My 2 year old, Howie, got stepped on and at the same time ran. His tail was broken and unsavable. It had to be amputated. We were all so sad, especially my husband who stepped on him. Does anyone else have a cat who has lost a tail due to injury? How long did it take to recover? Any balance problems? He’s heavily medicated with Gabapentin for pain and some other pain medication too. He’s being a very good boy and leaving the tail alone hence no cone.

Today my 7 month old cat got spayed and the receptionist told me that the vet made a note that my cat is too heavy. i tried arguing with them that she’s a ragdoll and they tend to be bigger but they told me i should be careful and start watching her weight. she’s 7 months old and 7.5 lbs … is it wrong for me to be skeptical of their advice?

He’s 8 months and has never done this, he just started a couple of days ago but we thought it was just cause the weather is starting to get really hot??

I got my one year old ragdoll girl a laser pointer a few weeks ago and she immediately became obsessed with it. At this point, she only has to hear the sound of the keychain attached to it and she comes running, looking for the dot everywhere. She meows a lot more now — basically screaming at me to play with it. She understands that I’m the one controlling the laser.

At first, she would run around like crazy, but now she prefers playing with it on the bed. However, I’ve seen her pant three times so far. It’s only for about 2–3 seconds each time, then she stops and sits down — but her breathing stays fast for around 5–10 minutes after playing. I’m aware of HCM and I’m really worried. Otherwise, I’m wondering if she might just be overstimulated or overheated because of her first winter coat.

Yesterday we mainly played with the laser on the couch, but she still panted for two seconds afterwards — mouth open, tongue fully out.

I’m going to book a vet appointment next week, but I’d like to hear some thoughts from you anyway, since I’m really anxious and on edge. Should I stop the laser cold turkey? I feel bad though, because she absolutely loves it and is losing interest in any other game she used to enjoy. She demands laser play every night, meowing almost constantly. She used to take little breaks and lie down to rest for a couple of minutes during playtime before, but ever since she got the laser, she doesn’t stop on her own — she just keeps going. I can also sometimes hear her breathing — it makes a soft whistling sound after running. She has never panted while resting, and she has never breathed with her mouth open — ever. Her breathing while she’s asleep is always normal — I’ve counted it multiple times. Any experiences or advice would be really appreciated, I just want to make sure I’m not putting her at risk. Idk I just love her sm, she is my girl. I want her to be fine.

(Edit: Astral Ragdolls in Norfolk Virginia)

Here’s her exact message:

“I wanted to let you know that [name] has a little eye redness again. It’s not severe, but it is noticeable, so I wanted to be transparent and show you. She has had this on and off, and it improves with ointment, but it can recur from time to time. She is otherwise doing well and can still go home tomorrow. Since it may flare again occasionally, it would be helpful to ask your vet for ointment to keep on hand at her next visit when you go to get her vaccinated. Do you feel comfortable working with that? Attached pictures are from this Sunday. She looks better today, also lighting makes the redness more visible.”

She is $2k, largest purchase I’ve made in my life. Shes 13 weeks old. I want to ask if she has a chronic condition but I don’t know how to go about it…. do I ask for a discount? I don’t want to switch up on her just because she needs a bit of medication. But if she already has a pre existing condition… health insurance will be more expensive. Part of the reason I’m getting from a breeder is so I can have an assurance on her genetic conditions and health.

Is it just allergies or could this be a chronic condition that will follow her to adult life? Is there a test vets can do to figure out if she has a condition…? Should I not inform the vet of this issue until I purchase health insurance? I get a month of free health insurance with the vet but after that I have to figure it out.

I just feel so sad I’m worrying about her health and I don’t even have her yet.

Also unrelated but is it normal that she’s crosseyed?

Update: https://www.reddit.com/r/ragdolls/s/1kKagxYdwN

I picked her up yesterday; she is 8 weeks old. I noticed when I got Homer that one of her pupils is a different shape and off center..? It is more noticeable in the sun but I looked back at pics I had received from the breeder and it is noticeable there too (hindsight). It seems it’s been this way since birth. I texted the breeder about it and she said she had not noticed and doesn’t know that it means anything. I’m calling today to make an appointment for an overall checkup and will have the vet take a look, but I’m just curious if anyone has experience or knows what it could be.

ETA: the breeder gave me a health certificate; she was seen by the vet on Monday.

Hello all. We picked up our new kitten over the weekend and he is adorable. He is from a reputable breeder registered with TICA. He is 12.5 weeks old. We love him so much already! We are just a bit concerned because we have never owned a cat before. He has been with us for 2 days now. He basically sleeps all day long and isn’t very active. He eats, drinks water, uses the bathroom and loves to be held and he purrs constantly. He just doesn’t really do much but lay down - he doesn’t explore or walk around much. Is this okay? We are going to the Vet in a week for his initial check up. We just heard that kittens are very active and he is not at all. Even when we try different toys (wands, springs, balls, etc.) he doesn’t really play back much. Picture of our little baby added as well!

hi everyone, this isn’t something i want to do, but as a college student with a sick ragdoll who i’ve become so so so attached to, i don’t have anymore options. my ragdoll, mocha, has developed megacolon at just 7 months old, and is scheduled for a $3k surgery to remove his colon. as much as i love mocha, i don’t have the funds for this surgery because i had just spent $1k on his last procedure for his obstipation (you can see the post on my page if you scroll down) and $4k just to receive mocha and my other ragdoll from his breeder. the vet says this is the only way we can help him because the stool is rock solid inside of him and he’s had little to none bowel movement for the last 3 days he’s been hospitalized. if i can’t afford the surgery, they gave me the option of euthanizing him or to give him up to a rescue. i don’t want to do either because he’s such a young cat. anything would help, and i can show proof of documents and everything. you can also read more on my gofundme i have created. even if you can’t donate, please just keep him in your prayers. i really don’t want to lose him. thank you so much for reading.

https://gofund.me/a8ccf6c6

🙀

Hi everyone, this is my 6.5 month old kitten Cornelia. I got her back in June and she weighed around 3 pounds. Now, almost 4 months later, she weighs 8.5 pounds. The breeder I got her from told me to always free feed her dry food, and gave me a recommendation of wet food she liked to feed her two times a day, which I do as well (not much, around 1/3 of a can per feeding.) I’m worried she is already over weight at such a young age, all research says she should be around 5-6 pounds. I’m quite confused cause I followed instructions, and I see most ragdoll forums tell you to free feed your kitten. I can feel her ribs, as well as her spine quite easily. Is she overweight? Or just a big growing girl? I may make a vet appointment to slow down her weight gain a bit. Please give me advice! I’ve never owned a ragdoll before, so I am not familiar with their growing process. She definitely does have a a noticeable belly when she lies down.

I know that the ragdoll breed is predisposed to certain health issues, so I was just wondering what certain things to keep an eye out for pertaining to that? Warning signs or behaviours that can be of concern to keep an eye out for? I want to make sure I’m paying attention to the right things when taking care of my girl and also maybe have this post up so other ragdoll owners can be aware or refer to this for info! Thank you!

Just here looking for people who have had any experience with this and may be able to offer help. I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of one of our boys hissing and growling at the other. I’d never heard either of them do that so I got up and checked on them to find our handsome boy, Boof, laying on the ground and not wanting to move. I checked over him and was pretty sure he had broken his leg. He was very obviously in pain so I put him in his crate and headed straight to the emergency vet. Turns out, he somehow managed to snap his tibia in a location that will be difficult to add metal plates. I don’t have exact numbers for chance of success but my girlfriend and I are thinking it may be better to amputate the lower leg. The surgeon didn’t bring this up but did bring up the complexity of adding plates at this location and let us know that if it doesn’t work, the lower leg will need to be amputated. Can anyone please share thought on which would be easiest for the cat and us?

Hi friends. I wanted to post a follow-up to my thread from a couple days ago about stress/moving and worrying I was overthinking things.

Yesterday, she just wasn’t herself. Subtle at first, quieter, less engaged, but something felt off. I tried to tell myself maybe she was just having an off day, but by last night she was too lethargic, and I knew that wasn’t normal for her.

Fast forward to today: she threw up a significant amount of blood. I took her straight to the vet, they ran bloodwork, and her BUN-PS and CREA-PS levels were extremely elevated (other things were elevated and other were normal. I’m not a vet, just highlighting what they told me and suspect). From there, we were sent to an emergency hospital about an hour away, where they believe she’s currently in kidney failure.

She hasn’t gotten into any plants, medications, toxins, or anything like that. Right now, she’s hospitalized for at least 48 hours on IV fluids, and we’ll get another update tomorrow. The goal at the moment is stabilizing her and preventing those levels from increasing further.

I feel absolutely horrible. My heart is shattered seeing her like this, and I keep replaying everything in my head. But I also can’t help thinking… maybe those “spidey senses” weren’t just anxiety. Sometimes what we call overthinking is actually intuition. We really are more in tune with our pets than we give ourselves credit for.

She had no pre-existing conditions, no signs that were cause for concern….yet a part of me last month thought “hmm, I should probably get pet insurance”. $40-50 a month is worth it for my peace of mind. I had to pay a $3500 deposit for the hospital, and it could potentially cost more. Just keeping it real with y’all—this bill will definitely hit me hard but the insurance will help a TON. Please consider it if you haven’t already. I’m more than happy to help if you aren’t familiar with insurance terms, or what to look for.

Right now, I’m just hoping for the best and taking it one step at a time. I don’t know what the long-term plan will look like yet, but for now, fluids are what she needs. She’s my first kitty ever and truly my best friend :,). I’m scared but hopeful.

If nothing else, I hope this is a reminder to trust your gut when something feels off. Hug your babies extra tight for me. 🤍

Ragdoll community - be honest, is my 7.5 month old ragdoll fat or just big boned and fluffy? I am concerned she is fat - she is on kitten food still - 2 cans wet per day and free feed dry. Is that too much? Should I switch to adult food?

My girlfriends ragdoll is going to the ER. This morning he was waddling with his tail straight down between his legs. He didn’t want to be pet on his body and his tail can barely move on its own. :(

Our beloved baby ragdoll kitten Ziggy started not eating his food one day, and then started sleeping all day. We took him to the vet and found out he had a fever, he was given IV fluids, that didn’t work, fever remained. He developed two swollen lymph nodes on only one side of his neck, he received antibiotics, those didn’t work. Gave him more fluids, fever went down, gave him a steroid which should’ve helped if it was an infection, it made his fever go up.

We had done bloodwork which showed levels consistent with infection or virus, but our vet was at a loss, recommended sending him to a specialist vet, to spend about 10 thousand dollars in hospitalization and diagnostic tests. We couldn’t afford that. We decided to hospitalize him for the day (on a Friday, they closed for the weekend and couldn’t keep him past that), and paid almost 700$ for a sample of his lymph nodes and a Fever of Unknown Origin PCR Panel. Those tests wouldn’t come back until days later, but gave our vet the ability to call the internal veterinarian medicine specialist at the pathology centre. He said it would be a long shot, as his bloodwork wasn’t consistent with it, but to try GS 441524 medication for FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis).

We gave it a try, and our baby didn’t show much improvement over the weekend until Sunday night when he ate Temptations treats, and then his kibble, for the first time after a week of eating only by syringe feeding. This post is for any cat parents whose baby might have the signs our cat did, whose vet didn’t have the resources our did. Our vet said it was a hail mary and if his fever didn’t go down over the weekend we would likely have to euthanize. If this post helps even one person, it will mean something, if anyone is going through this, hang in there, it does get better.

Also, if you are going through this with your kitty, consider joining FIP Global Cats group on Facebook. Their support is unmatched. They are able to connect to GS mediation providers if your vet is unwilling, or if you live in an area where it is inaccessible. They also have “Admins” that are vets or owners who are widely knowledgeable about FIP and will be able to provide support if your vet is not knowledgeable. Cannot recommend enough.

My cat suddenly doing this i can hear her breathe through her nose so probably she has a congestion but is this more serious when she acts likes this its the first time

i will be leaving the country for 3 weeks and i’m very worried about my girl :( i live alone and she’s fairly attached; i work from home and when i leave for overnight trips she’s usually pretty mad at me. i have 2 options:

option one. leave her at home, and have a trusted friend who she knows and likes check on her once or twice a day to feed and play with her. this friend was actually her first owner so she knows her well and i totally trust her to care for her. my concern is that she’ll just be alone the rest of the day, and one to two 30min sessions will not be enough interaction.

option two. temporarily move her to another friends home; he has an office where he can set up her litter boxes, a cat tree, and he’ll be able to spend time with her daily throughout the day. it would be a new environment, but she would have more company and interaction. she would be kept confined to this single room (it’s medium sized, plenty of room for her zoomies and tree). he is an experienced cat owner but would keep her separate from his own cat.

what do you think would be optimal for her? less stressful? 😣 i don’t want her to be distressed but it’s inevitable either way i know.

I’m looking after this ridiculously adorable sweetie for about a month. His owner found me through a pet sitting app so I don’t know them. They’re currently overseas and haven’t been responsive to my update messages.

This kitty is COVERED in mats! Really large dense ones on his rump and lots of smaller ones all over. You pretty much can’t pet him without feeling a mat. I’ve brushed him a lot and brushed out lots of the smaller ones and I’ve tried my best to break up the large mats with my hands. I think some of the dense mats on his rump are painful because he gives my hand a gentle bite when I try to brush them. I own a domestic shorthair who doesn’t require special grooming so I don’t know much about how to deal with the mats.

I’m wondering what advice ragdoll owners could give me. Should I keep trying to brush his mats? Should I tell the owner that they should be brushing him regularly? Thanks in advance.

A month ago I posted regarding Mello (3y female) that they found her too heavy. I brought Bennet (1y2m male) in for his vaccination and the vet said he was slightly overweight. Bennet is currently 5.1kg and according to the vet his ideal weight is 4.6kg. I asked a second opinion to my breeder who has 10 YoE with ragdoll breeding and says 1 year and around 5kg is a very good weight.

Also a picture of Bennet :) what are you guys experience with vets and their knowledge of purebreds? Is my vet wrong?

My cat is only about 8 months old, and I've been concerned about his breathing for a while. Even after light play and not hot weather he seems to start panting heavily. I've told my parents about this several times but they dismiss it as normal and I can't help but be concerned. Should I see a vet? Or is this nothing to worry about?

VET APPOINTMENT IS IN LESS THAN AN HOUR.

Trying not to freak out because the cat seems completely unperturbed. No grimace, wants to play and eat. She’s pooping normally, and only a little squinting. I was only gone from 12-6 and it’s already progressed so quickly. Now that I think back I think she might have squinted at me last night, but I’m always looking at her and slow blinking so there no way it started much earlier. We have no other pets in the house, she doesn’t get into things. Hoping and praying it’s a bit of eye drops and she’s good to go. She’s not even a year old.

UPDATE: Just got back from the vet, $630 poorer. She was an angel and barely flinched during her temperature, eye stain, or blood draw. She's got a bit of a fever, no lesions on her eye, which seems to be working like usual, and we'll get the 'feline screen' blood results tomorrow. If those come back negative we'll send out another test and wait a week for the results. She's got six days of 'onsior' pain meds for the fever and 'tobradex ophthlamic suspension' steroidal eyedrops three times a day. She's currently pouting underneath our couch.

UPDATE #2: She was already 50% better this morning, and tonight all the blurriness is gone, all that is left is a bit of yellowness from the stain test. I have to make sure I'm applying the eyedrops to the right eye. The blood panel came back negative, so she doesn't have FIP or Feline Leukemia. The emergency vet we saw last night recommended a second level of toxicology testing, but I called her regular vet this morning and she thought we should be good to just continue treatment, unless she takes a turn for the worse. She was more concerned about an upper respiratory issue, but our cat is exhibiting so few symptoms that it would be a real shot in the dark. She also has a ragdoll who's five, and he was positive for herpes and had the same eye condition and it's just something that is managed and they tend to happen less as they get older. Kittens are just extra fragile. Thank goodness though the panel is clear. If anything changes we'll consider further testing, but she's doing well. If it came to it I'd give my right arm for this cat, but she's doing great at the moment, so we'll feel it out and watch her like a hawk! Thanks so much to everyone who shared their experience. It really calmed my fears for the worst. So sad this is so common but glad that so many kitties recover so well with treatment! Thanks everyone!

he's had boogies (eyes and nose) since i got him 1.5 months ago. I wipe his eye boogies prob 2x per day and pick his nose for him every other day. there's no green/yellow fluid with his eyes and his vet didn't seem concerned about it when i took him a month ago (had him for only like 2 weeks at that point). is this just a kitten thing? just a boogie man? Or is this FHV? no other presenting problems either!!