Comments on: Life’s An Itch

By: kari

kari — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:20:39 +0000

Thank you guys for your input! Nancyâ€™s bathing tips help a LOT. (I recently got more Iâ€™ll post below.) Update on the lime sulfur dip: Andy & Emma seem to not be itching. Rumi is still itching just as bad as before. I talked to the vet yesterday and she said that in severe cases, it can take up to 6 (!) dips before things improve. Ohhhhh, poor Rumi! The drive home: Imagine the same scenario as I posted on Facebook last week with Rumiâ€™s drive home. Only this time with a cone on his head & him smelling like rotten eggs. Update on Rumiâ€™s itching: I also asked her about relieving Rumi's itching. I explained that it's so bad that I'm beginning to feel guilty for keeping him alive when he came to Feline Friends. I wonder if we should've just let the vet euthanize him. I guess the vet didn't realize it was THAT bad. But she certainly understands now! So she prescribed another antihistamine to try. We tried it last night & it did help. It made him sleepy, too. (Iâ€™m ok with that as long as heâ€™s out of misery!) Update on the root cause: Still no conclusive evidence about whatâ€™s causing this. More bathing tips: Jo (Feline Friends) MacGugan gave me an excellent pointer. She reminded me that cats need to hold on to something with their front legs as they stand on their hind legs. She doesnâ€™t interpret this as solely an attempt to get out of the water (or whatever). Sheâ€™s found that just giving them something to grab onto seems to relieve some anxiety. So when she bathes cats, she puts them in big buckets so they can hold onto the rim of the bucket. She says it works wonders. Nancy, I used to use one of those hose things too. I donâ€™t know if theyâ€™re still made, but I had one that had an end that would fit over the top of any faucet. And like you, I found it easier to get in the tub with the cats than to try to stand outside the tub as I wash them.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 01:41:26 +0000

I don’t have any experience like this (thank goodness) from which to give any words of wisdom. However, I do have what I find to be a respectable way to give the cats baths, when needed. I put on some heavy jeans and a swimsuit, and get right on into the tub with them. It affords for a much more easy time to hold them without losing them or leaning over something and wrenching the back as they struggle, and if I’ve done the job of clipping their claws the way I like to, we usually all end up undamaged. Can’t say I’d get in there with the sulfur dip, and I think your solution for that was great! But when it’s a simple flea bath, I’m not terribly averse to wetting them down and soaping them up while some gets on me too. Once rinsed off (and one of those hand-held old-fashioned thingys you stick onto the faucet – do they exist any more?? – is another great thing to have), I have a pile of towels nearby, usually on the toilet. If they get loose while still wet, at least the bathroom isn’t that hard to clean up when they shake themselves off! Have you gotten a good clear picture yet? Fortunately, I haven’t had to do it in a LONNNNNNGGGGGG time!

Keep us posted and I sure hope your struggle ends soon!

By: Bridget

Bridget — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:17:02 +0000

Wow Kari, sounds like a nightmare! I don’t have any advice or insight, but just wanted to say I’m sorry you’ve had to go through all that. Your fur-kids are very lucky to have such a caring and thorough owner. Hope to hear that they are feeling better after their dip and can return to normalcy soon. Keep us updated.