Hello everyone! I am back with a follow up and more questions since my last post here Need advice/help with two Elderly cats
I was so grateful for all the help and wanted to report on how my girls are doing, as well as ask another question(s) for their health.
Then to start, my oldest who is 17- here is a wonderful picture of her.
I had reported previously that she was falling over when trying to groom/scratch herself with her back legs—and this only came about after her second stroke or vestibular incident (we cannot be certain which it was but vet seems to think she’s had two strokes). I’ve been doing red light therapy with her as well as getting her to walk on a giant cat wheel and along with her own little determination, her back legs are recovering well. She cannot move the cat wheel on her own so I move it for her and she enjoys scratching, walking, and of course sleeping in it. She’s now able to scratch/groom without falling over—most of the time. She occasionally will kinda tip over a little, but it’s such an improvement I’ve been so happy to see it! As I mentioned in the previous post, I know this was a direct result of either her vestibular/stroke incident since she didn’t have this issue before then.
However since I last reported about trying to get her an X-ray she has, four times now, evaded getting an X-ray because I guess she’s used to the gabapentin (that’s used to keep her calm at the vet) since she once again flipped out at the vet and they couldn’t get an X-ray on her chest or those back legs so I had to reschedule for the fifth time—until i can get an X-ray on her I won’t know if there actually is something physically wrong with her back legs. The vet said it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start giving her hip/joint supplements just in case but my issue here is all the ones I’ve found have fish in it and she is allergic to fish, are there any joint supplements out there without fish in them?
Now onto my main concern— I found out she is now developing cataracts. Since its uncommon for cats to get them there has to be an underlying issue and that concerns me. I wanted to know if anyone had any advice for her or anything I can do to help her? Of course surgery and the like is out of the question due to her age and kidney disease (again, she only has one kidney). This was definitely a blow to me seeing as how I was finally getting her back legs to exhibit strength again but I want to do everything I can for her. The vet did say however that she can still see thru to her lens and it’s only developing on the outer sides of her eyes so it’s going to be a slow and gradual build up. Any advice for her would be extremely appreciated.
For my younger cat who will be 14 later this year I had mentioned in the previous post about her overgrooming and I couldn’t find the cause. Well I think I found the cause—we live in the ‘countryside and we have well water. The water softener had not been working properly for weeks and we didn’t know until we went to refill the salt. Now we are getting a brand new one and having it installed soon. My younger cat had been placed on steroids and treated for UTIs initially to no avail but she’s been on daily allergy meds which have helped tremendously—her fur has almost completely grown back! Its not 100% yet however that does confirm the allergy presence. Im pretty sure it’s the water because it’s been irritating my skin too, and I know she already had sensitive skin as she had previous allergies from plastic water fountains causing bumps on her chin. So once we get our water softener fixed and rewash everything I’m hoping she will no longer need the allergy meds but will wean her off them at the vets discretion. Here is a picture before the overgrooming started
To what she looked like while overgrooming
And now with the medicine
I’ll be happy to (hopefully!) see her fur return to its full fluff once the water softener is fixed.
Also, Thanks to the suggestion of FeebysOwner — I’ve been using D-Mannose on both my girls and they’ve both seen reduced kidney values at the vet since introducing this to their food daily! This seems like a game changer for them *knocks on wood* so I’m very grateful to have learned about this.
Any other suggestions or advice you can give to help my girls and make their life better would once again be greatly appreciated, especially with my older cat and her newly diagnosed cataracts and finding a fish free joint supplement for her.
Well, I don’t see the option to edit my post so let me just drop the pics here,
here’s another pic of my 17yo
here she is in her cat wheel
here is my younger cat, she will be 14 in December. This is her before the overgrooming
What the overgrooming looked like, it was worse on her sides
To what she looks like now
Here are both my girls helping assemble a cabinet, you can see her side fur has grown back
I was so grateful for all the help and wanted to report on how my girls are doing, as well as ask another question(s) for their health.
Then to start, my oldest who is 17- here is a wonderful picture of her.
I had reported previously that she was falling over when trying to groom/scratch herself with her back legs—and this only came about after her second stroke or vestibular incident (we cannot be certain which it was but vet seems to think she’s had two strokes). I’ve been doing red light therapy with her as well as getting her to walk on a giant cat wheel and along with her own little determination, her back legs are recovering well. She cannot move the cat wheel on her own so I move it for her and she enjoys scratching, walking, and of course sleeping in it. She’s now able to scratch/groom without falling over—most of the time. She occasionally will kinda tip over a little, but it’s such an improvement I’ve been so happy to see it! As I mentioned in the previous post, I know this was a direct result of either her vestibular/stroke incident since she didn’t have this issue before then.
However since I last reported about trying to get her an X-ray she has, four times now, evaded getting an X-ray because I guess she’s used to the gabapentin (that’s used to keep her calm at the vet) since she once again flipped out at the vet and they couldn’t get an X-ray on her chest or those back legs so I had to reschedule for the fifth time—until i can get an X-ray on her I won’t know if there actually is something physically wrong with her back legs. The vet said it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start giving her hip/joint supplements just in case but my issue here is all the ones I’ve found have fish in it and she is allergic to fish, are there any joint supplements out there without fish in them?
Now onto my main concern— I found out she is now developing cataracts. Since its uncommon for cats to get them there has to be an underlying issue and that concerns me. I wanted to know if anyone had any advice for her or anything I can do to help her? Of course surgery and the like is out of the question due to her age and kidney disease (again, she only has one kidney). This was definitely a blow to me seeing as how I was finally getting her back legs to exhibit strength again but I want to do everything I can for her. The vet did say however that she can still see thru to her lens and it’s only developing on the outer sides of her eyes so it’s going to be a slow and gradual build up. Any advice for her would be extremely appreciated.
For my younger cat who will be 14 later this year I had mentioned in the previous post about her overgrooming and I couldn’t find the cause. Well I think I found the cause—we live in the ‘countryside and we have well water. The water softener had not been working properly for weeks and we didn’t know until we went to refill the salt. Now we are getting a brand new one and having it installed soon. My younger cat had been placed on steroids and treated for UTIs initially to no avail but she’s been on daily allergy meds which have helped tremendously—her fur has almost completely grown back! Its not 100% yet however that does confirm the allergy presence. Im pretty sure it’s the water because it’s been irritating my skin too, and I know she already had sensitive skin as she had previous allergies from plastic water fountains causing bumps on her chin. So once we get our water softener fixed and rewash everything I’m hoping she will no longer need the allergy meds but will wean her off them at the vets discretion. Here is a picture before the overgrooming started
To what she looked like while overgrooming
And now with the medicine
I’ll be happy to (hopefully!) see her fur return to its full fluff once the water softener is fixed.
Also, Thanks to the suggestion of FeebysOwner — I’ve been using D-Mannose on both my girls and they’ve both seen reduced kidney values at the vet since introducing this to their food daily! This seems like a game changer for them *knocks on wood* so I’m very grateful to have learned about this.
Any other suggestions or advice you can give to help my girls and make their life better would once again be greatly appreciated, especially with my older cat and her newly diagnosed cataracts and finding a fish free joint supplement for her.
Well, I don’t see the option to edit my post so let me just drop the pics here,
here’s another pic of my 17yo
here she is in her cat wheel
here is my younger cat, she will be 14 in December. This is her before the overgrooming
What the overgrooming looked like, it was worse on her sides
To what she looks like now
Here are both my girls helping assemble a cabinet, you can see her side fur has grown back
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