At least she was well loved. I'm going to use this as a reminder for me to give my kitty urinary tract support supplements. They aren't super expensive and are basically cranberry or root extracts.
I had a scare years ago where my kitty wasn't able to go to the bathroom and was becoming lethargic and she looked miserable. I took her to the veterinarian and I was shocked by how few options they had. They were very experienced and genuine people, but it was clear they had a very limited set of options and sadly most roads don't lead to great places. What the vet did determine by poking a small plunger thing up her butt (no joke) is that what very likely happened is that she jumped from something and fell onto something which caused temporary swelling. The plunger thing pulled some discharge from her rectum that shouldn't be there and is basically what causes the swelling. Thankfully she was back to normal in a day and I've never seen her that miserable.
(For anyone wondering, she is an outdoor kitty with fields and trees to climb and mice to hunt)
My cat started to get mouth/gum problems at the age of 13. She stopped eating and already was very thin to begin with (2kg).
The vet gave her antibiotics, but it always came back. I had to sit down with her while eating and cuddle her to make her eat while she cried in pain. Was an awful time.
Somehow the problems went away after a few months and she went on to have a happy life.
Years later she died in my arms of old age with 20.
We had the same; cat was lying down in the litter box, lethargic, etc. We were only able to take him to the vet the next morning. Turns out he had bladder stones and grit that blocked the way out; he got a catheter and had to be flushed out with fluids for three days in a row to restart the kidneys (which had failed) and bring the urea and potassium levels in his blood back to safe levels. Some of the levels were off the scale. He should have died, if it wasn't for my girlfriend helping him to drink some water.
Anyway after the few days with a catheter he had surgery to remove the stones and eventually he was back to normal. He gets regular tummy massages now and loves it.
Still though, it's a constant concern now; supposedly it's quite common in male cats, and one possible cure or mitigation is to do a sex change surgery, rerouting the urinary tract so it's a shorter path / wider / less likely to get blocked. I never knew that was even a thing in animals.
I'm pretty sure she is a Maine Coon and some of the other kitties from the same litter ended up looking like a Bombay. I could be entirely mistaken since I'm not an expert.
Our beagle had frequent UTIs, our vet recommended 500mg of vitamin C 2x daily. No UTIs since. Don't know if this applies to cats, I know UTIs are much more lethal for them.
The owners say the name is “Tardar Sauce” but is this backsplaining why they called her Tard? I remember the early meme as only Tard, but can’t find references to any other reason for calling Grumpy Cat Tard. Is Tardar Sauce a non-offensive explanation for why the car was called Tard?
> Once this factoid became a little more well known, it was retracted and changed. The official story now, a few months later is that although they call her "Tard", her actual name is "Tardar" as in "Tardar Sauce".
To clarify, I wasn’t complaining about the name, just pointing out the oddity of the BS explanation. So I certainly had no torches as I don’t think this, or much else on the Internet, is torch worthy.
I’m old enough to remember when the Numa Numa video was only circulated as “gay Dutch kid” even though the person in the video wasn’t gay or Dutch and may have been an adult.
I like HN because it has diverse ideas and comments and opinions, not because it accurately eulogizes cats.
I think it’s pretty funny that Tard gets grouped with Mother Theresa and Ghandi.
Ok, non-English speaker here, what is wrong with Tard then?
Edit: thanx for the replies, retard does not sound very bad to me but if I understand correctly from all replies, it is similar to our Dutch cancer-sufferer (as in, one insults real cancer patients) in terms of social unaccepted-ness...
> Once this factoid became a little more well known, it was retracted and changed. The official story now, a few months later is that although they call her "Tard", her actual name is "Tardar" as in "Tardar Sauce". The spelling error was explained as she was named by a small child, at least on the talk shows.
I had a scare years ago where my kitty wasn't able to go to the bathroom and was becoming lethargic and she looked miserable. I took her to the veterinarian and I was shocked by how few options they had. They were very experienced and genuine people, but it was clear they had a very limited set of options and sadly most roads don't lead to great places. What the vet did determine by poking a small plunger thing up her butt (no joke) is that what very likely happened is that she jumped from something and fell onto something which caused temporary swelling. The plunger thing pulled some discharge from her rectum that shouldn't be there and is basically what causes the swelling. Thankfully she was back to normal in a day and I've never seen her that miserable.
(For anyone wondering, she is an outdoor kitty with fields and trees to climb and mice to hunt)
Obligatory cat photos of her now:
https://i.imgur.com/W1M2hzW.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Jz9K65a.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/DFPpFfy.jpg