All About Our Pets(Pics, Advice, Etc)

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[Note: based on my experiences in human medicine, this same type of behavior does not occur in humans who receive buprenorphine.]
I just absolutely love this side note.

I tell clients there are two major types of cats on buprenorphine:
1) lovey dovey roly poly snuggle bugs
2) paranoid creatures who will 100% convince you there are ghosts in your home

The former is much more enjoyable for most people. :laugh:
 
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My cat is still kitty-kissing everyone, joyfully licking everyone, rolling around on the floor, purring loudly, rubbing her head against everyone, cuddling with everyone, and super-loving everyone.

Cat wanted to SHARE her LOVE with everyone - asleep or awake - 'cuz the time of the day doesn't matter to her!

I'm still administering transdermal buprenorphine every 12 hours, until the medication is gone.

Her veterinarian did an awesome job extracting her two teeth!

Her sutures look good and she seems to be healing well!

Here is a photo of her happily rolling around on the floor.
Oblivious to everything ... sheer feline bliss ... not a care in the world. :biglove:
 
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My cat is still kitty-kissing everyone, joyfully licking everyone, rolling around on the floor, purring loudly, rubbing her head against everyone, cuddlying with everyone, and super-loving everyone.

Cat wanted to SHARE her LOVE with everyone - asleep or awake - 'cuz the time of the day doesn't matter to her!

I'm still administering transdermal buprenorphine every 12 hours, until the medication is gone.

Her veterinarian did an awesome job extracting her teeth!

Her sutures look good and she seems to be healing well!

Here is a photo of her happily rolling around on the floor.
Oblivious to everything ... sheer feline bliss ... not a care in the world. :biglove:

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Gosh she's beautiful. Reminds me so much of my little lady who I lost last year <3
Glad to hear her surgery went well and that she's doing great!
 
I just absolutely love this side note.

I tell clients there are two major types of cats on buprenorphine:
1) lovey dovey roly poly snuggle bugs
2) paranoid creatures who will 100% convince you there are ghosts in your home

The former is much more enjoyable for most people. :laugh:

We call your “ghosts” the “pink elephants”. That’s the version my cat became. Stared at the wall and across the room for hours while purring his heart out. Love bup cats that are high out of their mind
 
For all the reptile people on here:

I'm from NJ and I'm going to Oklahoma State cvm in August. it's going to be a 2 day drive with 12 hours on the first day and 9 on the second when I eventually move. I have a subadult cornsnake that I'm trying to figure out how to transport for this long journey. my major concerns are keeping him warm and as low stress as possible.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
For all the reptile people on here:

I'm from NJ and I'm going to Oklahoma State cvm in August. it's going to be a 2 day drive with 12 hours on the first day and 9 on the second when I eventually move. I have a subadult cornsnake that I'm trying to figure out how to transport for this long journey. my major concerns are keeping him warm and as low stress as possible.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Moving in the summer will be to your advantage since there won't be cold temperature swings. I usually go with opaque transport containers with holes poked in the lid and with something familiar from their original enclosure in it (and lightweight/not dangerous/not likely to topple over in the car). Line it with some material that's well insulated.

For heating you have a variety of options. They make heating pads you can plug into your car's cigarette lighter and place under the container, or plug converters that you can use in the cigarette lighter so you can plug in a regular heating pad instead of buying a new one. There are also these things called Snuggle Safe discs that you can buy online that I love to use for surgery patients and neonates, they hold warmth for like 10-12 hours after being heated up and come with covers to reduce how much heat is going to the patient. I find them safer and longer lasting than things like rice socks. Some people also use hand warmers since they're relatively cheap and easy to get. Make sure the heating is distributed so that your snake can move away from it if it wants.

I'd stay away from putting anything warm directly in the enclosure to avoid your snake burning itself on anything.

Don't feed for at least a few days before moving and once you get there, set up the enclosure right away and just leave your snake to decompress for a few days before handling again or trying to feed.

If you're staying in a hotel between driving days, I'd either have a smaller enclosure to set up overnight for them (if you already have one) or take your whole transport container setup in and just confirm the heating is to your liking and fine for overnight. The second option reduces handling and can help with keeping stress lower (plus budget friendly if you don't already have a smaller tank). Offer water and such overnight but leave it out during transport so it doesn't spill.
 
Oh, and you can also do dry runs of the transport situation without the snake in it a few days/weeks ahead of time to see how it works for you. You can set it up in your house with a temp gauge to check it or in your car with the same.

I generally don't transport them directly in their home terrariums in case something hits the wall and shatters it. Those things also heat up like greenhouses if the sun hits them at all, even with air conditioning, so I worry about overheating more than being too cool if traveling in the summer
 
How do some pets KNOW in advance they're going to visit their veterinarian?

Seriously, I do not DO anything differently on the day that my cat is scheduled to see her veterinarian.

Nothing changes ... nothing at all.

I don't wear any special clothing, or walk around in different shoes, or speak differently, or provide my cat with different meals on the day she is scheduled to visit the veterinarian. Nothing has changed.

Her cat carrier is always left out in plain view, so she can always see the carrier, none of the doors are closed in our home, and my cat can come-and-go as she pleases 24/7. Everything is the same.

BUT, it never fails!

About 30-45 minutes before I need to put my cat in her cat carrier to take her to the veterinarian, she has disappeared - vanished!

I have to search all over the place to find her!

How does she KNOW ahead of time??!!
 
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How do some pets KNOW in advance they're going to visit their veterinarian?

Seriously, I do not DO anything differently on the day that my cat is scheduled to see her veterinarian.

Nothing changes ... nothing at all.

I don't wear any special clothing, or walk around in different shoes, or speak differently, or provide my cat with different meals on the day she is scheduled to visit the veterinarian. Nothing has changed.

Her cat carrier is always left out in plain view, so she can always see the carrier, none of the doors are closed in our home, and my cat can come-and-go as she pleases 24/7. Everything is the same.

BUT, it never fails!

About 30-45 minutes before I need to put my cat in her cat carrier to take her to the veterinarian, she has disappeared - vanished!

I have to search all over the place to find her!

How does she KNOW ahead of time??!!
It's weird, sometimes they pick up on much more subtle clues than you'd think. If I glance at my cat's carrier too much he figures out he's going somewhere. Same if I ever pull out any paperwork related to him, check on where he is slightly more often, etc etc. It kind of reminds me of when animals know when somebody is about to go home way before their car ever hits the driveway even if the person is off schedule. I have no idea how they're doing it but they clearly have some kind of little system set up
 
My retriever really likes to retrieve.

I took this picture the other night when I was making waffles and didn’t post it:
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That is not poop in the top right corner. That is a rock that Ruthie brought indoors. Because why not bring in rocks?
So I just flung it outdoors a few minutes ago, back to the huge pile it came from. I didn’t realize my retriever was watching. She shot past me out the door.

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It’s the same damn rock. She searched through the pile and found the exact right one and brought it back. In the gross sleety weather. I love her. 😍
 
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Poll: I have a fat, fuzzy and potato-shaped horse. We've both basically been in retirement since 2017, but every now and then I pull him out of the field and jump some jumps. I want to start showing him again this year so I've been riding him more consistently the last couple weeks, but we're still pretty out of shape, lol. There's a show in two weeks that normally only goes up to 1.10m (3'6"), which is what I had planned to enter. Buuuuuut they added 1.20m (4'0") this year, which used to be our best height. Should I be brave and enter the 1.20m :laugh:

Potato boy jumping 1.00m very casually yesterday for tax (my partner is not a great photographer, clearly :laugh:)

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Poll: I have a fat, fuzzy and potato-shaped horse. We've both basically been in retirement since 2017, but every now and then I pull him out of the field and jump some jumps. I want to start showing him again this year so I've been riding him more consistently the last couple weeks, but we're still pretty out of shape, lol. There's a show in two weeks that normally only goes up to 1.10m (3'6"), which is what I had planned to enter. Buuuuuut they added 1.20m (4'0") this year, which used to be our best height. Should I be brave and enter the 1.20m :laugh:

Potato boy jumping 1.00m very casually yesterday for tax (my partner is not a great photographer, clearly :laugh:)

View attachment 353806
DOOOOO ITTTTTTTTTTT

but also lol who needs heads anyway
 
Don’t quote this photo because I’m going to remove it in a few days and make the post more vague for anonymity reasons, but my dog Henry won big at the dog show this weekend. He was Reserve Best in Open Show (2nd place overall rare breed dog) Saturday and Best in Open Show on Sunday! We’re very new to dog shows, this was our first AKC show, and he’s my first show dog so it’s very exciting. We are maybe getting the hang of dog shows.
 
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Poll: I have a fat, fuzzy and potato-shaped horse. We've both basically been in retirement since 2017, but every now and then I pull him out of the field and jump some jumps. I want to start showing him again this year so I've been riding him more consistently the last couple weeks, but we're still pretty out of shape, lol. There's a show in two weeks that normally only goes up to 1.10m (3'6"), which is what I had planned to enter. Buuuuuut they added 1.20m (4'0") this year, which used to be our best height. Should I be brave and enter the 1.20m :laugh:

Potato boy jumping 1.00m very casually yesterday for tax (my partner is not a great photographer, clearly :laugh:)

Btw I put him in the 1.10m and he was a fabulous potato 😍 I almost fell off in the first round (lol) but he jumped around a beautiful clear in his second round! I decided to only do one day of showing because good grief that show took forever. Next show in a couple weeks!

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PetSafe Healthy Pet Simply Feed! I used it for Winston when he had his insulinoma…I know he was a dog not a cat, but he could break into nearly anything for food. My residentmate has it for her two cats too and they can’t break into it. One time they did knock it over and the lid came off but she bungees it down so they can’t tip it and it’s fine now.
 
Anyone have recommendations for a good auto-feeder for a cat?
I also use the Healthy Pet Simply Feed for my cat. It has been fantastic!

My cat likes to jump on top of the feeder because it may (or may not) dispense a few extra bits of kibble - just like a Las Vegas slot machine!

I elevated the pet food feeder by placing it on top of a sturdy cardboard box. This way, my cat has more space between the top of her head and the feeder's chute dispenser so she doesn't bump her head on the chute when she is eating the kibble. I also use a glass dish to catch the kibble dispensed from the feeder's chute (instead of the stainless steel bowl that came with the feeder) because the glass dish is easy to clean and catches all of the kibble from the dispenser.

CatFeeder.jpg
 
Anyone have recommendations for a good auto-feeder for a cat?
Third recommendation for the PetSafe feeder! We bought ours ~5 years ago and its amazing! My cats don't scream at the door to be fed at ungodly early hours anymore. We also bought a splitter for it (3D printed, think off Amazon?) so it shoots the food in all 3 bowls. Only problem now is of course one of the 3 is on a prescription diet so I haven't figured out how to make that work yet but I still love the feeder.
 
I'm probably overthinking things, but I'm nervous about the logistics of moving my cat for vet school. The clinic I currently work at has offered to let me work there on breaks, which would be great as I'm paid pretty decently and I will definitely need the money, plus I've built a lot of good relationships there that I would like to maintain. Is it mean to subject my cat to a ~6 hr car ride multiple times a year? What do most people with pets do over breaks?
 
I'm probably overthinking things, but I'm nervous about the logistics of moving my cat for vet school. The clinic I currently work at has offered to let me work there on breaks, which would be great as I'm paid pretty decently and I will definitely need the money, plus I've built a lot of good relationships there that I would like to maintain. Is it mean to subject my cat to a ~6 hr car ride multiple times a year? What do most people with pets do over breaks?
Depends on how good your cat is with travel. I brought mine home with me usually twice a year which was a 9-10 hour car ride each way and they did fine.
 
Depends on how good your cat is with travel. I brought mine home with me usually twice a year which was a 9-10 hour car ride each way and they did fine.
I've never traveled with her besides short rides to my clinic. I would like to come home for summer break for sure, possibly winter as well depending how much time off there is... I got some gabapentin for her so hopefully that will help.
 
I'm probably overthinking things, but I'm nervous about the logistics of moving my cat for vet school. The clinic I currently work at has offered to let me work there on breaks, which would be great as I'm paid pretty decently and I will definitely need the money, plus I've built a lot of good relationships there that I would like to maintain. Is it mean to subject my cat to a ~6 hr car ride multiple times a year? What do most people with pets do over breaks?
I travel 9ish hours with my cat and sometimes stay in hotels with her. She has behavioral problems, but one thing I can say is that she is excellent in the car. She just sleeps the whole time. I recently added gabapentin, just to take the edge off. She usually adjusts well, but it definitely is a cat to cat situation since cats do not handle stress well. The hard part for me is if I fly home for short breaks, I have to find someone to watch her.
 
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My childhood dog is now 14 and in the past few weeks has just been steeply declining. This was my family’s first dog and she’s just such an energetic attention hog. She likes to approach strangers and flop on her back to demand belly rubs. I’ve been advising my family on her care and medication options. She was diagnosed with late CKD and then earlier this week had an episode of head pressing and circling.

She’s crossing the rainbow bridge tomorrow. I FaceTimed my family and saw her and while she was eating treats and walking around (albeit stumbling), it was like no lights were on at home. No facial expressions, no personality, none of her spunk. It’s heartbreaking. I’m not close to home so I can’t go and be with her there to say goodbye which really sucks. However, she unexpectedly came to my wedding 2 months ago when she was still herself and we got toooons of adorable pictures of her that are extra special now.

And of course, this is all happening at the same time as me starting my new job. The universe can be really cruel at times.

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When my cat kneads on me, she has been drooling, just a little bit, no big deal.

She seems blissfully contented, eyes dreamily closed, happy to knead foreeeeever.

She just purrs and kneads, and every little pawprint is filled with LOVE! :cat:

Poof!
 
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