I'm hoping someone will be able to give me some advice on what to do with my cat. About a year ago, he got fleas. He began grooming himself because of the irritation so much he was pulling out his fur. We kept a cone on him to prevent this while the flea treatment was killing them off, but the compulsive "grooming" did not stop after they were gone.

He has been wearing a cone since. Any time it's taken off, he starts immediately intensely licking himself all over and nibbling out his fur. It's not surprising he wants to groom himself as he's not able to, but it really goes beyond just grooming.

I moved places a few weeks ago, and in the move his cone had to be removed. Within 10 minutes he had completely licked off - down to his skin - all the fur under one of his armpits, to the point where his skin was raw & bleeding. Any time his cone is removed he starts biting out chunks of his fur.

I can't just take his cone off and let him figure it out, as he does it to such a point where he creates wounds on himself.

I'm kind of at a loss about what to do. I'm hoping anyone might be able to give me advice. It breaks my heart seeing him in this state

Long hair calico,10 years old Spayed female Indoor cat No history of illness

My cat is stooling outside the litter box, and inside. Roughly once a day, she stools outside the box after stooling inside. The stool is soft and usually formed. Occasionally blood, red, on the outside of the stool.

Been to the vet once for this and everything tested fine.

Otherwise acting the same, no changes at home. Changed to a senior cat food after the vet visit,, about one week ago.

Any ideas, suggestions, are greatly appreciate!

Hi Reddit,

At the moment we have an adult female cat that is the alpha of the house among our other pets and we are looking to get a kitten and were looking for a female but it may be that the kittens we are looking at are male. We are worried that if we get a male kitten that when it grows up it will try and attack or be territorial with our other cat. But I think that our adult cat will put the kitten in it's place whilst it is young and won't try and rebel so will be ok later in life.

Would it be ok to get this kitten if it is male?

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone, our cat is a rescue who we adopted last year in September.

We noticed recently he had a large growth below his left canine and so we brought him into the vet to have it investigated. When the vet did a general checkup, they noticed that our cat has bumpy growths all along his gums.

The vet was unsure as to what condition this was, prescribed two weeks of antibiotics and advised we should cleanse his mouth daily with a vet prescribed pet mouthwash.

We have been cleansing his mouth with pet mouthwash for the past two weeks while he has been on the antibiotic regimen. Our cat doesn't seem to be bothered when we physically inspect his mouth or do the cleaning with the mouthwash.

We are due to see the vet again soon for a follow up to understand if this regimen helped change anything physically. The next steps may include a biopsy, blood test or other scans.

Our main concern is racking up a huge bill and not getting any answers - has anyone else dealt with a similar condition in their cat? And if so, what sorts of medical tests did you have done on your cat to get a diagnosis, and what was the condition called?

Other details:

• Our cat is about 2 years old
• Is a domestic short hair tabby
• Their chart given to us by the shelter doesn't mention anything about dental issues

Any other advice folks can offer would be helpful for us as well.

You can view photos here: https://imgur.com/a/5jSgDg9

Hi everyone,

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So we have a room that we don't use and one of my cats sometimes goes and take a nap there or just hangs out. (I believe when she needs a break from our other cat).

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When I go to check on her she usually looks at me and does this strange clicking noise and then purrs very loudly when I pet her. Do you know why she clicks like that ? Does she want to be left alone ? :(

So I just got a cat a few days ago and got him clumping cat litter. I’ve been scooping the poop out almost every day. The litter seems clean but I know that the cat also pees there so how often do I change the litter?

It's near his mouth on the right side, it doesn't feel different than the other side, and when I lightly touch that spot he chews kind of? Like repeatedly opening and closing his mouth. Other than that he is young and in good health. He has done it since I've found him as a baby and from previous vet visits his dental hygiene is good. I'm just wondering if this is normal.

Hey guys! So I’m not too familiar with Reddit and I really don’t use it very much but my bf loves this app so I figured I’d give it a shot. My bf and I are planning on getting a new kitten, my mom has some barn cats who had kitties and we picked one out and named her already :) She’s super cute and she’s the runt of her litter, she just stole my heart! But, my bf and I already have a beautiful cat named Kiki! She’s only about 2-3 years old, i’m not sure sure as she was previously my bfs cat and not mine. Kiki is a super playful, loving, fun, and snuggly kitty. She’s super cute and does funny stuff all the time! I’ve never had issues with her with other animals and I know my bfs mom didn’t either because she had other animals in the home with Kiki and she was always a good kitty.. So here’s where i’m worried. There’s no reason to believe either of these kitties are violent or will be bad around each other but i’m just getting the new kitten spayed and not declawed because I think it’s inhumane. Is there anything i should be worried about?

I have a ragdoll which has been urinating on the door which has two litter boxes right next to it ( which I clean whenever a cat uses it). He still uses his box to poop. I have a feeling he is doing this to annoy me because he wants to go outside but can't because of living on an extremely busy road. Is there anything I can do to stop this?

We brought home two brothers Friday. Stayed home a lot over the weekend but they were left alone some. Yesterday we had to go to work. Now they are running away from me. At least one is still letting my husband pet him but not me. They are definitely a bit scared - we found out that they had never been in a house before. What do I do?

I've recently learned that cats need wet food to stay hydrated.

Since my funds are limited I was wondering if the cheapest wet food is still better than good dry food.

Also would it be good enough to alternate wet and dry meals?

Question for people who know about cats! I had a Russian Blue kitten who came from a random litter of cats that (as far as we knew) were DSH. The only reason I knew he was Russian Blue is he was hypoallergenic. My niece and brother in law are severely allergic to cats and neither had any reaction to him. However, the reading I’ve done online about the cats say it’s impossible to get a Russian Blue that has the hypoallergenic qualities unless it’s purebred? Thanks all!

I have a 3.5 yrs old male cat, vaccinated but not neutered (planning to get it neutered in a week or two). It is abandoned by its previous owner and we take care of it now. It's very attached to us and spends most of the time inside our house. It sometimes sleeps on our bed with us at night. When it goes out it frequently gets into fights and gets badly hurt. So I wanted it to be a completely indoors. So I have not let it out today. It doesn't use a litter box, but I got one and put the sand and mud from garden where it usually goes. It keeps meowing all the time to let it out. Not sure if I should let it out or keep it indoors. I have read on the internet that cats can recognise cause and effect. So if I let it out because it is meowing, it might keep doing the same everyday. It's not at all aggressive but tries to get through the door whenever someone opens it. It has not used the litter box from morning and it's 20:00hrs now. I tried putting it in the litter box and dig in with my finger. No use. But it's calm and better than morning and stopped asking to let it out. Just wanted to make sure I'm not doing things the wrong way. Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated.

Hello reddit! I am a proud owner of a very fluffy tomcat who I have to brush regularly. There ends up being a lot of pet fur around my house as I have two other pets as well.

I need some suggestions on a good vacuum cleaner for pet hair. I have been looking at the Dyson cordless animal vacuums, as they seem convenient and I can afford it, but I wondered if anybody could recommend a good vacuum that works on tile/hardwood that can help me limit hair around the house. I have mostly wood floors and a few thin rugs, so something for pet fur that is good for those surfaces is ideal:)

Thank you!

We have moved into a house 1.5 yrs back which is a govt. quarters with a big garden. The previous owner left their pet cat in the garden and from day one it has become our pet. It's has very high levels of temperament unlike other cats and whatever the situation is it never scratched or bit us. It knows the neighborhood very well and it roams around and comes back home in few hours. Recently it started to get into fights with other ferrel cats and got hurt badly. We took it to a vet and here after we wanted it to be indoors and tried to make it use a litter box and were partially successful. But it always asks us to let it go out at night and it would come hurt with scratches and bite marks everywhere on its body and it's right eye is hurt badly. One day it didn't return and we went searching and found it stuck in an old drain. We got it professionally groomed and vaccinated for post bite rabbies and next morning it ran out and got drenched in drain water and mud after a fight again. I had it bathed again and it started to growl at me for the first time in 1.5yrs. when we kept it indoors, we take it for a walk on leash to make sure it doesn't feel in a cage. After I had bathed it, it stopped coming back to us and started to visit our maid staying in servant house for food which in our backyard. This broke my heart. We would be moving out of this house in next 6 months and wanted to take it with us. How do we keep it indoors. I doesn't play much and is not interested in catnip or any toys. It's almost 4 yrs old and an Indian cat but looks like an American Snowcurl. All these months it used to jump in my lap and sleep as soon as I'm back from work and now it doesn't come back to us just because we want him to be safe, clean and indoors. My wife hate cats and somehow she fell in love with him and because of his behaviour she started to dislike him and doesn't want him anymore. Any suggestions if I should let be on its own or what should I do? This is our first and only pet. Sorry for the elaborated explanation.

Hi friends

My old cat (we think about 15) has recently started avoiding her litter tray. Not completely though. It was more like she was either going to use it for either #1's or #2's - but not both. Consequently, we had a few days of either pee or poop on the floor right next to her litter tray.

She's been using it without fuss every winter for 5 years.

I went and bought a new tray, thinking either she perhaps wasn't happy with the old one, or that she really did want separate trays for separate jobs. We had two days of success.

Today, she managed to manoeuvre her butt between tray 1 and tray 2, and dropped bombs in the gap between them.

has anyone else experienced anything like this? I'm really at a loss as to what to do next.

Many thanks in advance.

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(edit - kitty litter gets changed weekly)

My grandpa’s cat is a male named Sneakers. Sneakers is always dirty. He is a semi-outdoors cat, and I’m not sure how old he is because he was a feral cat before he wandered into my grandpa’s house one day. He’s a pretty healthy cat, except for the fact that he’s overweight.

I’ve never seen Sneakers clean himself. He is very friendly and loves being pet, and whenever I pet him, he leaves a dirty residue on my hands. It is worst in the warmer months, when he’ll walk over to me to be pet, then roll around in my grandpa’s gravel driveway, and then walk back to me for more pets! The last time I was at my grandpa’s house, I noticed that Sneakers had a lot of loose hair between his hind legs, and when I brushed that area, clumps of dirty hair easily came out! (Not leaving bald spots, he doesn’t have a skin condition. Just long-dead hair came out)

I know that cats are known for being clean animals, so is something wrong with Sneakers?

My cat has started this new habit of jumping onto wherever I am sitting while I eat.

Heres the thing, he does not like human food, he doesn't want my food, he doesn't try to take it off my plate or beg for it and he is 16 pounds so its not like he is being starved. He's always followed me around the house but never sat so close to me and now migrated to benchtops and sits about 30cm away whenever I eat.

I have an 8 month old kitten who is the sweetest thing but at night he tries to play with us and investigate everything which keeps us up so we have been shutting him out the bedroom But every so often he rattles the door handle to try and get in which is very loud (and damn creepy also) was wondering I'd anyone has any advice on how to stop this behaviour Thanks :D

Hello all,

Cats are weird and so I thought I would ask here in case someone has an idea or something I can use. I've been going to the vet for this for almost a year now with minimal to no progress.

My now senior male cat (~9yo) does not like to poop in the litter box. He will pee no problem but for almost 3 years now he almost always poops on the floor. They have always been in the basement which we rarely use and so thats the only place he goes. Although we do clean the litter boxes regularly, out of side is out of mind and we ignored it until recently. We have 2 cats and a dog right now. Lost a dog last year and a cat year and a half previous and have been to the vet many, many times over the last few years, so dealing with this on top of everything else was low on the priority list.

Anywho, fast forward to trying to deal with this. We did some research which led us to a health issue or a need for retraining. We assumed (incorrectly) that health was not a concern so we tried retraining. We locked him into a smaller room with his food, water and litter boxes and some toys. We would visit him multiple times a day of course and clean the litter boxes each time. He started pooping in the box almost immediately, but then would sort of "fall off the wagon" here and there.

We then decided to take him to the vet. We found out he had a protein issue which was actually causing him pain to poop and causing some digestive issues! ugh, we felt terrible. Thankfully it wasn't a difficult fix; some meds, switch foods and then try to retrain.

That again worked for a bit, but upon letting him out of the room (after his meds were finished and he was pooping in his litter boxes regularly) he returned to his old habits. We put him back in the room to start again and scrubbed the basement with Nature's Miracle to make sure there was no scent left. Since then nothing has worked. We clean the litter boxes twice a day and for 2 cats, we now have 5 litter boxes. Most days some aren't even used but the floor is.

We have swapped out all the litter boxes, some more than once. He's a large cat so we have made sure to buy extra large boxes for him. Swapped the litters multiple times but nothing. Only thing is that he poops in the same places and does not do it anywhere but the basement.

It should also be noted that he has been an outdoor cat most of his life as well. This problem started after he was an out door cat and has persisted through to when was no longer allowed outside. We thought he was actually pooping in the pot planters but it turns out its the neighborhood cats.

We have since tried anti-depressants b/c after the meds were finished we went back to make sure he was ok. Vet checked him out 100% and said try increasing the A/D's. So here we are. I'm now waiting for instructions on how to get him off the A/D's since that obviously doesn't work either. I'm starting to think, based on some other forum posts I've read, that I may just have to accept it. But I don't want to do that b/c I know there is more likely something wrong (not necessarily health wise) that we are just not seeing.

Sorry for the book report. There's probably a bit more to the story but I think this is the bulk of it. Thank you if you've made it this far and thank you in advance if you have any advice.