#riverkhamsin

[naamahdarling]

Have some cute.

Here's my Large Boy Nook. 15 pounds of muscle, love, and Tom cheeks. I finally officially adopted him and his chronic goopy nose this past month, but he's been part of my family since early December.

Forgive the bed head- he likes to ride on my shoulders while I'm feeding the dogs in the morning and he was tickling my cheek.

I just want you to know that I have saved this in my asks because I haven’t wanted to not see it.  I love him so much, I love his beautiful eyes and his GORGEOUS broad nose. He has such a dear and loveable squishy face, and knowing that he is LORGE is wonderful! I love the picture of the two of you, those are honestly some of the best pictures to have.

I love tomcat cheeks. I found out today they are also called FLESH SHIELDS and I honestly think that’s accurate but just terrible. 

Whatever they are, they are very attractive.  Especially on Nook.

[ask-a-vetblr]

My mother has a very anxious semi feral cat, and in an effort to get him to stop overgrooming and help his intermittent cystitis, our vet prescribed him prednisone. It's working really well- low dose every other day and he's calmer, more interactive with humans, more playful with the other household cats and just generally happier in every measurable way. I've just never heard of this. It was my impression that increased anxiety was a more likely effect of steroids. Our vet is an old school country vet, is this just an outdated treatment? I'm concerned about Cushing's with long term steroid treatment, but... it's working. Have any of you heard of or used prednisone for anxiety in a cat?

gettingvetted here.

Prednisone (and Prednisolone, which is the only form that cats can use so it’s more likely what your vet prescribed for your cat) basically decreases inflammation and suppresses the immune system. So it can help prevent itching and pain (and thus help with overgrooming) and also decreases the amount of inflammation in the bladder (and thus helps with stress cystitis). Iatrogenic Cushing’s disease is much more common in dogs and also much more common with long term, high-dose steroids (such as when combatting autoimmune diseases or cancer). In cats, the side effects of steroids tend to be diabetes, heart disease, and kidney failure. Use of steroids is not a typical (or modern) route to take at all, due to the potentially serious side effects, but if it is helping, then great!

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

I have a very high anxiety two year old Staffordshire/Jack Russell mix. He's not great with change, and tends to shut down and hide when things are new and scary. I'm moving from a situation with two roommates and two other dogs to an apartment with just me, him and my two cats. How can I make this easier on him? I moved partially last night and he's been hiding on my bed at the new place all day. He's normally a chow hound but I had trouble getting him to eat this morning.

Just give him some time. Leave some clothing out you’ve worn so it smells like you and starts smelling like home and give him some time to adapt - try to keep novel things like folk going in and out to a minimum for a week or so. It’s normal for dogs to not eat very much during a move, so just keep an eye on him.