HELP ASAP!!

Kflowers

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Since your vet is tied up, but not too worried about Smoothie, I would absolutely tell them I was going to drop her off before their regular office hours on the first day they are open. Tell them you have to drop her off because you can't get off work. Tell them you aren't staying to see the vet, but you want her seen. When you get there knock. The staff should be there to take her in. They seem to want to see her, so this should work for you and for them.
 
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amarshall0919

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Since your vet is tied up, but not too worried about Smoothie, I would absolutely tell them I was going to drop her off before their regular office hours on the first day they are open. Tell them you have to drop her off because you can't get off work. Tell them you aren't staying to see the vet, but you want her seen. When you get there knock. The staff should be there to take her in. They seem to want to see her, so this should work for you and for them.
Thank you very much. I hopefully will be able to do that because that is the only thing that works. They told me that it is most likely an aggression issue that will have to be dealt with, but they’ll look at her just to make sure.
 

danteshuman

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If probably won’t take 6 months, I did more of a worst case scenario. To often people think cat introductions will take days instead of months.

Until you get her to the vet, everything except keeping them separated is pointless. If say she has arthritis then she will be cranky until her pain is treated; making introducing them pointless until the pain is treated!

Look I’m on SSI but I would borrow $, use care credit or gofundme me or borrow money from family members or ask the vet if I could pay in monthly installments but my cat would be at the vet’s office ASAP! Probably the next day or a week max after the first cat attack incident. Taking a couple to a half day off of work to get your sick or possibly injured pet to the veg is normal & acceptable. If it isn’t you need a new job before your baby comes because your work sounds dysfunctional (& probably not in compliance with labor laws!) Also worms need to be treated within a month max. Plus chances are your worm infected cat will infect other pets. What if Smoothie broke her toes of her leg?

I get that you are super stressed about a baby coming. (Congrats!) However Smoothie became part of your family before you got pregnant. Maybe now is the time to watch every season of My Cat Ftom Hell .... which you can get on Discovery plus. In some of his episodes he tells you how to prepare cats for the baby.
 

danteshuman

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Oh I doubt this will be needed but since you have the stress of a baby coming: if after a clear vet check, in a month & Smoothie is making zero progress, you can have the vet put her on prozac.... which takes a couple of months to get the dosage right. They even make it in a cream you put on her ear. Normally we would suggest behavior things and trying for months before you go to prozac. However given your time frame & stress of new baby; I thought you should know about it, just in case Smoothie needs it. Risking prozac being given to her unnecessarily is better than rehoming her. Again I don’t think you will need to put her on prozac but I do want you to know in case of emergency you can ask the vet to put her on mood stabilizers.

Now Dante(RIP) was an insecure hyper bully & if I had known about prozac being an option when he was bullying the declawed senior cat.... he would have been going to the vet that day to start on prozac!
 
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amarshall0919

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Oh I doubt this will be needed but since you have the stress of a baby coming: if after a clear vet check, in a month & Smoothie is making zero progress, you can have the vet put her on prozac.... which takes a couple of months to get the dosage right. They even make it in a cream you put on her ear. Normally we would suggest behavior things and trying for months before you go to prozac. However given your time frame & stress of new baby; I thought you should know about it, just in case Smoothie needs it. Risking prozac being given to her unnecessarily is better than rehoming her. Again I don’t think you will need to put her on prozac but I do want you to know in case of emergency you can ask the vet to put her on mood stabilizers.

Now Dante(RIP) was an insecure hyper bully & if I had known about prozac being an option when he was bullying the declawed senior cat.... he would have been going to the vet that day to start on prozac!
Thank you so much. I really do hope she is better in a month’s time because it is stressful for all of us to have to keep one locked up at all times. If she doesn’t get better though, I will definitely ask the vet to put her on a mood stabilizer. I absolutely don’t want to get rid of her, so that option is last on the list. I would only get rid of her if we had exhausted all of our options, and there was still no improvement.
 

danteshuman

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Site swapping will help speed up the introduction time. It lets the cats smell each other without seeing each other. Plus by letting each cat own the house for 12 hours a day, a cat doesn’t go stir crazy/extra stressed/extra hyper from being locked up all day. Plus it lets them develop a communal smell by laying in each other’s beds etc. You can try rushing them every day with the same brush if they let you or putting a dab of pure vanilla extract on the back of each cat’s neck.

The reason I said to use a crates was to absolutely prevent them from seeing each other or worse her attacking your other cat.
 
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amarshall0919

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Site swapping will help speed up the introduction time. It lets the cats smell each other without seeing each other. Plus by letting each cat own the house for 12 hours a day, a cat doesn’t go stir crazy/extra stressed/extra hyper from being locked up all day. Plus it lets them develop a communal smell by laying in each other’s beds etc. You can try rushing them every day with the same brush if they let you or putting a dab of pure vanilla extract on the back of each cat’s neck.

The reason I said to use a crates was to absolutely prevent them from seeing each other or worse her attacking your other cat.
What will the vanilla do? I’m willing to try anything at this point.

We did try the crate option, but we let her see him and it ended terribly with her screeching and trying to get out of the cage. We will do the cage again, but put something in front of it so that they can’t see each other. She has a vet appointment next week, but if I notice anything wrong we will be driving the far drive to another state to get to the nearest animal hospital.
 

danteshuman

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The pure vanilla extract makes them smell alike. Cats have a communal scent for their family & close friends. (Your scent is included to.) So brushing them with the same brush (with some of the other cats fur in it) or petting their cheeks/face with a unscented sock over your hand (using the same sock) or vanilla all aim to get everyone smelling alike. That way the scent says friendly not enemy.
⭐Cats rely on smell way more than sight. Hence non recognization aggression after one cats comes home from the vet smelling funny.
⭐I think the towel over the crate will be necessary when you are site swapping. Smoothie sounds like a spitfire.
 
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