miane coon

Orchid wrote in message . ..
On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 23:29:02 GMT, "Hailey" wrote:

Umm, what are the problems with the breed? You have me quite alarmed now
Our boy is a Maine Coon as well, well mostly. He could be totally, we
adopted him from a shelter, but our vets say he is very much a Maine Coon.
It's hard for us to believe ANYone would dump a cat, though we're not naive,
we know it happens.
It would seem however, that the dumpers would have a harder time dumping
since they could make money off the poor creatures.

But I digress. My real fear here now is, what is wrong with the Maine Coon
breed? I don't think I can bear to lose him. What can I DO!?

Maine Coons are susceptible to Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
(HCM). Responsible breeders are working hard to clean their lines of
the disease via yearly color doppler echocardiograms fo their breeding
stock, but it can and does show up in any animal, moggies included.
Responsible breeders are also testing for feline hip dysplasia
(OFA or PENNhip), and PKD (though it is not a widespread problem in
the breed, breeders are working to see that it does not become so).
Some lines of Maine Coons have problems with stomatitis, so keep an
eye on your cat's mouth and teeth and if he develops bad breath (okay,
worse than normal kitty breath) or excessive drooling have a vet check
out his mouth.



Orchid
See Orchid's Kitties! -- http://nik.ascendancy.net/bengalpage
Want a Purebred Cat? Read This! -- http://nik.ascendancy.net/orchid

Delurking to make a point about bad kitty breath. . . (kinda long)

I also adopted a cat that was dumped - I suspect that he may also be
all or part Maine Coon. When we adopted him he had something wrong
with one of his front paws. I'm not sure really how to describe it,
but he bent his paw the wrong way when he put pressure on it, like he
was double jointed, or it was broken - the vet said it was a muscle
problem. I thought that maybe a BYB dumped him because they thought
they couldn't sell him. Happily, he grew out of it, or the muscles
matured or something. To get to my point - he is huge and looks like a
Maine Coon, but he also has the stomatitis. Previous vet told me he
just had bad breath, since he had it from the time he was dumped at
about 2 months. This vet had taken him in for treatment from the local
shelter because of the foot, and I adopted him from that vet (this is
something that they do an a regular basis). I asked at every kitten
visit about the bad breath, they pulled back his lips, looked at the
outside of his teeth and said he was fine, he was just a kitty with
bad breath. Finally his breath was soooo bad (like something dead)
that I took him to a different vet. First thing she did was open his
mouth all the way (which the previous vet never did). I almost cried
when I saw the inside of his mouth : ( His gums were HORRIBLY
infected, his teeth looked absolutely nasty, but not from the outside.
She retested him for FIV and FELV, just in case his test as a kitten
was wrong (since it was done by the same vet that said he had no
problem with his teeth), and the test came up negative. I immediately
made an appointment to have his teeth cleaned, and I was also given
antibiotics that I am supposed to give him for 5 days a month each
month to try to keep it under control. I feel so guilty for listening
to the other vet and not following my gut instinct that something was
really wrong with him, and I can't believe that I let him suffer for
so long before getting him treatment. I made the mistake of assuming
that the vet knew more than I did. To top it all off, my new vet, who
is *wonderful*, is also about half as expensive as my previous vet.
Anyway, the moral of my story is: If you have a cat with stinky
breath, and your vet says it's no problem, PLEASE make sure that they
open the cat's mouth ALL THE WAY and check it *inside* and out before
you believe what they say. Don't learn the hard way like I (and my
poor kitty) did. : (

Raine

Delurking to make a point about bad kitty breath. . . (kinda long)

I also adopted a cat that was dumped - I suspect that he may also be
all or part Maine Coon. When we adopted him he had something wrong
with one of his front paws. I'm not sure really how to describe it,
but he bent his paw the wrong way when he put pressure on it, like he
was double jointed, or it was broken - the vet said it was a muscle
problem. I thought that maybe a BYB dumped him because they thought
they couldn't sell him. Happily, he grew out of it, or the muscles
matured or something. To get to my point - he is huge and looks like a
Maine Coon, but he also has the stomatitis. Previous vet told me he
just had bad breath, since he had it from the time he was dumped at
about 2 months. This vet had taken him in for treatment from the local
shelter because of the foot, and I adopted him from that vet (this is
something that they do an a regular basis). I asked at every kitten
visit about the bad breath, they pulled back his lips, looked at the
outside of his teeth and said he was fine, he was just a kitty with
bad breath. Finally his breath was soooo bad (like something dead)
that I took him to a different vet. First thing she did was open his
mouth all the way (which the previous vet never did). I almost cried
when I saw the inside of his mouth : ( His gums were HORRIBLY
infected, his teeth looked absolutely nasty, but not from the outside.
She retested him for FIV and FELV, just in case his test as a kitten
was wrong (since it was done by the same vet that said he had no
problem with his teeth), and the test came up negative. I immediately
made an appointment to have his teeth cleaned, and I was also given
antibiotics that I am supposed to give him for 5 days a month each
month to try to keep it under control. I feel so guilty for listening
to the other vet and not following my gut instinct that something was
really wrong with him, and I can't believe that I let him suffer for
so long before getting him treatment. I made the mistake of assuming
that the vet knew more than I did. To top it all off, my new vet, who
is *wonderful*, is also about half as expensive as my previous vet.
Anyway, the moral of my story is: If you have a cat with stinky
breath, and your vet says it's no problem, PLEASE make sure that they
open the cat's mouth ALL THE WAY and check it *inside* and out before
you believe what they say. Don't learn the hard way like I (and my
poor kitty) did. : (

Raine


Awww Raine! (((hugs))))
Our vets are *supposed* to know more than we. That is why we are willing to
pay em the big bucks to help us take care of our precious 4 legged family
members!
I am so sorry, but don't kick yourself too hard. You did take care of him
and you did get a new vet
I'm so glad they found it, I gotta go check Tucker's mouth LOL

I haven't smelled bad breath and our vet said he's healthy as a horse (I
asked, yeah, but is he healthy as a kitten? hehe) and he's definitely a MC,
at the least mostly, if not all the way.
So we're at least aware of what can go wrong now...

I like this ng (MOSTLY) everyone is so helpful!

Hailey

Delurking to make a point about bad kitty breath. . . (kinda long)

I also adopted a cat that was dumped - I suspect that he may also be
all or part Maine Coon. When we adopted him he had something wrong
with one of his front paws. I'm not sure really how to describe it,
but he bent his paw the wrong way when he put pressure on it, like he
was double jointed, or it was broken - the vet said it was a muscle
problem. I thought that maybe a BYB dumped him because they thought
they couldn't sell him. Happily, he grew out of it, or the muscles
matured or something. To get to my point - he is huge and looks like a
Maine Coon, but he also has the stomatitis. Previous vet told me he
just had bad breath, since he had it from the time he was dumped at
about 2 months. This vet had taken him in for treatment from the local
shelter because of the foot, and I adopted him from that vet (this is
something that they do an a regular basis). I asked at every kitten
visit about the bad breath, they pulled back his lips, looked at the
outside of his teeth and said he was fine, he was just a kitty with
bad breath. Finally his breath was soooo bad (like something dead)
that I took him to a different vet. First thing she did was open his
mouth all the way (which the previous vet never did). I almost cried
when I saw the inside of his mouth : ( His gums were HORRIBLY
infected, his teeth looked absolutely nasty, but not from the outside.
She retested him for FIV and FELV, just in case his test as a kitten
was wrong (since it was done by the same vet that said he had no
problem with his teeth), and the test came up negative. I immediately
made an appointment to have his teeth cleaned, and I was also given
antibiotics that I am supposed to give him for 5 days a month each
month to try to keep it under control. I feel so guilty for listening
to the other vet and not following my gut instinct that something was
really wrong with him, and I can't believe that I let him suffer for
so long before getting him treatment. I made the mistake of assuming
that the vet knew more than I did. To top it all off, my new vet, who
is *wonderful*, is also about half as expensive as my previous vet.
Anyway, the moral of my story is: If you have a cat with stinky
breath, and your vet says it's no problem, PLEASE make sure that they
open the cat's mouth ALL THE WAY and check it *inside* and out before
you believe what they say. Don't learn the hard way like I (and my
poor kitty) did. : (

Raine


Awww Raine! (((hugs))))
Our vets are *supposed* to know more than we. That is why we are willing to
pay em the big bucks to help us take care of our precious 4 legged family
members!
I am so sorry, but don't kick yourself too hard. You did take care of him
and you did get a new vet
I'm so glad they found it, I gotta go check Tucker's mouth LOL

I haven't smelled bad breath and our vet said he's healthy as a horse (I
asked, yeah, but is he healthy as a kitten? hehe) and he's definitely a MC,
at the least mostly, if not all the way.
So we're at least aware of what can go wrong now...

I like this ng (MOSTLY) everyone is so helpful!

Hailey

"Brandy Alexandre" wrote in message
s.com...
Meghan Noecker wrote in
rec.pets.cats.health+behav:

Me too. I am so hopeful for her. She really liked him, and he is
very special. He looked at me with this look (take me home). I
told him I'm not the one to be asking, ask her. (I have 3 at home
already). He turned to her and started over with the take me home
look. He became more active, rubbing up against the cage, sticking
his paw out, etc. He seemed to know this was his chance to
impress.


My sister did something similar. It's like kids on adoption day--they
know it's time to turn on the charm. She started at one end and her
husband started at the other. Two kittens turned it on and they ended
up with two cats.

Thats how we ended up going from a one cat family to a more than one cat
family. When our cat died the dh and I went to get another cat. I wanted
Tigger and he wanted Buffy. We couldn't decide so we brought home both. We
stayed with just 2 cats for years until last fall. The dh was up at PetSmart
to get KMR for the kittens and spotted Isabelle. Gotta keep that man out of
PetSmart lol

W

"Brandy Alexandre" wrote in message
s.com...
Meghan Noecker wrote in
rec.pets.cats.health+behav:

Me too. I am so hopeful for her. She really liked him, and he is
very special. He looked at me with this look (take me home). I
told him I'm not the one to be asking, ask her. (I have 3 at home
already). He turned to her and started over with the take me home
look. He became more active, rubbing up against the cage, sticking
his paw out, etc. He seemed to know this was his chance to
impress.


My sister did something similar. It's like kids on adoption day--they
know it's time to turn on the charm. She started at one end and her
husband started at the other. Two kittens turned it on and they ended
up with two cats.

Thats how we ended up going from a one cat family to a more than one cat
family. When our cat died the dh and I went to get another cat. I wanted
Tigger and he wanted Buffy. We couldn't decide so we brought home both. We
stayed with just 2 cats for years until last fall. The dh was up at PetSmart
to get KMR for the kittens and spotted Isabelle. Gotta keep that man out of
PetSmart lol

W

"Brandy Alexandre" wrote in message
s.com...
Mary wrote in rec.pets.cats.health+behav:

Nobody needs "certain traits" that bad. What's a little cat hair,
anyway?

Nothing to me, I wear it every day, day in, day out... But my bosses
wife, though a cat person, was allergic to cats. She bought Russian
Blues because they are reputed to not trigger allergies. I'm not
saying purebreds only, just saying that there is some justification for
it.

and when those pure bred cats get out and mate with a "mutt" you get some
really magnificent kittens )

"Brandy Alexandre" wrote in message
s.com...
Mary wrote in rec.pets.cats.health+behav:

Nobody needs "certain traits" that bad. What's a little cat hair,
anyway?

Nothing to me, I wear it every day, day in, day out... But my bosses
wife, though a cat person, was allergic to cats. She bought Russian
Blues because they are reputed to not trigger allergies. I'm not
saying purebreds only, just saying that there is some justification for
it.

and when those pure bred cats get out and mate with a "mutt" you get some
really magnificent kittens )

"Mary" wrote in message
. com...

"Yngver" wrote in message
...
"Mary" wrote:


While I understand your sentiment, you surely must realize that even
shelter
cats can die young. HCM

Sure. I bypassed the entire issue because there is no blinking way
that anyone can *ensure* that any animal is not going to die young.
Genetically, mixed-breed cats that have usually drawn from a larger
gene pool that the artificially bred are healthier.

Having your cats live longer might be over rated. It was a lot easier having
previous cats die suddenly at 8, 9, 13 than watching Tiggy fail s l o w
l y at 16.

"Mary" wrote in message
. com...

"Yngver" wrote in message
...
"Mary" wrote:


While I understand your sentiment, you surely must realize that even
shelter
cats can die young. HCM

Sure. I bypassed the entire issue because there is no blinking way
that anyone can *ensure* that any animal is not going to die young.
Genetically, mixed-breed cats that have usually drawn from a larger
gene pool that the artificially bred are healthier.

Having your cats live longer might be over rated. It was a lot easier having
previous cats die suddenly at 8, 9, 13 than watching Tiggy fail s l o w
l y at 16.

In article , raine31083
@aol.com enlightened us with...

Delurking to make a point about bad kitty breath. . . (kinda long)

snip

It makes me so mad when vets are imcompetant! They make good people like
you feel guilty. Don't - you didn't know. Kudos to you for keeping at it
and getting him treated.

This is a great example of why people need to examine their cats
themselves every week, though. I was surprised to find that almost no
one I know brushes their cat's teeth or checks their cat's ears. It's
not so much the brushing and cleaning that's so important - it's getting
your cat used to having you examine their mouths and touch their gums
and teeth and bother their ears.
A lot of problems can be caught early if the guardian does a quicky
examination once a week, going over the kitty's paws, tummy, ears,
mouth, etc. Since they only visit the vet once a year, we can catch
problems sooner if we learn what to watch for. If you give lots of
treats and praise, it can eve be fun for your kitty and become a great
bonding time.
It helps a lot if you start when they're kittens, but even adults can
get used to it with lots of patience, treats, and praise.

--
--
~kaeli~
A lot of money is tainted - It taint yours and it taint mine.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace