Zoe got another short cut last week. Now when he lies down his cute, little pink belly is really obvious.
It’s more noticeable when he walks because it sags. I think maybe he needs a girdle.
On a more serious note, we think he might be hurting more lately. Thursday night when he came to the door wanting in, he hesitated. I petted him to encourage him to come in, and he meowed loudly and hissed. Then he hissed another couple of times once he was inside. He has a kind of stilted walk that looks really awkward, which our vet thinks is because of his arthritis. He takes pain medication, but cats can’t take all the different types of medications that dogs can.
Zoe looks fashionable lying there with his belly matching his nose and toes.
I imagine you’ve already tried it, but our vet gave our aging arthritic cat glucosamine/chondroitin. It seemed to help a bit. (It works for me!)
Cats always look so cute and goofy after their summer cuts. So sad about the arthritis. The only time Bonsai would growl and hiss at us was when he was in pain. I hope Zoe feels better soon.
Minnie — Our vet has tried a lot of things, including a low-level laser treatment he said works on his own family, but not glucosamine. Maybe we can try that, although we have a lot of trouble getting Zoe to take medicine. He sometimes won’t even eat canned food if it has a pill in it.
Robin — Thanks. Zoe looks so goofy one of our neighbors wanted to take a picture of him so she could post it on Facebook. We’re hoping Zoe’s latest pain isn’t permanent. We’re pretty sure he has some ongoing pain, but this must have been much worse.
The best way I found to give a cat a pill is to pick it up and put it on a flat surface. Make sure he’s squared up over his feet. Then put you hand over his head and insert a finger into his mouth between his fangs and pull gently so his mouth opens up. You should be able to drop the pill straight down his throat; this means he can’t spit it out, especially if you close his mouth and gently massage his throat. I’ve been lucky that none of mine have needed pills for very long, but this works as long as they don’t fight you. (If they do, it may take two people.)
Ridger: In addition to your technique (which I’ve found works well), our vet recommended giving the cat a squirt of water from a syringe after inserting the pill. It lubricates the cat’s throat and makes it easier for the pill to go down.
Leah: Even if it’s cooler, I’ll bet that Zoe thinks this cut is an indignity.
Our older cat (at least 17 years, and maybe older because she was a stray living outside before we brought her inside 17 years ago) developed a limp two weeks ago. Whenever she stopped walking, she would pull her paw up off the floor. It look painful. So, yesterday, we took her to the vet. The vet couldn’t feel anything physically wrong with the paw or leg, so she decided to give the cat an x-ray. The x-ray showed significant cloudiness in one of her lungs. The vet said she couldn’t diagnose the source of the cloudiness and suggested that we could consult an expert, but the “c-word” was unspoken, and she said that the source of the cloudiness could be affecting the cat’s spine and/or nervous system, producing the paw lift. Because of her age (and other ongoing health problems), we’re just going to medicate the cat for now so that she’s more comfortable, but we’re assuming that the prognosis is not good.
Ridger… I had an eleven year old Siamese that had cancer and she sat in my lap ad let me put her pill in her mouth and close her mouth and she swallowed it. No problem…but Zoe isn’t going to let me do that! He has already bitten me twice. The fist time I was on antibiotics and then the second time in the hospital on an IV drip…so He isn’t going to allow me to help him.
Scott… I’m so sorry. Keep me informed.