Krista's Care

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daftcat75

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I think “some other cat” has returned.

Most of the time I hide in the kitchen while she eats. Back in her pancreatitis days, if I distracted her or she saw me too soon, she would pull up short. She probably worked it out that between what she eats and what’s on the plate, there would be bribes coming.

We haven’t had that issue in awhile (hairballs not withstanding). But when she finishes her portion in one go and leaves me a clean plate, I say to her, “some other cat must have came in and ate your food.”

This is why we have yet another camera now.*

I’ll catch “some other cat” in the act one day!
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(*Also I may want to see how she does on the feeders while I’m away.)
 
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daftcat75

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It looks like Krista. But it must be “some other cat.” When I left this morning, nibbling Krista was a meal behind. I came back for lunch and she was just a quarter portion behind. So I put out a half portion and a quarter in each feeder. I was watching her on the camera and I caught the moment she finished the plate and decided to eat from the feeder. But her butt is still parked in from of the plate. My little fur pig!
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The timing of the feeders is still a great mystery. But I'm so glad that she's accepted them now.

I don't know that I ever sleep the night through. I don't understand those who do. I usually have a first sleep of two to three hours length. I have as much as an hour of wakefulness before I go back to sleep for second sleep. This one often takes me clear to meowrning. Farmers have roosters to wake them. I have a cat. Most mornings I go back for a third sleep of a couple of hours between Krista's breakfasts. I'm trying to break myself of that since I've returned to the office.

Krista’s last dinner is at 10. I set the feeder for 3 hours. I’m usually between sleeps at 1am. This is convenient because I can clean Krista’s boxes if she wants to leave a post-meal present. This is still better than before because I don’t have an artificial sunrise waking me. I usually don’t have a cat waking me either. She skirts around me instead of crossing over me.

Last night, I wake at 1. I grab my phone and Krista wakes. I look to the feeder. “Sorry babe. Shoe isn’t open yet.” She gets up, walks around me instead of crossing over my chest (thank you!) and sits against my hip on the feeder side of me. “It’s out of my hands. It’s supposed to be open but I don’t know what’s up with the timer. Whateva! It does what it wants!” I give her some scritches on her backend. And get some trills in return. But I’m also mindful of her hips because that’s where she’s been cranky and sore before the Loop. Less so since the Loop so thanks for that! She eventually gave up on the feeder and went back to her side of the bed.

And then it finally opened closer to 2am than 1am. I’m trying to convince her it’s open, “babe! babe! Hey! Shoe’s open! Food! Go get it!,” and she’s giving me the “I just got back to laying down. I’ll get to it later. I said later. Good day, sir!”

Sure enough she did go for it after about a half hour of motivating herself. And she left me a post-meal pee just to make sure I also got up late.

We will keep working on the feeder timing. But I’m very grateful that she’s doesn’t do the feed me song and dance in the middle of the night anymore. And if she is awake before me in the morning, she’ll try the feeders before she tries me.
:yess:
 
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daftcat75

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I bought Krista another Katris set. I catch her on the camera hanging out on the blocks a lot. So I figure if I replace the trees she’s not using with blocks she will use, she’ll feel better if she’s more active. I also want her to have paths down from the media bench and the kitchen counter because she doesn’t want to use the same path down as the path up. I can see her hesitating on her jumps down now. So that’s telling me that her front legs/shoulders are starting to bother her more. I want to balance an easy old age with routines that still keep her moving. I know that my own chronic back pain feels better with movement than rest. For this, I’m also going to try harder to initiate play with her. A little bit at a time at first. We can build up to it as she feels better. She’s still more annoyed than excited by the Loop. But I still find a way to Loop her when she’s sleeping too hard to resist. I hope she continues to show improvement.
 
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daftcat75

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I have been up an hour waiting for the feeder to open. “I’ll this round of Angry Birds 2 and then check on it again.”

Oops! This one was on me. Somehow I ended up engaging the manual lock override. If I hadn’t got up to inspect it, it never would have opened on its own tonight.
 
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Sometimes the Loop soups her poops. That’s fun to say. Not so much to clean up. Catasstrophe! (sic) That’s fun to say too.

This time right after second breakfast during a 9 am conference call. I spent most of the call doing cat tasks. Thank goodness for mute and speakerphone. Also thank goodness for having a duplicate box. I dumped the old one. Gave it a wipe down and put it in the shower for further clean up later. The dupe is deployed its place with fresh litter. I’ll make sure she’s using this one again before I swap out the other one for its dupe. She’s not picky. I’m methodical.

I asked Loop support about the Loop soup poops and they said sometimes it improves motility. The rep I spoke with thinks it is possible that the gut and butt are going to go a little crazy as healing happens if there is healing left to do. I do remember we had these soup poops the first time we did the ole “heal and seal.”

Clearly the constant ear flares suggest it was incomplete or we could use another round.

I want to make her a meat stock like feline-nutrition recommends. Apparently this is gentler than bone broth. Maybe it will be more appealing too. Bone broth is a no from Krista.

Her probiotic does a good job. Her soup poop didn’t have form but it had the correct color and odor. Vastly different from the Cosequin/GlycoFlex soup poops. Still no fun for either of us.

She’s a trooper. But she definitely earned her morning under the bookcase.
 
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daftcat75

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"Warm it up, Kris! I'm about to..."

This is Chicago Cubs' third baseman, Kris Bryant's walk-up song for home game at bats.

This is also Krista's first dinner song. Her other meals come too early or too late to be playing this. But for first dinner, this is my coming home to feed her jam.

:clapcat:

"I'm not your gravy!"

I came home yesterday a little sweaty from walking about town much of the day. As I was fixing her first dinner, what started as a couple love kisses kept going into a full-on, "I'll lap you all up!" session. Apparently my salty sweat was very appealing to her. Which lead me to eventually exclaim to her, "I'm not your gravy!"
:crackup::catrub:
 
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daftcat75

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Good news: The fur pig weighed in at 9.5 lbs yesterday morning.
Bad news: She's still gaining. I need to start tracking her calories and figure out how many she really needs to maintain and not gain.

Bad news: She tossed a couple hair balls yesterday.
Good news: She didn't seem worse for the wear when her appetite returned last night rather than waiting a few days like last time.

Bad news: She gave back some of last night's meal.
Good news: Before I even learned of her hairballs, I stopped at the store and picked up a couple turkey thighs, a couple of drumsticks, and a brand new crock pot since I don't cook or eat meat (other than fish) myself. She's a lucky cat!

Good news: She loves the stock I made!
Bad news: There's so much of it. I have no idea how I'm going to sieve, separate, and store it all. I guess a lot of it will get frozen.

So I'm working from home today while she's sleeping off the morning under the bookcase. I will step out for brunch soon and come back to check on her. Tonight we'll figure out how to sieve, separate, and store the stock. But not before I get more in her. I'm really hoping she'll still like the stock once I get the marrow out into it. Maybe she can have a homemade meal of meat and stock once a day. She must be getting bored of Rawz turkey all the time. But she gets sick on anything else. Here's hoping the stock will heal and seal her gut so we can try new old foods again (like Rawz rabbit or maybe even her fish flakes if this fixes her food allergies like it is supposed to.)
 

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Good news: The fur pig weighed in at 9.5 lbs yesterday morning.
Bad news: She's still gaining. I need to start tracking her calories and figure out how many she really needs to maintain and not gain.

Bad news: She tossed a couple hair balls yesterday.
Good news: She didn't seem worse for the wear when her appetite returned last night rather than waiting a few days like last time.

Bad news: She gave back some of last night's meal.
Good news: Before I even learned of her hairballs, I stopped at the store and picked up a couple turkey thighs, a couple of drumsticks, and a brand new crock pot since I don't cook or eat meat (other than fish) myself. She's a lucky cat!

Good news: She loves the stock I made!
Bad news: There's so much of it. I have no idea how I'm going to sieve, separate, and store it all. I guess a lot of it will get frozen.

So I'm working from home today while she's sleeping off the morning under the bookcase. I will step out for brunch soon and come back to check on her. Tonight we'll figure out how to sieve, separate, and store the stock. But not before I get more in her. I'm really hoping she'll still like the stock once I get the marrow out into it. Maybe she can have a homemade meal of meat and stock once a day. She must be getting bored of Rawz turkey all the time. But she gets sick on anything else. Here's hoping the stock will heal and seal her gut so we can try new old foods again (like Rawz rabbit or maybe even her fish flakes if this fixes her food allergies like it is supposed to.)
Freeze the stock in ice cube trays. Then put the frozen cubes in a zip lock bag and toss in the freezer. When you need some meat stock, grab a frozen cube or two and defrost. It'll be a lot easier to manage than freezing it by the quart or even pint. You can even toss a couple of cubes in a container and then in the fridge to defrost slowly too.
 
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Freeze the stock in ice cube trays. Then put the frozen cubes in a zip lock bag and toss in the freezer. When you need some meat stock, grab a frozen cube or two and defrost. It'll be a lot easier to manage than freezing it by the quart or even pint. You can even toss a couple of cubes in a container and then in the fridge to defrost slowly too.
I used to do this with Rad Cat. I don't know why I didn't think of this. Other than being out of practice since our RC ran out and she's rejected every homemade since. Until this. I made a few ice cube trays of just stock and the last one has a little meat in it. I need to get my own food today. But when I get back this afternoon, I'll make another tray or two of meat plus stock. The meat is a little more time consuming because she doesn't really have two good opposing teeth to chew with anymore. She has a mismatched subset of hold-outs that haven't gone bad yet and thus my vet doesn't want to pull them proactively. Poor girl can't even chew a freeze-dried treat. So I have to pre-shred the meat for her before I freeze it with stock. That's an after-brunch task!

Thanks for the tip and the reminder. Now I feel back in my element like I can handle all this meat and stock. She is a lucky cat! I don't even eat turkey myself.
 
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daftcat75

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Oh that's fun! The stock must have lots of gooey gelatin in it because it set up nicely in the fridge. I scooped a small bit into the baggie with her first dinner portion and warmed the two together in the hot water bath. I spoil her! But she comes up to the counter and supervises the whole thing. My furry foreman. Or my furry Gordon Ramsay--she yells at me in the kitchen. It's some of my favorite time with her! I thought when the stock warmed up it might make the food too soggy. But then I remember how she was licking the stock off the plate by itself. So yeah. The clean plate right now says the sogginess was not an issue.

I know meat stock is supposed to be very gentle on the gut and butt. But I still anxiously await her next poop to see if this loves her as much as she loves it.

Let me fix my dinner. That usually turns one loose! :doh:
 
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daftcat75

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She got more Katris pieces yesterday. (A few of them I had before.) I kinda overlooked that in the hairball and meat stock excitement. She has taken to these already and that’s why I love them. Where the plate of former meat stock that she licked clean is, that piece coming towards the camera is one of her new favorite perches. I also have a couple of L pieces breaking up big jumps for her. Like the bed.
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The stock must be healing her already?!

I can touch her left ear without setting off a head shake. I gave that ear some gentle scritches and she rubbed that ear against my hand without a head shake.

She’s also feeling better in that her stomach is resetting quickly again and she’s doing a feed me song and dance earlier than usual. For awhile now, she was looking pretty rough and miserable between meals and I was often waking her to feed her.

Now I’m going to need to put out another feeder at night so I have a chance to sleep on through til morning. She woke at 4 and started singing. Her first breakfast is closer to 6. Finally after she rode my belly a second time, I decided to give her a couple bites (quarter portion) to hopefully hold her an hour.

We finally got a post-stock poop. A smaller number but then she did eat smaller portions since the hairballs. She’s pretty much back to full portions again. But a good poop. I was worried it would be soupy because just about anything that helps her these days also soups her poops. I’m relieved that we can keep proceeding with the stock. I look forward to seeing how much more she might improve.
 
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The stock is nothing short of miraculous! It’s her fountain of youth!

She’s moving better. She gets up, sits down, lays down, jumps and even plays with more ease. She plays again. On her own. And we played with the Da Bird for a good spirited chunk of time. Her coat feels silky and full again. Even her poops are reliably better. It’s like the broth is reversing her IBD and arthritis. I can not recommend this stuff enough.

For everything it’s doing for her, maybe I need to make myself a fish broth.
 

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Krista finished off the first jar of meat broth in four days. I gave a jar to a sick friend and froze the rest as ice cubes. The frozen stock thawed alright into a nice jelly. But it doesn’t seem to be the same medicine as the first jar. She still likes the taste alright but she’s moving slower like this is weak sauce. So I’m cooking her next batch. I did a five hour cook this time. Not enough. But you should have seen her pop up from wherever she was and inquire on that delicious smell when I popped the lid. I haven’t eaten turkey in over 15 years and that smelled better than any Thanksgiving. I reserved a little of this early broth to give her over the next couple of meals until this current batch has finished cooking. I may just let it remain on warm overnight since that’s what I did last time. Well, last time, I fell asleep before it finished and the crock pot took care of switching to warm for me like it will do for me tonight too.
 
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There was something magical about that first jar of turkey stock that I haven't been able to recapture. The frozen stock wasn't as good coming out of the freezer. It's not as jellied and it doesn't seem to have the same healing/regenerative properties.

The second batch I made this weekend was a bust! It never jellied. Four jars of weak sauce.

I made another batch last night. I love the crock pot! This time for 10 hours. I think that was finally long enough that I didn't need a second cook. Most of the times on the interwebs talk about using a turkey carcass cooked and leftover from Thanksgiving. It was good to finally find a cooking time for uncooked turkey. I used 3 bone-in thighs. I started it after her last dinner and it finished cooking at 8am. I got it cooled in a cold water bath before putting the bowl of stock in the fridge to jelly up. This afternoon or evening, I'll scrape off the fat layer and hopefully have a nice jellied stock to portion into jars and ice cubes. I am waiting for it to jelly before I portion and freeze.

I did chemistry labs in college. I can keep tweaking the protocol until I get the results I want.
 
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Judging from the clean plates, I think I got the broth right. That, or "some other cat" has returned.

It's slightly jellied. I think it's okay to finish this jar and freeze some ice cubes to bridge until the next batch. But I don't want to freeze anymore jars yet. I'm still working on the recipe. The time was good. But more connective tissue. Maybe wings and thighs next batch. Lucky cat!
 
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