u/fenrirsbasketball

Hey all!

Signalment: 13y MN DSH, approx 9.8lbs (ideal weight 10-10.5lbs), indoor only

Current meds: Budesonide 1mg SID, Elura 0.45mL SID

No S/C/V/D. Energy levels normal for a cat his age, appetite is lower but consistent. Urinating normally, drinking normally.

Current diet: Purina Pro Plan Urinary Tract Health Turkey & Giblets canned. Eats about 70-80% of his ideal calories per day. His appetite is a work in progress (see: Elura)

I've got a 13 year old former cuddle bug who has gone through a pretty rough patch with his bowels. Possibly GI lymphoma, possibly IBD. Either way, pretty horrendous diarrhea and weight loss until we figured out steroids were the only thing to solidify those poops and keep that weight on. We are finally happy with the quality of his stools after a solid year of trial and error (mostly error) and are not looking for advice for managing that.

What I would like some insight on is related to an unwanted side effect of these steroids.

My boy won't stop yelling! He has always been extremely talkative, to the point where he and I could have "conversations", he trilled constantly, and he would "ask" for things he wanted. He's always been this way, and it's one of his fun quirks... until now.

Since starting the steroids, he has been yelling (not meowing, not howling, but yelling) repeatedly for hours on end and seemingly wanting nothing. We have fed him, we have pet him, we have tried playing with him, we have both moved into the same room as him, we have multiple Feliway plugins, we have accompanied him as he's eating. His litter box is spotless, his water is cleaned and filled up, his food bowls are regularly cleaned. We have tried everything we can think of!

While he was on prednisolone, he was yelling starting in the middle of the night, around 2-3am until 6am when we would wake up. We switched him to Budesonide, and the 3am yelling has subsided, but it has transferred to the day time with seemingly no solution. I legitimately have NO CLUE what he wants. Nothing seems to placate him, and it kills me because he went from being this sweet, sleepy cuddly boy to this screaming machine who never wants to be held.

Some notes: We have tried gabapentin, and it has paradoxical effects on him. It makes him more restless and agitated. Historically, he has always been a little jumpy and afraid of just about everything. He can't see very well, possibly farsided, so he often approaches familiar objects around the apartment as if he's never seen them before and they might pounce at him.

I've done just about every diagnostic test there is to do. CBC/Chem/UA, thyroid (TSH/T4/T3), fructosamine, GI panel for B12, etc, blood pressure-- everything but the $800 ultrasound. Clinically, he is completely fine (aside from the poopy problems and very early S1 CKD), but his previous GI symptoms are managed. Mentally, he has become this cat I no longer recognize and don't know how to help.

I've considered the possibility of cognitive decline. We live in a very small space and are unable to leave lights on or close doors. We also are unable to switch his food or add in oil-based supplements as I know MCT oils are thought of to help with cognitive decline. Our nightly routine is very regimented. My wife and I are people of routine, so everything is the same day to day.

I've tried Purina Calming Care to no effect. He doesn't like it and it gave him bad diarrhea. We tried Cerenia, we've tried Mirtazapine transdermal. We've done diet trials with dozens of diets (no, not the full, ideal 3 month trials, but long enough under strict supervision). At this point, I think his general anxiety has reached a point where it needs medical intervention, which is where your insight comes in.

So... Trazodone? Prozac? Amitryptalline? CBD? All of the above in a pill pocket with a jello shot? (I jest)

Any insight is appreciated. I miss my little guy and hate to see him so uncomfortable and restless.

Hey all!

I've got a 13 year old former cuddle bug who has gone through a pretty rough patch with his bowels. Possibly GI lymphoma, possibly IBD. Either way, pretty horrendous diarrhea and weight loss until we figured out steroids were the only thing to solidify those poops and keep that weight on. We are happy with the quality of his stools and are not looking for advice for managing that.

What I would like some insight on is related to an unwanted side effect of these steroids.

My boy won't stop yelling! He has always been extremely talkative, to the point where he and I could have "conversations", he trilled constantly, and he would "ask" for things he wanted. He's always been this way, and it's one of his fun quirks... until now.

Since starting the steroids, he has been yelling (not meowing, not howling, but yelling) repeatedly for hours on end and seemingly wanting nothing. We have fed him, we have pet him, we have tried playing with him, we have both moved into the same room as him, we have multiple Feliway plugins, we have accompanied him as he's eating. We have tried everything we can think of!

While he was on prednisolone, he was yelling starting in the middle of the night, around 2-3am until 6am when we would wake up. We switched him to Budesonide, a more locally acting steroid, and the 3am yelling has subsided, but it has transferred to the day time with seemingly no solution. I legitimately have NO CLUE what he wants. Nothing seems to placate him, and it kills me because he went from being this sweet, sleepy cuddly boy to this screaming machine who never wants to be held.

Some notes: We have tried gabapentin, and it has paradoxical effects on him. It makes him more restless and agitated. I feel like I'm going insane and would like to hear stories about people who have had real success with their elderly cats who just can't seem to be chill and happy anymore.

I've done just about every diagnostic test there is to do. Clinically, he is completely fine (aside from the poopy problems), but his previous GI symptoms are managed. Mentally, he has become this cat I no longer recognize and don't know how to help.

Has anyone experienced this before? Is this what cognitive decline looked like in your cat? Is it anxiety? Regardless, has anyone found something that works?

Trazodone? Prozac? Amitryptalline? CBD? All of the above in a pill pocket with some vodka? (I jest)

Hey all,

I noticed there was an accident that took a very long time to be cleaned up involving two midsized SUVs and an e-bike. Both SUVs were perpendicular to the road and the e-bike was completely obliterated. The road was completely blocked off for a long time, I'm guessing around 6-8 hours, maybe more.

And then today, there was another police presence blocking the road on Yale blvd in another area.

Anyone know what's going on?

Hey all,

I've been a long-time trackball user for the last 15ish years, and I'm happy with my Gameball as my daily work driver on the left, and I've been happy using a thumbball as my gaming mouse on the right. In particular, I went from a M570 to a MX Ergo, and it felt like going from a 2001 Honda Civic to a Maserati.

Well, my MX Ergo that I've had for about 6 or 7 years is starting to poop out. The left click is no longer working. I've loved the MX Ergo dearly, and it's treated me and my tendonitis well. Normally, I'd just buy another MX Ergo and call it a day, but the smooth as butter thumbball options available now with a reasonable price tag has expanded greatly since I last went thumbball shopping.

I've done some searching on this subreddit, and it seems like some people who got sick of MX Ergo click switches dying transitioned over to Elecom IST-Pro. I'd love to hear what recommendations people have generally.

Here's what I love with the MX Ergo and would be interested in other mice if available:

• Additional elevation options that don't require a 3D printer

• Easy to pop out ball for quick dust cleaning

• Mouse isn't too big as my hands are on the smaller side

• Relatively quiet click that doesn't require too much force

• Ball itself isn't super happy and doesn't require a lot of force to move

If anyone has found those in a different thumbball mouse that they believe is a genuine upgrade from a MX Ergo (including longevity), I'd love to hear about it. Thank you in advance!

Hello!

My main is an armorsmith BS, and I've pretty much maxed out the tab entirely, and I'm approaching maxing out the other tab I'm interested in. With mythic crests, I can craft ilvl 285 gear, which feels awesome for someone like me who just runs delves and heroics basically, nothing fancy.

My question, though, is what happens to professions and knowledge points at the start of a new season? The ilvl cap is going to be higher, I imagine, so will my seemingly impressive ilvl285 gear stay at that ilvl for the rest of the expansion? Does it scale with the season? Will newer higher level badges be released beyond mythic badges so I can use those to craft higher ilvl gear?

Any insight is appreciated. Thank you

This is both a question and a bit of an opinion/think piece, admittedly. I've just had a very rough week (rough couple of years, honestly), and I could use some opinions and/or validation from people around my age.

I feel like we missed the point and somehow ended up in the worst version of the internet, and it's really bumming me out. We had something great, something special (not perfect) and turned it into one big advertisement and outrage contest. We, as Millennials, experienced what life was like before social media, so much simpler. You could tune it out, you could tune out the negativity, tune out anything you wanted to because online was a place you could only access if you chose to be there.

Now, we are always online, always connected, and we don't just get the news and stories of our local city and community, we get the news of the entire world all at once 24/7, and it's almost entirely negative and/or deeply upsetting. If it's a positive story, you will have people commenting a negative spin about it or a conspiracy theory or just flat out stating that it's AI or staged. Everything is staged, apparently.

Everyone is so angry all the time, and I'm finding it harder and harder to push that sentiment away. It's not as easy as deleting social media platforms or just simply not engaging. It's impacting how people perceive and communicate with one another in person. People have less patience, people assume the worst of others. It's such a stark contrast from how I grew up, even despite the chaos of the world at the time. It's depressing seeing how difficult it is to trust anything I see. It makes me want to disengage completely from the internet and go full analog, but I don't want to go completely off grid.

How do you combat this feeling? Where do you go for silly frivolous enjoyment or goofy animal videos that aren't AI? Where do you find news or information sources that aren't heavily sensationalized or politicized?

Hey all,

I've had my iPhone 12 pro for a while now, and I haven't had any issues other than recently my screen protector and case I had from when I first bought the phone finally started to give out. My screen protector is cracked to the point where it's beginning to shatter and is becoming sharp.

Basically, I'm due for a replacement.

I know shops used to do this for you, but since we're in iPhone 16 at this point, whenever I go into an Apple store or a Verizon store, they won't replace it for me, which is annoying. They don't even carry cases or screen protectors for older models! Dumb.

So I want to buy a good screen protector, but I'm not sure how much has changed. I think I used to get Gorilla Glass for the screen and then Otterbox for the case itself. is all that still legit? Anything better come out? I want to make this baby last

How's it going lovely cat people of reddit?

Full disclosure, I'm a licensed vet tech who works in nutrition and pet food, but my own damn cat has me and my bosses stumped, and I'd love the input and possible testimonial insight from you all. This is a very long post. Leave now if you are not in the mood for a rollercoaster medical mystery of all things poop and cat food. You have been warned.

My sweet, scaredy cat guy had a near FLUTD blockage in 2017, a mess of struvite crystals upon urinalysis, and was on Royal Canin urinary SO, both moderate calorie and regular depending on his weight, for years without issue. His poops have never been optimal, but he never really had diarrhea or soft serve stool consistency, so we just let his poops be ~special because he didn't seem to have any issues otherwise, and it never worsened. UNTIL THIS YEAR.

My wife and I and the cats had unexpected travel trauma, needing to move from one county to another with an unbelievable amount of stress (lots of things going wrong trying to move as well as family dying left and right), and then after that we were unable to find a permanent place to live, so we had to stay in airbnbs for one month at a time for an additional year. None of this is ideal, and our other cat did end up with some stress cystitis and a little UTI. She's fine now. :)

My 12y male suddenly decided not only that he didn't like the Royal Canin SO kibble, but also that it was going to give him diarrhea after years of semi-regular poops. I tried adding pumpkin, I tried adding fortiflora, I tried Royal Canin Gastrointestinal Fiber Response (believing it could be fiber responsive GI upset), I tried Hill's GI Biome, I tried the wet and dry versions of all of those. He actually ended up with megacolon from all the fiber, so we put him back on Royal Canin SO for a while, and he seemed to be fine and his poops were acceptable temporarily.

Fast forward, and he has full blown diarrhea on the regular, but will also fully starve himself if presented with anything other than crunchy brown rocks. He dropped a pound in weight in his personal protest, which scared the shit out of me, so I brought him in for full bloodwork and a GI panel (folate, cyanocobalamin, etc) to see if any chronic enteropathy could be pointed out. CBC/Chem/UA/T4. ALL BLOODWORK WAS COMPLETELY NORMAL LOL. The only thing I haven't shelled out for is an ultrasound, but the sudden move has me strapped for cash, and given the normal bloodwork, I'm not convinced an ultrasound would tell me much else.

Soooooo where I have arrived with my vet was that he just didn't want to eat this food. We've tried every single Royal Canin urinary flavor acceptable in wet food, same with Hill's, same with Purina; he won't eat it for more than one or two meals before going on a hunger strike again. We even have him on Mirtazapine, which I know is working because he screams at me 24/7. He STILL won't eat wet food for more than a few licks and then will just stare at me and scream until I give him kibbles.

I've tried every trick in the book to get him to eat more. Every single one. I've even tried to hand feed him boiled chicken, and he turned it down. Chicken!!! What cat doesn't eat chicken smdh. I've sat with him on the floor while he eats in case he was scared and needed company. Nothing works for long.

He has currently been on Hill's C/D wet and dry oceanfish, which has been okay aside from the fact that he just really doesn't like it. We tried the chicken flavor, and he liked that even less. I considered Hill's C/D multicare stress to help with his possible stress issues, but it has less calories per can, so I didn't want to set him to up to eat even less calories in a day when he's already a skinny boy.

We also tried a calming supplement, Purina Calming Care, to see if that would help. It has not. He rarely eats enough of the wet food to get most of the supplement.

So listen, thanks for getting this far. The sleep deprivation has me approaching clinical insanity. Here are the theories:

1. Stress related pickiness and possibly stress induced colitis or even IBD (though the GI markers for IBD were all within normal limits on the GI panel, so likely not IBD. We're not doing a biopsy to officially find out.)

2. Fiber responsive GI upset -- his poops are picture perfect a very low fiber diet, typically in wet food, which is next to impossible to find in a kibble, especially one that also addresses struvite prevention

3. (Less likely) Sudden onset of protein allergy, specifically chicken or pork. I have considered switching him to something like Royal Canin SO + Hydrolyzed, but hydrolyzed diets are notoriously less palatable, and if pickiness is his prominent issue, I don't think hydrolyzed is the way to go. I'd rather go novel protein.

4. He wants me to suffer. I have considered this every time he wakes me up at 2 or 3am with an absolute cannon blasting liquid diarrhea, even more so when he steps in it after. (I don't actually believe he wants me to suffer. He is the sweetest boy in the whole world, and if anything I think he just thinks it's cannon blasting time and goes on with his day after like nothing happened.)

Foods I'm considering

• Farmina N&D Duck for Urinary Tract Blah Blah kibble

• Tuna out of the can mixed with boiled rice. It's clearly not nutritionally balanced, but if solid-ish poops are the focus, this would be low fiber, and the white rice would be a phenomenal low fiber starch to bind the shit out of poop without offending the intestines or bulking up the stool like insoluble fiber.

• That's it. I'm fresh of moves and mental energy, and I've got an apartment full of half finished bags of food he won't eat and I can't donate because they're opened.

If you made it this far, thank you for your patience, and feel free to say whatever you want. I am not at the end of my rope, because that was 20 yards ago. I am well beyond that and bordering on delirium. Help me, please. Any tips, tricks, insight, diets that worked for your stubborn picky scaredy cats, I will take with eternal gratitude. <3

Hi there!

I'm a 264ilvl prot warrior who has been greatly enjoying t11 delves and blasting through heroics, but I want to up the challenge a bit and get into mythic dungeons. I've got some great guildies to help me out and be patient, but I wanted to see if there was any way to make the routes more obvious without needing to study a 30 minute video for each possible dungeon we do.

The current soft glow of the outlined mobs isn't really that noticeable when there's a million other things going on, so I'm hoping for something more obvious.

Like many of you, I've got a family and a full time job, so I'm not interested in having "homework", really. But if there's a bright glowing arrow or a series of pings, I can follow that happily. I am a warrior with a warrior zug brain, after all.

Anyone have any tips to help make the route more obvious? I'd love to somewhat shut off my brain and just zug with my buddies. I'd appreciate some advice other than git gud or roll dps. Our group needs a tank, and I like tanking. :-)

Thank you in advance. <3