Let's See Your Cats!!!

Oh and yeah it doesn't stop ours from scratching our carpet either lol. Maybe if we had a 100 of them we placed all over the house, but they still go for the floor carpet at night.

 

We sprinkle catnip into the corrugations on ours and the cats will spend a few minutes going nuts for it and then pass out. Helps extend the lifespan a bit, lol.

 

If you have something like a HomeGoods near you that's where I'd go to buy them. They always seem to have plenty on hand and they're typically cheaper than I find anywhere else.

....don't bring your wife if she likes pillows

 

We have like 5 and another 4 scratching posts in the main living room area. Ugh...

 

Every time we go to Denver, that has to be a special stop.

 

oh yeah that's usually where we get our cat trees from, much cheaper there. Last time I looked though, the corrugated cardboard scratchers were like $9 from HomeGoods (at least the one out here)...bout the same price as the pet store.

$9 isn't a lot of money or anything but it's the principle...they probably make them for free using material pulled out of the recycle bin lol. I should just start making my own really, what with all the Amazon boxes we get in the mail these days.

HomeGoods does have really good prices on cat posts and cat trees though

 

It's cause it's the best store ever!

Unless you're going to try making your own in the circle/glue pattern don't even bother trying. The level of rage you'll feel after having a million scrap pieces of cut cardboard everywhere and a half made scratch box will make the $9 seem like a bargain. Ask me how I know

 

hahah I'll take your word for it

 

We used to have a cat with an enlarged heart which caused some breathing issues, and working in pharmacy, I can tell you how they administer inhalers or other meds if they decide your cat needs one.

My grandma's cat, Teddy, had lots of trouble breathing in humidity, so we tried to keep an air purifier in his favorite room. When he was born, they told us he probably wouldn't live past 6 months. I believe he was 8 when he died.

I don't know what it's like to see the symptoms of an asthmatic cat, but I do know there are a few medications they'll use. Typically, they'd tell you to give your cat benadryl. It makes them tired, so it's best given at night, but if it's mild, that's probably what they'll recommend. I have a few tips on how to get a benadryl down; my personal favorite is to cut the tip of a syringe off and put the pill in and basically shoot it down, then follow with wet food. Call it the pill bazooka. If they decide the cat needs an inhaler, which I doubt they will, as that's a bit more extreme and expensive, they'd prescribe an air chamber with a mask, so when you outfit a typical inhaler to it, it fills the chamber with the aerosolized medication, then the mask allows them to breathe the dose in as they just normally breathe. These chambers and masks are typically for kids, people with autism, elderly, etc. If they prescribe one, try to find it online, don't fill it at a pharmacy, the chambers and masks are stupid expensive at the pharmacy.

Whatever they recommend or prescribe will depend on whatever they think is triggering the asthma and how severe they deem it. If they don't prescribe anything and attacks get worse, you can always ask about giving them a benadryl though.

 

Hi! Thanks for the info and glad Teddy made it way past what they thought.

Our kitty (Mack) does have asthma, it causes him to start coughing, almost choking, just out of nowhere. He is having a couple of episodes a day. They prescribed him prednisolone (pill form) but they would like him to go on Flovent with an inhaler (AeroKat) which is fine, it only takes a couple of minutes a day I would imagine but I looked up the AeroKat and watched a couple of YouTube videos and being that he is a smooshed face kitty, I just don’t see how that would work. They put it over the cats nose and he doesn’t have a nose. The vet said the pill is fine but the inhaler just is a more direct path for the meds and is probably better. He’s 11 now and the radiologist didn’t see too much scarring (if any really) so I think we may see how we do with the pills for a bit. He loves his Petromalt so my wife is going to mix the pill (it’s a pretty small pill, thankfully) with that and see how we do. If not, then we will try the pill bazooka technique.
Again, thanks for the advice. It’s much appreciated.

 

You’re not alone. Many of us can live in shame together.

 

Hey Chance. Hope your kitty is feeling better and the meds help with they symptoms really quick. When Suki has flare ups we have to put her on steroids. I basically do the same thing with the syringe too if she jets a full oil to break it in half, drop it in the syringe, suck up a minimal amount of water to put it into solution and after it dissolves I squirt it down he throat. She doesn’t like it but we really think she knows by now what’s going on and that it’ll help her feel better. Hang in there. I know how much you care about your cats and I can only imagine how much you hate seeing them when they’re sick.

 

We had a cat that had asthma. We had to give him Prednazone liquid almost every day with a dropper. But it helped him a lot. Made his life much happier, ,and us too seeing him happier.
It's not that big a deal to get used too.
He'd get the coughs and weazing, but like l said, the Prednazone helped him a lot.

 

Yeah, seeing the poor little guy having his coughing fits isn’t a lot of fun. He took his pill tonight like a trooper!!

That’s good to hear! Thanks for sharing. Right now he’s on 5mg once a day.

 

That’s good to hear! Thanks for sharing. Right now he’s on 5mg once a day.
[/QUOTE]

My pleasure.

The only side affect that we experienced, was that it made him hungry more often. We were told that that's very comom with asthma medication for cats as they can contain steroids.

It made him life so much happier that is was definitely worth it

 

My pleasure.

The only side affect that we experienced, was that it made him hungry more often. We were told that that's very comom with asthma medication for cats as they can contain steroids.

It made him life so much happier that is was definitely worth it [/QUOTE]

Thanks for the heads up about the hunger. They hadn’t told me that, they just said he may drink more.
As you said, as long as he’s happier! He had a tough time as a kitten. When we rescued him he was just over a year old and had lived his whole life, up to that point, in a carrier. He used to walk in a constant hunched state which he was able to kind of correct. He still slightly resembles a raccoon when he walks. He’s really a good boy!

 

Buster loves to play catch.

 

Prednisone is a good option for his age! It's got a really awful taste, so you might have to try a few things, but usually hiding things like that in food works well if your cat is pretty food motivated. I hope it works for him, and I'm glad they came up with some treatment options! It sounds like he has a pretty decent case, but I doubt it's terribly abnormal for his breed.

 

Tough day