Fish oil for cats (dog, excessive, peeing, meat)

[Gummifuzz]

Originally Posted by catsmom21

Good point. My dark-fur cats get flaky skin at the vet too, and I never see flakes on any of them at home. Ever.

My oldest projectile-sheds when he's at the vet. Poor baby....

[MissNM]

Originally Posted by Gummifuzz

My oldest projectile-sheds when he's at the vet. Poor baby....

He must thinks he's throwing razor sharp quills.

[601halfdozen0theother]

Originally Posted by Gummifuzz

My oldest projectile-sheds when he's at the vet. Poor baby....

I LOVE that! "Projectile-sheds". Thanks for the laugh!

[subject2change]

LOL @ "projectile shed"! All my animals have done that at the vet. With my Chow Chow mix I'd come out looking like I was wearing a fur coat. So I guess more dandruff would make sense too. I'll have to watch for that next time.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by Gummifuzz

My oldest projectile-sheds when he's at the vet. Poor baby....

Heh. That seems about right. Always seemed like no matter what I do the cat sheds WAY more at the vet. I guess this is a trait of some cats....

[GotBackHome]

ti's a stress thing- one of their defense mechanisms. no idea what the point of the flakiness is (most likely just stress), but the shedding is related to the concept of attackers only getting a mouth-full of hair, not exactly effective for the situation, but then most of our adrenalin reactions for stress have little to do with fight-or-flight either.

[PJ1252]

i would check with a vet about fish oil - i stopped taking it as it contains high levels of mercury which some brands are much higher than would be an acceptable amount for a human - considering kitties are so much smaller i would contact your vet asap

[catsmom21]

Originally Posted by WannaComeHome

ti's a stress thing- one of their defense mechanisms. no idea what the point of the flakiness is (most likely just stress), but the shedding is related to the concept of attackers only getting a mouth-full of hair, not exactly effective for the situation, but then most of our adrenalin reactions for stress have little to do with fight-or-flight either.

That is really interesting, I never thought of it before but it makes perfect sense. While my dark-fur girls get flaky, my Bridge Angel Red Boy always shed heavily at the vet. Even though he was there frequently all his life, and he loved our vet, he always shed gobs of fur.

Another little Bridge Angel girlie used to drool and her paw pads would sweat. She always left little wet footprints on the stainless steel table.

Originally Posted by PJ1252

i would check with a vet about fish oil - i stopped taking it as it contains high levels of mercury which some brands are much higher than would be an acceptable amount for a human - considering kitties are so much smaller i would contact your vet asap

That is good advice, and why I use a made for cats fish oil supplement for my one girl who takes it. She only takes it two or three times a week.

[Gummifuzz]

Originally Posted by greg42

Heh. That seems about right. Always seemed like no matter what I do the cat sheds WAY more at the vet. I guess this is a trait of some cats....

Yeah, I can tell he's really nervous, poor guy. He does this really nervous purring/kneading/shedding number and I don't get why, the vet's always been really good with him.

[GotBackHome]

Gummi, those are all stress things. Cats purr not only when they're happy, but also to calm themselves down when they're really scared/upset (weird, I know), the kneading will be trying to scent mark- which is what they're really doing when they scratch things- and the shedding is a protection thing. Doesn't matter how good the vet is, your guy is just unhappy about the entire thing, just like lots of cats.

Catsmom, yeah- as you likely already know- cats can only sweat through their paws, they don't pant like dogs. so leaving paw prints (some of mine do that too) is like having sweaty palms. such a shame we can't get them to understand that it's really not all that bad and will end soon. they go through so much trauma over it. luckily they usually get over it fairly quickly, too!