Life sucks ...

You have to start applying Spot On well before midges etc become a nuisance - the product needs to be able be absorbed into the horse's skin in advance for optimum benefit.

My son's pony had chronic sweet itch - to the point she would rub herself raw, even with tea bags rugs on (as in the mesh sort!). Started applying Spot On ten years ago and she now has a full mane and tail and, as long as the product starts to go on early spring, she doesn't have a reaction any more. But you do have to apply it regualrly and be very methodical, which is why people believe it doesn't work on their ponies.
 
Thank you. I know you are right about the application, and this is the main problem, like suntan lotion. It never gets put on often, or soon enough.

She is far away from me so I cannot do it and have to rely on my nagging to get it put on her. But we are giving it another go this year .... as soon as it is warm enough to get the dreaded blankets off of her. Will be nice to see a pony again! :<3:
 
Oh dear! Bald itchy spots on ponies - bald itchy spots on a cat!

The Doog is very well in himself Isi, full of beans and - at last - has a full cover of fur. Unfortunately, whenever he gets stressed, he seems to develop an itcy skin. As the vincristine affects the hair follicles, the hair roots are not very strong and every time he scratches vigorously, the fur comes out.

Poor lad looks as though the moths have been at him!

I was so proud of his new coat, as I had worked hard with the aloe vera to ensure that he didn't scratch himself bald again. At the moment, I am dabbing the stuff all over his head and neck area. It does alleviate the itching and helps the skin to heal, but the glares I get!

However, he is in good spirits and has just had a very energetic game of kitty football all round the sitting room and into the kitchen. He likes playing foot ball in the kitchen as the shiny floor means he can get a bit of spin on the ball and a lot of speed. There are also lots of small gaps where the ball can get trapped and he can get a paw in to hook it out.

He usually has a nap from around 1.00 until 4.00ish and had a marathon cuddle yesterday as I sat and watched the racing. My sister gave me an enormous purple, snuggly blanket to wrap myself in while I watch TV as the window near my chair is a bit draughty. I wrapped myself in the blanket, Dougal hopped onto my lap, and I covered him with a spare corner. All I could see were two little fuzzy ginger ears. Sweeeeeet!
 
I don't think it would Moe, as his stresses are very specific reactions to certain things, rather than a general state of stress.

He is generally a very good-natured and high-spirited cat, but these days when he gets upset it come straight out through his skin. His recent stress has been caused by Yours Truly administering eye drops twice daily (quite adroitly and elegantly, if I say so myself) but he has reacted as if I have been trying to poke his eye out!

Oh well. Keep on with the aloe vera - although that is causing some stress as well.

I can't win!!!!!
 
Nice to have some Dougal news!!!!! :D

Poor little hairless wonder. Spring should make him feel better too. My cats love the sun on their backs, they always roll around in the first soil they can find and come in and scatter it all over!

I feel for you having to put drops in his eyes, all of ours have bad eyes due to having cat flu and every now and then I have to do it too. They hate me and the big stripey geezer hisses at me.

I'm waiting for the husband to return home fro a business trip to help me catch stripey beast. I had to worm all the cats before he went away, had pills form vets. Stripey one spat his out and destroyed it. So he has not had any and he is the one who hunts the most. He has to go to vet now and have an injection but I cannot catch him on my own. So, cage is waiting and he will have an adventure soon.

We had a cat break in. There is a local stray who does belong to someone, has a collar but they throw him out all the time and he has not been 'fixed' so he sprays. He is aggressive but I do feel sorry for him. He got into our conservatory and peed on everything. It was my fault, we went to bed and I forgot to close the cat flap. Grrr. Next morning when I let the cats out the smell hit me, big stripey one rushed into the room and ran up to a cardboard box where the cat had sprayed. He stood there and hissed at the box! Was funny if I had not been so mad. He then stomped about the whole room hssing away, big tail. :lol:
 
Is all animal chemo treatment by tablets?

Just asking as dad's dog has had a biopsy as they said that one type of bone cancer is treatable so trying to find out which one it is, results back sometime this week
 
Not all, Helen. Dougal has an intravenous injection every 3 weeks along with some rather "heavy" tablets (don't touch with bare hands). Then he has a steroid tablet every other day.

Mary, our vet, doesn't charge much (£19.99 for the 3-weekly treatment; £2.25 for 2 months' of steroid pills), but from reading other Forumites entries here, I believe it can vary greatly.

I do hope the tests show that it is treatable. It is very worrying and upsetting just waiting for such results. My thoughts are with you.

Denise
x
 
Dougal hates me. He runs and hides when he hears me coming in from work and shies away from my hand whenever I move to stroke him.

That hurts.
 
I have a gospel choir in my head. They are singing "O! Crappy Day".

Spent 9 hours with the Old Dear in A&E yesterday. She rang me at work to tell me that she would be arriving shortly by ambulance having had severe chest pains. Scooted round and waited for ambulance to arrive, then spent rest of day sitting with her through various tests.

Several hours later and all tests are done, but we still don't know if she can eat or drink (2.00pm).

6.00pm, still sitting in A&E waiting for a bed. There's a bed shortage (our CEO in his wisdom has closed 7 (illegally) at another hospital, so there is no overspill for patients to that speciality ward).

A couple of my porter mates pass by and stop for a chat and to see if all is well. Apparently there are 3or more beds in almost every corridor of the hospital. Priority being given to those in corridors (quite rightly). Those still in A&E are in cubicles and under supervision, so in no danger, just uncomfortable.

8.00pm A&E sister pops her head round curtain to tell us a bed has been found, just waiting for a nurse to come down and fetch the Ma. 8.15pm nurse arrives.

Unfortunately, the Old Dear has missed dinner, but they find a pack of sandwiches in the fridge. She hasn't eaten since 8.00 am (12 1/2 hours) and taken no medication at all. Get her settled for the night, head for home.

Just arrived at work this morning and popped up to see Mum. She's comfortable and had a fair night.

Got back to office and the door swung back quickly in my hand, wrenching my shoulder. Hear a vertebra pop, think nothing of it. Make a cup of tea and, on first swallow, find that a bone in my neck/upper thorax region has slipped forward and is choking me whenever I swallow. Coughing is very painful and I dare not burp, 'cos that is horribly painful.

No spinal surgeons here today and don't trust any of our Registrars (bar one) and none of the other Consultants will touch it. Have to go back tomorrow - when I'm supposed to be looking after TOD.

At least I will get seen before clinic starts. We don't have many perks, but that is one of the few that I value.

Hey ho!

Helen, what news on your Dad's dog?
 
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ogs are easy to please a smallm tip bit will do the trick, cat's however can take a lot longer, it 's better to pick the right one to start with.
as for flying blood suckers I'm sure it makes a diffrence what you eat as to wheather they find you taisty.
 
You could be right Andy, that is about what you eat making you tasty or not. I used to give my cats a yeast and garlic pill which made them unattractive to fleas .... and some horses who eat gralic (good for respiratory) are not bitten as much by flies.

Red - Oh NO! God you've been through the wars lately. And your poor Mum too. Hope that both of you are back on the mend soon. :blink:

Sounds very owchy. I've spent plenty of time in emergency waiting, and starving half to death. It is really scary especially for older folks. Hugs to you both, well, light hug as would probably hurt otherwise.
 
Bloody hell Denise that sounds horrible! hope you can sort it!

Jemma (dads dog) apparently has a treatable kind of cancer but its touch & go wether they will treat it as its seems to have gone quite far, she has had another test which takes 14 days (test done last fri) so it depends on the outcome of that one,
 
Ah no, Helen, still hanging on? That's more worrying than being able to crack on and do something.

The Consultant took an x-ray yesterday and yes, a bone between my shoulder blades has definitely moved and is pressing on my windpipe and larynx area, so swallowing solid food is a bit "owchy" (good word, Isi!).

Manipulation only half successful, but the most painful bit was the muscle spasms because of the moved bone. Physio's showed me a few exercises to alleviate it and, hopefully, click the bone back into place. Not happened yet, but managed to move the muscle into a more comfortable position so that I could actually sleep last night.

Bone still out of place this morning, but shoulder area now more sore than painful, so I guess some Ibuleve gel will alleviate that.

Andy, that's a good point about what you eat. If you eat lots of stuff like spices and garlic, does it not only make you unattractive to mozzies, but also to other people?

After scaring everybody witless, The Old Dear is much better today and is pottering around downstairs. (I told her that she and Dougal could look after each other as he had chemo last night.)
 
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I went through a phase of chewing gum when I was trying to stop smoking a few years back, and dislocated my jaw; that scared me, and the prospect of living on mashed potato for the rest of my life wasn't nice. It happened several times over a few weeks, and it was ages before I didn't feel it was going to happen again at any moment. What I was actually going to say was that a farmer friend who has llamas and lives next to a river and canal uses something called 'camrosa' for sweet itchy type things.
 
Denise see if your GP will prescribe some amitriptyline, its an old fashioned anti depressent but in low doses eg 10mg its used for muscle spasms, I use it alot & its fanstasic!
 
Thanks, Helen. I will bear it in mind.

I turned over in bed last night, there was a really loud, grating "clunk" between my shoulder blades - even Dougal heard it - and the bone went back into place. The muscles have relaxed today (though still slightly stiff) and it doesn't even hurt to cough!
 
Pleased to hear that; I've been thinking about it today for some reason. If you weren't more knowledgeable about medical matters you'd've been terrified.
 
This sounds so awful for you Denise, glad it appears to have gone back. I've never heard of this kind of thing. Sheesh there is sure a lot of mysterious stuff that goes wrong with us and our pets. Poor you!

I had a funny cat morning, as you do, if you own them. Had an old friend I've not seen in ages coming for lunch. So, got up, hoovered stairs and bedrooms as we have a litter tray in bathroom and cats scatter it about on their paws. Had a shower, dried hair got dressed. Almost ready, only the lunch to make. Singing ... 'oh happy days'. Open wine.

Hear the familiar sound of cats running upstairs and jumping in litter tray. Look outside. Rain. They know they can use a warm dry place. Big kicking sounds .... know to expect litter all over. Nearly knocked over by one cat coming down, and another going up, more kicking sounds, more litter, both cats tear past me and outside, in the rain.

Dare to look on stairs and in bathroom. Cat litter everywhere, like Keith Moon has just had led Zeppelin over for a party in their litter tray.

Drag hoover back out, spend ten minutes in frenzied attempt to rid carpets of litter. Get all hot and bothered, have to have another shower and change. Feel a 'Hamlet' moment coming on as friend arrives, and I am still undressed, shouting at cats and wielding large hoover. Oh well, pour wine. :D
 
Lol - the joys of cats!

Our black cat regularly seems to enjoy dashing out and running down the stairs in front of us - especially on bleary eyed dark mornings. One day, she will have one of us over!
 
They do love to race you downstairs, don't they Sue?

The only problem is that they often decide to stop, quite suddenly, right where you are about to put your foot.

Oscar was a sod for that. I got into the habit of just putting my foot beside him and sliding him across the carpet or kitchen floor. He was a black cat, too, so difficult to see on a dark stairway. I just got so used to it that I used to wave a foot above a stair before actually treading on it. Looked really weird, I'm told, but it worked.

Love the way your cats made it their home again Isi, just to let you know that its OUR house.

Dear little things. What would we do without them?
 
Any tips on moving an old cat to a new home? My daughter has moved to a new house; worryingly it's on a busier road than the cat has ever been used to [even though they're moving from a city to a village]. When I was a kid our cat Fluffie kept going back to our old house when we moved and we put butter on her paws and carried her to the new house in a sack [it worked!]. I've noticed as well that there are lots of cats in the neighbourhood and, as the previous tenants were catless Alfie's garden is neighbours' cats territory. He's in for a bit of a shock, I think. they also haven't go anywhere to put a cat flap, either, with all doors being plasticy things or glass.
 
I agree - black cats do seem to like to play gamnes with us on the stairs, our Minnie is black and it's her fav place! :D

Moe, you can have a cat flap put in glass, or double glazing. We had both done in various hoouses. It's costly, but very nciely done by any window company, quick and without a mess. We have one in a window in the conservatory because that was cheaper than the door.

I've moved loads of cats, of all ages. A few tips for them:

1.Gather items which the cat knows and likes, blankets, clothes of owner, toys. Do not wash before move, keep smell for the cat in new house.

2. If the new house is large good idea to keep cat in one or two rooms for a few days. Try to interact with cat a lot in first weeks.

3. Do not feed cat just before move. Feed after moved, cats will then eat in new hom and wash. Which settles them. Don't starve it obviously but do not feed on morning of move provided the cat will be moved shortly.

4. Do NOT let cat outside for at least 2 weeks, and when you do, go with it. We had quiet ealks about garden with ours for first few days and they ran straight back in. They are chillin after a few weeks. You can tell they are ready to go out.

5. Do NOT lock cat outside, it will freak out and run away. Be careful of windows too, oddly enough cats often panic in a new place and try to escape even though they have no ideas where they are.

6. Try catnip if they like it, not a mouse, you can buy the real stuff from pet shops, in a bag. Just sprinkle on carpet, blanket or chair. It makes them happy. Not all cats respond though.

7. being in the car can be really scary for them, make sure they are secure, as losing them at this point is a tragic thing.

They should not be too bad if they have same furniture, ours found the bed right away! :)

We moved to a road as well, and although i worry, taking their introduction to outside slowly they cope with it well. They mostly play in back garden.

Hope it goes well!
 
Some really good ideas there. There's a large conservatory at the back, so he can stay in there and look out, whilst having access to the utility room and kitchen. There's a workroom attached to the garage that has a large window; I thought it might be a good idea to put him in there with a table so he can look out of the window..that way, whilst the move is going on he will be in one place with no chance of him escaping through an open door etc.
 
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