Giving up your pet

Anyone had to give up their pet for the babies health and safety?

I think I may have to get rid of my cat, which will break my heart. She's been peeing on the carpet and bringing fleas in the house. I can't have fleas on the babies or them crawling in a spot that she could have peed on. I hate this

 

We had to give up one of our dogs when the babies came. She was very loving with adults, but has a history of growling at kids (I adopted her and suspect she wasn't treated well by the kids of her previous family). I just didn't trust her. I miss her terribly, but we sent her to live with my parents on their farm. They live 7 hours away, so we won't get to see her often, but I know she is happy because she gets a lot of attention from my parents. I still cried when she had to leave. We're all better off this way though. Can you find a relative or friend who would be able to take her?

 

QUOTE(Beth*J @ May 28 2008, 09:28 AM) [snapback]797411[/snapback]
We had to give up one of our dogs when the babies came. She was very loving with adults, but has a history of growling at kids (I adopted her and suspect she wasn't treated well by the kids of her previous family). I just didn't trust her. I miss her terribly, but we sent her to live with my parents on their farm. They live 7 hours away, so we won't get to see her often, but I know she is happy because she gets a lot of attention from my parents. I still cried when she had to leave. We're all better off this way though. Can you find a relative or friend who would be able to take her?


Well I'm going to try Frontline for the fleas first. For the urinating, I don't know. I can't afford to treat her if she has any problems. I hope my aunt will take her and give her the care she may need. sorry about your dog, but you still get to see her when you visit.

 

We had three cats- and had to give them all away before the babies got here. I could not deal with having cat hair everywhere and the litter box anymore. I am allergic to cats- and was supposed to get rid of them a long time ago. I didn't want to chance it that the babies were allergic too.

 

We found a new home for our dog a few months ago....after discovering one DD had severe dog (grass, weed, and dust) allergies. It was hard, but the right choice for our family. She lives with an older gentleman nearby.

KC

 

The dogs were fine but our cat had to go. She just got to where she peed on everything. We think it was her acting out from a lack of attention. Gave her to a friend that dearly loves cats so I don't feel too bad but I do miss her.

 

There is a product (expensive - of course) called Feliway. It is a pheremone which relaxes the cat. I've used it for my cat for car trips and vet visits to great success. It could relax her more so she's not so upset and acting out. Also, some dogs do well on anti-anxiety meds - don't know about cats. I once had 5 cats, 2 passed away before the babies came, 2 went to my ex after the babies came and I'm left with one very needy girl who, fortunately, stays out the babies' way. If she started acting out, however, and nothing helped, I'd definitely have to find another home for her. I'm a single mom of twins and my hands are full!

 

QUOTE(Momto2es @ May 28 2008, 10:48 AM) [snapback]797595[/snapback]
There is a product (expensive - of course) called Feliway. It is a pheremone which relaxes the cat. I've used it for my cat for car trips and vet visits to great success. It could relax her more so she's not so upset and acting out. Also, some dogs do well on anti-anxiety meds - don't know about cats. I once had 5 cats, 2 passed away before the babies came, 2 went to my ex after the babies came and I'm left with one very needy girl who, fortunately, stays out the babies' way. If she started acting out, however, and nothing helped, I'd definitely have to find another home for her. I'm a single mom of twins and my hands are full!


I think I have tried that. Is it a spray that you spray into the carpets, that supposed to mask the smell so the cat doesn't pick up the scent and urinate in that spot again? It's like $50? If so, we tried that, didn't seem to work for her. And yeah expensive to keep buying. thank you though for the tip

 

I started typing my long and drawn-out story about giving up my two cats shortly before my twins were born, but I don't have the time! What it boils down to is this- our kids come first, and we have nothing to feel guilty about! You can't have your cat peeing all over, it just isn't healthy. I do hope you can find a good home, and I know it is hard...

 

I had to give up these beauties when I was pregnant and on bed rest. My living area is on the second floor and bedrooms on the third so I couldn't go up and down the stairs to take them out and we knew that once the babies got here it would be too much to maintain 2 newborns and 2 inside Boxers and our sanity. My in-laws took them to San Antonio where they stayed in the backyard with their Rott. and our intentions were to get them back when the boys were a few months old. Well they brought Liston (the oldest and dearest to our hearts) and he was MISERABLE! He didn't eat the entire weekend. He followed my MIL around the whole time. He missed his new home and his yard (we don't have one) and his dog buddies. We knew then that we had pretty much lost them. I have to admit that it was indeed a little sad becuase we THOUGHT we loved Liston like our child (Sonny not so much) as he had been with us all through college but you'd be amazed at how easy it is to sacrifice the pet for the babies. I swore I would never replace them with the boys and my mom was always willing to bet that once the babies got here I would feel differently. She was right-I love seeing them every couple of months when I visit my in-laws but we have definitely not lost any sleep over their absence as terrible as that sounds. I hope you can find someone you know to take him or at least a good home. Either way, you're doing what's best for your children so please don't feel guilty...and you WILL get over it, probably quicker than you'll like to admit

 

So far we are ok with the cat. The girls LOVE him but he can be testy and has "bitten" a couple of people. He does not do this out of meanness but to get attention (which I guess you could say is mean - he gets mad when you stop petting him).

If he ever comes close to biting one of the girls, he is gone. Period.

 

That is always hard. We had to give up one of our cats when the boys were around 3 months old. She was so high strung and jealous that she would actually walk on them and try and get my attention if she saw that I was going for one of the boys. She had total disregard for them. It was heartbreaking but I knew that I needed to keep them safe and if that meant giving up by little Bonnie, then so be it. We're contemplating our other cat. He doesn't really bother them, he's lazy and just lets them pull on him. But, he has so much fur that it's starting to effect them. I have noticed they get little red patches on the top of their hands if they touch him. His time may be soon!

Good luck on whatever you decide to do!

 

QUOTE(bday111707 @ May 28 2008, 12:19 PM) [snapback]797389[/snapback]
Anyone had to give up their pet for the babies health and safety?

I think I may have to get rid of my cat, which will break my heart. She's been peeing on the carpet and bringing fleas in the house. I can't have fleas on the babies or them crawling in a spot that she could have peed on. I hate this


Hey,

I totally know how you feel about your cats. Our cats were the center of our world til the boys were born and then they got revengeful to us for them not getting all the attention they use to get.

We are in the middle of trying to figure out what to do too.

This is what we've tried and what has not worked for us:

1. Multiple Litter boxes - VERDICT: DIDN'T WORK: It just added to the places they could go and "go around"
2. Feliaway - we did the plug in version (I spend way more then I wanted to for this) I ended up getting 5 of them to place them all over the house basically where my two cats liked to pee and poop. VERDICT: DIDN'T WORK: It calmed the cats down but just made them calm pee'rs out side their litter box.
3. Putting the cats in a "confined area" - VERDICT: DIDN'T WORK: They are howlers to begin with and they just destroyed the room and peed their and YELLED to the top of their kitty lungs
4. Paxil: VERDICT: SO FAR SO GOOD: OK we decided to give our cats anti-depressents (sorry Tom Cruise), they both get about 1mg a day and we grind it up and put in their wet food in the morning rather then fight them with pills. We've been giving it to them for about 2 weeks now and we still have accidents (like this morning when I stepped in cat pee beside the bed) but they are becoming less.

To be honest, we have been debating about giving them away. Our boys are crawling and the last thing we want is cat poo and pee on them (I can't even imagine the bacteria on that!!) We've given ourselve a cut off date and if we don't see drastic improvements they will either become 1. an outdoor cat 2. A cat for a someone else.

We are at our wits end but we feel we need to give them a chance since they didn't ask to have the babies in the house and we are still trying to figure them out. Our vet said if Paxil doesn't work he wants to try a strong drug and go from there. I honestly don't know if I can wait that long, but I thought this might help you ... I hate to say it but so far the drugs are the only things that seem to be working.

BTW: I get their prescription filled at CVS and it only cost $25 for the meds (no insurance for the kitties)

 

QUOTE
Paxil: VERDICT: SO FAR SO GOOD: OK we decided to give our cats anti-depressents (sorry Tom Cruise),


:rotflmbo:

i would just say that your babies DO in fact, come first, and no animal rights activist can argue with that. i also SWORE up and down that my outside babies (dogs) would continue to be very important once the babies came, and i didn't even introduce them until 4 or 5 months after they were born. i have always been concerned about my giant schnauzer with kids, but so far so good, though i am always holding the babies or have them in their pnp when the dogs have been around. they hardly came in the house before the babies, and now they never do....i will take it as it comes, but if i had ANY sort of problem--whether with aggression or hygiene, they would be OUTTA here

sandra