Recent Content by canopener

The gabapentin is in liquid form. The difficulty has been that with her not eating consistently, putting it in food/bribing with treats is an unreliable delivery mechanism.

My older cat died this week, leaving my younger cat a solo cat for the first time in her life. Ciaran died after a brief illness, and during his illness, Kismet had significant reduction in appetite. Since his death, Kismet has started to eat a bit more (I don't know if she just finally got...

When the weather is nice, I often let the cats have some outdoor time, either supervised in the back garden or out walking on a leash. Ciaran very much enjoys this while Kismet, who has a somewhat nervous temperament, often declines to partake. Which is fine. But the problem is when Ciaran comes...

For his arthritis, he is on gabapentin twice daily with additional as-needed dose if he’s having a stiff day. And he is receiving dasuquin (though with the relatively weak clinical evidence, I’m not holding my breath for it.) I think I may try premedicating with the as-needed gabapentin though I...

One of mine does this, except rather than toys it’s usually scraps of paper or plastic she gets out of the recycling. What fascinates me is how deliberate this behavior is. She goes down to the kitchen and then brings her finds upstairs to put in her two preferred water sources—the bowl in the...

Any advice on how to approach an older cat for nail trimming? Over the past year or so, Ciaran has gotten much less tolerant of nail trimming. While he used to allow me to hold him on my lap and get through most of his paws with minimal protest, he now lashes out and hisses after we’ve done a...

Like many cat owners, I am on the never-ending quest to find the perfect litter-litter box combination...which, I appreciate, will always remain elusive... I've used covered litter boxes with wood- or wheat-based clumping cat litter for years (currently using okocat) and I'm thinking about...

In this case, peeing in the cactus seems to be less classic litter box avoidance (they happily use the box if the the cactus is behind a closed door) as a specific preference for the cactus. I've repotted the cactus and put stones over the soil and stakes in the pot to make it less nice to get...

One (or both) of my cats has been peeing in a potted plant. Last year, I found the then-kitten peeing in my large potted cactus once or twice, but this was unusual. However, since I moved this summer, I was noticing intermittent phantom pee smell and tracked it back to the cactus, which leads me...

I’m moving at the end of the month, and this entails a six hour drive with my two cats. The older one, Ciaran, has traveled a lot with me and he does fine in the car but Kismet, who is a year old and has much less travel experience, gets pretty upset. Which then in turn upsets Ciaran. We’ve gone...

She’s not spayed yet—the vet wants to wait until she’s six months, which will be in November.

I have a twelve-ish year old neutered male cat and a five month old kitten. A handful of times over the years, I’ve seen him hump toys or blankets. This was never a concern, as I’ve heard of other cats doing the same thing, but tonight he distinctly tried to hump the kitten—more specifically...

So far, she seems to be doing quite well with him. I just don’t want to be inadvertently encouraging tension between them. Also, as I prefer not to be chewed on, I am concerned about her learning the behavior from him.

My 12-year-old male cat has a history of intermittent petting vs play aggression. This comes in two presentations. In one case, he’ll pounce on my arm, pull it toward him and start bunny kicking with or without mouthing/biting like he does with his toys. He never breaks the skin or uses his...

Where is the fountain located? Cats prefer to have their food and water separated. Other than that I would just be consistent in redirecting him towards the fountain when he shows interest in the sink.