doggie question

[leah]

for any animal lovers out there: my little girl corgi April is acting kind of listless and stopped eating all of her food. she still eats, but she leaves some behind and she's never had trouble eating her whole serving before. should i be worried about this?? or is she just not as hungry as she used to be?

[Arlos]

Yes, be at least concerned. Take her into the vet. Sudden changes in eating habits can be an indicator that something's wrong. Better have it checked NOW than let it wait and maybe get REALLY serious.

So yeah, if I were you, I'd take her to the vet ASAP.

-Arlos

[Gypsiyee]

the cat I told you about who's in the hospital (coming home tomorrow, yay) was the same kind of thing -- started with no appetite and he was losing weight fast.

the problem he had with his liver is specifically a feline disease, but I wouldn't wait to see if she gets better because if it's something serious, waiting could make it get worse. there are a number of reasons she could be acting that way including eating something toxic, so get her to the vet and make sure it's nothing major before it becomes a huge unnecessary expense.

is she drinking? make sure that if she's not eating her entire portion that she's at least drinking water.. dehydration could be causing the listlessness too, and that's still something you need to get her to the vet for. they can give her an injection that rehydrates her.

[leah]

she's still drinking just fine and when we're playing outside she runs around like normal, she just got really quiet and weird in the house and doesn't finish her dinner. incidentally, i made an appt today to take my cat in to have his kidney levels checked (about three or four months ago, we discovered his kidneys were at 75% failure, eek--he's doing quite well now, though!) so i went ahead and told them i'd be bringing in April, too, so hopefully it will be nothing big. thanks for reassuring me that i'm not crazy to be concerned!!

[Gypsiyee]

You can never be too concerned. I don't care how crazy people think I am.. my pets are my kids, man.

and to piggyback on that sentiment.. you know my missing cat? well the farmer behind us called today in response to our poster and said he usually sees her once a day (he even noticed we had changed her collar) but said he hasn't seen her for about 2 weeks.. the same amount of time she's been missing he said he doesn't want to be negative but he really doesn't expect us to see her again if she's been gone this long because he sees foxes etc on his property all the time.

I'd worry more about a coyote than a fox since foxes are similarly equipped to cats and not all that much bigger, but still.. I really hope that isn't the case, because if it is, my poor girl would've suffered so badly.

[Narrock]

You're right Gyps.. Our pets are like kids, and we love them so much. I hope you find her. I hope your doggy is okay too Leah.

[Gypsiyee]

so I just posted this on FB, but I will here too because I'm just mad and need to vent. let me preface this by saying I know that we're in the wrong, but seriously.

So, as soon as I got home today I took my dog for a walk to talk to the farmer guy who'd called Jonathan. When I got back, someone had put our lost cat flier back in our mailbox with a nasty note about how it's illegal to put things in people's mailboxes (hey dumbass, you just did it too?)

Now, I know that you're not supposed to solicit to people's mailboxes or tamper with mail, etc. But for real.. we weren't trying to sell anything, any box that already had mail in it was left alone, and the notices were put only in the houses closest to us. we didn't leave our subdivision.

I'd get the agitation if it had come from another neighborhood or if we were trying to get someone to buy something. But we're a friggin single entry subdivision with less than 60 houses, only half of which got fliers (the houses closet to us). we're the second house when you enter the subdivision, so these people pass our house every single day to leave the neighborhood and know exactly who we are.

Now I'm terribly sorry if you honestly think we were out to tamper with your mail. The notices have both of our names, our phone numbers, our exact street address.. we weren't trying to hide anything here. Instead of just throwing the shit away if you don't care, why the fuck would you be so goddamn heartless to spend the time to wait until you see me come home and leave my property to walk my dog to write a fucking note on our flier and make the trek down to my house to not only essentially say "here's your info back, I don't give a shit about your lost cat" but imply that we're out to break the goddamn law by reaching out to our neighbors in hope of finding a member of our family?

On top of it, it was anonymous. If you have a problem with me putting something in your mailbox when we're grieving and desperate, grow a fucking pair and give me the opportunity to walk down to your house to tell you exactly what I think of you in kind.

[Narrock]

Holy shit, what an asshole. Jeez

[brinstar]

she's still drinking just fine

me too

[leah]

lol, alex. you had a rough night that night, you were entitled to drink just fine.

anyway, all: i took all four fur-kids to the vet on friday (all three dogs were due for bordatello shots and the cat needed some bloodwork), and i asked about her eating/listlessness and the vet said to keep an eye on it for another week before getting too concerned. and what do you know, as of yesterday she's eating fine and her energy has picked back up. i think maybe she must've eaten something weird outside and had an upset tummy for a day or two (she also had gross farts). she seems fine now. ^_^ i'm still glad i was able to ask, though. and let me tell you, it was fricking tough to get all four of them to the vet, haha.

anyway, gyps, i am so sad for you i hope you can get some closure with your missing kitteh (and even more so that said closure is kitteh coming back happy and healthy), and i'm sorry your neighbors are douchewads.

[araby]

does their food have by-product? I've noticed my cats' poop doesn't smell badly since we stopped giving them that.

[Spazz]

My babies got free yesterday and i was really freaking out. Took 3 hours to find both of them. My neighbor found my big guy clyde out on the main road and dived on him before he could run in the street. Was a very stressful night but witht he help of some good folks down here it turned out alright.

I feel for ya gyps when it was seeming like I wasnt going to find my baby I was really starting to panic. On the flip side seeing a bunch of my neighbors come out with flashlights and split up to look made me feel a little bit better about where I live. I had a heroin addict, a drug dealer, 2 pill heads and 4 kids on bikes all spread out while I had a drunk biker sittin on the porch waiting to see if he would wander home. We finally found him cuz our search party ran into a cop and he told us he had seen a beagle over by where main road connects to the sub. We all tore ass over there to see if we could get him before it ended badly and thankfully I got my big retard back. If you guys want me to ill try to learn how to post pics a little later and you can see how adorable they are.

[leah]

i would love to see pictures of your doggies!! i'll go find some of my own and post them in a few minutes. :D

[leah]

dergs!

[Gypsiyee]

on the bright side, spazz, i got a text and an email from 2 other neighbors i don't know in response to jonathan's sign asking who the asshole was that would put something in my mailbox. they said that they've seen momo lots of times in the past so they know who she is and they'll keep their eyes out.