Hey everyone. Gohan has pain in his spine and the vet recommended 4 weeks on crate rest. The important thing g is no jumping, and I’m sure the stairs are not good either. We bought the biggest dog crate we could, with a nice pad. We placed his litterbox, food and water inside and at the height of his pain meds my BF put him inside. I wasn’t there, but my BF stayed for a few min as Gohan realized he was confined. Gohan started eating some food and my BF left the room so he could rest and get acclimated.
That’s when Gohan freaked out trying to leave and upended the litter, water, and food. Poor guy still has some litter stuck to him even after we tried to clean him up.
How can we start this crate process and maintain the necessities for him? The current plan is to expand the crate using one of those playpen tents, separate the litterbox into one area and add his cave bed in another. Cover the crate with a towel to make it cozier. And I guess wait it out.
He is super bonded with my BF (rescued by him as a feral kitten) and has been following him around while he’s been hurt. So I was also thinking BF should stay in the room with him until he sleeps.
I have lots of enrichment ideas to try as long as he’s a bored or sad kitty in the cage (new toys, cat TV on a laptop, even a goldfish maybe) but getting past this first part is heartbreaking and super difficult.
I’m so worried that Gohan will hurt himself more in the crate, that we will be so frustrated that we won’t do it and he will not recover, and I’m near tears. I felt like I could handle 4 weeks of the crate rest but I have trouble when I can’t even start it. I’ve read some threads on here about people being successful at it, and ways to make it bearable for human and cat. But how did you transition your kitties into accepting the cage without upsetting everything? Do we need a sedative, or just time and patience?
That’s when Gohan freaked out trying to leave and upended the litter, water, and food. Poor guy still has some litter stuck to him even after we tried to clean him up.
How can we start this crate process and maintain the necessities for him? The current plan is to expand the crate using one of those playpen tents, separate the litterbox into one area and add his cave bed in another. Cover the crate with a towel to make it cozier. And I guess wait it out.
He is super bonded with my BF (rescued by him as a feral kitten) and has been following him around while he’s been hurt. So I was also thinking BF should stay in the room with him until he sleeps.
I have lots of enrichment ideas to try as long as he’s a bored or sad kitty in the cage (new toys, cat TV on a laptop, even a goldfish maybe) but getting past this first part is heartbreaking and super difficult.
I’m so worried that Gohan will hurt himself more in the crate, that we will be so frustrated that we won’t do it and he will not recover, and I’m near tears. I felt like I could handle 4 weeks of the crate rest but I have trouble when I can’t even start it. I’ve read some threads on here about people being successful at it, and ways to make it bearable for human and cat. But how did you transition your kitties into accepting the cage without upsetting everything? Do we need a sedative, or just time and patience?