Cat question

[The Snark]

How do you train cats into being fuzzy furry doorstops and furniture decorations?

Our three are constantly up in my face or underfoot. My only respite is to hide in my office. If I stand near a table or counter or porch railing one or more is right there. Ignore under peril of claw snagging clothing for attention. It's like living with three personal harassment machines. I've even given in to letting them sleep on the bed for a few cat free hours during the middle of the day.

 

[EtienneN]

You could try clicker training to see if they could use a cat bed that’s away from your work area.

 

[The Snark]

clicker training

What is that?

 

[MetalMan2004]

Haven’t heard of cats being clicker trained. Works great with dogs though. Worth a try I guess.

 

[EtienneN]

Clicker training can be used with cats too. a clicker is a hard plastic thing that makes a sharp clicking noise when pressed. They should be found at any pet store in the dog section. Basically you click the clicker after getting the cat to follow you with a piece of chicken or something and then the cat associates the clicking sound with the positive reinforcement of the food. You can then train them to go to their “spot” whenever you want them out of your hair.

 

[basin79]

Find someone who absolutely hates cats.

Invite them to your house. Problem solved. Cats have a phenomenonal ability to know who hate them and will make it their goal to sit on their lap.

 

[mickiem]

How old are your cats? Sometimes they settle down when they get older. But in my experience, it is usually a matter of personality. Obnoxious cats stay obnoxious and docile cats stay docile. But don't mind me; I have never trained a cat. However, I have been trained by several cats through the years.

 

[LukeVendette]

Cats can be trained. Dude question, do they have interactive toys they can play with? They require exercise. Tire them out, then give them a great in on a cat tree or cat box. They will learn to go to the box when they get tired.

 

[The Snark]

Taking things in order...

Find someone who absolutely hates cats.

Me. Not quite hate yet, but gritting my teeth. Maybe this is why they adore me?

How old are your cats? Sometimes they settle down when they get older.

3, 5, and 7.

Cats can be trained. Dude question, do they have interactive toys they can play with? They require exercise.

Problem #1. Indoor cats. We have so many feral cats packing such a vast assortment of diseases the vet handbook has them slated for shots once a month. Each trip to the vet really traumatizes them.
So they are bored to the max.
Problem #2. I have trained them - wrong. They come when called, come chomp a gecko, get your arse in here, food time, don't even think about going in there... but 'go away', 'leave me alone', 'get out of my face', and 'I'm close to throwing you in the river' hasn't sunk in.

Tire them out, then give them a great in on a cat tree or cat box. They will learn to go to the box when they get tired.

They eat the boxes. Literally. That is their major play time and pacifier. About 1 medium sized box every 2 weeks, chewed to pieces.We taped a playhouse of boxes together for them. Tunnels to wander through. No dice. Just rip them to shreds instead. Snit (Bart) has a piece of box in his mouth. Gnarly (Lisa) is inside one of the other boxes, eviscerating it.

 

[Lain]

I can sympathize with you. We have 2 in your face cats...Never a moment alone. We found that wearing them out with play helps, laser lights are a big hit. Also instead of bowl feeding, sometimes we will toss a kibble one at a time, making them come back before we toss the next. Make them work for their food. If you want to see a disgruntled cat, get one of those puzzle feeders, might keep them occupied for a bit. Also there are cat pheromones, called Feliway, that may help calm them.

 

[The Snark]

sometimes we will toss a kibble one at a time, making them come back before we toss the next.

Tried that some time ago. A minor problem is the cats are obsequious towards me, but my pushover wuss partner has problems. A while back I left her and the cats to it and went to my office. Less than a minute later, a shriek. She tossed a tidbit, one cat noticed I wasn't present, went running back for another, no tidbit forth coming? Bite her foot! Now part of cat-entertainment is foot chomping.

 

[Anoplogaster]

You don’t train cats. Cats train YOU. They are essentially wild animals that just coexist with humans.

 

[Teal]

If you do decide to try clicker training, use one of those plastic claw grabbers to reward them - NOT your hands.

Cats SHOULD be strictly indoors. Cats should NOT go to a vet once a month, and especially not for shots. What the heck is the vet doing?!

Look into a cat exercise wheel, adding cat tunnels on the walls, etc for the cats to explore and exercise.

You can also look into making a "catio" and outdoor tunnels that allow them to enjoy some outside time while staying safely contained.

But, needy cats are just that, usually. Exercise and things to do that don't involve you will hopefully help.

 

[The Snark]

Cats SHOULD be strictly indoors. Cats should NOT go to a vet once a month, and especially not for shots. What the heck is the vet doing?!

Indoor cats, or irresponsible humans. No middle of the road in my book. Domestic cats have no right to venture into the wild, ever.
Between skin diseases, viruses and bacteria, this area is a cat disaster zone. Two siblings of Gnarly caught the 'gone in 24 hours' respiratory virus. We've got something like 20 common in the wild viruses here and probably another 20 bacteria, many of which are zoonotic. Our vet is very diligent and cautious. His once every 30 days check ups have saved a lot of cats lives, along with putting their people on track to getting themselves treated. Major common problems include Toxoplasmosis Salmonellosis Campylobacter Giardia Cryptosporidium, assorted worms and of course, rabies.

I'm considering a catio and playground. The vet suggests a double fence at least 1 meter feet apart. The prowling toms can squirt quite distance.

 

[Teal]

I have never in my life heard of a perfectly healthy cat going to a vet once every 30 days for prophylactic treatment, ESPECIALLY not a strictly indoor cat. I am baffled. Several of the things you listed aren't even remotely likely for an indoor-only cat to contract, like giardia and rabies. Salmonella is commonly contracted by humans from incorrect handling of pet food. Toxoplasmosis is contracted by humans from incorrectly handling litter box cleanings. Hiw has your cat going to the vet once a month saved other cats - is he a blood donor or something??

 

[The Snark]

I agree with you, and under ordinary circumstances, like life in Averageville US of A the precautions sound positively deranged. I've tried to come up with a balance between the vet regimen and what I deem to be realistic. But I am also paranoid having worked infection control in hospitals and clinics and come into weekly contact with an assortment of communicable diseases, and the every present MEGA STUPID found in almost the entire country here needs to be taken into account.

I have never in my life heard of a perfectly healthy cat going to a vet once every 30 days for prophylactic treatment, ESPECIALLY not a strictly indoor cat.

We have an escapee about once every couple of weeks for a few hours. I couple that to our house at night is a target for about a dozen toms roaming the area. That is, the outside of the house and carport often reeks of cats pee. Like this morning. Figure any escape has indirectly contacted unvaccinated and vetted cats within a few minutes.

Salmonella (and all of rabbits friends and relations) is commonly contracted by humans from incorrect handling of pet food.

And thanks to local culture, work ethic and the MEGA STUPID Salmonella is common in pet foods here. And numerous off the supermarket shelves human foods.
Important safety tip: NEVER buy locally made peanut butter or any other processed food where there may be a time lapse between cooking and canning. In the case of local peanut butter here, roasted peanuts are handled by menial workers who know zip about proper food prep., stuffed into what looks like clean used rice sacks, sold through various warehouses and some time later gets ground up in non sterilized processing machines and packaged in containers that look clean and they have just come from the factory so why bother sterilizing them? (Apologies for the long winded rant. My Sis got me hooked on peanut butter and the only relatively safe version here is that sugared Skippy crud. Leave an empty jar of local PB here sit for a few days and unenjoy the reek of anaerobes.) See next reply.

like giardia

The MEGA STUPID: Combine a shallow water well, about 50-80 local dairy farms in the area, and municipal water treatment that isn't treated, .... Thais are very sensitive to/about odors. They hate and will not use chlorine or other. After I have been in an outlying area and slosh the alcohol on they go running, unable to tolerate that smell either.
Long story short, assume giardia in the water. I have never yet had a water sample from our taps and sent to the lab that didn't culture some growth. I chlorinate our entire houses water supply and have just installed a 5 micron filter and UV sterilizer. Of course the cats get sterilized water too, but escapees may drink from the river or the neighbors copious yard watering.
So over the years testing our water supply and taking swabs from the floor, door knobs, light switches, fridge door handle, faucets ... E-coli - 3 versions, Shigella, Cholera ... it would be easier to make a list of what hasn't cultured. And after a visit to mom-in-law's house I usually get a Leptospirosis positive to alleviate the boredom. (Working part time as a clinician in outlying third world communities and knowing the common hazards has induced an extreme form of paranoia in me.)

Hiw has your cat going to the vet once a month saved other cats - is he a blood donor or something?

Anyway, our vet sits on a board of tropical disease experts and has established his own criteria. Some regular immune shots at normal intervals, some being spaced out in three, five or ongoing shots as clinical trials have proven the spacing to increase efficacy, and just the watch for vet visits. I usually do the watch-fors myself. They usually are administered by a trained clinician and consists of a quick cursory exam at a very minimal cost. - Temperature, eyes, mouth anal swab, abdominal tenderness etc, skin, fur and overall health appearance. One cat has a chronic topical fungus infection and one sets off alarm bells at every vet visit since she is so laid back and laconic.
BUT, @Teal I am ALWAYS open to suggestions. I've been in the infection business long enough to know tunnel vision is an ever present danger.

And obviously, with all the transmittable zoonotics roaming around, the vet is commonly suggesting the animals owner to high tail it to the clinic or hospital to get themselves checked out when a particularly nasty organism is suspected in the animal. Cholera and non specific intestinal infections are as common as rice here. Erythromycin is handed out like candy and the moment somebody has tummy distress they start gobbling handfuls.

Sorry about the excessively long reply.

 

[The Snark]

@Teal As a PS to the above, our vet along with many of our local physicians are acutely aware of the over use/abuse of antibiotics - closing the barn door after the horse has left. On their own, in coordination with NGOs, and keeping up with the latest WHO statistics, they have been coming up with pro-active prophylactic procedures as adjuncts to stemming the tide. Eryth as example is so over prescribed in Asia it's almost worthless, and several local docs have paid for vacation homes buying the stuff and similar in 10 kg lots and shovelling it out the doors of clinics. So we have overly cautious medical professionals always seeking alternatives. I haven't even touched on traditional Oriental medicines that have been used quite effectively in aiding in countering the modern day maelstrom of antibiotic abuse.
(Right now I have had a chronic Stachybotrys infection thanks to our water supply. Most recently I've been gagging down a Chinese herbal tea that is boosting my immune system through the roof and helping me get on top of it. The modern fungi treatments won't touch the crap in your sinuses.)

 

[Teal]

So basically what it comes down to is that your house cats make infrequent escapes, which means they need to be protected in case they encounter a nasty. That makes sense.

Giardia is ever-present here... my dogs drink from puddles, streams, etc etc all the time. Every so often, symptoms will come up and I'll get a positive test and treat everyone. Rabies I ALWAYS vaccinate for, because we hunt. The rest... there are things to look out for everywhere. If your vet is just testing the cat monthly, that is one thing... but applying innoculations/antibiotics, like you said, will create a resistance.

I'm running on empty after a long day... I'll have to come back for a more indepth response tomorrow! I am intrigued.

 

[The Snark]

If your vet is just testing the cat monthly, that is one thing... but applying innoculations/antibiotics, like you said, will create a resistance.

What info comes down from the tropical disease study institutes in Malaysia and Singapore has been mostly white papers as technical as they come. I'll offer one quote: "We have, at best, isolated and fully described approximately 15% of the tropical diseases present in the wild. Some estimates are as low as 2-3%."
What I am reading from all that is inoculations are in their infancy and humans have yet to scratch the surface of working with nature's checks and balances. We still are virtually clueless about organism interactions which each other, mediated through the immune system. To that you can add in some fields ancient Chinese medicines run circles around modern western medicine.
And then the local hygiene here, what I am mostly involved in, better than most third world countries, is abysmal. Heck. I can't even get wifey to wash hands with soap after handling money. Mom-in-law still has the antiseptic bars of soap we gave her around 2003-4. While the pigs have been moved away from the houses in outlying villages for the most part, chickens are often allowed into the homes. Need I go on?
(A 10 year long multi NGO push has managed to at the least get to locals to move the hog pens downstream/hill of most human habitations. Recalling when I first met mom-in-law she had a neat little 6 inch tall berm of dirt around her house to keep most of the effluent from the hog pen up the hill from running through her living room. Ignore the vehicles driving past spraying the soup on her bamboo walls and porch.)

So what we have here is mostly the same pathogens as in the first world but highly concentrated, health departments questionable, and people like our vet a lonesome voice in the wilderness.

 

[LukeVendette]

Best of luck with that...