High Maintenance Pets

[Misanthropic Monster™]

 I wondered if anyone else here has high maintenance pets that - whilst a lot of hard work - are totally worth it and you wouldn't change it for anything!

I have a lot of pets (you can see a bunch of photos of them on my site in the critters section) - but my three cats must be the highest maintenance out of all of them. One of my cats (Mordecai) is a senior 18+ cat who has chronic kidney disease and anxiety (he was a feral/rescue cat who I adopted in 2017, and he had clearly suffered a lot of abuse and hardship before I found him). He has to be fed a very specific medicated diet, at very specific times and because of his anxiety around food especially, he has to be fed in a separate room to my other two. (Other than eating, he has no real anxiety or discomfort around the other cats).

Gizmo is a Sphynx cat, other than needing a lot of bathing/grooming due to not having fur, he also has problems with his ears and eyes where he secretes more ear wax and eye gunk than normal - even for a hairless cat - so despite having his weekly bath, he also has to have daily ear and eye cleans (and sometimes when he wakes up he is covered in ear wax!) so that can make him quite a lot of work.

Goblin is my smallest little Sphynx cat, she is the least maintenance of all the cats though she still requires a lot of work due to her negligent past (her previous owner had her living with three large dogs who would torment her, she has a few scars on her body where they clearly must have been too rough with her) so she needs a lot of special care and love compared to the other two as she tends to have panic attacks.

I love my cats so much and I am grateful I work remotely so I am home all the time to care for them. 

Just maintaining their four litter trays can be tough as I have to clean them all out about 3-4 times a day! But it's all worth it when I am getting cuddles, or I look into their little eyes.   

[malice]

My childhood dog was an English Bulldog who used to be a show dog before we adopted her and she was the definition of high maintenance both in terms of care and personality! With this certain breed, you have to be very careful when trimming their nails or else they can die from the shock and stress :( She was allergic to some foods (which the previous owners disregarded entirely and it caused some problems), her tail was infected when we got her so it had to be completely cut out, and she was also a total diva hehe. She would hit you if you didn't give her what she wanted right away!

My family also has had their fair share of dogs who had heartworms and other health problems when we got them, diabetic pets on strict diets and insulin schedules, and just pets who acted like they ran the place (and lets be real, they totally did )

It's all worth it for them though

[Misanthropic Monster™]

Awh, the poor pupper - sucks that she had it that tough. It also irks me when previous owners will neglect things like that... the previous owners of my two sphynxes (same person) didn't even feed them sphynx specific food, so they were having all kinds of digestive issues poor things :/

It sounds like you/your fam definitely had a lot of experience with high maintenance pets. They totally do run the place! I know my three run the house lol!

[malice]

the previous owners of my two sphynxes (same person) didn't even feed them sphynx specific food, so they were having all kinds of digestive issues poor things :/

Aw that's awful! I'm glad they're in good hands now.

[Misanthropic Monster™]

Aw that's awful! I'm glad they're in good hands now.

Thanks    I try my best! I admit when I went into adopting two Sphynx cats, I knew they were high maintenance but not quite to this degree, so I did go in a little unprepared but they're totally worth it and it wasn't hard to research everything I needed to know! They're now on a Sphynx cat specific diet with higher calories and specially shaped kibble for their jaws, they get weekly baths with moisturizing and claw maintenance and they have daily eye/ear washes! They seem to be happy so hopefully I am doing all the right stuff