Casper is in the Hospital

fionasmom

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What a story of poor Casper. I can only chime in that some cats will eat Gerber's baby food meat, 2 sitter formula, no additives at all. A fountain might help as well. I have 2 or 3 in the house running all the time and they are used. My two new rescues prefer dry food but will eat a little bit of Fancy Feast Medley and Fancy Feast Savory formulations. They were always offered wet food when they were outside but given the lack of control of who ate what, I think that the dry food was more available.
 
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Caspers Human

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Thanks, again, everybody! :)

We're in recovery mode, just settling down after all the prodding and poking.

Casper seems to be getting back to normal. Just a while ago, he was doing one of his favorite things...

Making biscuits on his favorite furry pillow! :D

 
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Caspers Human

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Update:

Casper has been using the litter box every day for the past few days.
Tonight, after work, he came running out of the bathroom to make his usual “victory lap” around the house then I went in to check the box and there were two deposits.

He has been making deposits at least once per day for the last three days.
They are a little bit on the “muddy” side but, since he is on Cisaprid and an extra dose of Miralax, that is to be expected. Right?

The vet‘s instructions are to keep him on Cisaprid for ten days then go to every other day.
We’ll keep giving the meds and the laxative for the rest of the week before weaning down to a maintenance level.

He has been eating wet food every day. He accepted it a lot easier than we expected. It seems like Casper knows that he should be eating it. He’s spooky like that, sometimes.

His activity level has been better, too. Just recently he “helped” his Girl-Human with her crocheting. ;)


I wouldn’t say that Casper is out of the woods, yet, but he is doing better.

We will have to get his hernia taken care of but I think it best to do one thing at a time. Right?

So far, so good...

Thanks for all your support! :)
 

KatherineE

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I have one cat who is happy to eat wet food but only if we sprinkle a bit of Fortaflora on top. It’s not the cheapest solution but either is throwing away uneaten wet food. And since she also refuses to drink water, this allows us to keep her hydrated. I’d suggest adding a bit of water to Casper’s wet food, too.
 

white shadow

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Glad to hear that the Cisapride ;) is living up to its reputation, Caspers Human Caspers Human !

K KatherineE - while Fortaflora is a goldmine for the vet industry, Brewers Yeast isn't and will help replenish your purse while (most likely) having the same effect. Just crumble a few flakes and sprinkle!
.
 

ZombieTiger

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I'm new here, but I've seen you guys around. Great to hear he's doing better! Returning issues are a nightmare.

Can I ask, when he only wanted dry food, was it because of the consistency or the taste do you think?

Get well soon, Casper. 😊
 
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Caspers Human

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Casper has food-insecurity issues. That’s a big part of the reason he’s so picky.

I had a long conversation with the vet about this.

Casper was abandoned and he suddenly found himself outdoors, fending for himself, not knowing where his next meal was coming from. The vet said that cats in this situation become picky eaters for fear of getting into something bad. Either poison, spoiled or unfit food that might make them sick. Once they find a source of safe food, they tend to stick to it.

Casper’s rescuers lured him in with Meow Mix brand dry food... bottom of the barrel stuff but appealing. His rehab foster family fed him the same. When we adopted him, that’s what he was eating so, for sake of comfort, we fed him, too.

Thats why it was so hard to switch him to eating Purina Cat Chow. It’s better quality but middle of the road stuff. As long as he was eating reasonably healthy food, we were happy.

Now that Casper has digestive trouble, we have to go through the whole ordeal of switching him to at least 50% canned food.

We keep a little bit of Cat Chow out for him so that he doesn’t worry about lack of food but we take it away when it’s time for him to eat canned.

Thanks for all your support! :)

Casper will be happy to know that there are people out there pulling for him and sending him good vibes! :vibes:
 

verna davies

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If Casper likes to play, try making the food part of a game somehow. Throw a piece of dry food and make him run for it, reward him with his favourite food. Have a look at some of the feeding dishes that can be toys too. The things we do for our cats....
 

daftcat75

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Glad to hear that the Cisapride ;) is living up to its reputation, Caspers Human Caspers Human !

K KatherineE - while Fortaflora is a goldmine for the vet industry, Brewers Yeast isn't and will help replenish your purse while (most likely) having the same effect. Just crumble a few flakes and sprinkle!
.
Nutritional yeast has a cheesy flavor that is also accepted by cats.

Another way I "spiced" up Krista's food when she was being picky was to crumble up freeze-dried food (Stella and Chewy's Dinner Morsels) or freeze-dried meat treats into a powder and then sprinkle that over her wet food.
 

bluegrasslady

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Miralax made my boy have an upset stomach . I’m going to try some natural psyllium in his food just a litter . Makes the stool whole and keeps shape in his plain baked fish with plain rice and rice water purée . He loves it .. I add a little baby food turkey or chicken a spoonfulll to the soup type by adding warm water. He does well on this.. but just had him to the dentist and a took removed. was on pain meds and caused constipation . But with a warm water small enema he went , but miralax made him sick... won’t try this again.
 

daftcat75

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Miralax made my boy have an upset stomach . I’m going to try some natural psyllium in his food just a litter . Makes the stool whole and keeps shape in his plain baked fish with plain rice and rice water purée . He loves it .. I add a little baby food turkey or chicken a spoonfulll to the soup type by adding warm water. He does well on this.. but just had him to the dentist and a took removed. was on pain meds and caused constipation . But with a warm water small enema he went , but miralax made him sick... won’t try this again.
Is that what you feed your cat? Baked fish and rice? That's not a nutritionally complete diet. For starters, it appears to be deficient in calcium. If this is his regular diet, it make take awhile, but it will eventually leave him with weak bones and weak teeth. Calcium is also needed for muscle contractions.

Please make a separate thread in the Raw and Home-Cooked Cat Food Forums for tips on how to make this diet complete.

Or have a look at one of these recipes:
StackPath
Recipes

Or add a vitamin pre-mix to cooked chicken or turkey. Fish isn't really an ideal protein for cats.
A Guide To A Balanced, Homemade Cat Food - Alnutrin Supplements
 

thejedigoddess

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Casper has been having problems with constipation again.
Thankfully, we got him to the vet before it turned into megacolon, again.
The vet says that he'll be okay but he has to stay overnight so that they can give him an enema to get him cleaned out.

Casper had a case of megacolon, a couple of years ago. He went to the vet, got a couple of enemas to clean him out and he stayed overnight.
It took a few days for him to get back to normal but he eventually did.

The vet told us to give him Miralax every day, which he has been getting.
We're supposed to cut down on his dry food and give more wet food.
We're supposed to make sure he always has lots of water to drink and we have some pills for him when he needs them.

Casper was going along great but, last Friday night, he started showing signs of getting sluggish.
We upped his dosage of Miralax as much as we dared. Saturday and Sunday, he seemed to be okay but still a bit sluggish.
He was still eating and drinking but he didn't seem to be making any deposits in his litter box.
I called in to renew his prescription for Cisaprid. I was due to pick it up this morning, before work.

However, last night I happened to catch Casper on the way to the litter box and I stood by, quietly, and watched him.
He strained in the litter box and pretended to cover his business but, when I checked the box there was no deposit.

DAMN! I thought we had this beat! :hmmm:

We took him in, this afternoon and the vet took an X-ray. He was blocked up but, thankfully, it hadn't reached the megacolon stage.
The vet's going to give him the old "Roto-Rooter" and we'll be able to pick him up in the morning.
With a little luck, everything's going to be okay and he'll be home before noon. :)

However, the thing that's got me frustrated is that Casper is such a picky eater!
He ONLY wants his dry food and his kitty cookies. He's lukewarm about eating canned food. Sometimes he will. Sometimes, not.
He usually licks all the gravy off. That's better than nothing, I guess.
Once in a blue moon, he'll eat the scraps from a can of tuna.

Casper rarely eats any human food. Maybe a lick of Vegemite or butter, once in a while. He might nibble a bit of liverwurst if we warm it up, first.
He will not eat real chicken, raw or cooked. If you give him a small piece, he'll sniff it then turn up his nose and walk away.
He does like to "inspect" our food before we eat but he only comes to give it a sniff. He never eats.
He won't even eat sushi! I've never had a cat that turned down sushi! Every other cat I've had would be like "Om, Nom, Nom!!" for sushi. Not Casper!

The vet said that Casper might have food security issues because he was abandoned.
She said that, once a cat that's forced to fend for himself finds a reliable supply of food, the learn to only eat THAT food for fear that anything else might be poison or make them sick.

How the heck can we entice Casper to eat a better diet so that we won't have to keep taking him back to the vet to get cleaned out?
I wish I had some advice but I don't. I'm keeping you and Casper in my thoughts. ❤❤❤
 
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