r/CatsUK

We have two 10 week old girls (who wouldn't be going out for a while anyway), and I'm seriously thinking about a catio. We've never had one before; had 3 cats previously, all of them living to 15+ years old with full access to the garden. But I'm SO anxious about losing them to the road at the front of our house. I'm tempted by getting a catio but I know my partner won't be keen.

We have large french doors and could fit in a 7ft by 5ft (my rough estimate by eye) but I feel like I'd be restricting them?

We also have foxes at the back of our garden; while I love having them they are another cause for concern.

I'd be interested in what fellow pet parents think!

Short story:

Male cat, 15 years old has stopped eating his special food (renal care) and rarely eats more than 1 sachet a day.

Vet has advised that his kidneys are improving, so it's not essential that he has renal care food all the time, however regular cat food gives him a runny bum, but he will wolf it down.

How do you handle a picky eater? I want to just give him his special food until he realises that if he's hungry, he'll just have to eat what's available. But at the same time, I don't want to starve him!

Any advice would be appreciated.

My cat is 7 years old 12.5 pounds she had been spayed and also had a teeth cleaning about 3 years ago. She’s a calico it look like she’s prone to tartar. Now 3 years later I have a dental cleaning tomorrow. I’m so paranoid and scared! Her bloodwork was done on Saturday and thankfully everything came back good tomorrow the will do the ekg and other things. I’m so nervous! Someone tell me that she will be okay. They will also have fluids in her.

my cat is 3 years old, and she hates men for some reason? she's not really comfortable with women either unless I'm also home but she tolerates them (she's better with my mum as she's the designated feeder and petter when I go away), but she's absolutely terrified of men whether I'm there or not and that unfortunately includes my boyfriend. she's less scared of the robot vacuum 🥲

she's never had a bad experience afaik and I got her from a male acquaintance whose cat fathered an accidental litter with his roommates cat so she spent her first 4 months alive around men. I actually had to peel her off his shoulder when I came to take her home. it's like she lost all her bravery she had as a kitten and men got the short stick for seemingly no reason. she's not violent either, she just hides, runs away, or hisses. I've tried a feliway plug in but it didn't help, she won't take treats from my boyfriend either. and dreamies are crack to this cat!

my boyfriend has an added barrier because he has tourettes and I know the jerking and shouting probably scares her too but it quite literally is all men. he plays it off but he's a cat person too (his own cat is immune to his tics) so I know it upsets him to a degree. she is very clingy with me and he sees the way she cuddles me like a lil baby and I know he wants that too. so if anyone has any tips to get her used to men so my boyfriend can eventually have a snuggle with her I'd really appreciate it!

a couple of weeks ago, my friend hit me up asking if i’d take in her brothers cat as she wasn’t in the space to and we both studied animal care together. after some convincing of my family, i said yes and we are planning to pick him up next week. he is 3 years old and an outdoors cat, he apparently goes out most of the day and comes home in the evening to lay and cuddle up. my friends brother lives about 3 hours away, and right by the sea, his house is on a main road and i was told that the cat is very smart and steers clear of the main road. my house and street is quite the opposite, i live in a medium sized house and we have a huge garden, only about 20 same sized houses down our street and there’s at least 3 fields around the houses, our street is a country type road but at the top of it is a 40mph semi busy road but the cats on my road have been here since i was little and they’re smart enough to avoid it. i’m nervous to bring him home as he’s been an outdoors cat his whole life and favours being outside so i’m not sure if making him an indoors cat is a realistic option even though i know that he should be. how should i go about introducing him to the area? our actual road is pretty quiet and like i said there’s fields but i’m still worried about the surrounding areas.
the plan so far is to bring him home, introduce him to one room at first and then a second so he can adjust and after that the whole house and to not let him out for about 2 weeks but i’m not sure how to go about introducing him outside. he is microchipped obviously but someone said about getting a tracking collar and getting him used to that whilst being indoors? any advice like at all? thank you :)

If you cat sleeps in your bed or mainly hangs out in one room in the daytime, how often do you hoover that room? And how often do you change the sheets/bed please?

Cat is British short hair.

Thank you

I have a 7yo neutered male cat that myself and my now-husband have had since a kitten. We had him with his sister until she was died 5 years ago (car accident). I’ve moved around a fair bit over the years due to changing jobs/living in work accommodation, but he’s always been happy and settled in fine. He is an indoor/outdoor cat but has his routine and is always home overnight in the winter and during the day in the summer, and due to the nature of my job I’ve always lived in rural, quiet areas so he’s loved it. I have previously considered getting another cat to keep him company, as he gets on well with others and likes to play etc, however I’m now at a loss for what to do.

Last year I got made redundant and we had to leave work accommodation, which was in a really nice area and two other cats that mine really got on with. My husband and I started renting for the first time, and had to find somewhere rural enough for my cat as he has obviously got used to a certain environment and wouldn’t do well in a built up area. We now live in a small building comprising 6 flats, surrounded by lots of fields. The only issue was the landlord’s cat, who had apparently taken to living in our flat before we moved in, and was fairly territorial. There were a couple of fights in the beginning but nothing serious, and our cat was happy up until about four months ago, when he started leaving for 2-3 days at a time. This escalated to only coming home once a week to eat some food and immediately leave again, which is the situation we’re currently in. If he comes home and I shut the window, and ignore him when he asks to go back out, he will eventually settle down/go to sleep/cuddle and purr, and seems his normal self.

Last week we put a tracker on him, and it showed that he goes to another house across a field from ours- he is not far but he is staying there for long periods of time. My husband went to speak to the people living there, who said that they don’t feed him, just give him ‘treats’, and that he just stays in one of their outbuildings. This has massively upset me, as I don’t know if I can trust these people, and I never see my cat anymore. When I do see him, he looks like he’s lost weight and has bald patches around his head and neck. He’s prone to skin allergies which I currently can’t do anything about while he’s not home. I can’t ethically trap him inside after 7 years of free roaming, and although I’d like to move, there isn’t anywhere else within budget close to work. I’m on the brink of getting another cat anyway, but would that push my cat away for good? I just feel so miserable and am constantly having nightmares about him and worrying about what could happen. Any advice gratefully received!

Hi,

We have a domestic longhair male cat who is about ~10 years old. He's orange & white (rarely gets to use the braincell) neutered and currently weighing in around 3.7kg.

Most of the time we have had him (re-homed him around 2 years old in 2018) he has had loose stools. Our previous vets never seemed too concerned about this. After recently moving house and changing vets, our new ones are more concerned and we've been advised to try some specific food and have seen some noticeable improvements. We also then had a full abdominal "workup" (X-Rays and Ultrasound) due to concerns around inflammation which overall found nothing major but did show that some of his kidney function looks to have diminished though not to the point of kidney disease yet thankfully.

He has also suffered fairly long term from gingivitis. He's had a dental scale before and though we have tried to brush his teeth we have never had much success getting him to put up with it. His teeth are now quite bad again and certainly due for another procedure.

Given this combined with the abdominal workup, ourvets have suggested they would like to extract all his teeth due to:

• High likeliness that he will require regular dental procedures given the condition of his teeth now
• High priority of reducing any sources of inflammation to try to protect his remaining kidney function

They are suggesting we do this in two procedures at least 6 weeks apart - each procedure extracting half the teeth. We've been quoted between £1600 and £2000 per procedure so an expected total cost of ~£3200-4000. This seems on the high side but it's hard to tell without "shopping around".

I have heard that many cats do very well after having this kind of procedure but would be very grateful to hear any informed opinions on if this seems like a reasonable course of action at this point. It's obviously a fairly major procedure to put him through that I want to ensure is the right thing before we go ahead.

Thanks in advance.

I suppose I just want somewhere to vent. I have two beautiful cats since they were kittens, siblings who are now seven. The house is practically theirs, and I’m just their measly servant. I love them so much with all of my heart and they give me so much joy. I gave birth to a baby boy this January and since bringing him home, he’s been constantly unsettled. Long story short, the GP has said that it’s probably my cats and I should consider rehoming. I didn’t know what to say and I cried so hard in his office and he just looked at me and said “it’s your baby” when I said that I can’t do that. My cats mean everything to me. I’ve got post natal depression so this also isn’t helping me either as in the back of my mind, I feel like the baby should be rehomed (which I’m obviously NOT going to do). Plus, no one will want my darling cats because technically they’re “senior” and there are too many cats in the cattery that I don’t want them to eventually be put down for no reason! I just feel so lost and heartbroken.

About a week ago, her cat got attacked (by a fox/cat, we don’t know). The cat came back with about 3 cm diameter of fur missing between the shoulder blades. No blood, no scratches but whatever attacked him got a good chunk of fur out.

I told the owner to put a cone on the cat to prevent it from scratching, keep him indoors and visit a vet in case the area needs cleaning/sterilising. She did none of the above saying “oh the cat is fine, eats and behaves as usual and there’s no blood so no worries”. So the cat had no cone, kept scratching the area and rolling around in the grass for a week. Now a red bloody crust has developed and the cat keeps scratching it off and rolling in dirt.

Every single damn day I’ve been telling the owner, please get a cone, please take him to the vet, please keep him indoors but she won’t listen. My anger is now turning into rage because it’s clear something is wrong and i fear that cat will go into sepsis anytime now. I am a cat lover and it breaks my heart watching him struggle.

The owner is not evil, but she is deeply ignorant and almost criminally negligent and won’t listen to me. She’s cheap and stupid. She acts like she has no money but she just spent thousands on house renovations and now is being cheap with her cat’s life. Maybe she doesn’t have any money left, she’s terrible at managing it. I made a list of charities that can offer cheaper services. I’ll talk to her about it later on today and fingers crossed she listens to me. I will insist till the end but ultimately it’s her decision.

I don’t know what to do. I rent a room from her and I’ll be there one more month. I’ve already paid so I can’t move. I don’t drive, no car, and am not the owner so I can’t take the cat to the vet myself, if the owner refuses. I found the number for the animal cruelty line but she’ll know it was me who called and will probably make the rest of my stay a living hell. Also what if animal cruelty decides there’s no cruelty? Then it’s all for nothing. On the other hand I really don’t want the cat to die, it would break my heart. I’m getting so frustrated, almost desperate to save him because I know what’s coming if left untreated. What do I do if she keeps refusing to call the vet?

Hi,

It's been a bit since I posted on here, but I'm looking for some advice regarding Arnie, and him possibly going outdoors.

As of writing this post, he's 1 year, 3 months old, and he's chipped and neutered. He also has a catio which he enjoys spending time in, when the UK weather is nicer. Unfortunately, due to family circumstances involving other pets, he has limited access to anywhere in the house apart from my room and his catio. I've considered getting him a friend but I don't have the room nor the money for it 

I've noticed he's been more agitated, being a bit more "mean" (scratching and biting for seemingly no reason again), and he seems like he may be eating out of boredom? Overall, he seems depressed to an extent.

I've been letting him outside in my back garden in the day, and since doing so, he has been more relaxed, and isn't so irritated / anxious. For context, just to clarify:

- I live around 0.8 miles from a busy road
- He has not left the garden as of yet (about 4 days into him going outside)
- I let him out before feeding him (apparently letting your cat out before they've eaten encourages them to come back)
- I keep an eye on him using a camera which faces directly outside of the catio - I also poke my head out every 30 minutes or so to check he's OK

My only concern with letting Arnie outside is that, when he was around 6 months old, he went outside in the garden after he got out accidentally, and he (presumably) spooked and ran off, ending up outside a block of flats (in the rain) near our house - it was pure luck mum found him.

Part of me thinks he'll be OK now, since he's bigger, stronger, and older, but I'm worried he'll get hurt. I just don't want him to be stuck with me, as it doesn't feel much of a life (to me, at least).

Ignoring my rant, my question really is, how do I try to ensure his safety as much as I can, while allowing to have the freedom he needs?

I'm considering:

- Getting him accident and illness insurance - most likely through Tesco as it's cheaper and seems to fit my needs (and his) best
- Possibly getting him a GPS collar, though I worry that it might make me *more* anxious (since I'll always be checking it)
- Going out *with* him, just pottering about in the garden, in the hopes it makes him feel more confident and less likely to spook

At the end of the day, I want to do what's right for him, although I'm struggling to find what *is* best.

If anyone could advise me, I'd be super thankful, as I'm driving myself mad trying to figure it all out.

Thank you