Scentsy Away My Animal Smells.

This is kinda animal related...kinda not. Basically I was watching a youtube video today and there was an item on there that really interested me. 

As people with animals will know, sometimes out of no fault of your own but your house or animal room if you have an animal room will smell of animals. Living in your own house you kind of just get use to the smell. Now personally I don't think the general smell of animal's is horrible, unless of course you've not cleaned out your guinea pigs and they smell of wee or if your cat has just taken a dump in the litter trey! but the normal smell of animal's I don't really think it a horrible smell. However, if you have guests coming round or your just more aware of the 'animal' house smell it's kind of hard to find something that will make your whole house smell nice without having to spray some odor thing which you then can't spray over your rodents, or lighting a candle you then have to keep an eye on in case it catches light. I know you can get those things that plug into a plug socket but lets face it they only really make that one room smell nice and they don't last very long.

So anyway the product I've discovered is called 'Scentsy'.

Now you can get loads of different 'warmers' which you can see some of on the right side of the picture and loads of different smells which you can see on the left. That's not even all of them! There's literally loads!

It works by placing the 'scentsy bars' in the dish on top of the warmers which is then heated up by electricity and melts the bars which releases the smell. Now apparently the smells are really strong and work there was throughout your home which I like the sound of. There's no naked flame and the bars last for ages too supposedly and also if you want to change smells you can because it melts so you melt it down and then pour it back into the molds they came in, which I think is a really good idea! 

You do have to plug them in to electricity and its probably not a good idea to put them on the floor because a cat might light it or stick there nose in it or something so you would have to find an appropriate place to put it near a plug, but even still, I really like them personally. I'm going to get one, try it out and then post a review on what I actually think of the product. Even if it doesn't smell throughout the house or it doesn't live up to expectations then I wont mind to much as I think the little 'warmers' are really cool and decorative anyway! 

Here's a link for the main website: 

http://scentsy.com/products/home-decor-fragrance/candle-wax-warmers

They have loads of other products too not just the wax warmers, if you click on find a consultant you can put in your address and find our nearer one.

I'm going to go through the person who was recommended on youtube called 'Laura' and here is her link:

https://waxworks.scentsy.co.uk/

So once it has arrived I will test it out and post up a product review! 

If you have any questions just leave a comment!

Cat

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Tippys Emergency Trip To The Vets

Hey guys, so last night the whole house was awoken at around half past 3 to cats fighting in the house. We immediately knew that the 'horrible' cat was in, now he's been coming into the garden and house for awhile bullying out older cat Timmy who fights back and often gets hurt in the process. However, Tippy is now permanently out of the cage, he's been out of his cage at night  for around 3 or 4 nights now and everything has been fine, apart from last night. So anyway we all ran down stairs and the horrible cat ran out shortly followed by a very verry fluffy bushy Tippy. I don't know why Tippy ran maybe because we scared him and he was just trying to get away or because he was following the other cat. To cut a long story short he eventually turned up again in the garden so I picked him up and brought him upstairs where he stayed all night, and then all day too. 

I went in and stroked him a few times but just thought maybe he was tired and stressed out probably from shock. The last time I went to stroke him was around 5 and I touched his left front limb and he meowed at me and pulled away, I went to touch it again and could feel and then see that it was extremely swollen and obviously painful. He then tried to walk around the bed from where he was laying and wasn't putting any weight on his leg at all. I rang the vet immediately and they told me to go in straight away. 

The vet said that it was an abscess and he tried to drain some of the fluid/puss out of his very swollen leg, he shaved the leg which then made the various cat bites visible. I feel so sorry for him, he's so young and clearly suffered a violent attack from a cat much bigger than him. The vet gave him a convinia which made him abit dopy and metacam, he's now on metacam orally from tomorrow untill Monday when I have to take him back to the vets.

This evening Tippy's been purring a lot and kinda walking around half putting weight on his leg but not really. He wouldn't bend down to eat straight away but he was hungry so we hand fed him some food. Since then he's got a lot better, the painkiller has started working and he's putting more weight on his leg and also bent down to eat some food from the bowl. He's still being very careful though but that's expected it must be very painful for him, poor boy.

I just thought I'd let you all know, sorry I've not been around in awhile and not posted a lot of blogs, but as some of you may know I lost a guinea pig on Thursday so I've been focused on Amber mostly and helping her though it. I'll post a blog on how she's doing and how I've been helping her through everything tomorrow! 

Hope everyone's okay! And enjoying the weather! If you have any question's feel free to leave a comment! Thanks guys! 

Cat 

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Some Sad News

Hey guys, so some of you may know I lost one of my girls Trixie yesterday. Its only been a day and I'm not doing so brilliantly, everything reminds me of her. I bought some new stuff for Amber today and all I could think was 'I wish Trixie was here to experience these new things'. Things will be hard but I know I have to be strong for Amber. 

Anyway, today I thought it would be a good idea to get Amber out and give her a bit of company. I got her out with my boyfriend and gave her a groom and a stroke, she loves to lick his arms so he had a cuddle with her. Then I decided to give her some grass time but I didn't want to see her on her own. So I sat in there with her just to make sure she was okay. Most the time she spent by my legs. I got out to get a drink at one point and she started to squeak and climb the bars, no sooner I got back in she scrambled on my legs and into my arms. I really felt a connection between us then as well, like we felt the same things but had each other. She eventually went asleep on me, and it gave me some happiness. I will miss Trixie terribly but a part of her will always live on through Amber.

I knew she wouldn't be alive forever but it was so fast and such a shock I think that's why its hit me so hard. I will probably do a proper blog post in a couple of days to explain what happened but at the moment I just thought I would let you all know as its hard to remember what happened without getting teary. 

RIP Trixie

Here are some pictures of Amber from today.

Cat

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Trixie's Visit To The Vets.

Hey guys, if you follow me on twitter you may know that last night I notice that Trixie was poorly. Whilst changing the hay I noticed that her bum end was really bald, red and swollen! Now previously I had thought she had a UTI (urinary tract infection) because she was really wet around her bum like she had been weeing herself, so I cleaned her up and gave her a bath and she seemed to get better, she stopped being so wet anyway. Also she was really squeeky all last week, but I put that down to the fact she could smell grass and wanted a treat and when fed a treat she was fine.

So today I took her to the vet, all day she had pretty much been sitting in the same position not moving, eating or drinking I was really worried and had to wait till 5 to get her to the vet. Anyway, he examined her and said that basically she could have a UTI and that's what she's being treated for but also she could have stones. Now that's really quiet bad, and pretty common in guinea pigs. To find out whether she has stones though she needs an x-ray, which means she will have to be sedated and for anyone who has small animal will know, this is potentially dangerous as they may not wake up.

She's on Metacam & Baytril, and if she's no better by Saturday the vet said to bring her in that day because if its a UTI it should have cleared up a bit by then and if it hasn't then it's probably stones! 

I've got all my fingers and toes crossed that she gets better because I really don't want her to have to be sedated, she's only 3 so not too old but never the less it still carries risks.

This is what her bum looks like at the moment, a bit bald and soar. Just before I put her back in the cage with Amber she started bleed though, like a really gloopy kind of blood, worrying but I guess tonight is going to get worse before it gets better. I've given her one Metacam and one Baytril. I have to give two of one of them a day but I cant remember which one, Baytril I would imagine.

Look away if your about to have dinner!!!

 

While I was in Pets At Home at Companion Care I thought I would pick up a new carrier case thingy, I've been using a small cat one which to be quite honest with you is a right pain in the bum! We have a big one and a small one, but the big ones too big and the small one has stupid handles that fall out so you end up dropping whatever you have in there (Luckily I found this out when Tippy was in it and he didn't fall far). So I bought one for small animals, its quite small but when we take them somewhere they quite like to curl up together in the corner anyway so I figured it wouldn't really matter, plus their never in it for long! So here it is, I bought a grey one. It was actually broken, well I say broken I don't mean broken as in not fixable. The handles were backwards so basically you couldn't push them right down to get the lid up properly, anyway my boyfriend switched the handles and its fine now, they flap down and I can open the lid properly. I like it, its much easier to carry them around especially if I ever have to take them anywhere on my own I can just sit it on my lap instead of lugging a massive thing around! Very happy with my purchase and it was only £13 which I think is pretty good! Even if they handles were a bit confused.

Anyway, I will keep you all updated daily on how Trixie is doing! 

If your going through the same thing at the moment or have gone through the same thing the please leave a comment I would love to hear about your stories! 

Cat

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Bella Cat

Hello lovely people, sorry this is later than expected! I went to castle combe this weekend for the French car show. I had planned on posting this up on Friday but we got stuck in traffic! and then on Saturday we got stuck in traffic coming home! Nightmare! Anyway, better late than never folks! 

Today's blog is all about my Bella cat. Shes 10 years old and has a brother called Timmy. We acquired them from one of my best friends when they were only 7 or 8 weeks old. When they were kittens they came with a St.Paddy's day hat which they slept in together! It was super cute! 

As she grew it was clear that she was pretty much my cat, she would sit on me whenever she could, follow me around the house and sleep in my room at night. Despite the fact it was my mum who use to feed her. 

When I was in secondary school I had a pretty tough time, it's a pretty weird thing to say and explain, especially to people who have never had animals, but during that time I really felt as if she was always there for me, when friends came and went she was always the 'person' who was there. Not because she lived here and because she had no choice but because she had the whole of the house but spent her time with me, curled up on my lap or by my feet. Even if I was having a bad day and she was no where to be seen, if I was upset she would know and come and curl up with me. Now people without animals will probably think "yeah right whatever she was probably hungry or wanted a stroke" but that wasn't it, it was different like the fact she was there wasn't for her but for me.

She is still my cat even now, now shes 10! Although slightly more annoying, she'll come and find me and just meow constantly until she's stroked. She has these 'kneading boxers' on my bed, which are (or were) brand new boxers she took a liking to and have been hers ever since. In all honesty though, when she does start meowing for attention and pawing at my arm there the first thing I look for to shut her up for 5 minuets. 

Bella's getting a bit 'moany' in her old age, she spends the majority of her time meowing, eating or sleeping. She doesn't really go out much, only to go toilet or if someones out in the garden. She's very nervous and loud or sudden noises seem to scare the bajebus out of her! Especially carrier bags! She can't stand a carrier bag. She does have her scatty moments where she'll let out this really funny meow and go running through the house! It's hilarious, we have laminate flooring in the hallway and she'll go flying and slipping all along it! We put a carpet near the front door to stop them from smashing into it every time they had a crazy half hour, it works to a certain extent but sometimes they still hit it.

She sheds a lot of fur! Every time you stroke her you come away with half of another cat! She also gets quite bad eyes, they get all crusty and hard in the corners so I have to clean them regularly for her, which she's thankfully got more use to as the times gone on, she use to hate it!

'Touch wood' she's never been seriously ill, unlike her brother who seems to be accident prone! But I have a sneaky suspicion she has a condition called 'twitchy back syndrome' which is caused by stressed mainly. She's not great with the other kitty's, well actually saying that she'll have days where she's fine with them. Sometimes she'll be fine with Tippy curling up right next to her, and I would even go as far as saying she enjoys it! But other days, she can be so catty! (haha..get it...catty...sorry) She won't be having non of it from anyone! Some nights before bed Tink will go all weird and start attacking her, sometimes I'll have to break it up but Bella's quite a feisty little thing when she wants to be. I find Bella gets the twitchy back if there are a lot of people around or if something has changed. There isn't a treatment for it though apart from reducing stress in the environment which I try to do by having her sit with me which seems to calm her down. 

 Bella's not like normal cats in any sort of way, she won't eat 'human' food, like cooked chicken or cooked fish. She'd much rather have a cat treat. Its rare that she'll eat some ham, but normally if she does it's because I'm feeding it to her. I know cheese and cream is bad for cats as they're lactose intolerant but if I have cheese or pudding with cream I cant resist giving her some as she's my little Bella cat and gives me the eyes.

She quite likes to sit in or on something, normally a box, or a paper bag. If there's one or the other laying around you can guarantee you'll find her curled up in/on it. Give her an actual cat basket though and she doesn't even give it a glance, typical cat. She's a tad strange for laying on thing's and will often use things as a pillow. 

Her favorite thing being a toy scratchy fish, she'll have a play with it and then just resort to laying her head on it and having a sleep. She doesn't play much, only with a piece of ribbon or the toy fish really. Sometimes she'll make the most pathetic attempt to catch a fly, and I mean the most pathetic attempt! She'll be sitting there when it flies past her and she'll try and swipe it with one paw, and then decide she can't be bothered and just let it buzz around her.

She is a bit of a dopey cat but I love her none the less, even if she does dribble all over me, or take up half the bed! She's one of the oldest cats in this household and I think she copes pretty well with that. Bella and her brother Timmy are the first proper cats I really had and they've taught me so much about how cats behave and what signs to look for if their angry, sad or in discomfort. Not only have they taught me things but they've given me so many fits of giggles though their years and still make me laugh. 

If you have any questions about Bella cat, or any questions in general feel free to leave a comment below!

Thanks guys!

Cat

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Tippys Trip To The Vet

Hey guys, I took Tippy to the vet today for a check up after last weeks injections. He was given two antibiotic injections to treat a little infection that had started in his mouth. Today, when the vet opened up his mouth and had a look the infection had all but a tiny bit of red gone! Which is great news as I think it had been stopping him from eating his food and last week the vet had said that he was under weight for his age and size. So hopefully now he can finish up all his food without any pain. He was given another antibiotic injection just to make sure its all cleared up and doesn't come back. I don't have to take him back now for another three months!

While we were at the vets there was a massive dog that came in, and as you can see in the picture Tippy was not happy, and made a quick retreat under his blanket keeping his eye on him. The dog was a bit scary, he was massive and the owner couldn't really control him that well so kept running at the small dog that was sitting next to us also trying to hide behind its owner.

Sorry this is a fairly short blog, I'm going away tomorrow for the weekend but tomorrows blog will be on my Bella cat, one of the oldest cats in the house hold and certainly showing it, her day pretty much consists of meowing, dribbling, eating and sleeping. She is pretty much known as 'my' cat as every opportunity she gets to sit and dribble on me she takes, and she follows me around the place like a dog. 

Anyway that will be up tomorrow! With a few pictures of her, although because shes black you cant really ever see her eye... (black cat problems)!

If you have any questions be sure to leave a comment :)!

Cat

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Amber & Trixie, The Guinea Pigs

Amber and Trixie are 3 years old, they use to live outside but now they live inside in a 'rabbit' cage from pets at home. They have an outside run which they go in often and a inside run if the weathers bad so that they can come out of their cage and have a bigger area to exercise and play.

When we first had them they had a small cold so I had to administer baytril everyday for a week, it was a bit of a nightmare because Amber had it first and then Trixie had it while Amber was just getting over it and then passed it back to Amber! It was a bit of a vicious circle and I think it lasted a couple of weeks before both of them were healthy.

Amber is grey with 'amber' bits on her face, back and bum. Shes a Crested guinea pig and is the bravest and most loving out of both of them, she loves cuddles and licking you if she's enjoying your strokes. She also likes to have her chin stroked and will sit there for ages letting you stroke her under there.

She's not too keen on water and often freezes no sooner I put her in the bath. Amber is a 'pop-corner' and you'll often see her running around pop-corning after shes been put into her run or when they've been cleaned out. 

We recently had to take her to the vets because she wasn't putting any weight on her leg and I was really worried that she had dislocated it or broken it, luckily the vet said it was only a sprain and gave her a painkiller (which she really didn't like)! She's fine now and back to her normal self! 

Trixie is the most common type of guinea pig, an American guinea pig. She is mostly cream with white on her forehead and flick of white along her body. She likes a cuddle too, but will often give of a little burr if you stroke her in the wrong place, or if you stop stroking her completely. She doesn't like to be picked up initially, but when you have managed to catch her she's lovely and likes to be handled. Like Amber she likes to lick your arms and hands but will occasionally give you a little nip by accident. Trixie is a shy guinea pig and likes to hide if she's in the run, she's more confident when Amber is out exploring, and will follow her around the place if shes unsure. 

She can be a bit of a bully at times and will push Amber away from the food bowl so she can have the biggest piece of veg. 

Just before Christmas I discovered a white lump/cyst between her eye and ear, I was pretty worried that it could be cancerous so I took her to the vet who looked at it and advised that as long as it doesn't seem to be giving her any discomfort or gets any bigger the best thing to do is to leave it. We could have had it operated off but that would require a anesthetic which is dangerous when it comes to small animals. So I check it every time I handle her but so far its stayed the same and doesn't seem to be causing her any pain.

I uploaded a video awhile back on how I clean out my girls, but since filming that I actually changed from sawdust bedding to fleece. I made the fleece myself and placed a water absorbent pad inside the wallet of fleece I stitched together, to give it some extra absorbency. Amber use to get really soar, swollen feet on sawdust but since changing it I have noticed a massive difference. Not only do the girls seem happier but it smells a lot less and I've found that I don't have to fully clean it out as soon as I did with sawdust, and as long as i remove the faeces, old food and hay daily it stays clean and smells fresh for at least twice the amount of time the sawdust use to.

I'll leave the cleaning video below for people who still use sawdust and are interested in how I full clean the cage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYi3PtekJDg

If you have any questions about my girls be sure to leave a comment either on my blog or on my youtube video! :)

Cat

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Tippy Toes, Calicivirus and Growing Up

So as some of you may know if you have read my earlier blogs that my youngest cat/kitten Tippy has Calicivirus. 

What is Calicivirus you say? Calicivirus is a virus that causes many flu like symptoms, there are varying severity of the disease and luckily in Tippy we caught it early! Tippy's symptoms were in the mouth, basically his gums were very red and swollen and he had multiple ulcers but the teeth themselves looked clean and healthy. He didn't show any other signs of the virus as hes young and the vet said that it is common in Calicivirus cats that their mouth is affected first. In many cases they are adults when someone notices they have Calicivirus and they may only notice because their cat has dental problems, many of these cats will need all their teeth out, but with Tippy as he was a kitten when they performed the dental they only had to take out two teeth and flush out the gums. 

What happens now? Well hes on a 6 month course of Interferon which increases and helps the immune system, while destroying the virus cells in his body. Some people say that its chemotherapy for animals. 

I took him to the vet on Tuesday for a check up as I was aware that he had started biting things again and was being very fussy with his food. The vet looked in his mouth and he has a slight secondary infection in his gums and he is quite a bit underweight, but the vet thinks that so far the Calicivirus itself is subsiding and the Interferon is working! Which is great news! As a kitten with Calicivirus the future for him is bright and after the 6 months we hope that he will be completely free of the virus and can live a full healthy happy life!

When we visited the vets, Tippy was given a antibiotic injection as well as a nausea injection and painkiller. Since last Tuesday its been a week and he seems to be eating more, on a good day hes eating at least 2 pouches and a half plus dry food! It makes me feel a little less stressed knowing hes eating at least!!

If there's anything else you would like to know about the Calicivirus or any questions in how we're dealing with it, feel free leave a comment with any questions you have! 

Tippy has grown quite a bit! Only two months and he'll be a year old! 

He's still very active and playful though and he loves going in the garden.

He's been getting out and going into neighboring gardens which at first I was scared about but he is coming home every now and again and often will just sit in the middle of the garden and sleep. I left him out on his own for the first time the other day when I went out, he knows how to use the cat flap so I knew if he got scared he would just run in and hide somewhere. My boyfriend was in and I got this text saying that Tippy had been attacked by next doors dog! A little Jack Russel called Tuga who we recently looked after while they went on holiday. Anyway I rushed home to make sure he was okay, he wasn't physically injured but he was really lethargic and i think he was a bit shocked. My boyfriend said he was bushier than he had ever seen him and that he had somehow found his way out of their garden but let out a high pitched squeel which is weird for Tippy as he cant even meow properly, but then suddenly appeared in the garden and ran straight through the cat flap and upstairs where he just laid down in the bedroom. The next day though he seemed fine and was back out in the garden after spending the rest of the previous day inside sleeping somewhere. He has been put off getting into the neighboring dog garden though and now goes the other way instead.

Tippy is doing well considering his virus and if you were to see him without knowing you wouldn't even think that he was poorly! 

Here are some photos of Tippy enjoying his growing life in the garden from the past couple of weeks.

 Tippy guarding the guinea pigs

 Timmy & Tippy

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below!

Cat

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Quick Update

Hey guys!

Its been ages since I've posted anything i admit, but i will get back into it now! Its been a bit hepatic here recently! I'll fill you in in a proper blog I'll post up after this one, I'll do one on Tippy and then on the guinea pigs as they have been poorly recently! Trixie is still poorly but I plan on taking her to the vet!

Anyway this was just a quick one letting you all know that I'm back, I've downloaded the app on my phone so now I'll be able to post up anything that happens and I may even start a daily blog just generally on all the animals, it will probably consist of mostly pictures as I'm pretty sure I take at least one picture every day of one of them!

Keep your eyes open for my new blog!

Cat

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