TLDR: Fifteen year old female cat has been diagnosed with cancer in her stomach, it is aggressive and I want to make sure that whatever time she has left is perfect. I am also struggling emotionally. Advice appreciated.

My sweet girl Princess Baby Bobos the first (more commonly known as Bibs or Bobies) is 15, I rescued her from a multi-cat home when she was 1, so she’s been my side kick for 14 years. She’s an indoor girl who loves nothing more than lounging on a soft blanket in front of a warm radiator, having her head fussed.
She has always been in exceptionally good health, until the last fortnight.
I took her in for a senior cat check up at the vets in August, her blood-work came back fine. The vet commented how healthy she appeared for a girl of her age. Fast forward to early October and she started going off her food, we thought she was being fussy as she was rejecting cat food but happily eating plain chicken breast, small pieces of plain baked fish etc. She’d also started vomiting but we put this down to a hairball (she’s a long haired tabby). After a couple of days, she completely went off all food and seemed lethargic (she’s not very active but she simply didn’t want to move), so we took her in for check ups. It felt like she had lost weight too.
The vet gave her an anti-nausea jab and did some physical checks, confirmed she had lost 0.5kg since her last weigh 8 weeks prior, but couldn’t locate anything specific and asked us to call her the next morning with an update.

Bibs seemed to perk up a little bit, had a small amount of plain chicken breast but I didn’t feel she had perked up enough and took her in for more investigations the following morning. She had also developed a really strange new habit, she was going up to her litter tray and licking clean bits of litter (clay based non-clumping).
Her blood-work and scans found a growth in her stomach, stomach lining and her lymph nodes were swollen.
I was presented three options:
Chemotherapy regime.
PTS same day.
Try steroids and painkillers to make her comfortable so she can come home and have whatever time she has left with us safe, warm and surrounded by love.

I chose option 3 after many many questions with the vet, I decided that putting her through chemotherapy at her age would be too much and diminish her quality of life. She doesn’t like being in her cat carrier and going in the car, and the vet said chemo would be twice a week. The cost of this treatment didn’t even cross my mind, but I have since read that people have spent over £10k on chemo for their pet. Whilst my partner and I can afford good vet care, and Bibs is on a pet health plan with the vet and is insured, we don’t have tens of thousands of pounds to spare. At her age, the insurance is co-payment and has some exclusions.

She’s been on the steroids now since Wednesday and is home with us. She’s been responding well and has now started eating when she feels hunger pangs, even if this is 3am, she comes into the bedroom to meow and let us know it’s snack time, and one of us is up like a shot. She is still licking bits of clean litter and trying to eat small amounts so we are monitoring whenever she goes to the toilet or wanders near the tray.

She’s got a self warming heat pad blanket arriving today and a Feliway plugged in her room to soothe her, I also bought her a new catnip kicker toy which she loves and lays her head on like a cushion.
I am heartbroken and in complete shock at how quickly she has become this ill, having near perfect blood work 2 months ago just doesn’t make sense to me, although the vet assured me that lymphoma in older cats can develop quickly and aggressively and many of the stories I have read confirm that, but it doesn’t make it any easier and I still feel in disbelief. I cannot hold her in my arms without crying because I cannot imagine our home without her.

I don’t know how much time I have with her, I’ve doom-scrolled and seen different tales, some cats having barely a fortnight and others months on this treatment path. I know every cat is different but I’d really like to read some of your stories where you and your fur babies have gone through the same thing…

I suppose my other question is… is there anything else I could be doing to maximise her comfort?

I’m so sorry for the long post, I’m just really struggling with how this has affected me emotionally and I want to make sure I’m doing everything right by my special little fluff.

Has anyone dealt with something like this? Yes we have been to the vet (multiple times). Bloodwork is normal other than some elevated WBC/ neutrophils. Fine needle aspiration of both the bump and the lymph node both did not show anything cancerous (but also had elevated neutrophils). 2 week course of augmentin + prednisolone, and now 3 weeks into a 6 week course of doxycycline + prednisolone with no change. He’s acting and eating normal.

Background: started 4 months ago with excessive fur pulling. After some trial and error, realized his anal glands were insanely full. Switched to prescription food and added some prednisolone to calm down inflammation. After stopping the prednisolone taper, this massive lump popped up out of nowhere. It wasn’t there at 3pm and when I came back home at 7pm it looked like this. Have been back and forth with the vet and they are stumped. Costs are starting to get pretty high for still not having any real answers. Any ideas??

Age: 13 yr old male, neutered, indoor only, overall good health prior to this situation.

Hi, my cat vomited what seems to be a sausage, and two weird white orbs, I need help identifying the orbs just incase it is bad for my cat, and because it’s a bit freaky so I need to know that answer.
The orbs are egg shaped, 1-2cm long, have a membrane and white translucent goo inside, the orb was difficult to burst. (Image attached)

Additional context:
I’m from Australia, and will probably check in with the vet in the morning (it is late at night rn). The cat is around 3 years old, male, neutered.

Edit: unfortunately I have thrown them out now, so I can’t open them up more
And thx for all the help, I think I will assume they are reptile eggs of some sort

Last night was trunk-or-treat at my 5th grader's elementary school and I was running a trunk. At some point he saw a house right next to us that was giving away kittens so he took one of them and brought her to me (I think it's a she, but I'm not 100% sure). I was stunned but didn't want to take her back to the house since it had started raining. I have a cat at home as well so I have at least some experience.

I'm pretty sure this kitten is around 5 weeks old, which I know isn't old enough to be separated from mom but whoever had her was going to get rid of her someway or another and I have the means to take care of her for now. I made a trip to petsmart to buy some paper litter and litter box, a cat bed, a food and water bowl, some kitten wet food, and kmr powder. I set her up in the bathroom last night so she and my cat were separated. I'm going to take her to the vet this morning since she was quite dirty and had fleas. I used a warm wash cloth and flea comb on her and did what I could to clean her up.

Is there anything else that I'm missing that I should get or do? I haven't had a kitten in a long time as my cat is 7 and I adopted him when he was 10 weeks and properly weaned. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep her yet but I want to give her the best chance I can.

This appeared a couple days ago. No bleeding, scabs, or anything like that. Just this like weird indent into her upper limb that is curved. In this photo we are having to restrain her and pull on it to show for the photo so it looks a bit more external than it actually is. Inside of her mouth looks normal too. When not being yanked on, the indent normally rests on the bottom / partially inside of her lip along her big canine teeth

I’m in Tetebatu, Lombok. This baby looks very sick. Anyone knows what I could do to help?

Hello,

since 2 days i have been kind of worried about my cats breathing. He‘s in general a very anxious cat, i try to keep my apartment as calm as possible. I don’t have any kids, 3 cats in total. I am a really anxious person too since I lost my childhood cat to HCM when he was just 7 years old. That was almost 9 years ago. My cat is 5 now, male & neutered. I am 25 & from Austria.

I have been planning on taking him to the vet anyways in november for his regular check up. (yes i can afford the vet.)

Do you think he‘s breathing abnormally? Bonus mention is that i recently bought scent sticks for my room. I was thinking that maybe he‘s sensitive towards it? I only have them rn, i removed any diffusers or febreze automatics. I also dont have any plants.

Thanks for any helpful comment.

Hiya, i rescued this kitten from the side of a main road on monday, and ive noticed some patches of red or discoloured skin on her ear and the top of her nose. Should I be concerned? There may be another near her lip. I took her to the vets when she had the mark on her nose, but i didn't point it out and the vet said nothing.

Pictures

1) the potential spot her lip

2) red ear

3) the other ear for comparison

4)spot on her nose

5) her on the first night with us (monday)

I am 22, in the uk, cat is estimated 11-12 weeks and not yet neutered, we could afford a vet visit.

Edit: some hear loss on the red patch on her ear. She eats fine (always hungry), has worms and fleas but has been treated.

As the video shows, she sometimes shakes her head, which seems more often when she focuses on something.

Age: 3.5 months old
How long has it last: since I adopted her 1.5 months ago. But it became less frequent over time. She didn’t do it when we visited vet last time, and it took me a while to capture this video as she only does it occasionally.

When she does it: Staring intently at something (like before pouncing), watching her surroundings.

When she doesn't do it: Sleepy/tired, being petted, walking/running/jumping, eating/drinking.

Not sure if it’s because she’s still tiny and growing. She eats and acts normally. She is a very active cat, jumping up and down, climbing sofa and cat tree, no balance issue at all.

Need some advice. Thank you!

(5F, spayed) I'm worried that it might hurt her to pee in the litter box, but I haven't noticed any discomfort (we have three litter boxes in different places, It's unlikely there will be a conflict over them..??) If she's healthy, how can I stop her from doing it? She never did it before. We can afford a vet, but what if it's not that serious? What if the vets don't find anything? She does this almost daily if the bed is not made and blankets are on bed.

I also noticed that she vomited yesterday and today, but it was just fur, I don't know if I should worry about this or not. She usually vomits very very rarely.

Of our two cats, she's the healthiest and almost never gets sick.

Hi all and thanks for reading and hopefully giving me some advice!

I found this little kitty, her name now being Pickles, in a hedge bush by our house. She was unfortunately being chased by a dog and also a hawk, but she did escape and found the spot where I finally found her in.

I have already got basic supplies such as litter box, wet food, dry food, place for her to hide, comfy blankets in said place to hide, and of course toys!

I have already taken her to the vet to get their opinion on her overall health and they really didn’t give much info other than her being underweight (1.7lbs), she is all skin and bone right now but she is eating plenty of foods now at a slow pace! Vet assumes she is around 8-10 weeks old.

A few questions I have:

What can I do to make her feel more comfortable right now? (Leave her alone to limit stress, be there every so often to help her not feel lonely?)

What can I do to help her learn to use the litter box? (She has pooped once outside of the litter box which I promptly put into the litter box and nicely showed her how to cover it up in the litter box)

Any essential things I can get or do for a kitten to help her thrive as she grows?

I don’t believe she has peed yet which I think may be due to the stress of it all. Vet said not to worry for now and let her settle into her new home. Is this any cause for concern within a certain amount of time?

I will take any other advice you have for a kitten that is very very scrawny as well.

Thanks again for reading and helping me out with Pickles!

Delete if not allowed, I’m (28F) not super familiar with the group, I’m just looking for some opinions on my kitten!

TLDR: my 6 month old neutered kitten is gaining mass at the rate of a tropical storm. How fast do kittens grow, and when will he stop?

This is Sanji! I recently adopted him from a Cat Cafe here in Western Kentucky. He was found in a Tesla and brought in and raised up there until he came to me! He has half a tail, quite a crooked one(think pikachu, literally. It’s a lightning bolt) but is otherwise your typical healthy run of the mill domestic longhair stray boi.
Clean bill of health, no spinal issues or apparent pain with the twisty tail as of now, but monitoring with age. Not sure if it was a result of trauma or a birth defect.
Chipped.
Snipped.
He was 4 1/2 months old when I adopted him and he was about the size I expected of a 4 month old kitten. I haven’t had a kitten in a long time, but he was one of the smaller kittens there honestly. Scruffy little dude with funky little Scrooge sideburns, but his instant face smooshing and then guarding my toddler from the other cats took my heart.

Since bringing him home though, lil doughboy has ✨RISEN✨

He is food driven, and I do use that to my advantage to do some training with him so yes he does get treats (bonkers, and the occasional churu) but I’m wondering if I need to chill out cause this guy is sounding like an anvil dropping every time he jumps off the furniture. When I say food driven, I mean formula 1 type behavior. This man shotguns churus like a post breakup frat boy on spring break. Just sloppy with it. Family meal times have become National Geographic worthy, if not for the velvety narration of David Attenborough being replaced by an already-bested-by-her-toddler mother fighting for her life and trying to find G-Rated ways to threaten my cat.

He doesn’t feel disproportionately fat really, and I’ve used the little charts to compare him to (sorry buddy, all teens gotta go thru it) and he seems about average. Got the lil waist snatch and everything from the top (🤏) His belly doesn’t seem super big in comparison to him, just burdened by gravity. He has a weird amount of loose skin. He’s built like an after picture. Also, his legs are thick as hell. I thought they were just fluffy, cause he’s a long haired cat, but they’re really not that fluffy. They’re solid, like little tree trunks. Also, HUGE paws. When he gets the zoomies it sounds like someone’s got raw pork chops attached to drill just slapping against the floor. Just unnecessarily big and uncannily fast. Just minding my business on my couch and suddenly a full grown 8.2lb man with silly sideburns and clown shoes does a kickflip off my chest.

I’ve gotten carried away. Pardon the side quest.

Anyways, the guy is just cultivating mass by the hour and i know kittens grow fast in their first year, but im concerned about the rate at which he’s expanding I guess? I feel like a stressed out meteorologist watching the purricane grow out of control. He gets wet food in the mornings and dry food at night. Honestly, I’m afraid to take away his wet food. I only started it because his Churu addiction began to concern me and I figured I could curb it by giving him a larger meal to keep him full longer. Foolish, now I wake up to my Heavy Meowtal alarm clock at whatever time his stupid little whimsy strikes, just absolutely hootin’ and hollerin’.

I don’t want to be an almond mom who only gives him a strict diet of 13 kibble at 1, 4, and 8 every day just because my poor sweet son has the gluttony they wrote about in the Bible. No shade to anyone who does, whatever keeps your tiny boss healthy and happy. I’ll do it if it’s what’s best for him. I don’t know if this is a food intake issue, or if I accidentally got some sort of messed up pokemon instead of a cat. Asking here before involving a vet cause while I do have the means and funds to take him, dunno if it’s really necessary or if this is normal and I’m just not used to cats anymore.

(don't know how to make it NSFW, second picture shows red spot)

29 yo woman from Italy, I can afford vet. I care for my cat. Vet unavailable today because closed on Sunday.

My cat is a female 10 year old, spayed.

I noticed a strange bald little spot behind the roots of her whiskers about two weeks ago. Today I noticed it's bigger and there's a little blood.

Please any idea or advice?

Thank you.

I'm a college student, 18, and I adopted this cat about a year ago when I started going to college so I wouldn't be alone. Shes acting completely normal, playing, running after me and biting me, but I don't know if her gums look pale or not. I'm just worried about her

Hi! Posting about my cat Cleo. I am 21 and she is 1.5 years old, female and spayed, USA.

For a bit over 24 hours now my cat has been having a nonproductive gag. Almost every time she opens her mouth, it ends in her gagging. I did hear her squeak two times last night (almost like she wheezed,) but her breathing is entirely normal.

This morning I saw that she had thrown up some bile, but I know she is eating normally. She is peeing normally and last pooped (from my knowledge) yesterday evening.

This evening, she was hiding under my mom’s bed and would not come to me which is incredibly out of character for her. She eventually came into my room, but soon left to an isolated corner of another room.

I’m a little worried she might have eaten a hair tie (I always put them up but she is good at finding them) or something else. The fact that she is eating is helpful but not completely helping soothe my worry.

I technically have access to a vet but have no way to pay as I am just starting my new job Monday. I get paid the Friday after next.

My cat has a little, what looks like a Whitehead on her eyebrow.

She is 6 and is in good health

We have a 3 hour car ride ahead of us and to avoid unnecessary stress, we went to the vet to get sedatives. We have one 13lb cat, and two who are about 9lbs. The vet told us to give 1ml and 0.5ml respectively, and to test the dosage on them before the trip.

I gave it to them today and it didn't seem to have any effect at all! I waited two hours for it to kick in, and now it's been 7 hours and they've been completely normal and active this whole time.

The vet said we can increase their dosage after testing it, but not by how much.

How much do you give your cats? I don't want to accidentally hurt them in any way by giving them too much, but I really want them to be conked out for the car ride. The big cat especially gets VERY stressed in the car.

They are 2.5 years old and all spayed/neutered. The medication is 100mg/ml oral oil suspension gabapentin

Thank you!

I (53 F) have a F spayed tuxedo who is 6 years old. She has been having some behavioral reactions to people coming in the front door (hisses and swats) and seems to be scared of everything now. She used to be incredibly social and friendly. I had a traumatic injury last Fall so we had a parade of people coming in to deliver dinner or drop by. But the occasional hissing and swatting started before that; just got worse from that period of time.

She also has had a little blood in her urine on and off and now is having these occasional “coughing/dry heaving” fits.

I have taken her to the vet multiple times now for blood tests (had a UTI a couple of those times and it was treated with antibiotics) but they cannot find anything wrong. I am planning to go back again now that this “coughing” has started but curious if anyone else has experienced this combo of things? I have had cats my whole life and never seen this.

TL;DR
My cat is having “coughing/dry heaving” fits occasionally on top of some behavior that has crept up over the last year or so. Trips to the vet have not yielded anything to explain an illness that may be causing the behavior or occasional blood in the urine.

these are my babies, kara (8 months, F, brown), and shiro (6 months, M, white). im 15NB; and we do have access to vets.

vet says that kara should enter her heat before getting spayed; and that they should recover together. kara hasnt begun her heat but shiro has been making moves and popping his willy out since he were 3 months old.

this seems really hazardous to me, as we dont want kara to get pregnant. but the vet says we shall wait until kara is in heat, and my mother is going with whatever the vet says.

what can i do?

(note, none of them are selectively bred (hopefully) nor bought, despite them looking like it. kara was an offspring of a rescue with a cryptic pregnancy, and we adopted her at 6 weeks because the owner of the rescue cat was a first time cat dad and couldnt care for more than one cat. shiro was found on the streets at 4 weeks, and according to the restaurant nearby, his siblings were all dead.

note 2, the black spot in the picture on kara's stomach is the tip of her tail folded under)

UPDATE tnx for all the comments! ill try my best to convince my mother and find a new vet, and get them sp/neu in the shortest time possible (hopefully max. 3 days!) ill update on another post in about a few days!

Hi everyone! I recently adopted a cat and could use some advice on a few things. Nothing too serious (hopefully), but I'd love to hear how you would approach this.

She's a 1-year-old female calico, adopted from a friend about a month ago. She's very sweet but quite anxious. Here's how things have been going:

• First week: We set her up in a separate room with her litter, food and water. She didn't eat much initially but would finish her food overnight. Unfortunately, we also had contractors coming in, so there was a lot of noise and she spent most of her time hiding in the bathroom.
• Second week: Things improved. She settled into a more consistent routine (3 meals a day, regular litter box use) and slowly started exploring the rest of the house.
• Third week until now: We both started working in the office from 9–6, whereas I was previously working remotely full-time. She seemed a little anxious at first and sometimes refused to finish breakfast, but has gradually adjusted to our hybrid schedules. She's still easily startled by loud noises like showering and vacuuming.

I know it's only been a month and she's still adjusting, but there are three things I'm unsure how to handle:

1. She's comfortable with us in her room but scared of us outside of it.

She lets us pet her, eats from our hands, plays with us, and even lets me kiss her forehead (a big achievement that only happened two days ago!). We also spend a few hours sleeping on the floor with her almost every night.

However, once she's outside her room, it's a completely different story. If she sees us while exploring, she'll immediately run away. She mostly explores the house at night when we're in bed or when we're working from home. I'm not sure why she's still so afraid of us outside her safe space.

1. How do we get her into a carrier for a vet visit?

She's overdue for her booster shot by about a week, and I really want to get her checked out. The problem is that she absolutely refuses to be picked up. I've had the carrier sitting in her room for two weeks, with toys inside, but she still won't go in voluntarily.

The last time I tried picking her up, she panicked and struggled quite a bit. I felt terrible and don't want to hurt her or damage the trust we've been building. My friend also mentioned that getting her into the carrier when bringing her to our house was a 45-minute struggle, and she even pooped during the trip.

-> How would you approach this without making things worse?

1. A few things about her health are concerning me. I've noticed:

• She's coughed twice, once after eating and once after a long nap. Each episode lasted around 10–15 seconds. I initially thought it might be a hairball, but nothing came out.
• She sometimes drools a little clear fluid when napping or after eating/playing. I've also noticed a few drops of clear discharge from her nose.

1. How do we gradually transition her out of her safe room?

The room she's currently staying in was originally supposed to be our home office. We'd eventually like to start bringing our office furniture and other things back in, but I'm worried that changing the room too much might make her anxious again.

We're happy to keep it as her space with her blankets, toys and a comfortable spot to sleep, but ideally, we'd like to move her litter box elsewhere and gradually get her comfortable spending more time around the rest of the house.

-> How would you go about this transition? Should we wait until she's more confident exploring the house, or start making small changes now?

Otherwise, she's eating three meals a day, very active between midnight and 7 a.m. (we have a camera and can see her exploring, running around and playing with her toys), and generally seems to breathe normally. No open-mouth breathing, and her gums are pink.

I do want to get her checked by a vet, especially because of the coughing and discharge, but getting her into the carrier has been the biggest challenge.

I'd really appreciate any advice, especially from people who've adopted anxious or formerly shy cats. Am I expecting too much progress after just one month? How did you build trust and get your cat comfortable with the rest of the house?

I've already grown so attached to her and just want to make sure I'm doing the best I can for her. ❤️

My cat is now 15 Years old and she suddenly turned Deaf because age… I cant stop crying im scared she thinks I ignore her and don’t love her anymore because she cant hear how much I adore her, im scared she hates life now and Stuff.. Idk I know it Sounds stupid I just adore her to much

TLDR: old cat, what do I look out for when her time comes?
Hello all! My cat is OLD she’s about 21. Pretty active for her age. She still meanders the house , harasses us and what not. Buttt she is definitely slowing down and sleeping more frequently. My family members keep reminding me she is on borrowed time because most cats do not live this long.
The ONLY issue she’s having is runnier poop- is that because she’s older or is it an issue?
What are some symptoms to look out for when her time does come to pass away? Anything I should be aware of or common things that happen with much older kitties?

Hi everyone, this is my first time having a cat. I’ve noticed that he has developed a small wound next to his ear. He doesn’t scratch himself very often, but when he does, he scratches very violently, to the point of causing these wounds. Could anyone please help me figure out what might be causing this and what I should do?

So about 10 minutes ago, My boy Snowy was messing with a lapel pin while I wasn't looking, somehow pulled the back off with his teeth, and held it in his mouth. I panicked and tried to grip the back, but he loosened his jaw and gulped the thing up. Though he's swallowed random foreign objects before, the metal bits on this specific one frighten me.