Who are all these people dumping aged cats at shelters?!

[FineAlready]

Can you elaborate on the atopic dermatitis condition? One of my two new cats has had a ton of ongoing problems with his ears, the most recent being an allergic reaction to the medication we were using on his ears. What were your cat’s symptoms of atopic dermatitis and what ended up being the solution.

My poor kitty’s ears are peeling and raw right now. I am thinking this might still be from the allergic reaction to the meds, so I’m going to give him another day or two, but if this doesn’t start heading in the right direction pretty quickly then I think we’ve got some other problem going on.

[QUOTE=Darkwave;8139644]
My kitty is actually a surrender.

Back story is that she was adopted as a kitten by a family from the humane society. When she was about 2 years old, she developed severe atopic dermatitis. The family worked with their vet (my sister’s clinic) for a little while, and when she didn’t improve, brought her for euth - saying that the cat was just miserable and she (the owner) didn’t want to deal with the scabs.

My sister’s clinic told the owner that the proper action was to surrender her back to the humane society. So she did.

The humane society then tried to get the allergies under control, working with my sister’s clinic, but couldn’t - the humane society simply couldn’t stay on top of her meds due to having so many animals. So they brought her back to the clinic for euthanasia.

The vets (my sister and a peer) wanted to give the kitty one more chance, so they took her in as a clinic cat. And…it took a long time, but they figured out the regimen that kept her allergies under control.

As it happened, about that time I was looking to adopt a special needs kitty, so now kitty is mine. For good.

But, in reviewing the above, I’m finding it hard to judge anyone too much - kitties with significant health issues can result in tough choices. And while it makes me really sad that she was adopted and then surrendered, again I don’t know the first owner’s circumstances. Isabella does cost a lot more on a monthly basis than the normal kitty, and perhaps the first owner simply couldn’t commit to that additional cost for the next 10-15 years. The first owner did bring her back in for euth (or surrender) rather than dumping her on the street, and so I can’t say she acted irresponsibly.

And heck, I have Izzy now, so we’re all good :)[/QUOTE]

[FineAlready]

On the topic of declawing: I will admit that I have had declawed cats in the past (that I or my family has declawed). It was before I realized what the procedure actually involves, and it was also the result of being raised in the kind of household where any kind of destructive pet behavior would have resulted in the pet being booted out of the house. So it was kind of like, “Well, either you declaw the cat, or it destroys things and has to go. The end.”

I’m very much against declawing now, and would not do it to another cat. I keep my cats’ nails trimmed, and I also accept that they are probably going to partially destroy some things. Such is life with cats, really. I mean, they have pretty much ruined the curtains on our sliding glass doors just because they play “who is behind the curtain?” all day long.

Whoever said that people outside of COTH don’t permit animals to destroy things in their home is wrong. I work with a ton of non-horse, non-COTH people, and most of them do have pets that have wrecked things in their homes. In fact, the head of my department at work was just telling me the other day that he has a really nice leather chair at home that his cats have ruined. He told me about it with kind of a laugh and a shrug, like, “Well, that’s cats!”

I think MOST people who truly love animals and want them in their home are willing to accept some level of destruction of the home. Just the way people who like kids are willing to accept that their kids are likely to destroy their home.

[Darkwave]

[QUOTE=FineAlready;8140088]
Can you elaborate on the atopic dermatitis condition? One of my two new cats has had a ton of ongoing problems with his ears, the most recent being an allergic reaction to the medication we were using on his ears. What were your cat’s symptoms of atopic dermatitis and what ended up being the solution.[/QUOTE]

I never saw her at her worst, but from what I understand it was a lot of scabbing and lost fur and bare skin and non-stop scratching at herself. Every once in a while she still gets a few scabs on her back. She’ll also get the occasional “pepper” on her ears and face skin (I call it that, because it looks like someone seasoned her skin with a pepper shaker).

She spent about 9 months in a cone and with soft paws on her feet, though those are now gone. Her regimen is now:

She only eats ZD canned food, with a Wellactin supplement mixed in daily.

She gets an oral dose of Atopica twice a week.

One every two weeks, she gets an allergy shot. Since she’s had reactions to it before, I now give her a dose of benadryl about an hour before (in shot form).

She gets Revolution once a month.

She’s exclusively an indoor cat, but when the pollen’s really bad, I’ll give her 2mg Chlorpheniramine orally to cut down on sneezing.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=FineAlready;8140075]
YES! I’ve totally noticed this![/QUOTE]

So it’s “a thing”-- Spring Cleaning and all, out with the old cats, in with the new?

I’ll ask the cause of this trend at my shelter and get back to you guys.

[vxf111]

Darkwave, I am glad your kitty found you. That being said, I don’t think ANYONE would fault someone for putting to sleep a cat with her condition that they couldn’t get under control. No judgment from me on people with animals who have really (or even just expensive) difficult veterinary conditions who choose euthanasia. But that’s really different than dumping the problem off on a shelter/another person. I don’t think personally that you have to prolong a cat’s life to the last possible minute, you just have to make the minutes you give the cat good ones.

[Darkwave]

[QUOTE=vxf111;8140901]
I don’t think ANYONE would fault someone for putting to sleep a cat with her condition that they couldn’t get under control. No judgment from me on people with animals who have really (or even just expensive) difficult veterinary conditions who choose euthanasia. But that’s really different than dumping the problem off on a shelter/another person. I don’t think personally that you have to prolong a cat’s life to the last possible minute, you just have to make the minutes you give the cat good ones.[/QUOTE]

I think you and I are generally in agreement. I also think that the decision on whether a cat should be euthanized or surrendered is really case by case. My sister says that she regularly has people bring in pets that are quite adoptable that they want PTS - in those cases, she’ll refuse and ask that they surrender instead. My understanding is that many vet clinics do something similar - that’s how they end up with clinic cats

OTOH, I can assure you that with my previous kitty, who was elderly, strongly bonded to me, and very timid, I would have insisted that she be PTS if she could no longer be with me or my boyfriend.

The situations that I see deserving of strong criticism are a) where the pet is just dumped on the street or in a field (NEVER) and b) where the pet is euthanized or abandoned for the convenience of the owner (i.e. no longer cute)

[FineAlready]

[QUOTE=Darkwave;8140859]
I never saw her at her worst, but from what I understand it was a lot of scabbing and lost fur and bare skin and non-stop scratching at herself. Every once in a while she still gets a few scabs on her back. She’ll also get the occasional “pepper” on her ears and face skin (I call it that, because it looks like someone seasoned her skin with a pepper shaker).

She spent about 9 months in a cone and with soft paws on her feet, though those are now gone. Her regimen is now:

She only eats ZD canned food, with a Wellactin supplement mixed in daily.

She gets an oral dose of Atopica twice a week.

One every two weeks, she gets an allergy shot. Since she’s had reactions to it before, I now give her a dose of benadryl about an hour before (in shot form).

She gets Revolution once a month.

She’s exclusively an indoor cat, but when the pollen’s really bad, I’ll give her 2mg Chlorpheniramine orally to cut down on sneezing.[/QUOTE]

Thanks so much for this information. I’m going to file it away in case that’s the direction Larry’s ears start to go. Right now, they are just very raw and red and peeling, but I think that’s from the allergic reaction to the medication we were using for the yeast infection in his ears. That seems to be getting a bit better, but now I’m thinking the yeast might be back…or it could just be the scabs from the damage to his ears from the medication.

Geez. This poor kitty. I hate to just keep putting more and more “stuff” on them if all they really need is a break to “regroup” and calm down. I think I’m going to give them through the weekend and then re-assess.

At least he’s well fed, loved, and laying around on my couch with painful ears instead of wandering around as a stray with mite-infested painful ears. That’s how I’m comforting myself anyway. I just wish I could fix them for him NOW.

[Darkwave]

[QUOTE=FineAlready;8141186]
Thanks so much for this information. I’m going to file it away in case that’s the direction Larry’s ears start to go. Right now, they are just very raw and red and peeling, but I think that’s from the allergic reaction to the medication we were using for the yeast infection in his ears. That seems to be getting a bit better, but now I’m thinking the yeast might be back…or it could just be the scabs from the damage to his ears from the medication.

Geez. This poor kitty. I hate to just keep putting more and more “stuff” on them if all they really need is a break to “regroup” and calm down. I think I’m going to give them through the weekend and then re-assess.

At least he’s well fed, loved, and laying around on my couch with painful ears instead of wandering around as a stray with mite-infested painful ears. That’s how I’m comforting myself anyway. I just wish I could fix them for him NOW.[/QUOTE]

Izzy’s ears did get very red (almost purple) and inflamed when she had a bad reaction to her allergy shot about 2 weeks ago. To get it down, the vet gave her shots of Benadryl and Dexamethasone. (He also gave her a shot of Anzemet for an upset stomach that also resulted from the shot). The Benadryl and Dex worked like a charm.

And Larry is lucky to have you

[PlanB]

My mom dumped her (MY) 15 year old cat at the shelter because he was starting to have health problems. I got him when I was a teenager but she wanted to keep him when I moved out at age 18. That was fine with me, since he lived there all his life and was well cared for.

She didn’t even call me to ask if I wanted him.

When I found out about 2 weeks later, I was absolutely devastated. She said “Oh, you wouldn’t have wanted him, he wasn’t using the litter box.”

I went to the shelter immediately but he was not there.

I will never forgive her and I plan to remind her of this when she is old and ill and asking for my help. I have to put it out of my mind for now because I can’t even deal with it properly.

[vxf111]

[QUOTE=PlanB;8141405]
My mom dumped her (MY) 15 year old cat at the shelter because he was starting to have health problems. I got him when I was a teenager but she wanted to keep him when I moved out at age 18. That was fine with me, since he lived there all his life and was well cared for.

She didn’t even call me to ask if I wanted him.

When I found out about 2 weeks later, I was absolutely devastated. She said “Oh, you wouldn’t have wanted him, he wasn’t using the litter box.”

I went to the shelter immediately but he was not there.

I will never forgive her and I plan to remind her of this when she is old and ill and asking for my help. I have to put it out of my mind for now because I can’t even deal with it properly.[/QUOTE]

Eesh, I am really sorry.

[FineAlready]

[QUOTE=Darkwave;8141287]
Izzy’s ears did get very red (almost purple) and inflamed when she had a bad reaction to her allergy shot about 2 weeks ago. To get it down, the vet gave her shots of Benadryl and Dexamethasone. (He also gave her a shot of Anzemet for an upset stomach that also resulted from the shot). The Benadryl and Dex worked like a charm.

And Larry is lucky to have you :)[/QUOTE]

Yes! His also turned almost purple on the backs of his ears, but they have calmed down to a more reasonable but still very sad red now. They are normally a very pale pink - he’s a buff colored cat.

Ironically, there was dex in the medication that he reacted to. At this point, I’m afraid to put anything more on him or in him. He’s otherwise doing fine - eating, playing, etc. His ears are just in very sad shape!

[FineAlready]

[QUOTE=PlanB;8141405]
My mom dumped her (MY) 15 year old cat at the shelter because he was starting to have health problems. I got him when I was a teenager but she wanted to keep him when I moved out at age 18. That was fine with me, since he lived there all his life and was well cared for.

She didn’t even call me to ask if I wanted him.

When I found out about 2 weeks later, I was absolutely devastated. She said “Oh, you wouldn’t have wanted him, he wasn’t using the litter box.”

I went to the shelter immediately but he was not there.

I will never forgive her and I plan to remind her of this when she is old and ill and asking for my help. I have to put it out of my mind for now because I can’t even deal with it properly.[/QUOTE]

I’m so sorry. Perhaps someone adopted him and that’s why he wasn’t there? I hope so.

[Bicoastal]

The Dog Snobs took up OP’s cause

I LOVE The Dog Snobs. They agree with OP. Here you go.

Excerpt: The person trying to home their senior or near-senior outdoor dogs because of <insert [bs] reason here>…There is no farm or ranch or outdoor preserve that will take your neglected, poorly trained, stock-chasing, cat-killing, senior who isn’t house-trained, leash trained and whose concept of manners ends somewhere around not actually shitting in their own dish, dog.

[kookicat]

A lot of people are scared to make that decision- deciding to basically kill your pet is a really hard thing to do. I’ve had to make that call a few times now and it never gets any easier.

I’m not saying that to excuse people’s behaviour, because it’s rotten to dump an old pet.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=PlanB;8141405]
My mom dumped her (MY) 15 year old cat at the shelter because he was starting to have health problems. I got him when I was a teenager but she wanted to keep him when I moved out at age 18. That was fine with me, since he lived there all his life and was well cared for.

She didn’t even call me to ask if I wanted him.

When I found out about 2 weeks later, I was absolutely devastated. She said “Oh, you wouldn’t have wanted him, he wasn’t using the litter box.”

I went to the shelter immediately but he was not there.

I will never forgive her and I plan to remind her of this when she is old and ill and asking for my help. I have to put it out of my mind for now because I can’t even deal with it properly.[/QUOTE]

Oh, the humanity! I can feel your pain. But there is a solution.

Which comes at the end of this story.

When I was 10 or so, I was subject to the world new of the one adult who lived with me-- a hard-a$$ single working mom who did let her kids have the chaos of some pets (short of a dog), but had strict rules about cats being spayed (and her unmarried girls having abortions if they wanted 'em…. which, They Should in her view… but I digress). The point is that this was a woman who felt overwhelmed and wanted to feel powerful. There was rationality, not the romance of blindly “come hell or high water, do the right thing.”

So sure enough our latest shelter kitteh gets knocked up before her spay appointment and we get a batch of kittens. It turns out that one set of kittens won’t, in fact, bring our family to bankruptcy and ruin.

But when it comes time to pack all the kids and animals in the Volvo station wagon to go spend Christmas with her parents (whose respect she’s always trying to earn), she just can’t see her way to bringing a passel of kittens, too. To be so trashy as to inconvenience other people with kittens and all because you can’t control your life…. Of course, I didn’t see that kittens were a big inconvenience. And momma cat really did do a spectacular job with them.

So she threatens to take 'em to the shelter if we can’t find homes for them before our departure date.

I decided to find them a better option and I was blessed when I happened to walk by a pet store that had kittens in the window and would take 'em of our hands. I mean, as a little kid, I just got lucky that I found that solution.

But I do remember finding a solution, and that made me feel that I could be a good buck-stopper when a grown woman could not. From this, I goth all that my mom wanted— power and self-esteem from doing the right thing for some helpless kittens and the sense that I could get help if I looked for it. And she got none of that because she chose to feel constrained rather than try and tell the truth that kittens just aren’t a big deal.

The moral of the story is that, whatever goes down with you and your mom when she’s no longer using the litter box, you can be who you want to be with cats. Cut your own swath through the world.

And the most direct way to do this is…. obviously…. Get Another Cat Right Now!

[thatmoody]

Haha, mvp, what a cool story! My parents were very hard-nosed farm people (and we had a ton of animals that “found” us and passed through my life) and my mom tried SO hard to be tough with our cats and dogs, but we pretty much knew that if presented with our latest cuteness she’d cave.

My daughter works at the shelter, and they DO have a lot of owner surrenders of older cats, and it’s sad (although I will say that there is a subset of people who do go in and take special needs kitties - we brought one home for a few days so he’d have some peace before he was euthed - then we took him in for his appointment so he didn’t spend his last days at the shelter). I’d lots rather they do that, though, than dump them on my street like apparently happened with my latest one. I kept getting the feeling that there was some REASON he showed up right around Christmas - he seemed healthy enough and checked out at the vet, but something kept bothering me. On a routine dental this week, though, we may have found the reason - oral tumor. I’m betting that his previous owner got the news, balked at the cost of a biopsy (my vet is going to do it for $700, but he is giving me a break), and dumped him. He’s a himalayan, and the sweetest cat I’ve ever met. The vet was really upset examining him - he was so easy and sweet, and kept walking over to the cabinet in the office and opening it so he could explore LOL. He kept muttering “who would dump off a cat like this?”

In good news, he’s gaining weight and his bloodwork is good, so keep your fingers (and paws crossed that it’s NOT anything dire, although I do know all too much about oral tumors in cats, unfortunately).

[FineAlready]

Wow, thatmoody, that’s SUPER inexpensive for a biopsy. My cat had a huge mass in his throat biopsied, and that plus aftercare ended up costing about $4,000…even though he died the day after the procedure (so not really long aftercare).

I’m glad this kitty found you, and I hope his oral tumor ends up being something minor and treatable!

[thatmoody]

Yeah, I don’t think prices are as much for that area of the mouth, but I do think he’s giving me a substantial break - he’s done that before for my ferals (I usually take them in to the local shelter for med care but if they have something more complex I have him as a backup). I had my big lab biopsied, though, in a similar area (his was a simple mast cell tumor) and it was “only” about $1000 including pathology. So I think it’s more the area.

i’ve been really lucky with both the ferals and my regular pets. My lab had lymphoma and they kept saying “oh, probably about 6 more months” when he was 12. At 14, he finally did get uncomfortable and I had him PTS. My other chihuahua, although blind and deaf, lived to be 17 and was pretty darned healthy till then (she just died in her sleep finally after lying out in the sun for a while). We just didn’t move the furniture while she was alive

[newhorsemommy]

I’ve accepted that I can’t have nice things if I want cats and dogs When we bought our house 14 years ago, we refinished the hardwood in most of the house and put carpet down in the bedrooms. A single dog accident required the removal of the carpet in one room, and then the oldest cat starting having issues and required the removal of the carpet in the 2nd bedroom.

Since we were not up to refinishing, I cleaned the floors repeatedly with hot water and vinegar (and some liberal applications of the enzyme stuff), and then we laid down a floating sort of laminate product called Traffic Master Allure. It does no damage to the floor underneath, and any animal accidents clean right up! I also chose a color that would disguise the cat litter they kick all over the room

We lost our female dog on Saturday She was 14, had been having seizures most likely due to brain tumor, had pretty bad arthritis, and had been having incontinence issues for a couple of years, for a variety of reasons actually (UTI, weak bladder, thyroid medication, possible early stages of kidney failure, etc.). We dealt with it. We washed the dog beds and we found that aside from “leaks” she would go on a towel if we set one out for her while we were at work. Not ideal but it worked. We finally had to have her put down when she had two seizures on Saturday (the frequency had been increasing) and with the seizures, the medication (causes horrible ataxia) and the arthritis, walking was becoming too difficult for her. Logistically, our biggest fear was that she would need to go the emergency room and we wouldn’t be able to get her into the car (at 80 lbs). Luckily the mobile vet was able to come to our house within 30 minutes of returning our call. I can’t imagine dumping her at a shelter for someone else to deal with when she had been with us since she was a puppy. We have her brother here (littermates), and I took today off work to make sure he is going to be OK because he has seemed rather depressed. He laid down with her on the dog bed after she was gone and didn’t want to get up This is our third animal (following a cat with kidney failure and a cat with cancer) we’ve put down now, and it kills us every time, but that’s part of pet ownership.

On a less depressing note, I am intrigued about the towel in a cat box idea. The oldest cat sometimes doesn’t use the box because the younger cats, one little monster in particular, hear her scratching and run in there to harass her. A silent cat box might be the solution because she also chooses laundry left on the floor (because it’s quiet).

[mvp]

[QUOTE=mvp;8140895]
So it’s “a thing”-- Spring Cleaning and all, out with the old cats, in with the new?

I’ll ask the cause of this trend at my shelter and get back to you guys.[/QUOTE]

According to my shelter, this is a constant thing. There’s not obvious season for dumping old cats.

Rather, folks do it whenever they read Dante’s Inferno and find no description of a Circle of Hell for people who mistreat cats. So they get curious or lazy/too relaxed about the afterlife. At least people are reading canonical literature. That said, I don’t see why they can’t have a lap cat on them while they’re reading.