I am cats. Ask me Nothing

Aunt Carol said:
Baby! Brilliant pink nose + tuxedo seems rare because of the usual reach of the black cowl. She's so striking.
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She cheated a little bit on that day, all the excitement had her all flushed with her ears and nose pinker than usual.

So apparently she has blood test indicators of renal trouble, puzzling to both the vet and I due to the complete absence of expected associated symptoms. Infection should lead to sensitivity and pain, but kitty was super well behaved and did not even react to having her guts felt up. Kidney failure, lymphoma should see generalized symptoms, appetite, alertness, litterbox problems... but no. It seems that two of the tested metrics (serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen) are downstream from protein ingestion, as waste products... and this cat has a 100% raw meat diet. Spose I'll look it up more once I have the actual report in hand.

Anyway here's some older pictures of her sister:
1777226934919.png1777226940905.png
Over the years her irises have started spotting and I'm waiting for the full summer sun to get an updated high quality picture of her eyes.
 
C114-85EKLS said:
She cheated a little bit on that day, all the excitement had her all flushed with her ears and nose pinker than usual.
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Ladies pinch; only whores use rouge.

C114-85EKLS said:
Anyway here's some older pictures of her sister:
View attachment 8917609View attachment 8917610
Over the years her irises have started spotting and I'm waiting for the full summer sun to get an updated high quality picture of her eyes.
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That's a handsome girl! You're like the agent for a stable of slightly-hairy supermodels.

I swear I'm not a nose freak or anything, but I love her pink-with-outline nose. She's like a colored-in coloring book cat.

I don't have a picture, but I have a black cat again for the first time in decades, and I forget how much more inscrutable it makes their little faces when the lights are down. Early on I made an effort to keep the lights up and observe her, and luckily (?) found out that no, she actually does do a lot of stone-faced staring directly into my soul.

My favorite is when her pupils are dilated so she looks like she has black eyes in a black face, like teddy bear buttons except the teddy bear is advancing inexorably, purring all the while, with the goal of chewing on my brow ridge.
 
DatBepisTho said:
Not mine, but iykyk.View attachment 8921689
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I have experienced this during rescue. One feral kitten, that was being taken care of by someone, both of his eyes were stuck closed from an infection. Cleaning up the infection and re-opening the eyes is a very gentle process otherwise you can injure the kitten. Once I got him home and got him cleaned up, I was able to get his eyes open again, and he looked at me, completely shocked, like "WTF is going on here! You're not the hoomin that has been taking care of me, my siblings, and my mom! ... In fact, where is my mom and siblings?!" The poor thing was just frozen as it overwhelmed his little kitten CPU.

It is really magical to give something back its sight, one of the main way it learns and interacts with the world. The poor little thing was just wandering around meowing because he had no idea where he was or where his mom was because he couldn't see. He was very sick. But, the story has a happy ending. He pulled through, sheer force of will on his part as I did all that could be done. Now, 5 years later, he lives happily as my mother's puppy cat, he never lets her out of his sight.
 
My cat survived boarding and only took a day to realize that no, I had not abandoned him.

But then today I saw worm segments in his butt. Tapeworms, probably. I'm calling the vet tomorrow and debating on whether or not I should nuke my whole apartment with deep cleaning. I know cats get the worms from fleas and he hasn't had fleas since I brought him in.
 
Agares said:
My cat survived boarding and only took a day to realize that no, I had not abandoned him.

But then today I saw worm segments in his butt. Tapeworms, probably. I'm calling the vet tomorrow and debating on whether or not I should nuke my whole apartment with deep cleaning. I know cats get the worms from fleas and he hasn't had fleas since I brought him in.
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Cats can get tapes from a number of sources, fleas, bad mouse, etc... I would thoroughly clean anywhere your cat's butt has likely been. Proglottids (the segments you see) don't live all that long outside of the host, but, the eggs are viable for a long time afterwards, despite the proglottid being non-viable. Also, don't assume he just has tapes. If your cat got a bad mouse, etc... he could have tapes, but also could have roundworms (rounds). Last I knew Drontal was the standard treatment, but that was a while ago, they might have something better now.
 
Prokhor Zakharov said:
Cats can get tapes from a number of sources, fleas, bad mouse, etc... I would thoroughly clean anywhere your cat's butt has likely been. Proglottids (the segments you see) don't live all that long outside of the host, but, the eggs are viable for a long time afterwards, despite the proglottid being non-viable. Also, don't assume he just has tapes. If your cat got a bad mouse, etc... he could have tapes, but also could have roundworms (rounds). Last I knew Drontal was the standard treatment, but that was a while ago, they might have something better now.
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He used to have fleas but I took care of those after bringing him in. He hasn't had a problem with itching for months now so I don't think there's a flea problem in here. And he's never caught a mouse so I don't think the worms came from that so it's probably a holdover from him time living outside. And tapeworms need an intermediate host to spread.
 
Agares said:
He used to have fleas but I took care of those after bringing him in. He hasn't had a problem with itching for months now so I don't think there's a flea problem in here. And he's never caught a mouse so I don't think the worms came from that so it's probably a holdover from him time living outside. And tapeworms need an intermediate host to spread.
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And in this instance, since the cat obtained the eggs for the tape from another host, that would make the cat the intermediate host if a human is subsequently infected by the proglottids from said cat. Humans can act as a terminal host if they develop disseminated cysticercosis
 
Agares said:
But then today I saw worm segments in his butt. Tapeworms, probably. I'm calling the vet tomorrow and debating on whether or not I should nuke my whole apartment with deep cleaning.
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Butt worms must trigger ancient human instincts. They're not all that difficult to get rid of, but butt worms :(

Medicate cat (dewormer's at the feed store, and I think I saw it at Walmart), vacuum, sprinkle diatomaceous earth into rugs and fluffy beds to be certain.

When a cat shows me their b-hole, I might not sniff it like they want me to, but I always take a look. We're in this together against the butt worms.
 
Jotch said:
GET THAT BOY SOME IVERMECTIN
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I know you're meming, but please be cautious with kitties and ivermectin, especially if you're using a formulation for a much larger animal and eyeballing the cat dose. Cat doses of ivermectin are in the micrograms.

Side note: if you ever get scabies and have to permethrin yourself, put the kitty in quarantine until it's time for you to shower. Their livers can't handle it.

And as many a pooner has found out, topical minoxidil is deadly to cats.
 
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