kitty sunset years

[WastelandMama]

so, when angel and i were first married, we got two kitties: scout and wu-tang.

this year, they're both eight. wu-tang has decided she will no longer be eating dry food, thankyouverymuch, even though that's ALL we ever fed them.

this week, scout has been sick. awful fever, lethargic, general pookey-feeling kinda kitty.

angel and i decided, after his fever broke, to attempt to brush his teeth. see, scout is half-abyssinian and therefore prone to the gum disease gingivitis. what with him weakened by sickness, we thought it would be the perfect time to wrestle him down and scrub his nasty teeth.

see, a looooong time ago, when he was a kitten, i tried to brush his teeth. and ya know what happened? he fought me so much i ended up accidentally knocking out two of his baby teeth. crying so, naturally i never tried again.

aaaaanyway, last night angel held him and i got the finger brush out and went to town on his teeth, GENTLY, i might add. i only pressed until i could feel the bristles make contact with his teeth.

long story short, ONE OF HIS FRIGGIN ADULT BACK TEETH FELL OUT! JUST LIKE LAST TIME ONLY WORSE!

crying crying crying

now he has to go to the vet on friday. which he hates and i hate bc its expensive.

i don't want him to end up some super old geriatric kitty with no teeth, but i have a feeling that's where we're going. sweatdrop

happily, none of our other kitties have these teeth issues, but THREE of them now are all "oh, i only eat WET food, thanks so much", which gives them HORRIBLE smelling poops. scream scream just awful.

so, my question for discussion is:

have you had a pet who got old?
how'd you deal with it?
what was your favorite pet of all time? do you still miss them?

oh, and ADOPT A SHELTER KITTY!!! an older one and black, if you can! kittens are cute but a pain in the a**! xd  

[Iconised Ghost]

aw that sucks sad My old kitty had some teeth problems, general tartar (sp??) build up which she had to go under anaesthesia to have cleaned off, I'm pretty sure its because she would only eat wet food, consisting mostly of horse and misc meat ingredients xD But we didnt keep her indoors so we didnt have the poop smell problem. I miss her a lot still

My new kitty has only ever had dry food, and thats how its going to stay xD Well, apart from her saucer of milk a day (apparently cats become lactose intolerant after a while, but shes 1 yr old and still likes it? weird)

At least if Scout does lose his teeth, he's already moving onto softer foods naturally sweatdrop Vets are so freaking expensive! We got health insurance for my kitty (after an infected cat bite, infected dog bite, infected dog bite which didnt heal as planned, gastro infection in the first 6 months xD) and since then shes been perfectly healthy -_- Except for having to have her extra claws trimmed since she has extra toes, which isnt covered by insurance stressed  

[Dana Pixie Stix]

I had an old cat, never brushed his teeth, he was an indoor/outdoor cat. That b*****d kicked the crap out of all the neighbors' dogs. To the point one year he got his cheek bitten off.(The face, not his butt.) You ever seen a cheekless cat eat? D: it's disgusting. Anyways, he died at the ripe age of 16. He was so awesome. ;_;  

[WastelandMama]

all of our kitties are indoor only bc i get freaked out by all the horrible stories you hear online and in the news about evil bastards hurting kitties. crying

also, my kitties are super gorgeous and i'd be worried someone would scoop them up for their very own.

we had a farm kitty a long time ago named cheeser who was able to stay outside ((bc, you know, its a farm)). she lived to be nearly twenty, but her last two years she was 'retired' at my mama's house and she REFUSED to go outside. ever. mama would drag her out sometimes when she worked in the garden and cheeser would just haul a** back inside, lol. guess she'd had enough of outdoor living.

@ghost: our kitties never became lactose intolerant. scout's favorite food of all time is yogurt, lol. really, ALL mammals are supposed to become lactose intolerant as they age...the only reason most humans do not is bc we voluntarily continue eating dairy. no other animal does that ((unless a human comes along and gives it to them)), hence the intolerance. once you lose those little microbes and whatever to digest dairy, you can't get it back.

same thing happened to a friend of mine who was vegetarian for ten years and then decided to try to eat meat again. she ended up in the hospital and they told her she'd just lost the stomach juices to digest red meat.

sucks to be her i guess. xp  

[Iconised Ghost]

I get scared about poeple hurting my kitty too crying But i figure its kinda like having children, gotta let them out sometime. We got my kitty microchipped so if anyone steals her we can get her back the first time they take her to the vets mrgreen kekekeke. Plus shes pretty scared of new people and noises so i think she'll stay away. And with her extra toes and humungus paws shes very fast xD

Cool about the milk- so we can keep giving her milk until she stops wanting it, and hopefully she wont want it again? She has a thing for dairy products too xD Not too keen on yoghurt but she'll lick it if theres no milk going. Theres always milk going through, because she cries so much for it she drives us nuts.  

[Angie moo]

My Moo kitty is getting to be old but she is still in her mid life. As for Tom cat he is eight years but we never had to do deal with health problems from him. Tom cat is Part red point, and part Tabby so he is rather cross eyed. xD

But he has the most beautiful dark blue eyes that I've ever seen on a cat~ <3  

[WastelandMama]

update:

scout is doing much better, eating more every day.

but this morning i woke up to find poor spoon in respiratory distress. she's currently convalescing in the kitty room on a pallet of pillows and blankets. crying

idk how SHE got sick...she's our anti-social kitty and stays the hell away from every other cat.

anyway, she's breathing all hard, but you can hear air going in and out of her lungs fine, so its all like, mucus and gunk mucking up her little airways. crying

if she shows no improvement in 24hrs, its off to the vet.

again.

idk wtf is up with all my kitties this year. NONE of them have been sick in foreeeeeeever, and now they're all getting sick! guess we were due for it or something.

bah.  

[Iconised Ghost]

I would take her to the vet NOW. My last cat developed respiratory problems and it killed her sad If we hadnt waited to see if she really needed the vet, she might still be alive. So please take her bgc sad  

[WastelandMama]

Iconised Ghost

I would take her to the vet NOW. My last cat developed respiratory problems and it killed her sad If we hadnt waited to see if she really needed the vet, she might still be alive. So please take her bgc sad

we called and our vet said to keep her comfortable but if there's any negative or odd change in her breathing or anything to bring her in asap.

we took scout in when he had the same thing and they said since its just a kitty cold, the best they could do is hook him up with some iv fluids.

its a virus, so antibiotics won't help, unfortunately. you just have to ride it out. crying

i AM concerned about her developing pneumonia from it though, thus the constant vigil and the checking and rechecking of her breathing ((including listening to her lungs, which she is just SO fond of, lemme tell ya sweatdrop )).

i should just go ahead and be a vet tech and get it over with. between my animals and my family's animals, i'd always have a job. xp

edit: also, i'm sorry for the loss of your kitty. crying you can't blame yourself though. for a long time after twist died, i second guessed myself and blamed myself for not noticing the signs earlier, for thinking she was just losing weight as per her diet, for not FORCING her to eat, etc.

kitties are difficult to handle when they're ill. they can be sick for days or even weeks and you wouldn't notice it. in fact, i have reason to suspect spoon has been ill for a few days more than we think, bc looking back on it she wasn't acting quite spoon-y enough here lately.

BUT we can only do the best we can with what they give us. and, unfortunately, the typical kitty is very stoic when it comes to being genuinely sick.

if only the little jerks could talk, right? wink



november 29th edit: spoony is fine! a little sleepy and whatnot, but breathing okay and stuff! nearly back to her old self! yay! xd