Frida's Food Trials (Allergy/Ear Infection from the Demonic Planes)

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Rylka

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Managed to get photos of both Frida's ears yesterday. The right has some signs of gunk but the left is clear still. No redness. We'll see how the week progresses, and I may clean them for her next weekend.
She's been much less enthusiastic about her food yesterday and today, but may just be the weather. She would rather snuggle up than eat when it's rainy!
Poops remain the same looking, though last night was a stinker. I'm going to start an introduction on home cooked now that the ustew is in and I've finally gotten the kitchen into some state of order. Just have to figure out calories to know how to integrate it into her current feeding amount. Ugh, math. :ohwell:
 
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I'm a bit frustrated today. After a poor eating day yesterday she didn't seem any more inclined to eat her food this morning. Hopefully it was just timing, since I fed her a bit early due to work. Just in case, I crumbled a few of the meat mates freeze dried pellets on top. They have a very strong scent, so she came running to see what was up at least.
She has been scratching at her right ear, and it's red again. No additional gunk, but I'll have to treat those scratches so they don't get worse. I know allergens can take a long time to work their way out of her system, and I've got weeks to go on the beef trial, but I just want her to beat this thing so badly. Sigh.
 
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Mixed day yesterday. Frida vomited, but no other signs of being sick so maybe just a stress issue, we've dealt with that before. She ate her dinner fine, so I'm not going to worry too much for the time being.
Poops are staying good, so another positive.
I'm definitely going to clean her ears, there's progression of gunk/signs of her scratching in both now. Most likely will do it this weekend.
I ordered another couple of toys, one of which is a wand type, so maybe if I'm lucky she'll have a bit of variety to her play time.
 
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I'm thinking this weekend. I'll definitely have enough time to make up a batch, portion it out and reorganize the freezer to accommodate it then
 
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Feeling better about things today - Frida's ears haven't gotten any worse this week, and she's been in a good mood overall. Her acne is the best it's been in weeks too. And no additional vomiting!
Poops remain the same, a mix of light and dark. Since it's been long enough to get the instinct food out of her system, I'm at a loss to why. I'm not worried about it since her poops are regular and otherwise great, but it is a curiosity.
She loves the new wand toy I got for her, and the quality is a lot better than some of the others I've seen so it should last a while. I played with her for a few minutes this morning and I think I'll try to make that a daily routine in addition to our evening play time. She can have a ton of energy in the morning! Makes me optimistic for a healthy weight loss when she goes in for her dental appointment next week.
 
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Came home last night and Frida was very hungry. Normally she wants to play before she'll even look at her food but this time she was all over the plate first. We played a while and then she was back at the plate...too much as it turns out since she puked all over my shoe a couple of minutes later. The look she gave me was a complete "What? Nothing to see here." too, lol. She doesn't scarf and barf often, but to hopefully avoid it in the future I'm switching her to 3 meals a day (second from a feeder).
Making my first batch of ustew tonight and will start integration...hope she likes it!
 

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Feeling better about things today - Frida's ears haven't gotten any worse this week, and she's been in a good mood overall. Her acne is the best it's been in weeks too. And no additional vomiting!
Poops remain the same, a mix of light and dark. Since it's been long enough to get the instinct food out of her system, I'm at a loss to why. I'm not worried about it since her poops are regular and otherwise great, but it is a curiosity.
She loves the new wand toy I got for her, and the quality is a lot better than some of the others I've seen so it should last a while. I played with her for a few minutes this morning and I think I'll try to make that a daily routine in addition to our evening play time. She can have a ton of energy in the morning! Makes me optimistic for a healthy weight loss when she goes in for her dental appointment next week.
Very glad to hear her ears are not worse again and her acne is improving! She must be feeling a bit better.

I wonder if her poop moves slowly through he system and that's why no change yet. I know that one of the girls has long intestines (x-ray told us that) and so it feels like it take foreverrrrr to see poop changes with food or other changes.

Morning playitme is always fun! She can loss the weight! Though she might not thank you for it at first. lol


Came home last night and Frida was very hungry. Normally she wants to play before she'll even look at her food but this time she was all over the plate first. We played a while and then she was back at the plate...too much as it turns out since she puked all over my shoe a couple of minutes later. The look she gave me was a complete "What? Nothing to see here." too, lol. She doesn't scarf and barf often, but to hopefully avoid it in the future I'm switching her to 3 meals a day (second from a feeder).
Making my first batch of ustew tonight and will start integration...hope she likes it!
Feeeeddd meee seeemmmooreeeee.

Ahh the dreaded scarf and barf. yuck! and on the shoesss... oohhhh ewwww. Why is it cats can find the most inconvenient of places to barf that are the hardest to clean! I think they plan it.

I'm excited to hear how she likes the home cooking! (and how you found cooking it.)
 
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First batch of Ustew made! The process was really easy, the math was more difficult :lol: I have a ton of tiny mason jars so I portioned out into those. Not feasible long term (SO MANY JARS), but works for the 1lb batch. Frida was all over me while I was prepping the food, but not so much once it was on her plate. She is eating the old/new mix, just not enthusiastically, so I'm gonna chalk it up to wariness/less appetite rather than rejection. It's been really windy, and this kind of weather can put her off eating for a bit.
We had a very nice little play session in the morning, though short. That seems to be the trend with her, shorter in the morning and a longer one at night.
Her left ear is pretty much the same, but her right ear was red/more gunk/she had scratched at it more. So another dose of Zymox in just the right this morning. She's currently sulking...there's a foot between us on the bed right now rather than her cuddled up on my legs, with her butt directly pointed at my head. When she's mad she wants to make sure I know it!
 

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LOL but you did the math!

Can you freeze larger batches? ( I hear ya with the mason jars - same.)

Oh yeah, they let you know alright. No mistaken when they is displeased.

Is she still sulking or have we gone back to "I loveeeee you moommmmaa" mode?
 
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I can...as soon as I clear some of the food out from in my freezer. Which I was very much going to do this weekend but ended up cleaning the whole house instead. So still productive, I swear! She's pretty much forgiven me. We're in a weird mood tonight, cause my roommate and her bf are watching a show in the living room where she normally plays so she's got a lot of energy but is too distracted to actually play with anything for more than a minute. Unless you count my feet under the covers, which are apparently fair game.
 
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Rough morning for us today. No playtime cause she was in a MOOD. Which was explained when I took a look at her ears and realized she had been at them so hard last night. Blood in both ears from scratching and a cut on the outside of her right ear. Could be a combo of factors - I cleaned a lot yesterday so dust could be irritating her and roommate left her room open while I was out so she could have gotten into the other cat's food, which I know she's sensitive to and eats at any given opportunity anyway. Dosed both ears with zymox to put a stop to the itching.
No poops in her box so I'm going to check when I get home. Also check for unauthorized location poops, though nothing obvious this morning...she could have used the other box last night? She's never pooped outside the box before so that is the more likely scenario.
 

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LOl That sounds like my house with the freezer - and yes, feet under covers count!

awee poor baby :-( Ouch on the ears.

They can be really freakin' sneaky with food. Quiet like little ninjas.

I'm going to vote for the other box, or maybe she's not ready to poop yet. Hopefully when you get home she leaves you a nice poop in her box!
 
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Woot! Came home to two cleaned out dishes, poop in the litterbox, and a cat who wanted to PLAY! She polished off half her dinner and then we had an extra long play session, so definitely made up for missing this morning. Afterwards she went back to lick her plate clean...I can't remember the last time she completely finished three meals in a row (she usually leaves 2-3T or more of food). And even with all the running around after eating, no scarf and barf.
I ordered a new cat tree from Cat Tree Factory for her Xmas gift, the "Beverly Hills." Hopefully she'll enjoy it once I get it installed by the big window in her room.
 
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Another cleaned plate this morning. No playing though...had to dose Frida's right ear again, and then trimmed her claws. No hope of playtime after that. Used the otic and the cream (interior and exterior) so hopefully she'll be less itchy today. The scratch on the outside was almost healed...it's amazing how quickly cats can heal!
Her poops were almost all the small pale ones, so maybe it's just that there's a lot less crap in her diet now, or that she is finally passing the last of the bulk from the instinct food.
 
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Looks like adding the third meal was just the thing! More cleaned plates, and a full set of pale, small poop.
I'm giving her more of the homemade now in the mix, and will need to make another batch tonight to keep the train rolling into full homemade meals.
I've set her third meal up in the feeder as well so she can do her proper fasting time before tomorrow's dental. It's her first one with me, and I'm kinda worried about it even though she's not supposed to have any extractions. Anaesthesia comes with risks, and even with a trusted vet stuff could go wrong :/ gah, why can't cats cooperate with cleanings awake!
 
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Observations from this morning, bonus part! With the smaller portions (more meals, homemade is more calorically dense), if I want Frida to play in the morning I'm definitely going to have to try it before I put down her food. No need to "kill" if she's sated I guess!
Her right ear is still pretty bad, and I put both the otic and topical zymox on it. Only topical zymox on the outside of her left ear, it has a little gunk inside but nothing as bad as her right. WHY WON'T THIS GET BETTER FASTER!!! Ok, I feel calmer now that I've internet yelled, haha.
 

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hmm okay you know pale poopies is not good, right? Chocolate is the color we want.

Is it a routine cleaning for her teeth?

I know what you mean about Anaesthesia. Freaks me out too.

Yes, play before food. Make her work up an appetite. She wants to eat -she's gonna work for it!

I love feeding 3 small wet food meals. Yes - more dishes - yes - more time consuming but I think overall smaller meals spread out is better.

I swear watching kitties heal is like watching paint dry or a kettle boil. It seems to take forever. She will heal. Especially since you've been so diligent about watching how she's doing.
 
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Honestly no, I had no idea pale was bad. I've just been going off the photos on the catinfo site, and the new ones look more like her photos on the left...though they are paler. This is the most I've thought about poop in my entire life. What does pale mean then? Should I take her off the beef asap?
Yes, this is a routine cleaning. She has a lot of plaque build up on her back teeth but other than that her teeth aren't in bad shape.
I don't know if it's just because I'm single and have only 1 kitty (so far...), but the dishes don't bother me. It takes about 1 min more to clean them and 3 min more to separate her meals (yes I timed it cause...mornings). All in all, it's about the same time it took to cut her hypoallergenic food into tiny pieces and mix with water.
 

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I went to the Dr's site and look at her poop examples.

Okay, so it's more of a light brown but not cream/clay colored?

LOl @ the most you thought of poop in your life. I remember that realization myself when I was "watching the poops" I was like - "Soooooo - this is my new hobby huh? Poop watching." Poop!!

DOH! I also forgot that you are cooking for Frida so it's going to look different. I still don't think you want really pale stools though as that's normally clayish colored poopey is a sign of pancreas issues or liver or even gallbladder. So I think we need to ask someone who has been cooking for their kitty to help verify health poop colors etc.

I will look into the feeding forms and do a search. Failing that we can post the poop question.

----

Yes - this is because you are single and have only one cat. You wait lol. More will come.

I'm single with four - I want my dishwasher lol! I use to do all the dishes by hand. Charlies Daily and the girls (when they were living outside) I would pile their daily dishes into a container and then once a week wash the entire load by hand. That took some time. I think too because the electrical was a mess and most of the appliances didn't 't work in my kitchen anymore - that played a role for me. Now that I finally have a working kitchen again - WOO HOOO for kitchen reno - lazyyyy set in. That or the fact that I have long days - or both.

LOL @ timed it. HAHAHAH I've done similar. Maybe I'm slow but it takes me 10 -15 minutes to get their food ready in the morning. I literally based it on how long it takes me to make a proper cup of tea. Yes, there are rules for making a proper cup of good tea.
 
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