I think we’re a bit overdue for another open thread for personal stuff. As per usual, no trolls, no flames, no being a butthead.
I’ll paste in some recent personal comments from other threads.
Categories
Open Thread for Personal Stuff: November Rain Edition
Oops, forgot the link to MADRE.
$100 will buy health kits for three families with soap, towels and feminine hygiene supplies.
What better way to annoy the MRAs than to donate to a charity that provides feminine hygiene supplies?
auggziliary – To be fair, the only reason you’d get a prescription for injectable dopamine is for heart problems such as low blood pressure. It won’t do anything for depression.
Effing boyfriend left for effing Cuba and the first thing the effing cat does when I get back is eat a 3″ (or so) piece of goddamn string off of the floor. (Why was there string just sitting on the floor, you ask? YES GOOD QUESTION YES GOOD.) I think he’s okay but I’m so worried. He hasn’t vomited and he’s eaten since, which both seem like good signs.
Keep a close eye on him, Viscaria. String can be dangerous for cats (which I’m sure you know) though it doesn’t always lead to trouble. His eating and not vomiting are good signs; hopefully the string’s passing through without obstructing anything.
Kitties! ::smh::
Poor Bailey 🙁 poor little kitty cat.
::hugs::
How long is it since he ate it?
🙁 I hope your kitty’s okay Viscaria.
On a lighter, less significant work, yay, I think I figured out a way to licence my (own) blog under a CC BY-NC-SA licence.
I’m looking at various cat medical sites and it looks promising that it’s a short piece; three inches should pass. I see one vet advising someone to put some olive oil with kitty’s food, to help things along.
About 5 hours ago I guess. He’s being his normal cuddly goofball self.
Olive oil? I could do that. I saw something recommending petroleum jelly but we don’t have any of that I don’t think.
That shouldn’t harm the other cat any, yeah? I’m sure he’d just be glad for the extra fat.
No, it wouldn’t harm the other cat (unless he’s got some allergy to olive oil – do cats get that?). It looks like it’d be a day or two before any signs of trouble showed – lethargy, vomiting and so on. Here’s the page I’m reading now:
http://www.justanswer.com/cat-health/64uii-cat-ate-piece-string-shirt-30-hours-ago.html
and this is one with the signs to look out for:
http://vetmedicine.about.com/od/nutritioninformation/f/FAQ_string.htm
I do hope Bailey’s okay. 🙁
Bailey, stop eating string! I’m sure he’ll be okay, Viscaria. All the best to you & the kitty.
Thank you so much Kittehs. I really appreciate your concern for a cat halfway around the world, especially since I was looking to find how long it would take to pass and I just couldn’t find it anywhere. My googling pales beside your googling.
I will make sure to give them some oil in their food, and I might sleep in a few hours since Bailey seems okay for the moment.
+ thank-yous to Alice and cloudiah.
You’re so welcome, Viscaria.
Geography don’t mean nutt’n when it comes to cats, for me. Because CATS.
Not caught up, but “Someone here, I think Argenti, keeps loaches?” yep! Though I lost all mine to the ich + velvet disaster and haven’t yet restocked (just when I think the tank is ready, my cories go and breed!)
Idk about kuhlis, but I had white clouds in with my clowns and they never seemed to even notice each other. I won’t do swordtails, because they’re livebreeders, but I’ve had glass cats, congo tetras, danios, white clouds, cories (except they’re also bottom dwellers), and, of course, plecs — they’ve all gotten along fine with clown loaches (note though, the glass cats and congos were together, but neither was ever with the white clouds or danios [though they schooled together])
You had loaches before? They don’t have scales, so you’ll want to be extra careful about risking introducing ich as they’re super sensitive to malachite green. Also no salt!
And idk about kuhlis, but clowns will “play dead” so don’t freak out if you see one lying on its side, odds are it’s just taking a nap at an odd angle.
Caught up, silly kitty! Hopefully it’ll pass fine. One of my aunt’s dogs ate tinsel once and it passed fine (if in a most hilarious manner), so I would think such a small bit of string would be fine.
If nothing else, I hope the mental image of a beagle trailing tinsel out its ass gets a chuckle out of you!
I had a cat that ate some dental floss, maybe 5 inches? Which I didn’t realize until it came out the other end. A friend of mine had a cat that ate a rubber band, which she discovered in the same manner. Both cats were fine, FWIW. Hopefully yours will be too, Viscaria!
I hope someone took a photo of Christmas Beagle, Argenti!
Let us know how the kitty does, Viscaria. I think it will be OK since it’s so short but it’s smart to keep an eye on him anyway.
Fingers crossed for the kitty. My mother had a cat that ate a foot long ribbon (the skinny kind). We ‘found’ this out when we were standing next each other and she noticed what looked like a fleck of ribbon stuck just next to the base of the tail. So she grabbed it to pull it off him and… yeah… let’s just say that the cat and my mom were VERY surprised by what happened next.
Kitteh — unfortunately not!
Viscaria, although Kitteh’s actual research is more valuable than my opinion, it does match my opinion–3 inches is very short and unlikely to cause problems.
Argenti: “I won’t do swordtails, because they’re livebreeders”–do you mean you personally won’t do livebearers (because a bunch of babies are a PITA), or it’s a bad idea because of their biology?
Sorry to hear about the fate of your clown loaches.
If the clown loaches don’t eat the white clouds, the kuhlis probably won’t either, since they’re a lot smaller than clown loaches. But my dad pointed out that white clouds like colder temps than kuhlis (he’s kept white clouds in the past), and going back and looking again, although the temp requirements for white clouds and kuhlis do overlap a bit according to some sources, some of the info I’m finding is saying that white clouds do better in the cooler part of their temp range, and some are giving a temp range with a lower cutoff than I initially found. (I’m seeing as high as 79 F, and as low as 72, as the maximum temp for white clouds.) So I guess they aren’t the best choice after all. Maybe cherry barbs… Actually, I just found one page that specifically recommends cherry barbs for “shy loaches”.
I haven’t kept loaches before. I generally don’t have much turnover in my tanks, so hopefully there won’t be a lot of opportunities for ich to be introduced.
Hey Viscaria, I can’t ask the vets because I don’t work today, but FWIW, if you can afford to go the the vet or at least call them, I would. The string will probably pass, but on the very off chance that it doesn’t, the consequences will be much more expensive and very uncomfortable for your kitty (if you want to know the worst that could happen, google “linear foreign body”). They shouldn’t charge you for a phone call, right? If they do, let me know, and I can talk to someone for you (I work in an animal hospital).
Clinical signs could take a couple of days to appear, or more if the string gets stuck. Check his poop, and if the string doesn’t pass in a couple of days, DEFINITELY call the vet then.
Olive oil is probably OK…I can’t see anything telling me it’s not. We tend to use mineral oil at work, and my cat takes tuna-flavored petroleum jelly for her hairballs (you can get it at pet stores – it’s called Laxatone). I REALLY recommend calling your vet just to be safe, and get better instructions than we can give you.
Best of luck to both of you!
I will call the vet 🙁 The cats wouldn’t touch their food with olive oil on it (I had to dose both bowls, since they both eat indescriminately from either) so I will ask the vet if I should get something designed for this sort of purpose.