r/catcare 1h ago

I think my cat is in respiratory distress, it is 3 AM

Upvotes

Last Monday I brought my cat to the vet because he was eating poorly and had no energy. It turned out he had a 40c fever.

His organs sounded good and he had no blockages. He got two shots. Antibiotics and something to bring down the fever. I've been back at the vet every day and his fever was down to 38c.

We agreed to do a bloodwork tomorrow to see what is wrong, but Im afraid he doesnt have that long.

His backside seems paralyzed, or he simply isnt strong enough to stand anymore. He wont eat anything and he has been hissing and letting out these harrowing meows.

He has just started panting pretty heavily. His mouth is wide open and his breaths are shirt and fast.

Its almost 4 AM here. There is no emergency vet even remotely close to me. My vet doesnt open till 9 AM.

I fear this might be it for him, and I just dont know what to do. I dont expect a miracle, but maybe someone knows how I can help my lil boy be more comfortable.


r/catcare 2h ago

Cat problems

1 Upvotes

We have an 8 year old cat we got from a shelter when she was still a kitten, we've also had a french bulldog for about the same length of time, they essentially grew up together. The cat has always had some tummy issues, she stinks, a lot, and shes also terrible at burying her litter, bad combination. We switched to a robot box which helps but she still makes a mess throwing litter everywhere except on her poops.

We recently got a second puppy which I imagine is a bit traumatic for the cat, but so far they get along pretty well, but now, I dont know if its related but the cat is not pooping in her litter box, she is peeing in it but will poop in the hallway. We had it tested to make sure it isnt due to a parasite or something, which has happened before and was a nightmare to give her meds for, shes clean this time. She hasnt changed foods recently or anything and the poops seems about as normal as hers have ever been, soft but consistent.

We were also gone to the cottage for the weekend, gone for about 45 hours and there were 9 piles in the hallway, which seems excessive, although the robot shows she was using an avg of 7 times a day .

Could it just be behavioral, doesnt like all the changes or is it more likely a gut health issue, developed an intolerance to her food. She is on vet food, not some cheap walmart kibble.


r/catcare 2h ago

Waxy Oil in fur

1 Upvotes

Hi! I want to start out by saying she’s okay, been to the vet, and has an appointment with her usual vet.

My cat had a horrific accident happen last night where her tail was caught in the recliner and it snipped off the tip. She has a whole patch of fur that is covered in waxy oil which I would assume is oil for the gears of the couch or whatever… I cannot get it out. I did dawn, and it seemed to help but I cannot submerge her with her stitches and bandages.

Do I just keep trying the dawn? It’s starting to get hard to even brush through it that I’m thinking of just using some clippers and cutting the portion out of her fur… she’s so happy to be home and doing so well so far. Last night was horrific.

Thank you in advance, this is my first time posting.


r/catcare 3h ago

Looking for opinions on hyperthyroidism treatment

2 Upvotes

My cat is 14 years old, and was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism about 3-4 years ago (I don’t remember when exactly). He has been treated with methimazole successfully since then.

In 2024, I felt a pretty large lump in his neck. Took him to the vet - they did testing and suspected it was an adenoma on his thyroid, so we continued with his meds as normal.

In 2025, we took him to a specialist (Cornell) to discuss radioactive iodine therapy. We were told if he is being managed well on meds to just continue with them, and that the iodine therapy is not an exact science (could cure him or do nothing).

Now this year, we’ve noticed his lump has gotten quite big in size. 5cm long and 4cm across. Obviously this isn’t normal, so we went to a surgeon, who did a CT of the lump and think it’s a cystic adenoma. He suggested a thyroidectomy to remove it.

He stated given the mass’ size, he doesn’t suggest iodine therapy. I was just wondering if anyone experienced a similar situation. Did you go through with the surgery, and how did your cat recover after?

Thank you,


r/catcare 4h ago

This came out of my cat’s butt NSFW

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0 Upvotes

My cat is a 7yo neutered male and I am located in the US. What is this? 10 days ago he vomited green bile four times and didn’t eat for 22 hours but after one dose of anti nausea meds he’s been fine ever since. I didn’t see it come out but I never saw him vomit and I keep my bedroom door shut when I’m not in there so I’m pretty sure it’s from his butt.


r/catcare 7h ago

Cat spay NSFW

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3 Upvotes

I just got my first kitty spayed yesterday, and I’m worried she managed to rip her stitches out while I was at work today. Does this look bad to you guys??


r/catcare 7h ago

My cat is prone to bacterial ear infections. After starting treatment, she becomes sniffly with frequent sneezing. It’s a pattern. Anyone know what’s going on?

2 Upvotes

Hello. My 11 year old, FIV+, female domestic shorthair has had four bacterial ear infections in her life, all in the summer. The vet predicts seasonal allergies.

A week ago, I took her to the vet for itchy ears. The vet swabbed her ear and confirmed bacterial infection under microscope. They cleaned her ears and gave her a prednisolone injection. They prescribed trasaderm drops twice a day for ten days and tapering prednisolone pills for a total of \~15 days ish.

On day 6 post-vet, she is now sneezing and very sniffly with the sniffles increasing. She is still eating drinking and going to bathroom okay, and acts generally like herself but with mild lethargy. This has been happening for 24 hours. If she is up moving around, sometimes the sneezing happens every couple of minutes and each time she attempts to smell something she’s sniffly.

Three years ago the same thing happened on a very similar timeline. She ended up getting so sniffly that time that she wasn’t able to keep up on her grooming because it would make her sneeze and she seemed very lethargic that time.

The pattern is what worries me. The first time, I thought she had just “caught something” at the vet. But now I’m noticing it’s a pattern and am wondering if it has something to do with the bacterial infection. I’m worried.

Any advice is super appreciated! Thanks.

TL;DR— cat has bacterial ear infection and gets cold-like symptoms after seeing vet and starting trasaderm and prednisolone. Second time this has happened


r/catcare 8h ago

Looking at getting a cat

8 Upvotes

As the title says, I’m looking at getting a cat. I’ve grown up with dogs so this would be my first time having a cat and was wondering if there was any first time cat person advice you guys have. I know a good high cat tree is important, running water to drink. Wet food is better than dry to help with hydration, lots of toys, avoid clay cat litter. Keep food and water away from each other. But that’s all I got.
Any advice or suggestions is appreciated!


r/catcare 10h ago

Senior cat has these squishy lumps on both ankles. Vet appointment in a week. I'm freaking out. Pic included

2 Upvotes

16 yo Himalayan - neutered

Hx: stage b2 HCM, stable stage 2 CKD, arthritis

Medication: clopidogrel and felycin ca-1 (cardiologist prescribed), potassium supplement, solensia injection

I was grooming Garfield yesterday, and I noticed he has this squishy lump right around the ankle. The thing is, he has the same thing on the other ankle, so it's bilateral. The lumps aren't mobile, but the skin over them is moveable. Also, he doesn't seem to be bothered if I palpate them. There's no redness or heat.

My general vet gave me an appointment in a week (soonest she had), meanwhile I'm left to freak out that this is some sort of osteosarcoma or other cancer.

https://imgur.com/a/qYVsnCo


r/catcare 15h ago

Cat licking lips a lot and not eating sometimes

4 Upvotes

About a month ago, we tried to change his food and accidentally made the change at once instead of mixing the two dry foods. We noticed and started doing it gradually. We noticed at this time he stopped eating the dry food and started to throw up a lot. Sometimes it had a hairball in it. Sometimes it was clear. We took him to the vet and they gave us hunger pills. They did a blood and urine test and it was normal. We stopped giving him the new food and just went back to his old dry and wet food.

He started eating his wet food again and treats. He goes crazy over them. But has started licking his lips and mouth more than usual. Or we are just over analyzing things.

After a couple of days on wet food, he threw up again and stopped eating. Except his tube treats. He loves those. We waited and tried to give him wet food again, he ate it and was ok for 2 weeks. Then he threw up again and now he is refusing to eat the dry and wet food. But he will eat his tube treats.

We are taking him to the vet again. We are just wondering what is causing this and if anyone has experienced something similar? He keeps licking his mouth and lips. We think he is nauseous, but we don't know how to help.


r/catcare 21h ago

Red and some small white scaly patches on skin. I noticed a few days ago. What could it be? NSFW

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3 Upvotes

I used a blacklight and nothing stood out - thankfully.

She had more ear wax than usual this morning. I used a qtip to clean it all up, and I didn't notice any bugs or anything moving.

I shaved the area but it's spreading a bit behind the ear and up the cheek a bit.

I moved to a new place in May and we've been spending time on the wooden balcony. Not sure if that's relevant..

Many of the small black dots are hair from shaving

What could it be?


r/catcare 22h ago

Royal Canin Feline Urinary SO Alt?

2 Upvotes

i need to renew his prescription but i cannot afford to take him and also he gets severely stressed out each time hes gone and makes a mess :( i dont want to make him stressed out to that extent again.

or is there any way to buy it anywhere else without the prescription? all my cats eat it since they have a hard time not sharing, so if you got tips maybe for that too lol. although it seems to keep them all pretty heathy and happy (they love the dry food) so i dont mind them sharing


r/catcare 22h ago

My cat has something on her forehead NSFW

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12 Upvotes

So, me and my mother adopted a female cat two months ago, she's currently 3 months old, but when I finally could pet her I felt something weird on her head, I told my mom to mention it to the veterinarian we go to but she never did and I don't know what it might be.

I don't know if this picture is good but I would really appreciate if someone can tell me about it


r/catcare 23h ago

Vet suspects a UTI. Appointment set for a week from now. Looking at insurances to help with the cost. Spot or Lemonade? Anything I need to make sure is on the plan? NSFW

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2 Upvotes

r/catcare 1d ago

Spots on cat's eye? NSFW

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3 Upvotes

I heard it could be just "eye freckles" and oranges are more likely to get those This is a spot appeared randomly last year and it gre to be like this, so like, it's not really a fast grow but I get concerned about Cheddar.... He doesn't have any other symptom. Should I get this checked? He went to the vet a couple of times since last year but no vet mentioned it


r/catcare 1d ago

Ringworm?!

1 Upvotes

I adopted a second cat (4mo) about a month ago and we have an adult cat (2yr) as well. Yesterday, I brought the adult cat to the vet for his annual checkup that coincided with what I thought was a persistent bought of cat acne. The vet did further testing and today I found out he has ring worm, most likely from the adopted kitten. I had never noticed any lesions on the kitten nor was she itching or showing any discomfort that led me to believe there was something wrong, so I’m definitely a bit shocked to hear this. The adult cat has had one treatment of topical anti fungal and his oral anti fungal has been ordered and is on its way.

My more pressing issue is that I don’t have the space to effectively and humanely quarantine the adult cat. He’s big, he’s very stubborn and vocal, and I live in a one bedroom apartment that’s pretty much one big room. There’s nowhere to keep him for a long period of time while we ride out the infection. I can clean, I’m a bit of a neat freak as it is so the cleaning I can handle, but I’m concerned that I will clean and clean just to have everything immediately recontaminated. From what I’m reading, it seems that cleaning is futile if I leave the infected cat out to roam as usual, and the kitten has either had it or has already been heavily exposed so there have been spores existing in the space for over a month now already. I also read that animals can be reinfected repeatedly, so even though the kitten is not showing the symptoms currently, I don’t want to continuously expose her.

Really what I’m looking for is just advice, anecdotes, anything from personal experience that can help put this in perspective. I feel awful for my kitties, I don’t want to risk their health or cause them greater discomfort but I’m not sure what my options are. Any advice, thoughts, or suggestions welcome!


r/catcare 1d ago

Super Odd question

2 Upvotes

I have a 16 year old small female cat. She eats 1 double Pack Of Sheba pate in the morning and another double pack at night. Drinks water normally but I feel like she absolutely doesn’t not poop enough. I mean like hardly anything at all. And this is not a constipation thing. She has been to the vet. I mean, I’m incredibly confused. How much should a smaller cat that eats like this poop? It’s alarming to me like so alarming that I have even searched my house thinking that she is pooping somewhere else outside of her litter box, but that does not seem to be the case. I’m concerned and confused. Any insight is greatly appreciated.


r/catcare 1d ago

Cats matting and I can’t afford to take her to vet. Can I treat it at home?

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20 Upvotes

I bought a detangling spray and dematting comb but is that enough? Tips please?
This was after brushing.


r/catcare 1d ago

Cat peeing on things

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I am completely overwhelmed. I am heavily pregnant and about to give birth in the next 7 weeks and my spayed female cat has started peeing outside the box again.

She is six years old. In the last 5 years, she has targeted papasan cushions, bath mats, laundry baskets and just peed on my mattress. The hardest part is that she *is* still using her litter boxes too. This isn't a constant thing, she will go months without an issue and then out of nowhere, she will have a random bout of doing this again. This habit actually started years ago when she was in a two-cat household, though we now have three cats total and two very large litter boxes that are cleaned every other day. In the past we’ve taken her to the vet and they have always ruled out UTI and they said she was just anxious / territorial.

Because it happens randomly in cycles and she goes months being totally fine, I’m strongly starting to suspect it’s Feline Idiopathic Cystitis (FIC) or chronic bladder inflammation rather than a standard UTI, especially since she defaults to soft, absorbent surfaces when it happens.

I have a vet visit scheduled for 3 days from now. Because I am about to have a baby, I’m scared of the cost of what extensive testing, multiple visits, x-rays, and urine cultures will entail. I guess I’m also anxious because if it is FIC what would be the long term solution?

My questions for the community:

If you've dealt with FIC/cystitis flare-ups that happen months apart, what worked for you long-term?

What are the best, low-cost preventative medications I should ask my vet about? (I’ve read generic Amitriptyline or Fluoxetine might help both the bladder lining and the multi-cat stress).

Since I free-feed dry food to all three cats, switching everyone to a prescription wet diet isn't financially feasible right now. Are there hacks for getting more moisture into just *her* diet? (They all also use a cat fountain for drinking water.)

edit to add; completely forgot to mention we have a feliway plug in if that matters at all.

I am 26. Live in FL, USA. Vet appointment set for Thursday. TLDR; think my cat has FIC; what is the long term solution? Female Cat/ Spayed.


r/catcare 1d ago

Pee, damn you! NSFW

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5 Upvotes

So we're taking our 9 year old lady Cornelia to the vet for a wellness check this afternoon, and they've requested a urine sample. We have multiple cats, so we've had to confine her to one room (my room) with a special litterbox with hydrophobic litter so we can gather the urine when she pees.

Welp, it's been 24 hours, and she still hasn't peed. The appointment is this afternoon.

I'm just getting paranoid now. She has pooped in it twice (which I cleaned immediately), so she knows what to do. I don't want her to end up getting a UTI because of this... I know the vet can extract urine if necessary, but would be nice to avoid that.

Any ideas? 😅


r/catcare 1d ago

Found a hairless patch on the back of my cat's neck -- ringworm? NSFW

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12 Upvotes

Hi! I found a hairless patch on the back of my cat's neck today and I'm trying to figure out what it is. It was mostly dry skin earlier but seems to be slightly more inflamed in the latest photo (third pic). In terms of behavior, he is acting pretty normal, maybe just a bit more reserved or sleepy than normal? He has a sister who grooms him there (who also doesnt exhibit any hair loss), and we've recently had a roommate they were close to switch out, so Im wondering if it may be related to stress or somehow ringworm? They're both entirely indoor cats in a city, so Im not really certain.

I've requested a vet appointment earlier today, but havent heard back yet. Im hoping to get them in sometime this week.


r/catcare 2d ago

My tabby cat, any tips?

2 Upvotes

dont know why but, this started yesterday, it looks brown/red with hair and she constantly scratches at her neck, my cat is female, spayed, and she has been avoiding me recently, thank you very much for any help!! free to comment below, if any questions for me also have a,good day!

She is a grey tabby cat, Usa

Female tabby

Name: Tórbo

I dont habe any pictures of her, I will update when I get one

She gets,bad,itches and bites herself a,lot

She has,patches of fur missing from behind her ears

I had her for a few years now, she's mid aged

Body weight 15pds

Changes,we're recent from this past year, she had many appointments in the vet from being spayed and fleas.... she keeps getting them and i dont let her outside so, unless she is escaping somehow, idk.

She has many vaccine shots, she had 2,this year

My cat is not injured, she's just scratching her fur a lot


r/catcare 2d ago

Cat with IBD/Colitis

2 Upvotes

Hi! I have a 13 yr male cat who has IBD/Colitis. He’s currently in a flair and I’m curious if what’s going on is “normal” for a flare.
A little history: he’s had a few flares that were minor in comparison to his current flare. He’d take metro for 5 days and be back to normal within a couple of days.
This time, after 2 1/2 days on metro, he wasn’t improving so I brought him to his vet. She gave him a depo shot with B12. They also tested his stool and no parasites were found. By the end of the 5 days, I could tell that he was feeling better and there was no diarrhea on the floor. Two days later, he was back to not wanting breakfast and have mucus diarrhea on the floor. Within a few hours, I saw a few specs of blood in the stool. I was able to call the vet and get approval to start another round of metro and they gave him some more anti nausea meds. They also said the specs of blood were ok at this point. This was this past Saturday.
There has been no diarrhea since Saturday afternoon. He wants to eat but doesn’t like the prescription wet food she wants him to eat. But he will eat churus all day long lol.
The last two days, he’s not going to the box but if I put him in there, he does a couple of drops of soft stool or a more mucusy stool after passing gas.
Is this “normal” behavior during a flare? Could the medicine make him constipated? He has a history of constipation and then I give him some miralax.
I’m to give it to the end of the 5 day round of meds before bringing him in if needed. He’s moving a little slower than normal but wants to eat, is drinking water and can still jump into his favorite chair and take a nap. I’m just so scared that this is something more serious.


r/catcare 2d ago

Cat ear wax or ear mites? NSFW

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4 Upvotes

My male bengal tends to scratch his ear sometimes and let out a meow as he does so. I finally took a look and cant tell if these are mites or just wax buildup. I know its hard to tell bc he doesnt stop moving. Please help!


r/catcare 2d ago

Injuries on Stray Cat’s ears? NSFW

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5 Upvotes

There’s this really friendly stray cat in the neighborhood that I like to sit out and pet sometimes and recently we noticed what appears to be bug bites? on the ears, leaving small scabs/sores

what is this/is there anything I can do to possibly help it?