Meet our new kitten - and a couple of questions...

[WVBill]

Hi, Meet Karri (see attachment) our new kitten.

My wife adopted her from the animal shelter weekend before last and picked her up from the vet after being spayed a week ago Monday.

When we got her home we noticed she had quite a cough and a runny nose so my wife took her back to the vet who prescribed an antibiotic. Now, a week later she still has the cough and runny nose only slightly improved.

Has anyone experienced similar things with a new kitten and how long should we go before becoming more concerned than we are now? Could this be something serious? The vet just says she has a "URI" (Upper respiratory infection) (i.e. - a cold).

Can the kitten pass her cold on to our dog?

Second question. Karri will be a completely indoor cat. We lost our last cat (indoor/outdoor) to liver failure probably because she ate grass sprayed for fleas & ticks. Anyway, any advice (pro/con) on de-clawing? If pro, how old should the kitten be?

Thanks

 

[Inspector507]

<font color="blue"> Karri will be a completely indoor cat </font>

If you're sure she will stay indoors at all times, for the sake of your furniture, de-claw /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[BIGUN]

Yep, looks like a sick kitty. Could this be kennel cough? Not sure what that is(maybe a cold), but understand animals sometimes get it after being kept in a kennel.

 

[johnday]

As the owner of 15 cats, two of them brandnew kittens, the declawing is not an issue with us. We have a cat condo covered with carpet. The cats seem to prefer this rather than anything else.

Oh, BTW, we only have 7 that stay in the house at night. The other guys are confined to the barn. Canned cat food is good bait to get them in the barn each night. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[BIGUN]

I can agree with the de-clawing thing. We got our cat fixed on the front, those rear ones can still shred you if she takes a notion. The vet missed one little splinter of a claw on a front paw with which she can literally destroy a roll of toilet paper. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif So we can’t use the holder in the hall bath or else. For some reason she respects the roll in our master bath and leaves it alone. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[NSBound]

Hi Bill :

Hope your new kitty gets better soon. I'd have another re-check - maybe a different medicine is needed.

Re the de-clawing, I felt it necessary to have one cat I used to have de-clawed, but they just did the front ones. And I'll NEVER do that to a cat again. He limped around for 3-4 weeks and was in obvious pain from it all. Any other cats I've had since then, I have trained to use a scratching post that was intended for them to do their scratching on. I would rub ground-up catnip in the carpet that I used to tack onto the post, and then showed them how to reach up with their claws and scratch, and it actually worked !! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif The only other thing they tended to still scratch a bit was an oriental carpet, but it never showed any damage. And the very odd time when they even THINK about scratching on a chair or chesterfield, I YELL and they stop and don't do it again. A least until the next time!! Seriously, though, I have proven to myself that I can actually train a cat to scratch where I want, not so much where THEY want.

 

[Thomas]

What a cutie..give her warm warm hug from me.
By the sounds the vet on the right track and lot of TLC will put the spring back in her step.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Could this be kennel cough? Not sure what that is(maybe a cold), but understand animals sometimes get it after being kept in a kennel. )</font>

Kennel cough is a generic term for any of a variety of respiratory bugs a dog can get. There are vacines that cover some of these that are called kennel cough vacines, but different companies cover different bugs. Recommended if you are going to board your dog.

I've not heard the cat version being called Kennel cough , but that doesn't mean the term isn't used that way.

Anyway, a diagnosis of "kennel cough" isn't very useful. It sort of means, "I don't know what it is, but the dog is coughing."

Cliff

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( , any advice (pro/con) on de-clawing? If pro, how old should the kitten be?
Thanks )</font>

This is an interesting question. I known some shelters that make you sign a form saying you will not de-claw your adopted cat. Others will declaw cats before you can look at them. Both sides have their strong proponents. It can be an almost religious issue.

If you do decide to declaw, make sure you use only newspaper in the litter box for a couple weeks (their paws will be a bit sensitive) and change it every day. If you use cat litter or anything with any grit, their paws will get sore and it may take a long painful time to heal, or the cat may stop using the litter box altogether because it hurts. This is common mistake because the Vets seldom think to tell the new owner this.

Cliff

 

[fivestring]

We have 3 indoor cats.
They are all fixed and de-clawed.
Before de-clawing, one of them would pick the carpet at doorways, causing the carpet to fray.
They get their rabies shots but not distemper or any of the other shots.
Cats are better in pairs. They play with each other and keep each other "occupied".

Good luck and I hope she gets better!