Life sucks ...

He's on it for life, Trudi. This particular regime will go on as long as he can - or so I understand. Mary says he's "stable" and I'm happy with that, so long as Dougal is. He's bouncing at present, so he must feel okay.

His fur is growing in again but it's quite funny as he goes bald in patches, one at a time. That grows in (but still quite short) and another bit goes bald. He's used to having a built-in duvet, so he's feeling the cold a bit now.

Currently lying on his beanbag (human-sized) which he can tip any way he wants. It's leaning towards the radiator next to him at the moment. When it gets really cold he will manoeuvre it to lean right against the heater - central-heated beanbag!
 
oh cripes, i thought it was just a treatment thing rather than a permanent, though I guess hes bound to have good times and bad times with it.

I know this is going to sound flip, but can he have some sort of jumper for when it gets really cold?? I know Ive got patterns for chickens and dogs - Im sure they could be adjusted for a cat size?? (mind you, Im not sure it would be so easy to put a cat in a jumper as it is a dog!)

love the sound of the heated beanbag - clever chap !!!! :)
 
Mum is making a coat for my nieces' new dog and has offered one for Dougal.

While she was here the other day, I put his rug over his back brown side up and turned the excess over at his neck to give a leopard print collar. He looked terrific and thought it would be okay for indoors.

For outdoors he wants a hoodie to go with the red mohican and the tatooed paws.:lol:
 
Oh no, missed the D'ougal not feeling well' post. So glad he is better now, nothing like liver and bacon to restore one! :)

My friends who have had chemo have said that sometimes it depresses you, your whole system is just knackered, and after a lot of rest you can bounce back. I hope that is what bothered him. It must be stressing for a little cat to have so much uncat like stuff going on too, after all he has his image to uphold and all of that.

He's so brave. Good idea for your Mum to come see him, a little change and tlc from someone else takes his mind off being poked and probed, and going bald.

Our wild and crazy stripey guy is all upset at moment. New tom cat moved in and has wacked him one. So he patrolling a hundred times a day and has worked out how to open the cat flap even when I have locked it. He grabs hold of the 'dial' with his teeth, hangs on and pushes with a paw until it moves round and lets him out. Hmmmm.......

This morning he turned tables and won the battle with the tom cat so he is pleased with himself and snoozing in 'his' chair.
 
Hope word doesn't get round about how to open catflaps! What a smart fella your crazy stripey is. Now that he has won a round, he will be patrolling the garden with his chest puffed out. Hopefully now that each has "whopped" the other, they may not come to blows again, just swear at each other.
 
He is keeping me amused anyway. He can open the flap from the completly locked, ie no in or out, to the only in position. So funny.

Raining hard here all day so cats mainly inside by choice. He has done an hourly patrol though. No sign of other cat so as you say, hopefully the two have solved their spat. :)
 
Isi, you've got to take a vidclip of your cat turning the catflap dial and send it to 'Animals do the Funniest Things' - if they use it, you get £250, which'll buy him a lot of Felix! I imagine that, with his superior intellect, being boffed by an upstart was a terrible blow to his sense of dignity.
 
Hmmm, will need to dig out the ancient video recorder we have then .... he does eat a lot, could at least help pay for his friends and him to dine in style. :D

Thanks Kri .....
 
Daft Dougal has started "shaving" himself again. Just as his fur was beginning to grow in over the bald bits. He was leaving a trail of white fur everywhere yesterday and has scratched raw bits on his neck and around his ears.

I slathered him in aloe vera gel last night, he's not talking this morning.
 
krizon said:
Isi, you've got to take a vidclip of your cat turning the catflap dial and send it to 'Animals do the Funniest Things' - if they use it, you get £250, which'll buy him a lot of Felix! I imagine that, with his superior intellect, being boffed by an upstart was a terrible blow to his sense of dignity.
Click to expand...

You could make a lot of liver and bacon casseroles with that! He might even let you have some. :lol:
 
Obviously did.

I looked up into the beech tree where a couple of them had been foraging for nuts and saw a fluffy white tummy right above me. Good job I didn't look up a few seconds sooner!
 
I had nooooo idea! :lol:

Our black cat is still limping, but better after antibiotics and anti inflammatory. The vet gave her a shot of antibiotic that lasts for 14 days, I'd never heard of this before. Still no idea who bit her, but could be that bad tom cat who was hanging about. Or, I saw a squirrel in the woods yesterday, and had never seen one here before. She is such a hunter would definitleyb try to catch one.

All the fur has come off her leg and it looks very nasty, she keeps licking, and having fur balls. Oh the joys of cat ownership ...... but she seems well otherwise and took her visit to the vets very well, was so scared she never hissed or tried to bite ro scratch. She even forgave me!
 
Oh poor girl, that must be so sore.

Haven't heard about the 14-day shot of antibiotic. That must be such a relief for you not having to shove a pill down her neck several times a day.

She must have been really scared if she didn't sulk afterwards. Good old mum obviously paid the ransom!

I would recommend aloe vera gel to any animal owner now that I have just discovered it. It soothes any itchiness and soreness and actually helps to heal wounds! Obviously you don't slather it over a big wound, but I recently put it over a scrape of skin on Dougal's neck and within a couple of days it had healed. I didn't even need a saline wash or his antibiotic powder. Of course, it was a clean wound, so I was able to just put a dab of gel over the scrape as I was applying it to the rest of his neck.

The other great thing is that if they wash the aloe vera gel off before the skin has absorbed it, it won't do them any harm - although they might get a bit loose if they've ingested a huge amount.

I've been getting a bit of flaxseed oil down him by the simple expedient of dabbing a dollop on his leg and paw and letting him wash it off. There is little hair there anyway at present and the oil will help prevent any hairballs.

Pilltime is a lot easier now that I have discovered that Marmite helps it go down more easily. He is so busy tasting the Marmite on his tongue that he forgets to fight to spit the pill out.

Oh, the lengths and deceptions we have to go to for our cats.

When I pop my clogs I am definitely coming back as a cat into the home of someone like us!!!
 
We (Dougal, Tilly and I) have just had buttered crumpets with honey for tea.

Didn't feel hungry enough to cook a meal so toasted some crumpets. Hot, with butter on, then a dab of honey. MmmHmm.

You will have noted the "we".

Sat down with plate and cuppa. Emmerdale on the box, two cats all curled up and cosy. Life is good.

Two bites into first crumpet, two little pink noses start twitching. By the time I was halfway through the second, they were both at my feet, gazing adoringly at me (I think, but it was probably the plate).

It ended with me having the crumpets and whatever butter and honey hadn't slid off them, and those two sharing a huge pool of melted butter and honey.

I am definitely coming back as a cat in the house of someone like us!!!!!
 
Kitty chemo day yesterday. Poor little chap was very wound up on the way to the vets.

When I got him home he had a good stress eat of Felix, then realised that I was chopping an onion, so started yelling at me because he thought (rightly, this time) that I was preparing liver.

While I was chopping the liver he got really vocal and didn't stop until I had put down a saucer of it (raw).

I then cooked my dinner and he had a large piece of cooked liver with juices from the pan. I had kept another small cooked piece back for later and put this down at bedtime. The plate was empty when I went downstairs this morning.

So glad he stuffed himself yesterday as today he is very under the weather, the medication has obviously kicked in. He spent every moment he could on my lap this morning, curled up tight. Luckily Mum arrived before I left, so I was able to plonk her down with the TV, some toast and a cuppa to resume "cuddle duty".

Why does trying to help make one feel so guilty?
 
Aloe sounds great to help the skin, and the fur, I must get some. I should drink it too, I used to and it was brilliant for keeping the digestion sound. Like most things I start I just forgot about it .....

Your culinary efforts for the cats must really be applauded! My other half used to joke with me that I was running 'Cat Cafe' when we had our two ancient cats and the black stary we named Bags. I kept mening to get a sign made up for the kitchen! You def should have one.

A doc friend of mine says liver is high in iron and chemo can make us anemic so maybe that is why Dougal craves it so much. Mine love it too though. He probably just needed a down time and eatring and resting are good for him, and being spoiled of course!

Minnie is better, but still limping. Had her revisit to vet. Got a weird one this time, not same lad who saw her last, and I hate that, no continuity so had to tell her story all over again. This vet seemed to have some kind of attention span problem, kept blinking (sore contact lenses?) and never seemed able to take in what we told her. Just repeated whatever she had presviously said. Was quite surreal! She kept saying it had been weeks since we;d had her there and we kept replying it was only last Wednesday, but she took no notice. She then gave us one of those plastic hood things for her to wear as she wants her to stop licking the wound. No way could we keep this one her, she'd go nutters! I said she only licks the wound about once a day, no problem. No response like she never heard me. :confused:

Minnie has more steroids to take and some really nasty tasting antibiotic pills, even though we told her the shot is supposed to be stil working .... and no way will this cat take a pill, or eat her food with a nasty pill in it. Oh well ..... let's just hope Minnie really is getting better or that if I take her back in a week we get a vet who listens!

SHEESH! Issy the tame but ferocious kitten (3 years but very immature) just raced into the sitting room with a vole! Gee thanks .... :lol:
 
Nice one Issy! Hopefully not at dinnertime?

Poor wee Dougal has a cold at the moment and is curled up tight in his beanbag.

Think I will have to keep an eye on that, just in case.

Have decided that liver will be the dish of the day every Wednesday from now on, so that he gets a good boost from it.
 
Oh of course it was at dinnertime, you know cats have superb timing! :lol:

Cats do not really get colds, they have sinus infections, and cat flu which acts like a cold. I really hope Dougal is okay, does not sound good. Our grey stripey guy always has a bit of a sinus problem due to having had a terrible bout of cat flu as a young cat. Our old vet who was brill said cats whose immune systems are comprised can get respiratory infections.

Keep him warm but try to get some liquid down him, even if it is only gravy! Wednesday regular liver sounds great - can we come round too? :o
 
Absolutely! I used to have one who knew when our birthdays were and always brought "presents".

He brought me a baby rat while I was still in bed, one birthday (15th). It was still alive. You will never have seen me move so fast before or since!

Dougal had some stew with lots of gravy last night. Liver tomorrow. Mum said that she would pick some up for me as the butcher and the local supermarket keep selling out before I get there. Something to do with the recession.

Can't have Dougal deprived of his liver just as he's discovered it!

He's a fair bit brighter today, but I will keep an eye on him.

Tilly is the worst for getting these things. Watery eyes, sneezy, snotty nose and a sore throat. She is easily dealt with though, wrap up warm and feed honey at regular intervals.

If this is an infection in cats, rather than a cold, does that mean she can have antibiotics for it? She was quite unwell with the last one, which took a while to clear up.

She has already been stress-eating and gained a lot of weight recently (not very active at 11/12 years old). Problem is, if I move all her food, she just sneaks in and eats Dougal's - which I have to leave down for him to allow him to pick at it when I am not there to supervise.

If I could get one to shed weight and the other to gain weight, I would have two perfect cats again. I shall just have to resign myself to being told off by the vet when Matilda goes for her flu jab.

It's darned difficult being the cats' mother!
 
Same problem here, I have two middle aged delicate cats who can't keep weight on and one young one who eats for all of them and takes no exercise as prefers to sit on laps purring.

Because the two ferals gave the kitten cat flu when she was only 12 weeks we nearly lost her. In order to be sure of what we were treating the vet did a culture and it came out to be the herpes virus version of cat flu. I had no idea cats got this or that it made cat flu. Weird stuff. There are only two types, this and another which is clymadia. Sure not spelling this right though, anyway it is the infection humans get as well. Both are treated with antibiotics, not for the virus, but for the secondary infections they get. The sore mouth throat sounds like she has one of these, ours get mouth ulcers and will not eat.

TLC is best solution, but it takes the virus 7-10 days to clear. If it lingers beyond that then I'd get some anti's in her in case she has an actual infection. They have this for life, which is very sad. Mine have bouts every few months or if stressed or something. I was worried Minnie would get ill after being bitten and carted to vet twice but she is fine.
 
Interesting stuff, Isi. Thanks for your research.

Poor Matilda is feeling very hard done by. She keeps to the bedroom most of the time now and, because she is out of sight and I'm at work during the day, she doesn't get all the attention that she needs.

I make a point of "dropping in" on her whenever I go upstairs, but being such a tart, most of the affection she is looking for is of the food variety. When she realises that my hands are empty she will nip me and give a short, snappy "Mew", sort of feline for "get lost", and stalk across the room to her other bed.

Dougal feels the cold because he has shed all of his insulating fluff, so ends up on my lap with a small rug over him. Again, more cause for Tilly to feel left out when she comes downstairs to be let out.

Good news is that his fur is growing back in quite quickly now. He loses it in patches. When one patch falls out and starts to grow over a week later, another patch starts to go bald. His rear end has fluffed over at last, but now his gorgeous plumy tail looks like a piece of frayed rope.

The best thing is that ... he has whiskers again!

Okay, they are still very short, but they are beginning to grow in quite nicely now.

He's gone off liver - discovered porridge (with golden syrup).

Life is never boring if you have a cat (or two, or three ...) in your life, is it?
 
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