Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Annual vet check-ups

Tanaka had a little fever today and he had been sleeping most of the day away...

I did not expect Tanaka to have a fever after his vaccination yesterday , Tuesday ,as he had had no fevers during his last 2 vaccinations. Yesterday he took his vaccination like the mancat that he was and was awake the whole day, playing.

His check-up went fine and he has lost some weight from his 4.8 kg last year. He is now 4.4 kg. It pleased us no end although I was a little worried when he was not his usual greedy self at dinner time. The vet found nothing wrong with him at all and eventhough he does eat less, he does eat well and he plays all the time. So I guess he has just figured out how much he wants to eat. He is also not that into treats at all, preferring to play instead.

She has a bald belly and bald inner hind legs from over-grooming...

All is not well with Ms Akira who has over-groomed herself and now has a bald belly as well as bald inner hind legs. Thank goodness she has no red spots nor sores so the vet was not overly worried. I think its because she is bored sitting in her room all day, under blankets and she is rather fearful of Tanaka who takes every opportunity to examine her closely.

We had ruled out mites although she will be undergoing revolution monthly to make sure she is not itching from something. The vet also gave her Bach No 7 for Grief and Mourning, to make her calmer as Fear is not working for her at all.

I had also tried to encourage her to get out of her room in the mornings by putting all the boys in the bedroom so she could have the run of the house but she does not like to go out in the morning for fear one of the boys would run after her. She prefers running and jumping about at night when every boy cat is either in the room or in the night cage.

The vet said that there is essentially nothing we can do as the grooming would be because of stress since there is no other physical aspect and Tanaka _is_harassing her a lot. He said I could put Tanaka up for adoption so that main cause of her anxiety would be gone but I told him that I that is not an option at all. So I still have to figure out what else I can do to help her as she has a sweet nature and a very loving heart- for people, not cats.

PS. I had wanted to microchip Ms Akira but we found that she already had a micro-chip. Since I did not micro-chip her, then the SPCA must have done so as I got her from the SPCA when she was about 4 months old. She had 3 other siblings, all tri-colour. It is a great mystery. So now only Bujang does not have a micro-chip. I think I would need a much braver and stronger vet to microchip Bujang than Dr Loon :)

2 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about Tanaka's fever. Apparently, it is not uncommon for cats to react like that to vaccines occasionally.

    #1 was just discussing the over-grooming problem with a friend who has a Burmese who suffers from that condition. She mentioned a book she had read, called "The Cat Who Cried for Help" in which the author talks of using Anafranil to help treat this condition.

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  2. Hey, you might want to try Omega-3 for the overgrooming. I had a cat that was boarded with me far-too-long after her owner's apartment burned. He began overgrooming and my vet suggested Omega-3/fish oil supplements. I was skeptical but willing to try anything (he had two bald stripes down both sides of his spine) and he was back to his normal furry self within two months. Can't hurt to try!

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