Its been just a bit over a month since my boyfriend and I got our new cats. I looked on craig's list for weeks and finally found the two I wanted. They were brother and sister, 1 year 2 months old, their previous owner had lost her job and was going off to school and needed to find a new home for them.
They both appeared health and she said they got their shots and were both fixed.
I'm just gonna make a time-line to keep this simple. (or so I thought, sorry this is so long)
April 26th - drove 2 hours to pick them up, kept same food, used Feline Pine litter
May 2nd- Started to slowly change out Purina Indoor with Blue Buffalo Indoor
May 3rd- Let the cats discover the rest of the house finally, they immediately started eating our Christmas Cactus and Asparagus Fern(or some kind of fern that looks similar).
May 10th- Introduced cats to basement, where we are moving down into in a couple more weeks. They both decided to roll around in some of the dust left behind from the plaster we put on the walls. We had put a wall up blocking off the basement bathroom, game room, and room containing the sump pumps ect.
May 15th or so- Cats are now comfortable and let to roam around the house freely with my mother in law's dog and my boyfriend's dog, both medium-large breeds, let outside frequently, both healthy and utd on all shots. But we do have an acre and a half, with woods in back, full of ticks and the occasional deer, with plenty of rabbits and raccoons. We give both dogs Frontline and Heartguard.
May 23rd- Mother-in-law gets a new dog, tiny Pomeranian mix, she got it from a lady who lives 3-4 hours south, she was fostering that dog along with 10 or more other tiny dogs, all let to roam the house freely, and not potty trained. Dog had worms, may have come from a puppy mill. She was on her worm medication for 5 days when we got her. She also had ear mites and stank terribly. Dog seems to adapt well and gets along with the other two here.
May 24th- While the mother-in-law is at work I introduce the cats to the dog, put the cats in the bathroom with the litter box, close the dog in the room, then swap them out a couple hours later, then 30-40 minutes later let the dog out, she stays in the kitchen, let the cats out, Justice(the male) never lets Niki(the pom) out of his sight, is playful with her, she really isn't interested in him. Mapenzi(the girl cat) wants nothing to do with the dog and vanishes back into our room. All in all things seem well, Justice is always sniffing Niki's butt.
May 26th- Notice one of the cats has diarrhea and despite our best efforts don't find out who it is until May 29th.
May 28th- Catch one of the cats peeing on my work clothes, fresh out of the dryer, sitting on our freezer after coming out of the kitchen. This isn't the first time they've done it, just the first time I caught them. I've smelt it in our clothes basket shortly after changing the litter to Petsmart Brand. It was the girl cat, Mapenzi. Not 5 minutes later I find Justice in the same spot digging like cats do if they're in a litter box. I call my mom and tell her whats been happening, decide to lock the cats in the bathroom for 3 days. I clean the litter box once daily religiously(in the evening after they normally poop) and twice if its looking bad, fully clean it once a week.
May 29th- Come home from work around 4, check on the cats, seem fine, playful as ever, purring like crazy, seem to be dealing with the bathroom, I left the window open to the front yard so they can watch the animals in the mornings. Check the litter box around 8pm and find Justice climbing out of the litter box, Mapenzi asleep on the counter. Turns out he's the one who had diarrhea. And it has blood in it, its running, a medium-tan color stool with about half a teaspoon of blood in it. I check his bottom and theres some discharge, whipe it off and it looks tan with a hint of red.
May 30th- Around 2pm I go into the bathroom and find diarrhea in the litter box and he's licking at his bottom, find a hair, pull it out(I know I know probably not wise), wipe, no signs of blood, check the litter box more closely, just a tiny tiny hint of blood no bigger than the tip of a q-tip(if that).
I called my mom Sunday night(vet is closed sundays and today because of holiday), we did some googling, looks like it could be anything from worms to bowel issues to something he ate to problems from switching food/litter or other environmental things.
He's always had a large stool for a cat, like, I'm talking almost as big as a small-medium dog.
He's always eating, ALWAYS, and he eats like a monster, just digs his face into the bowl. He's bigger than his sister Mapenzi, we thought he was just a solid cat, his stomach is kind of firm to the touch. Mapenzi's stool is normal and aside from a slight almost hairball has no issues.
He's playful, no attitude changes, not acting lethargic, hasn't thrown up.
I really don't have money to take him to the vet, trying to pay down debt, but if we absolutely have to its not going to be a huge deal. If nothing else we just take him in and get his stool tested, for our dogs its $24, can't imagine it'd be more than that for cats. So I might do that regardless. I'm probably going to put him on a simple diet tonight, rice and boiled chicken, nothing else and see what happens tomorrow or over the next couple days.
Given the fact that he's been all over the house, its a real disaster, he's eaten bugs, eaten the christmas cactus and asparagus fern(They hadn't had any reactions to either so I didn't think of it, my cats growing up had eaten that type of fern and never had issues), hes eaten bugs in the basement, and upstairs, he's rolled in plaster dust 3 times, we changed litter, changed food, mother-in-law got a new dog, and their litter box has changed locations a couple times... I'm thinking maybe he could be stressed out or god knows what with all the changes he's had in 1 month, and the fact that Mapenzi hasn't shown any symptoms or issues that makes it more likely it's just stress?
This was so much longer than I intended lol.
They both appeared health and she said they got their shots and were both fixed.
I'm just gonna make a time-line to keep this simple. (or so I thought, sorry this is so long)
April 26th - drove 2 hours to pick them up, kept same food, used Feline Pine litter
May 2nd- Started to slowly change out Purina Indoor with Blue Buffalo Indoor
May 3rd- Let the cats discover the rest of the house finally, they immediately started eating our Christmas Cactus and Asparagus Fern(or some kind of fern that looks similar).
May 10th- Introduced cats to basement, where we are moving down into in a couple more weeks. They both decided to roll around in some of the dust left behind from the plaster we put on the walls. We had put a wall up blocking off the basement bathroom, game room, and room containing the sump pumps ect.
May 15th or so- Cats are now comfortable and let to roam around the house freely with my mother in law's dog and my boyfriend's dog, both medium-large breeds, let outside frequently, both healthy and utd on all shots. But we do have an acre and a half, with woods in back, full of ticks and the occasional deer, with plenty of rabbits and raccoons. We give both dogs Frontline and Heartguard.
May 23rd- Mother-in-law gets a new dog, tiny Pomeranian mix, she got it from a lady who lives 3-4 hours south, she was fostering that dog along with 10 or more other tiny dogs, all let to roam the house freely, and not potty trained. Dog had worms, may have come from a puppy mill. She was on her worm medication for 5 days when we got her. She also had ear mites and stank terribly. Dog seems to adapt well and gets along with the other two here.
May 24th- While the mother-in-law is at work I introduce the cats to the dog, put the cats in the bathroom with the litter box, close the dog in the room, then swap them out a couple hours later, then 30-40 minutes later let the dog out, she stays in the kitchen, let the cats out, Justice(the male) never lets Niki(the pom) out of his sight, is playful with her, she really isn't interested in him. Mapenzi(the girl cat) wants nothing to do with the dog and vanishes back into our room. All in all things seem well, Justice is always sniffing Niki's butt.
May 26th- Notice one of the cats has diarrhea and despite our best efforts don't find out who it is until May 29th.
May 28th- Catch one of the cats peeing on my work clothes, fresh out of the dryer, sitting on our freezer after coming out of the kitchen. This isn't the first time they've done it, just the first time I caught them. I've smelt it in our clothes basket shortly after changing the litter to Petsmart Brand. It was the girl cat, Mapenzi. Not 5 minutes later I find Justice in the same spot digging like cats do if they're in a litter box. I call my mom and tell her whats been happening, decide to lock the cats in the bathroom for 3 days. I clean the litter box once daily religiously(in the evening after they normally poop) and twice if its looking bad, fully clean it once a week.
May 29th- Come home from work around 4, check on the cats, seem fine, playful as ever, purring like crazy, seem to be dealing with the bathroom, I left the window open to the front yard so they can watch the animals in the mornings. Check the litter box around 8pm and find Justice climbing out of the litter box, Mapenzi asleep on the counter. Turns out he's the one who had diarrhea. And it has blood in it, its running, a medium-tan color stool with about half a teaspoon of blood in it. I check his bottom and theres some discharge, whipe it off and it looks tan with a hint of red.
May 30th- Around 2pm I go into the bathroom and find diarrhea in the litter box and he's licking at his bottom, find a hair, pull it out(I know I know probably not wise), wipe, no signs of blood, check the litter box more closely, just a tiny tiny hint of blood no bigger than the tip of a q-tip(if that).
I called my mom Sunday night(vet is closed sundays and today because of holiday), we did some googling, looks like it could be anything from worms to bowel issues to something he ate to problems from switching food/litter or other environmental things.
He's always had a large stool for a cat, like, I'm talking almost as big as a small-medium dog.
He's always eating, ALWAYS, and he eats like a monster, just digs his face into the bowl. He's bigger than his sister Mapenzi, we thought he was just a solid cat, his stomach is kind of firm to the touch. Mapenzi's stool is normal and aside from a slight almost hairball has no issues.
He's playful, no attitude changes, not acting lethargic, hasn't thrown up.
I really don't have money to take him to the vet, trying to pay down debt, but if we absolutely have to its not going to be a huge deal. If nothing else we just take him in and get his stool tested, for our dogs its $24, can't imagine it'd be more than that for cats. So I might do that regardless. I'm probably going to put him on a simple diet tonight, rice and boiled chicken, nothing else and see what happens tomorrow or over the next couple days.
Given the fact that he's been all over the house, its a real disaster, he's eaten bugs, eaten the christmas cactus and asparagus fern(They hadn't had any reactions to either so I didn't think of it, my cats growing up had eaten that type of fern and never had issues), hes eaten bugs in the basement, and upstairs, he's rolled in plaster dust 3 times, we changed litter, changed food, mother-in-law got a new dog, and their litter box has changed locations a couple times... I'm thinking maybe he could be stressed out or god knows what with all the changes he's had in 1 month, and the fact that Mapenzi hasn't shown any symptoms or issues that makes it more likely it's just stress?
This was so much longer than I intended lol.
