I'd be also tempted to have a look at his eyes.
Another thing, is he holding his head on one side or one ear is down and hot to the touch? Its the season for ear infections when insects get in.
Brian
It won't have anything to do with a Greek philosopher....
Lyme infection due to tickbite. Affects nervous system. Will probably wear off...
kidneys failing. Probably.
If you dont want a harrowing experience of watching him die, get him put down now :-(
And if you want a new kitten, PING me.
Got a little corker spare.
On 14/08/2012 13:09, The Natural Philosopher wrote: ...
...
There are degrees of kidney failure and, with the right medication and food, there is no reason that a cat with kidney failure cannot have several more years of happy life. Mine has managed two years since diagnosis and shows no signs of being distressed. Expensive to feed though, even buying renal cat food in bulk on the internet.
Colin Bignell
Dunno.
Eyesight was my first thought.
He was last seen walking up the street.
He only walks that way when going to the woods or to the 90 year old woman that also feeds him.
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So what did she do in addition to feeding him?
tim
I have removed 3 ticks off him in the last 2 months. I frequently check for them.
Nothing to say I have not missed one or he has sctratched one off.
Indoor cats tend to live longer than (wikipediea 12 -14 year on average) that a cat that is allowed to roam. My cat is a roamer and so should have a shorter lifespan as he is exposed to traffic, poisons, possible infections from other cats (he is neutered but he will still fight if attacked) and people like Mary Bale.
The roads around here are pretty quiet and he only has to cross one road to get into the woods or two roads to find me in the pub (and he does show up meowing in the car park).
Feral cats are expected to only live somewhere between 4 to 8 years (although truly feral cats are quite rare as they often find someone to feed them even if they do not interact with them). I have the scars from catching them:-).
My cat was a semi feral. He lived in Crigglestone Churchyard and was fed by the vicar. When the vicar left he had the cat trapped as there would be no-one left to feed him. The stupid bugger should have had him trapped 6 years earlier so that he could be neutered and rehomed.
He seems OK tonight, but I have over the last 6 months seen changes in him. When he jumps onto the bed or setee it is no longer graceful.
On 14/08/2012 19:10, ARWadsworth wrote: ...
Two of mine, both born in July 1997, haven't jumped onto anything for at least a couple of years. They just climb up. The other, which is a few months older, is perfectly capable of getting on my flat roof, which involves two jumps, one of which is about six feet.
Colin Bignell
Finally, we have no cats. It was natural wastage that did it. No cats were dismissed, made redundant, redeployed, or transferred to other branches. No cats were remanded in custody, although if there were prisons for cats I think all of ours would have all spent time inside. No cats were driven up to the moors and slung out of the car door, although sometimes, well . . . let?s just say I did get a bit exasperated once or twice.
Quite simply, for the last 12 years I have had a rigid policy of taking on no new cats. There have been plenty of applicants though. They have appeared almost daily at our door. Experienced middle aged cats claiming skilled rodent operative status. Elderly genteel cats in reduced circumstances, desirous only of a quiet home in which to spend their declining years and assuredly and most definitely not incontinent, not even slightly. Even baby cats, irresistible to all except me, orphaned and in dire straights, mewing piteously, have been unceremoniously rejected and sent on their way. ?Oh Dad, it?s snowing!? ?That?s not my fault. Anyway, they?ve got fur.?
Not long ago the last cat made her exit. She?d hung on and hung on, finally becoming quite helpless, and when we took her on that horrid one way trip the vet took one look and unquestioningly reached for her lethal needle. This cat had done well for 17 years, but the time had come.
Cats:
Blacky (rather fierce), Ginger (pretended to be fierce, but he was a big sissy really), Spook (a seemingly respectable old lady with a shadowy past), Susy (the cleverest of cats), Charlie (her brother, the dimmest of cats), Dandy (short lived), and Tiger (Carolyn's first love).
Cat highlights:
?When Susy went silently upstairs, then suddenly urine came out of one of the living room lights. ?When Blackie reached out to steal my forkful of food, but misjudged it. His paw went into my mouth and I had a severely lacerated tongue and lower lip. ?When I was testing some big speakers and Spook jumped vertically up off the beanbag and had diarrhoea in mid air. ?When Ginger would jump on the windowsill and lean on the door handle to let the other cats in or out. ?When Hil ran Charlie over. He used to go to sleep in cardboard boxes in the road. The wheel of the Volvo went right over him. He was flat. I picked him up and he cried. I put him down on the ground and he sort of swelled back into shape like in the cartoons and walked off. The vet couldn't find any damage (still charged plenty though). ?When I was ill and immobile for two months. Every day Charlie came upstairs and settled next to me, sometimes licking my face and purring. ?When I had to tell Carolyn (12) that her beloved Tiger was dead. The worst thing I've ever had to do (amazingly). ?When we walked up the field and a cat would follow, only to stop at the edge of her territory and meow at us, as if to say ?You?re going over the edge of the world!? ?When Spook gave birth in a cardboard box in the field, and Louise (10) thought the little tails hanging out of the bottom belonged to rats. ?When Spook would run across the yard in her inimitable way, her back end not quite behind her front end, like a 'cut and shut' car, nervously dodging from cover to cover like a guerilla fighter. ?When I was up a tree and I chopped off a really big branch and then saw Charlie sitting directly below, looking up with gormless interest. He lived, by some miracle. But now we have no cats. We can leave food on the table unguarded. We don?t need to do a headcount when we hear brakes screech outside. We don?t have to deal with occasional nasty smells in inaccessible corners. All of these are good things. But somehow, it doesn?t seem right. The house seems very empty.
I think I?ll get a dog.
Bill
It hasn't been roaming around the local recycling centre has it?
TW.
I wouldn't recommend it. Firstly, they're shit machines. We bought a Papillon ~11 years back. Then wifey wanted to have it mated. Me? anything for a quiet life. The pooch had 5 pups so that's 6 friggin dogs. Wifey wanted to keep 'em all. Me? anything for a quiet life. Now, I'm 64, haven't had a holiday in ~11 years, my mother died in 09 so that's 3 years we've been stuck at home looking after friggin dogs (instead of mother) when we could've been out there doing what the hell we fancied. Actually yea, get a dog, why should I suffer alone? ;)
In article , brass monkey scribeth thus
Don't they have kennels where you live?..
Ohhhhhhhhhhh no, can't use kennels says the wife, can't trust 'em to give the correct meds. It's like a hospital here. She's even got a chart of times/meds/per dog. They can't last much longer, surely ;)
That's probbaly arthrisus adn the musles just not being as young as they were. I'm sure most of us don't jump in and out of bed as we used to ;-)
Class.
I took Pebbles in when I worked at a rented property. She was underweight and full of fleas and ear mites. When the owner kicked her for coming near to me for some affection I put her in my van and took her home. That first week cost me a couple of hundred to have 7 rotten teeth removed. I still remember my lodger asking if they would grow back. I cannot remember if that was the day before or the day after she wrote off a driving school car whilst having a lesson. She was a thick blonde.
I have a strict two cats policy as I do not want a house like this
Be honest, do you think they'd take him?
+2 (Management agrees with me for once!)
:thumbs: :D
I'm not a cat person, but I think that's a great post!
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