New Rescue House Cat

[Red wine lady]

Hello all, we have just adopted our first cat (our first pet!) and I am looking for advice.

Oscar is 6 years old and we have had him for 7 weeks...huge boy who loves his food, playful, sociable when he wants, very curious but struggles to settle...he seems to be constantly moving from one place to another around the house. Friends cats just seem to sleep but Oscar is up and down. I have bought him a Feliway plug in to try and calm him (and stopped him peeing on the welcome mat!) this seemed to help for a couple of weeks but he is back to prowling again (peeing stopped) Is this just a case of 'give it time'?.

Also (sorry), I'm off to the vet next week as I want him to be chipped...I am going to see if his claws should be trimmed as he seems to get them caught a lot...do other people with house cats have their claws trimmed ? An idea of a cost?

Finally...can anyone recommend a worm and flee powder for a house cat...I'm not sure if he has ever been done.

Thank you xx

Chris

[LittlePenBigHeart]

Some cats are just like this and it might be that he's more settled at night while you're asleep. It could be, if he calmed down with the Feliway, that he's aware of other cats outside of his territory and feels unsettled for that reason. But in all honesty, if he's not urinating in any unusual places any more (a sure sign, usually, of feeling threatened), I wouldn't worry about it too much because some cats are naturally more restless and he may well settle down over time.

My Gran has two house cats and she has to have the female cat's claws trimmed reasonably often because she jumps on her a lot and has VERY sharp claws indeed. I'm afraid I don't know how much it costs for the vet to do them but it isn't much. If you're feeling brave and want to save some money though, there are some fantastic videos on YouTube that demonstrate how to trim the claws on almost any cat.

Flea and worming treatments are a more involved topic. Panacur granules are a good choice for worming but if you want to go for something else the most important thing is to go for a treatment that takes care of both roundworm AND tapeworm. A number of them only deal with one. For the fleas...have you seen fleas? Have you been bitten? If you've seen fleas then you'll really need to treat the house as well. Fleas don't live on the cat; they live in carpet, soft furnishings, etc. The best thing to do is to use a spot-on treatment, either way - something like Frontline or Advantage usually does the trick, and to use a flea spray on the house if you have seen fleas. Two of the best ones are Indorex (extremely strong but contains Permethrin, so you and the cat will need to clear out of your house/certain rooms, as and when you spray, then stay out for the recommended period of time) and Wipe Out, which is silicone-based, so no risk to pet or humans at all but can make surfaces quite slippery. The Beaphor spray is also good. If you do decide to treat the house, you must (and I cannot stress this enough - you MUST) hoover first, then make sure you use enough spray, then leave the spray down for at least one week before you hoover again. If you do it any sooner, you'll suck up all the treatment before all the flea eggs have been hatched and exposed. Try to avoid foggers/flea bombs, which only really treat one room successfully, and remember that yes, fleas can live in laminate/hardwood floors as well.

If you have a particularly bad infestation, you might want to triple-team the situation. We had to do this last year. A 4Fleas flea tablet for each cat (start killing fleas on the cat within 15 minutes and kill all the fleas that land on the cat within 24 hours, AND can be used on consecutive days if you wish to), the spot-on treatment and the house spray. All are safe to use at the same time but if you use different products to those I've mentioned, please double-check before use.

Hope that helps!

[Lilith]

Hi and welcome and welcome to Oscar too, bless him!

Yes, it's a case of time - he sounds to be settling in very successfully and a lot of new cats go through this 'chop and change' of habits, even personality.

Even when my cats roamed, before I'd secured their yard, I'd check and trim their claws, just for their own comfort as they can snag and get caught on curtains, bedding etc, but not all cats will allow this. My youngest cat doesn't, but fortunately she'll bite her own claws and use the disgraceful 'scratchy post' on the landing - a log I picked up in the nearby park and screwed into a doorframe Deeply furrowed, much scratted on lol.

Since Oscar's so new I'd ask the vet re claws if you're taking him in (if they need a trim at least he won't blame you.) Sorry I've no idea of cost though.

Since my cats don't roam and I don't like putting any chemicals on to them unless I have to, I'm not up to date re flea/worm stuff, but hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along soon. (Ah LittlePenBigHeart we overlapped!)

Hope this helps and fusses to Oscar

[Kay]

you could ask if a veterinary nurse could do the chip and trim his claws - the cost is usually less if a vet isn't involved

[booktigger]

Funnily enough, my vets have just done a Facebook post with costs of certain things, claw clipping is £12.51. When I first adopted cats it was around £6, so I learnt to do it myself! I'm assuming Oscar isn't from a rescue?

[Red wine lady]

Many thanks for your replies, I think my husband and I have turned into first time parents at the age of 50 and are over thinking everything.

Regarding flees...I doubt he has them, as he has never been out and we have never had another cat in the house, however I've booked him into a chattery in November and it was them who said to worm and flee him.

I will report back to you re the claw trimming....I was thinking it would be £100+. We are very new to this

Cheers xx

[Red wine lady]

Funnily enough, my vets have just done a Facebook post with costs of certain things, claw clipping is £12.51. When I first adopted cats it was around £6, so I learnt to do it myself! I'm assuming Oscar isn't from a rescue?

Yes he is a rescue cat, he had all of his vaccinations before we got him....but I never asked about other things.

[Ruth B]

I'm a firm believer that all cats whether allowed out or not should have vaccinations, be deflead etc, unless the owner never goes out or has a disinfection unit in the porch there is always a chance of bringing something into the house.

Personally I opt for Stronghold Plus as a flea and everything else treatment. I did for a while try Broadline but found it didn't seem to be as effective as the Stronghold was, I have also heard rumors that the insecticide in Broadline and Front line isn't as good as it once was. Both treatments are spot ons not powders and as well as fleas treat things like ear mites, some worms, and ticks, different ones do treat different things. Stronghold Plus is expensive and I admit I don't apply it as often as it says on the pack but I have never had a problem with fleas while I've been using it, and all my three have access to outside as and when they want.

As far as claw trimming goes, I once had it done specially at the vets when the dew claw had grown almost around into itself, it was caught just in time, i have heard of another case where the claw had grown into the paw, painful for the cat, easily cured, but far better prevented. It was about 10 years ago and they just charged us £5 for it. After that we asked them to check his claws as part of his yearly check up and any trimming was included in the price. When the vet did try and do both front paws as well as the dew claws, Blue our old Ragdoll, kicked up such a racket that two of the nurses came into the room to check everything was alright, you would have thought he was being mutilated the noise he was making, and at all other times he was so laid back. I also learnt to do it myself, just taking the tips of the claws isn't difficult as long as the cat will let you handle his paws. I used to find that just doing one or two claws at a time didn't worry him. any more and he did get worked up.

If you look at a cats claws you will see the tip is white and the claw becomes more translucent as it goes down its length, rather similar to how human nails look when they get long, as long as you are only cutting into the white tip it doesn't hurt them, the same as cutting your own nails, cut too far down into the translucent area and it is like cutting your own nails to the quick, rather painful and in the worst case can make the claw bleed. Make sure you get a good pair of sharp claw clippers and you could probably learn to do it yourself if he occasionally seems to get caught on things, it would save on the stress of a trip to the vets.

[booktigger]

Funnily enough, my vets have just done a Facebook post with costs of certain things, claw clipping is £12.51. When I first adopted cats it was around £6, so I learnt to do it myself! I'm assuming Oscar isn't from a rescue?

Yes he is a rescue cat, he had all of his vaccinations before we got him....but I never asked about other things.

I'm surprised a rescue didn't chip, flea and worm treat. And I agree about vacc even though he is a house cat

[Red wine lady]

Just an update, I've been to the vet who chipped my big fella (not a peep out of him, the brave boy) Nothing wrong with his claws so no clipping required, he recommended worming and de-fleeing all for the cost of £70....probably cheaper elsewhere but I'm new to this.

[Ruth B]

If thats the check up, the chipping, the dewormer and deflea treatment for £70 then I wouldn't think that is too bad. I partly depends on what deflea treatment you get and how many is in a packet. As I think I mentioned we get Stronghold which is one of the more expensive ones but seems to work well.

Beware of cheap pet shop flea treatments, while I am sure some are fine I have heard too many horror stories about cats becoming very ill after a cheap alternative flea treatment has been used, I would never use a pet shop one, only one prescribed by the vet.