First off, hi, I'm new.
So's my kitten, Bridgit. I rescued her a little over a week ago from the SPCA. They had such a surplus of kittens, they were ready to start wholesale euthanasia. Although the SPCA guy told me they had the age of her and her brothers as 8 weeks, both my friend (a vet tech) and my vet guessed her age at closer to 6 weeks, and apparently she had been there for almost a week in the smelly, tiny little noisey cages. They had no information on her mother or history, but because of her young age, she has a lot of weird baby type tendencies. She "nurses" your fingers when she's cuddling, and won't sleep unless someone's holding her.
She also has some more disturbing habits. She tries to make a break out the front door every time I open it. Considering my apartment is at the end of the hall by the door to the outside, bringing in groceries has become a challenge, as I'm afraid she's going to run outside. I've tried training her as I did my other cat (now no longer with me) by clapping my hands to distract her when she's leaving, but she doesn't listen.
She also has a bad tendency to pee and poop on my bed. Provided my bedroom door is closed, she goes fine in her litter box, but the moment she's allowed in my room, she thinks my bed is much better. As I said, she won't sleep without someone cuddling her, so locking her out of the room at night is out of the question, and I've just resolved this by sleeping on the couch so she can cuddle and sleep without accidents. I've been giving her treats whenever she uses the litterbox, but it doesn't seem to have done much good. The moment the bedroom door is open, she's on the mattress.
Any help with training her?
The other problem I've been having is that when I got her, she had a bad case of diarrhea. Antibiotics and an improved diet (the food they had her on at the SPCA was an extremely cheap food for adult cats) has mostly cleared that up, but her poor little butt is sore. The doctor told me it's from the bacterial infection and warned that she may actually have some scabbing in her colon. Her butt is all red and inflamed, and constantly has fecal matter clinging to it. I've tried cleaning her off, but she cries and screams in pain, and won't clean herself for the same reason. She whimpers when she poos, (even when it's on my bed) and must be really painful for her. The vet told me I just have to wait it out until it heals up from having the infection for most of her life, but there has something I can do to help her out. Any hints
Thanks in advance.
Mellie
So's my kitten, Bridgit. I rescued her a little over a week ago from the SPCA. They had such a surplus of kittens, they were ready to start wholesale euthanasia. Although the SPCA guy told me they had the age of her and her brothers as 8 weeks, both my friend (a vet tech) and my vet guessed her age at closer to 6 weeks, and apparently she had been there for almost a week in the smelly, tiny little noisey cages. They had no information on her mother or history, but because of her young age, she has a lot of weird baby type tendencies. She "nurses" your fingers when she's cuddling, and won't sleep unless someone's holding her.
She also has some more disturbing habits. She tries to make a break out the front door every time I open it. Considering my apartment is at the end of the hall by the door to the outside, bringing in groceries has become a challenge, as I'm afraid she's going to run outside. I've tried training her as I did my other cat (now no longer with me) by clapping my hands to distract her when she's leaving, but she doesn't listen.
She also has a bad tendency to pee and poop on my bed. Provided my bedroom door is closed, she goes fine in her litter box, but the moment she's allowed in my room, she thinks my bed is much better. As I said, she won't sleep without someone cuddling her, so locking her out of the room at night is out of the question, and I've just resolved this by sleeping on the couch so she can cuddle and sleep without accidents. I've been giving her treats whenever she uses the litterbox, but it doesn't seem to have done much good. The moment the bedroom door is open, she's on the mattress.
Any help with training her?
The other problem I've been having is that when I got her, she had a bad case of diarrhea. Antibiotics and an improved diet (the food they had her on at the SPCA was an extremely cheap food for adult cats) has mostly cleared that up, but her poor little butt is sore. The doctor told me it's from the bacterial infection and warned that she may actually have some scabbing in her colon. Her butt is all red and inflamed, and constantly has fecal matter clinging to it. I've tried cleaning her off, but she cries and screams in pain, and won't clean herself for the same reason. She whimpers when she poos, (even when it's on my bed) and must be really painful for her. The vet told me I just have to wait it out until it heals up from having the infection for most of her life, but there has something I can do to help her out. Any hints
Thanks in advance.
Mellie