Here’s another:
We can’t get a harness on Dewey, he’ll have no part of that. I wish we could.
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We started the collar harness thing when he was a teeny tiny baby. He now thinks it’s normal to have collars / cones / harnesses on his body.
We put a collar on Charlie for the first time when he was 3 or 4. He fought really hard but we got it on. He then proceeded to hide in my daughters closet for hours under some blankets. We couldn’t find him or get him out with the treat bag shake…
Never tried again. You need to start super early with stuff like this and even then some cats just won’t have it.
We tried to learn from all the mistakes / missed opportunities we made with all of our other cats with this one. 
Ollie looks really good today and has his energy back. The cone / space suit thing can come off tomorrow but I think I’m going to leave it on a few more days. Every time we take it off, he goes right for his surgery spot. We let him lick a little before we stop him. I don’t want any other issues with this cat. Want him to heal up 100% and enjoy the rest of his life, which will also take a lot of stress off me. When I am with him, I do have it off. He either really doesn’t mind the space suit or he’s a little dumb, because he just lets me put it right back on.
I want to say he doesn’t mind because he bolted when I tried to put the vet cone on. He knows what he likes (or doesn’t mind)
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Dewey was estimated to be 3 years old when he arrived, and totally wild still so he is set in his ways as far as what he will tolerate.
I bet the incision itches, poor Ollie.
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He’s doing quite well and the anti inflammatory he’s on is doing the trick.
He only gets it once a day for 3 days but the swelling goes down quite a bit an hour after he gets it and stays good for about 20 hours before it returns. It was less swollen today than yesterday before today’s dose. Tomorrow is the last dose. Tomorrow is also the day that the headgear can come off but I think it will stay on when someone isn’t with him until at least Saturday and that will be that.
He’s also on preventive anti-viral / antibiotic eye drops at the moment to prevent his stress-induced outbreaks of eye issues.
If I ever have the $ to spare, I think I will have his bad eye fixed with laser. Vet confirmed (didn’t need the vet to tell me), that there is still some cloudiness in his left eye from all the scarring due to his terrible infection he had when we got him in June.
The hope was that as he grew, that would go completely away but it didn’t. Much improved, but the damage appears permanent at this point.
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Forget the recommendation… Ollie has figured out how to contort himself to get at his nuts (or what’s left of them). What makes it worse is the space hat rubs on the area while he’s doing it.
This thing is a POS… Changing my review to protect others.
They look OK and I don’t have the heart to put him back in the other cone at this point. We shall see what the morning looks like…
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I’ll simply quote Crichton’s Malcolm, in paraphrase: Life WILL Find A Way.
I’ve got a better quote, it’s mine:
“Don’t buy anything from Amazon you can find on Alibaba”
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Well THAT eliminates half the listings…
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Hey… This ■■■■ just keeps getting better with this cat… Just got a call that his urinalysis showed crystals. YAY!! FML 7 month nightmare with this cat.
He never ever drinks and pees once or twice a day. I knew this was going to happen. We even bought him one of those cat water fountains to stimulate him to drink and he ignores it.
Guess I need to start force drinking him with an oral syringe several times a day for the next 15 or so years… 
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I’m sure you can find these on Amazon – 
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Ollie is an oral syringe pro from all the medication he’s had in his short life. He likes the oral syringe and will let me do pretty much anything to him without issue. Anyone else around here - not so much. We are a bonded pair.
He likes to play the knock the oral syringe off the counter game after we are done. Over and over again…
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Mum suggested years ago after having received some very high vet bills: Catacare? Medicat?
We have three new vets in our family as of 2022, graduates of UC Davis, U Penn, and U Missouri. None live nearby and we are past the pet-owning part of our lives.
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Funny you say that because I was thinking about doing something like this.
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First thing we are doing is getting pet insurance for him…
That could have been behind his peeing outside the litter box, instead of commencement of the instinctual territorial spraying. Or both.
Cat urinary tract problems can be irritated by cat litter, probably the dust I suspect, and they will stop using the litter box.
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I know… Bothers me.
Maybe, but that doesn’t cause crystals. That’s genetic, food related, hydration.
Labeled as “mild” and monitor. Going to kick up the fluids manually and see what we can do and talk to the vet at the post-surgical follow up for next steps / potential diet change.
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We’ve done subcutaneous fluids with a needle at home. It is really simple once you get used to it. It has pulled at least one cat back from the grave.
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We’ve been creative with water for the cats. We have a fountain (one sized for a medium dog; cat ones are too small, and frankly, a bit bigger would be good). Works great for Magic, but Pumpkin prefers drinking out of glasses, so we leave a couple in the bathroom that he can get to; change the water every day. He won’t drink out of a bowl, but the glasses are fine (which is funny, when you see his head going way into the glass to get the water).
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