Cats, cats, cats
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Facebook is such a small world. Last night I connected up with the owner of the Devon Rex I once wanted badly (2 years ago)! I was not as high on the waiting list as the current owner. Instead, I got my Joey, a week younger, who was actually reserved for show, but the breeder had to let him to pet when she found a kink in his tail. My luck! They are 1/2 siblings and born a week apart. What was really cool was that I was able to help her with a health issue with her Devon that I had experienced with mine (nothing tragic, but the cat was very sick) because I do believe the breeder's cats carry mycoplasma. She had gotten another new kitten from same breeder and my Joey's 1/2 sib got sick. When I brought Joey home, my other Devon got sick (2 years ago) with the exact same symptoms. It was so much fun to see how the "Devon I originally wanted" grew up and how much he resembled my boy, but also, to give her the information I had discovered (via PCR test). The only reason I saw her post at all is that I lost a cat to FIP in 2013 and we were in the same (large) FB group (FIP Fighters) and when I saw a picture of her cat in my newsfeed I went, BOING, that looks like my Joey! You think all cats look alike - NO.
As kittens - my Joey second from left, her cat on right:
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Today:
Joey
Cosmos and new kitten
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Just got back from a vacation. Here is a picture of my sister's very crabby cat, Champ Bailey (named after the football player, and always called by his full name).
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Great photos!
That was so good you were able to help that other lady Quinn. Sorry to hear you suffered with FIP. Many years ago (late 80's- early 90's) I lost a full household (4 cats) to the dreadful FIV. Back in the days before the vaccine. 4 beautiful cats dying slowly, all under the age of 2. Heartbreaking.
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LOL @ Champ Bailey! That is one seriously crabby looking cat! Dang.
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Thanks felingfeline. I can't image losing four at a time. I'm surprised so many had FIV - did they fight amongst themselves? Yes, you watch everyday wondering what you will wake up to the next day. It was the most heartbreaking thing I've gone through, other than losing my mother. I videoed my Ms Boo everyday and told her I loved her and hand fed her kibbles. She lasted 7 weeks. The worst part was the crappy Vets couldn't give me a Dx (I had a necropsy done).
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Quinn that was so hard.
Yes the 4 cats were 2 pairs of 2 sibling kittens, both pairs rescues but not through a shelter. 1 set had probably been born to a FLV positive mother and then gave it to the other 2. Of course we never knew exactly who gave it to who as we did not know the virus even existed. Back in the late 80s early 90s. Thank God there is a vaccine nowadays.
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Anyone have a litter-robot? Just ordered one. Hope it's everything people say (100% approval rate amongst FB cat friends):
One friend empties bag at bottom about 1 time a week with 2 cats. No scooping!
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Wow. I do not think we have anything like that in Ireland! We have things very easy with Arthur, he only uses a litter tray if he really has to, he prefers to go outside. Only cat I ever had who was like that, all the others came in from outside to use the tray.
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People in Europe are getting them. Maybe the company ships overseas. It is called a litter-robot, but pricey! Yes, my one outdoor cat comes inside to use the litter box. Creatures of habit I guess, but we have cold snowy winters, so she develops the habit in the winter. Cats love their habits!
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Have you all seen this house (it's on Houzz to be sure)...made for cats! Beautifully constructed cat walks, tunnels, etc..
They have a lot of cats, all rescues. They recently got two kitten siblings and one now has FIP. Somehow Peter, the home owner got Miss Bean admitted into UC Davis's clinical trial to test out a new medication for FIP. They are having more than limited success, though Miss Bean is proving to be a difficult one. Peter is doing almost daily posts of the Vet's letters to him, with videos, of Miss Beans condition. For any of us tat have had a cat with FIP, these trials are giving hope. If you want to check out Peter's house and tge profress of Miss Bean (touch abd go now), check out his FB page Zen by Cat
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Do you mean FELV? My cat has FIV and it hasn't made him ill. He is getting arthritis fairly severely. I think they can live long lives. He's about nine now. We're mid 70'S so we think we should last as long as we will. It's heartbreaking to lose a cat for any reason.
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Wren - no, I meant FIP, which is Feline Infectious Peritonitis. I know all about it as I lost my 7 year old female to it in 2013. It is a fatal disease; usually strikes cats less than 2-3 years of age, with the mean age being 10 months old. There is no vaccine and there is currently no cure. Most cats in shelters or catteries carry the coronavirus, which by itself is not a problem, but in a rare few, it mutates to a form that infects the cat's macrophages and causes an inflammatory response. There is wet FIP and dry FIP. It can be in the thoracic or abdominal cavity. In wet FIP, the fluid accumulates in either cavity. Basically - ascities. My cat's belly got very distended. By the time that happens, that cat is already having other symptoms - loss of appetite, lack of grooming, weight loss, sometimes eye and neurological problems. My girl went from ok one day, to didn't want to eat and just wanted to sleep. There are a complex of lab tests that add up to a FIP dx, but not really one easy test. (That's a whole other page of typing
) My cat was dx'd with a necropsy. My cat's age fooled many Vets.UC Davis, Neil Pederson, is on to a treatment which is in clinical trials right now. He has been getting some success, but they are still working on dosages for treatment. They are also looking at siblings that both have FIP or one sibling that does and one that doesn't. They want to understand what causes one cat's coronavirus to mutate and it's sibling not, or why sibling's both mutate (often at the same age plus or minus a week, from my observations). They think there is a genetic component, but not always. My cat was very healthy and very athletic I had one Vet tell me she couldn't have FIP due to her age (he was not only a DVM, but had a PhD in Virology). I had a necropsy done at UC Davis - she had FIP.
I will tell you this - many Vets do not understand FIP as they see so few cases and as we know, many people do not bother taking their cats to a Vet. Kittens go much faster than my girl did....1-2 weeks. My Vet even said to me, "You probably know more about FIP than I do." After he said there is a PCR test for FIP, I knew he was right.
It is a heartbreaking disease as you see your cat wither away in weeks (for wet), maybe months, for dry FIP. Outside of the trials, it is treated with Prednisolone to mitigate the inflammation.
I've heard anywhere from 1 in 500 cats to 1 in 5000 cats will get FIP. Hard to know, I guess.
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A great page for info on Dr. Pederson's FIP research. What they discovered in 2015.
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Beautiful house for the rescued cats! Hope that the FIP research yields results.
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The house is so cool feeling feline. That bald man is Peter, the one whose new kitten is up at UC Davis. I had another friend whose kitten was not accepted to the clinical trial at about the same time (it was "full"), but somehow Peter got his kitten in. Maybe it's the house and the publicity he would give to the research?
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Happy Cats!
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I would love to do that to my house! Why not?
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I just got back from my 3-week summer vacation. I stayed a few days with one of my BFFs in Philly, and she had ELEVEN CATS in her house! Normally she had four cats, but she was fostering four orphaned kittens, and then two kittens from a previous batch of fosters were returned, and a neighbor family, whose cat she fostered, went on vacation for a couple of weeks and left the cat with her. So - ELEVEN CATS! Here are some cute photos of the kittens.
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Aaawww!
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I was on a studio workshop with my photography club on Saturday and at lunchtime befriended this big fella
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Scrunch - those kittens are marvelous. The first and third almost look like Devon or part Devon kittens! The chocolate one with green eyes.
Feelingfeline - what a beautiful "man" cat. So stately.
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Ruth ~ Champ Bailey looks gloriously crabby! He looks grumpier than Grumpy Cat 😺
Scunch ~ Buckets o' kittens 😍
Feline ~ What a handsome fellow! I love how your were able to capture his lovely whiskers against his black velvety fur.
Saw the clip below somewhere else......cutest ticket ever 🙂
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Quincat, Now that you've described it, I think that's what Samantha had. The vet said her chest cavity would fill with fluid and she wouldn't be able to breathe. Oddly enough, she became extremely cuddly before she was too ill to go on. Before she would only cuddle with my son. It was so long ago, I didn't remember the name.
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Wren - how old was Samantha?
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Laughed out loud
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My Quinn found a loose furniture protector (you know, those little round discs you put under the legs of furniture to protect the floor). I took it away as he tends to eat things he shouldn't. Now he is actively engaged in removing more!! And he's scratching my wood floor to do it. My crazy (sometimes destructive) clown cat. He's red - of course!
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Quinncat, I'm not sure how old she was. My guess is 4-5. She wasn't a young kitten for sure. The kids found her when we were in Houston and we moved her up to Seattle with us. Probably around 4yo.
I cleaned kitten cages at a new shelter this morning. Not easy because they're supposed to stay in the cage while we do it. One kitten in a top kennel leaped out and grabbed the bar on the kennel below. Then those kittens had to investigate. In the meantime I was able to grab him and put him back. Another pair had walked in soft poop and it was everywhere in their kennel, even the window. Fun getting that scrubbed up. They do have nice cages there and the place is spotlessly clean. Everything is sanitized every day. If you hold a kitten against your shirt, you have to change it so germs don't get spread around. It's a huge contrast with the other shelter.
Try getting one of those coaster things for furniture for the red guy. It should bat around like a hockey puck. I had an orange tabby boy and small nephews. One left a hot wheels car and the cat played with it for weeks until he lost it somewhere.
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Quinncat, would bitter apple spray deter him from going after the protectors. Just a thought.
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