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Conference misery::feline

Title:	Meower Power - Where Differing Opinions are Respected
Notice:	purrrrr...
Moderator:	JULIET::CORDES_JA

Created:	Wed Nov 13 1991
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1079
Total number of notes:	28858

915.0. "cat spraying and worms" by MTCLAY::DOUGLAS (chills, thrills, flying circus!) Fri Jul 14 1995 03:17

    I have 2 questions that maybe someone can give suggestions:
    
    1) My female cat wiggles her rear end and tail against a 
       wall when she is happy to see me. I was shocked to see
       one day that she was spraying like an unutered male cat
       does to mark his territory. This cat is 7 years old and
       was spayed as a kitten. Luckily, the spray does not smell.
       I never knew female cats can spray. Has anyone else ever
       experienced this?
    
    2) My two cats are indoor/outdoor cats. They are "extreme"
       hunters. They catch something every day and either leave
       it for me, or they eat it :-(. They both have been treated
       for tapeworm at the vets' a few months ago because they were
       both dropping weight and a stool sample showed worms. I have 
       noticed that they are loosing weight again but I don't actually 
       see worms because they do their thing outside in the summer.
    
       I have a litter of puppies that have been being wormed every
       2 weeks with Strongid wormer. This is a horse wormer but the
       vet said at the proper dose it works for dogs just as well.
       Is there a good wormer that I can use for my cats without having
       to go to the vet's every time? With 3 cats, 3 dogs, 3 ducks, 
       and 4 horses I have to be economical. Just check ups and spring 
       shots for all every year is a $500 bill!!
    
       Tina

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
915.1		HELIX::SKALTSIS	Deb	`Fri Jul 14 1995 06:33`	7
	Tapeworms run a cycle, and worming is only effective if it is done at the right time in the cycle, like if you see actual worms in the stool. Also, worms usually indicates that there are/have been fleas. Since your cats go out, do they either have a flea collar, or get powered regularly? Deb
915.2	Mine too!!!!!1	WMOIS::FLECK_S		`Fri Jul 14 1995 09:00`	13
	I too have this spraying problem with my spayed female cat. Except mine smells! She has been to the vet and was diagnosed as having some sort of behavioral problem. The only fix they said was to make her an outdoor cat and only let her in the house when I'm going to be there. She only started doing this about 1 year ago, and she'll be 3 this summer. Just yesterday when I let her outside, she went directly to the foundation around the house, up went the tail, and you know the rest! We do have a few other cats in the neighborhood that visit my yard frequently, so maybe she is marking her territory. Who knows?! I have seriously thought about giving her away due to the uncleanliness of doing it in the house, especially when I can smell it but can't find it! As for now she is monitored while in the house. Sue
915.3		MTCLAY::DOUGLAS	chills, thrills, flying circus!	`Fri Jul 14 1995 09:28`	14
	RE .1 I don't use powders or flea colars, but they do get shampooed and flea dipped. I also bomb the house regularly since I have a dog that is flea allergic. RE .2 Well, now I can say that I know of another female cat that does this. In all my years, I thought I knew alot about cats but this totally amazed me! t
915.4		WRKSYS::MACKAY_E		`Fri Jul 14 1995 11:00`	12
	I find flea and tick collars indispensable - it prevents the kitties from getting bit, thus lowers the chance of tapeworms. Bugs don't like to hitchhike on a kitty with a collar, either (ticks are killed on contact with the collar), so the bugs don't get inside the house. I see shampoos and dips as remedies and collars are preventions. I have not tried powder on the kitties. I buy the collars from the vet and they work very well. Eva
915.5	Eva's right.	AXPBIZ::SWIERKOWSKIS	Now that we're organized, what's next?	`Fri Jul 14 1995 14:03`	27
	> I buy the collars from the vet and they work very well. Yes, be sure to follow this advice from Eva; don't buy the collars from the grocery store, etc. The ones from the vet contain IGR (I think that's Insect Growth Retardent) and they do something to the flea to trash the reproductive cycle. I don't have the label or brochure with me, but I think it causes the fleas to produce mutants that can't reproduce. The vet will also have bombs, spray and powder with IGR. I've avoided the shampoo because of the serious warning label; I use a milder shampoo instead. I also haven't used the bombs since we had Fleabusters come out in May (you can use Jan's Borax method instead but it's a back-breaker!). You absolutely have to get rid of the fleas for the tapeworm med to do any good. Strongid (or something comparable) is used on young kittens for a different kind of worm (I'm not sure which). Normally, you don't have to use it when they get older. Since I just went through all this with my 5, I know it's pricey. I can use the pills for 4 of them (the 5th one has to have the injection cause there's no hope she'll let me pill her). Since the vet can put all 4 on one prescrip- tion, I save a lot; the cost of the 8 pills was about the same as one injection. Of course, I do still bear the wounds from Wednesday night's pilling (and everyone is mad at me now). It's a good thing they're so cute! SQ
915.6		WRKSYS::MACKAY_E		`Tue Aug 08 1995 11:22`	8
	From what I understand, most kittens are born with round worms. The worms stay "dormant" inside adult cats and get activated by stress like pregnancy. The worms then get passed onto the kittens, who have to be de-wormed. Eva
915.7	My female sprays also	ROMEOS::BUTLER_LA		`Tue Aug 15 1995 12:43`	17
	My female cat also sprays. This is my first experience with a female doing this after years of owning cats. She is also a "hang the bottom out of the box" pooper - didn't matter how big a box, how clean it was or what type of litter we used etc. She was exclusively indoors only, but the spraying became too much. No medical reason could explain why she did this. So after a very patient husband had his hockey equipment sprayed (big dollars btw) she was sentenced to outdoors only (she would spray on a whim and we could no longer risk having our new furniture ruined). Sorry no solutions, but most sincere empathy. LB
915.8		HELIX::SKALTSIS	Deb	`Tue Aug 15 1995 13:15`	5
	RE: -1 Did you try a covered litter box? Deb
915.9		ROMEOS::BUTLER_LA		`Wed Aug 16 1995 09:25`	11
	RE: -1 Oh yes, we tried covered, uncovered, with doors that flap and without. We tried lots of litter, regular amount of litter and just a bit of litter. I guess she just liked her tail in the breeze. We ended up putting the box in a bathtub that wasn't being used. Made clean up easier. But this, along with her spraying problem, proved too much for us. Laura