What Made Your "confined-to-crate-rest" Cat Relax? Offer Some Handy Tips...

[PushPurrCatPaws]

If you've had to have your cat confined to a crate for several weeks or more, what kinds of things helped your cat to relax, chill out, or --on the other side of the spectrum-- be less bored?


Today I discovered that playing reruns of that "Joy of Painting" tv show konked Milly right out...

That guy sure has a calming voice... lol.


When she woke up, she discovered I'd gotten a brand new Yeowww Catnip banana for her.

 

[susanm9006]

Fortunately I haven't had to crate any of my cats yet. But the Yeoww banana, the best catnip toy, would make any cat happy.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

This is handy as well:

 

[danteshuman]

Can you drape a towel or newspaper over part of the crate? Then use a feather wand toy on the outside of the crate? My guys love the challenge of hunting things under blankets or the side of a chair or through a tiny paw hole. So maybe that might entertain your cat?

 

[Kieka]

Link is a stubborn cat and basically told us how to keep him happy. When we cleaned the crate (2-3 times a day) he got put in the carrier. After a few times he started refusing to leave the carrier. Rather than force him we started carrying him around the house with us in his carrier. He took naps with the other cats by being in his carrier while they slept nearby. He watched TV with us. Watched us play games. When he was ready to go back in the crate he'd yell and we'd put him back. We also kept catnip toys near the cage to keep him mellow and had a hanging toy on the top he could bat at.

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• Kieka
• Mar 28, 2017

 

[danteshuman]

PushPurrCatPaws why is your baby in a crate? What happened? Is she recovering from surgery?

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Yes, she had a (2nd) knee surgery one week ago. This isn't my "first rodeo" with her needing to be crated for a while (she only had two luxating knees, so... no more knees! we did her right one last year) -- I just thought it would be a good idea to have members pitch in their tips and tricks in regards to their experiences in crating cats. I've learned a lot, but I'm sure other members have too! I'm still learning...

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Link is a stubborn cat and basically told us how to keep him happy. When we cleaned the crate (2-3 times a day) he got put in the carrier. After a few times he started refusing to leave the carrier. Rather than force him we started carrying him around the house with us in his carrier. ...

We're having to do this with Milly. We have an additional one of those small sized Pet Gear soft-sided octagon pens, and we call it her "Travel Pod". It gets carted around the house, to this sunbeam or that one, put in this window or that one. Sigh.

That worked a lot better for her boredom level last year, when she still was a kitten. She's a bit more bossy and set in her ways now, being a year older. It's hard to figure out where she wants to be placed when in her Travel Pod.


I thought I'd show a video I took yesterday, after she had just cleaned the tummy part of her Tuxedo, and had decided to chill out in an unusual position. I've only seen her sit this way right after the knee surgeries, interestingly enough. Maybe it is more comfortable for the animal? Puts less stress on the hips and knees?


(Put in the password, "2ndSurgery" to view the video. Milly will kill me that I've put this video on the internet.)

 

[danteshuman]

I'm glad it is nothing life threatening and that she is doing better

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

This is the "pod system" we set up at home, using the soft-sided octagon pens:


The smallest one is devoted to her litter box, and we can isolate it in order to clean it (it has a pillow case draped over it). The other two are for her main living areas (crating is for 6-8 weeks), and we have her smallest scratch post in one, and push-purr blankies, etc. I rigged this together by punching small holes in various door frames of the pens, and tying together with strong shoelaces. She can't get out unless we unzip the tops and take her out of the pods.

Here was her knee day after surgery; then a photo five days later showing the expected bruising and some swelling (which has already improved-- she is beginning to walk around in the pens a bit better)--

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

I'm glad it is nothing life threatening and that she is doing better

Me too. Thank you.

 

[surya]

Poor kitty, but she does look quite cozy in her little cabana.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Poor kitty, but she does look quite cozy in her little cabana.

She'll get better and better over the next half year or more, and her leg will be great! As long as we can keep her from getting too wild or doing too many Zoomies too soon, the knee repair should hold. Last year when her right knee needed to be done, we moved slow and steady, building up the rehab exercises, and now her right knee is strong as an ox.

The hardest part right now is her getting bored and cranky in this crate-rest phase... which is why I thought a thread like this could help me but also other members who have been faced with having to crate a kitten or cat long-term for surgeries or injuries. It's not easy at times. I hope other people pitch in with their experiences.

I'm glad it is nothing life threatening and that she is doing better

Yes, it is not life threatening but with congenital patellar luxation that has moved pretty regularly into Grade II-IV luxations, usually the end result of the progression is complete lameness, if nothing is done surgically. Better to do the surgeries before too much degradation has occurred (she's less likely to have ligament problems/injuries, arthritic erosion and arthritic inflammation if we can tackle the luxation issue early). Milly has (had!) congenitally big kneecaps and very shallow, narrow trochlear grooves. As her bones grew during kittenhood, her big knees pretty much began just floating over the top of her grooves, and shifting out of place.

Sometimes animals have luxated patellas due to physical injury, or sometimes older animals and/or overweight animals can get luxated patellas from the extra pressure on or weakness in the legs... but when it is congenital (showing up usually in the first 3 months-2.5 years of life), often surgery is the best option.
So, we found a good surgeon.

For those who haven't seen any examples of some more "upper Grade" knee luxations in cats, I can show you a video which includes one instance of Milly's right knee last year, pretty much Grade III luxation (I find the video hard to watch but I suppose we were lucky to even get the video, in order to show it to her surgeon). Her knee was floating out of the trochlear groove and wouldn't go back into place. (At that point, we could pick her up gently from behind, under her arm pits, and dangle her back legs to elongate them... and usually, the right kneecap went back into place during that elongation stretch. When a patella luxates, it's literally a mechanical issue... the kneecap is not in its place for the leg to function as it should - so that the cat or animal cannot move the leg properly.) Seeing her right knee as shown in this video led us to doing that surgery on her right knee one year ago.

Her left knee held out for a year beyond that, but the second/third clips in the video is from the end of August this year, as her left knee finally moved out of the more minor Grade I luxation and into Grade II luxation. She could try elongating her leg on her own, in attempts to get the kneecap back into place, but it kept happening too frequently on a daily basis and rather than wait for her left knee to get worse, we moved to set up the surgery as soon as possible for her left knee (surgery was last Tuesday).

The two clips before the final clip in the video show some luxations with her right knee that were more "minor" (Grades I-II) -- in case anyone hasn't seen that less severe stage either, and wants to know what to watch out for in their own cats/kittens.

- password for this video is "luxations".

 

[Boris Diamond]

I've never had a kitty that needed isolation, so I have little advice to offer, but it is so nice to see that your prize-winning kitty (Picture of the Month!) had a successful surgery and is recovering nicely. Best wishes for her speedy rehabilitation.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Thank you, Boris Diamond.

 

[SeventhHeaven]

Hope your baby mends fast
Beautiful pictures

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Thanks, SeventhHeaven .

Have you ever had to crate your cat long-term?

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Well, Milly has gotten her stitches out this week, and, half the time, she is turning into a feline hellion in her crates. She's feeling so much better, which is a mixed blessing! I am at this catch-22 of wanting to calm her by covering some of her crates with a towel to darken that particular "pod" she is in at the time, to try to make her calm and sleepy... but I don't want her getting depressed. So, other times, she gets put in direct sunbeams (while we are still getting some sunbeams, as Autumn is slowly arriving here). All of us long for our old daily routines, and the next month and a half stretches out before us. We play "small games" while she's in the crates, like poking sticks under the crate floors which she "hunts" down, trying to blow Bubbles around her crates for added interest, etc., but honestly, does anyone have any other ideas? Maybe I just need to keep doing that, and grin and bear it for 6 more weeks. She's such a play monster. I need coffee 24/7 at this rate...

 

[danteshuman]

I'm glad she is doing better The bored but stuck in bed stage is the worst. Have you tried chamomile tea?

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Sadly, nope, never, as I am allergic to chamomile!
I don't keep it in the house.