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Old November 1st, 2013, 10:05 AM
Adventure_Me Adventure_Me is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Toronto
Posts: 38
Update

Thank god for the people out here who truly care about other people's pets.

Update....After doing my own research on my cat's symptoms, everything seemed to point at her having some type of skin problem. One of the websites listed the following symptoms for Cat Skin Problems:

- grooming more often than normal, particularly in one area
- changes in behaviour such as acting agitated or anxious
- twitching of the superficial back muscles
- hiding from view
- avoiding attention

These are all the symptoms my cat is having but I'm not sure of the cause as of yet. Some people I have spoken with have said to use Avantage or Frontline for a flea problem which I never thought to believe would be the cause as she was checked by the vet and I also have not noticed any visible signs of fleas. She is an indoor cat however; she goes on the balcony often. All summer I had a big bowl of water on the balcony for her to drink from and changed it every 2 or 3 days. Maybe something got into her water? Also, she loves bugs and will sit on bug patrol waiting for any flies or ladybugs, spiders etc... to come on the balcony and has eaten some of them. Now that the weather is cool and she's not outside as much, the flies have come inside and I've noticed quite a few dead ones inside the apartment. It's very warm and quite dry in our apartment as I have no control over the heat. So I keep a few windows open (they have screens) and have only heat coming out of the vent in the bathroom the others are shut off because it becomes a sauna as I live on a higher floor and the heat rises.

The only one thing that I had brought into my place was a new dark purple duvet cover that my cat slept on through the day/night a few days leading up to the symptoms occurring which I told the vet but she did not think anything of it. I threw out the duvet immediately. After reading about skin conditions for cats I decided that before I give her the Advantage or Prozac I would try a natural way to rid her symptoms. So two days ago I went to the pet store and bought natural foam grooming product and some Omega3 fish oil. When I got home, making sure my hands were clean, I massaged the foam all over my cat's fur including all paws (avoiding head area of course), let it sit for 5 minutes and brushed her. Then put some food in her bowl with a few drops of the fish oil. Honest to god, the symptoms stopped - no twitching or muscle spasms, no weird running around like crazy profusely licking herself everywhere and no weird behaviour or sitting up in the linen closed trying to isolate herself. She was playing, chasing me with a toy we play with together, going out on the balcony. I was so happy and even cried. My cat often gets watery eyes and she sneezes occasionally if this is relevant. I wonder what else I can do for her fur to clean and soothe it and keep it healthy. I am now unable to give her the fish oil because she can't stand it I only put a very small amount the next day and still she can smell it and will leave all her food in her dish. Any ideas on some other type of oil that does not smell that would help with her fur? Or on other products that I can use to clean her fur? The bottle of grooming foam is tiny and will not last long. Is tea tree oil or something with oatmeal and chamomile an option or will this irritate her skin? Thank you all for your suggestions and help you really are amazing people and I can't express in words how grateful I am for caring about my baby girl - she means everything to me and I'm her mommy and need to make her get better.
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