Classic and Friends. The Classic comes in the spray (and diffuser) and is what you use to unstress a cat because it smells like “home” and the other (diffuser only) smells like back when they were kittens and nursing, encouraging them to play nice and accept each other.

Which one are you guys talking about?

Oh, I guess Classic. I didn't know there was a "friends!"

Leal
Oct 2, 2009


This isn't how you sit on a lap cat. What're you trying to play at.

Sarern
Nov 4, 2008

:toot:
Won't you take me to
Bomertown?
Won't you take me to
BONERTOWN?

:toot:
Two feliway multicat dispensers in a thousand square feet turned my cats from acquaintances to cuddle buddies over a few months. Maybe it would have happened anyway, maybe not.

small ghost
Jan 30, 2013

I got a feliway cartridge ("friends") when I got my kitten and it might have helped? I had an exceptionally easy time introducing them, but then Macready likes other cats and has multiple friends we meet on our walks (and a couple of mortal enemies) and Momo grew up to be a beautiful gentle empty headed marshmallow, so it's hard to know if the feliway helped make their introduction so smooth or if I just got lucky with my combo.

I'm kind of dubious, mostly since the reason I had the plugin part already was because I used the classic one when I'd only had Macready for a few months - he had some issues with both redirected and play aggression - but I didn't notice a difference at all so I stopped using it. Arranging his tree so he could skulk behind the venetian blind and secretly ekekek at passing dogs, and daily walks, on the other hand, solved both problems almost overnight. The spray does seem to help for vet trips, as do the feliway blankets they give out to cover the carrier while you wait, so I dunno, but I tend to agree that even the friends formula isn't that likely to change their behaviour a whole lot if they're already coexisting in relative peace.

Endless Mike
Aug 13, 2003



Hello cat thread, I adopted a pair of one year old orange brothers from a rescue and named them Seville and Rocco. Rocco pretty much immediately had a cold but seems to be doing much better today. They've been very sweet and have gotten used to my pace quickly.

A unit on my partner's floor had a big fire Sunday so she had to evacuate for a few days to my place with her large dog while the condo cleans things up. Her entire condo is covered in soot. We sequestered the cats to my bathroom, which sucks a lot. Tonight Seville had a couple bloody vomits followed by a bloody diarrhea. I'm sitting in my car outside the animal hospital waiting to hear from the doctor. It's been almost an hour and I'm tired and scared and stressed.

Anyway, here they are:



Edit: he's coming home. Vet doesn't think it's likely to be anything bad and is giving him some fluids and probiotics and sending us home with some meds to take.

Endless Mike fucked around with this message at 08:07 on May 26, 2020

Organza Quiz
Nov 7, 2009


Oh no I'm sorry, that is a scary thing since yeah it can mean something real bad. Did they say what the problem was if it wasn't a Real Bad?

Hopefully the situation calms down soon and you can get back to chilling with those extremely good orange boys.

Endless Mike
Aug 13, 2003



The diagnosis is "probably gastroenteritis." They gave him fluids and an anti-nausea shot that is supposed to be good for a day, and sent me home with some Pro-Pectalin Gel and to see how he's doing in a few days. We have appointments with the regular vet on Friday, which is about the end of that time, so I'll see what they say unless things change in a bad way before then.

I'm also going to go to the pet store later and get the foods they used to be fed so it's not too shocking a change.

Beachcomber
May 21, 2007

Another day in paradise.


Slippery Tilde
Do cats like catnip innately, or are they chasing the high as a learned behavior?

Fleta Mcgurn
Oct 5, 2003

Porpoise noise continues.

Beachcomber posted:

Do cats like catnip innately, or are they chasing the high as a learned behavior?

I read once that catnip affects cats much like marijuana does people, in terms of what it does to the brain. Interestingly, until Aleta and Luna, I never owned a cat who was sensitive to catnip.

Dienes
Nov 4, 2009

dee
doot doot dee
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College Slice

Beachcomber posted:

Do cats like catnip innately, or are they chasing the high as a learned behavior?

Its hereditary, about 70-90% of cats respond to catnip, depending on the study. Basically, for cats with genes for sensitivity, the smell of catnip functions pretty close to cat pheromones, and elicits reactions that are very close to cat sexual behavior. It really resembles a reflex.Which is perhaps why kittens, who aren't sexually mature, don't typically react to catnip even if they have the gene for it.

Other plants can have similar effects - if your cat isn't sensitive to catnip, there's a decent chance they are sensitive to silvervine. Phyrexian Obliterator don't react to catnip at all but loses her goddamn mind when silvervine comes out. I've seen cats react to valerian root, tatarian honeysuckle, and lavender. I've seen tigers go nuts over catnip...as well as pumpkin spice and Calvin Klein's Obsession.

BaronVonVaderham
Jul 31, 2011

All hail the queen!


"Did somebody say silvervine?!"
-- Phyrexian Obliterator

pidan
Nov 6, 2012


BaronVonVaderham posted:



"Did somebody say silvervine?!"
-- Phyrexian Obliterator

Your cat is so wrinkly :stwoon:

My cat is super nice most of the time, but then she wants to go somewhere (on my lap, or off my shoulder, or something) and just stabs me with her little claws in pursuit of that goal. And she keeps producing gross boogers. This cat is very unhygienic.

InvisibleMonkey
Jun 4, 2004


Hey, girl.

pidan posted:

Your cat is so wrinkly :stwoon:

My cat is super nice most of the time, but then she wants to go somewhere (on my lap, or off my shoulder, or something) and just stabs me with her little claws in pursuit of that goal. And she keeps producing gross boogers. This cat is very unhygienic.

Katya is the same about using her claws, we just clip them once every two weeks or so.

taqueso
Mar 8, 2004


:911:
:wookie: :thermidor: :wookie:
:dehumanize:

:pirate::hf::tinfoil:
dropping a recommendation for etsy store 'space kitty express' they sell mixes if you want to cover all the bases

Fleta Mcgurn
Oct 5, 2003

Porpoise noise continues.
While we're on the subject of :catdrugs:, has anyone had success with CBD and cats?

mistaya
Oct 18, 2006

Cat of Wealth and Taste

Eh! Frank posted:

My <1 year old kitty likes to watch me eat my meals, and when she does, she usually tilts her head while staring at my food, often turning it 90° to the side. She's adorable as gently caress when she does it, I haven't had any other cats that have done this, though, and was curious if it was a sign of curiosity, begging, contemplation, or what, so I tried Googling it. All of the tops results, though, were along the lines of "A head tilt (along with nausea, dizziness, etc.) could be a sign of a serious disease in cats, bring them to a vet immediately!" Except she shows zero signs of discomfort or pain or loss of coordination or anything, so I'm almost certain she's not sick. Still, I wanted to be sure so I thought I'd ask about it here.

Here's a picture of her doing it:


I know this was a while back but I wanted to mention this is totally normal curious cat behavior. The sign of "serious disease, go to vet immediately" is when they can't actually un-tilt their head because there's something very wrong in one of their ears and it throws off their sense of balance. There was a cat on Tiny Kittens once (Mirok?) who came in with a severe head-tilt because of a broken ear drum, it took him several months to be able to sit up straight. It is VERY obvious when this is an illness rather than being cute, poor Mirok was walking into things and had a lot of trouble eating and doing well, anything at all.

TMMadman
Sep 9, 2003

by Fluffdaddy
My one of my cats sometimes gives me sort of a sideways head tilted look, but it happens when he's on the cat tree standing on all fours with his head sort of pointed down already and then I start scratching behind the ear that is closest to the ground and he leans into it so hard he almost falls over.

Bazanga
Oct 10, 2006
chinchilla farmer
Our cat is pooping outside his litter box about 60% of the time. He never pees outside of it, though. We've gone through multiple types of litter boxes and finally settled on the "AmazonBasics No-Mess Hooded Cat Litter Box" which is basically a rubbermaid container with a lid on it. We have to keep the lid removed or else he won't even go into it, which is fine, because he only has three legs and isn't as spry as he once was. One of his rear legs was surgically removed due to a freak accident when he was 8 months old and he's adapted fine. He's about 6 years old now and this has been a constant issue.

Recently he's been pooping almost exclusively outside of the box (but near it, within 12 inches). We don't know what to do. Any ideas?

Bazanga fucked around with this message at 00:02 on May 28, 2020

Dienes
Nov 4, 2009

dee
doot doot dee
doot doot doot
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dee doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot


College Slice

Bazanga posted:

Our cat is pooping outside his litter box about 60% of the time. He never pees outside of it, though. We've gone through multiple types of litter boxes and finally settled on the "AmazonBasics No-Mess Hooded Cat Litter Box" which is basically a rubbermaid container with a lid on it. We have to keep the lid removed or else he won't even go into it, which is fine, because he only has three legs and isn't as spry as he once was. One of his rear legs was surgically removed due to a freak accident when he was 8 months old and he's adapted fine. He's about 6 years old now and this has been a constant issue.

Recently he's been pooping almost exclusively outside of the box (but near it, within 12 inches). We don't know what to do. Any ideas?

How frequently is the litter scooped?
How frequently is the litter box changed/washed?
How high are the sides of the litter box?
Have there been any changes in food, or furniture, or poop?
Have you seen any indications of discomfort like limping, straining to pee, etc.?

LoreOfSerpents
Dec 29, 2001

No.

Fleta Mcgurn posted:

While we're on the subject of :catdrugs:, has anyone had success with CBD and cats?
We use Canna Companion capsules for two of our cats, at our vet's recommendation. We hoped it would help with anxiety and arthritis. We haven't noticed any changes in anxiety, but it has had a noticeable impact on mobility.

If you try CBD anything for your cats, make sure you're going through a reputable company with veterinary approval and involvement.

Fleta Mcgurn
Oct 5, 2003

Porpoise noise continues.

LoreOfSerpents posted:

We use Canna Companion capsules for two of our cats, at our vet's recommendation. We hoped it would help with anxiety and arthritis. We haven't noticed any changes in anxiety, but it has had a noticeable impact on mobility.

If you try CBD anything for your cats, make sure you're going through a reputable company with veterinary approval and involvement.

Oh, definitely would consult an expert. I myself rely on CBD for chronic pain, but I wouldn't give her my stuff.

I mostly was thinking about it for Luna's anxiety, but if you haven't seen results, then I don't know if it would work for her. Ugghhh I just want my fat bear to be happy.

Dienes
Nov 4, 2009

dee
doot doot dee
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College Slice
Are there any actual scientific studies on the efficacy and safety of CBD for cats, particularly long-term administration?

It seems odd that the same group that says a cat shouldn't even look at grains in their food also recommends giving them plant oils.

LoreOfSerpents
Dec 29, 2001

No.

Fleta Mcgurn posted:

Oh, definitely would consult an expert. I myself rely on CBD for chronic pain, but I wouldn't give her my stuff.

I mostly was thinking about it for Luna's anxiety, but if you haven't seen results, then I don't know if it would work for her. Ugghhh I just want my fat bear to be happy.
My results are all anecdotal, but yeah, I didn't see any change in anxiety. We have one bitchcat and one fraidycat and they've each stayed just as bitchy and terrified as before. They just move around more now.

Frankly, the only success story I've got for anxiety was giving them a ton of space. We even had the fraidycat on a serious anti-anxiety drug for a while and it did absolutely nothing. Maybe he's immune to drugs. We also tried Feliway Multicat diffusers in every room of our apartment for 6+ months and that was just :retrogames:

Dienes posted:

Are there any actual scientific studies on the efficacy and safety of CBD for cats, particularly long-term administration?

It seems odd that the same group that says a cat shouldn't even look at grains in their food also recommends giving them plant oils.
I have kind of a horrible view on long-term anything in cats, so I'm probably the worst person to answer this, but... cats' lifespans can be 20+ years. That's longer than these petcare fads have existed, and longer than most pet-related companies have been around. I think any cat owner should take every trend/fad with a grain of salt. I remember being bright-eyed and energetic about grain-free, high-quality protein diets when that fad started up over a decade ago, but now I've seen years of recalls and counter-studies, and the cold reality is that there wasn't enough research on any of it. There still isn't.

So my advice is: be skeptical. Make the best choices you can for you and your cat with the information you have available at the time. Find a vet you feel you can trust, someone who goes to veterinary conferences and keeps up with research, and stick to him/her. And recognize that this is a lovely time for pet owners, when there are dollar signs in corporations' eyes but it hasn't translated into enough well-funded, high-quality veterinary research, so even with your best effort, you're still going to get something wrong.

For my part, my cats are elderly, arthritic, and opinionated. They're in various stages of kidney failure even after a lifetime of high-quality food. My goal is to keep them comfortable in their final years, not have them for another decade. I do my due diligence to avoid giving them anything obviously dangerous, and my vet is amazing, so I have a reasonable amount of confidence in their treatment plans.

If you're really interested in geeking out over the science of CBD, SkeptVet is my favorite resource for vet reality checks these days, and he posted a couple of interesting articles in 2018:
https://skeptvet.com/Blog/2018/03/presentation-on-cannabis-for-pets/
https://skeptvet.com/Blog/2018/07/evidence-update-promising-clinical-trial-of-cbd-for-arthritis-treatment-in-dogs/

Hopefully he posts something newer soon. His articles are always a good read.

I don't know much about the CBD industry in general. I only know this one company because my vet used to work with the vets involved in it, and she speaks very highly of their standards. The Washington State cat-only vet world is pretty small, so at least I know if something goes horribly wrong with this company, I'll get a call from my vet.

Dirt Road Junglist
Oct 8, 2010

We will be cruel
And through our cruelty
They will know who we are
Xander hates the smell of everything cannabis related, so the great CBD experiment didn't work. Even if I drop it on his favorite wet food, he'll growl and walk away until I clean the dish and put new food in it.

I did have him on chicken flavored liquid Prozac for a bit (yes, that's a thing a compounding pharmacy can make you), and it turned him into slo-mo cat. Even his meows were drawn out and weird. I took him off it because he kept tripping over his own feet, and I didn't like the effects on his behavior :smith:

My roommate at the time got mad because she thought he was a better cat when he was too stoned to function. This roommate is a literal monster and beats her dogs until they get mean and kill each other. She's not a good arbiter of pet behavior.

Endless Mike
Aug 13, 2003



A follow-up to my previous post: the morning after I took Seville to the hospital, I woke up to find more yellow vomit, and more bloody diarrhea, one puddle of which had a bit of what looked like floss in it. I immediately took him back to the hospital. They want some bloodwork and an ultrasound and didn't find anything unusual other than some inflammation in his guts, but nothing that suggested any blockages or foreign objects. They also noticed he's got a respiratory something (they both have, but Rocco's seems almost gone at this point) and sent me home with an antibiotic, anti-diarrheal, and an appetite stimulant. It's been over a day and he's eating, peeing, and pooping normally, so I'm glad that's working out.

Bonus: they like the cat perch I got them. My old cat never did.

Don't Ask
Nov 28, 2002

Looking for advice on how to handle adding a new cat/kitten to a household with a cat with special dietary needs.

I've had Charlie for ~11 years and for most of that time he's been eating Hills Z/D for food allergies. When he was on regular cat food he would have a bad reaction to it - it was a fun time finding out what was causing him to throw up every single day, usually on the bed...
We've decided that we want to adopt another cat and we're not sure how to go about the whole food business. Charlies' obviously costs more than regular cat food and we don't want to feed both cats the Z/D as it would be pointlessly expensive. Charlie doesn't have a scheduled feeding time, we just keep his bowl full and he nibbles throughout the day.

How can we make sure that two cats won't eat each other's food? Any tips on how to keep 'em separated?

For reference:

Sierra Nevadan
Nov 1, 2010

I think you will have to set up feeding times because there is no way you can stop them from eating food left out all day.

I personally would feed them both Z/D. It is expensive, but I think it would save a lot of hassle, especially if your cat is already used to being able to snack whenever they want.

Spikes32
Jul 25, 2013

Happy trees
There are cat feeders that respond to a micro chip and close when the wrong cats get too close. Could try one of those

Boogalo
Jul 8, 2012

Meep Meep




I too have a cat on expensive prescription and just let other cat eat it too. A bit more expensive but so so much less of a pain in the rear end if your cats are ok self-regulating eating.

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Raymond T. Racing
Jun 11, 2019

Spikes32 posted:

There are cat feeders that respond to a micro chip and close when the wrong cats get too close. Could try one of those

The trick with those is you realistically have to get one per cat. We tried having just one, and the cat that was supposed to use the microchip feeder would also steal food from the open bowl meaning the cat who wasn't supposed to eat the special food (in our case kitten food because she was already fat enough) would have her food stolen from her, and then couldn't steal any more food.

They're pricey (150USD each), but made mealtimes super easy.

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