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

  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #61

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
Ok, so I may have spoken too soon about Frida's left ear. It was gunky again today, but not a ton and her right ear is still pretty gunk-free. Though she had scratched the outside of her right ear a lot, so I don't have any idea what that's all about. Either way, drops and external zymox continue. Today was also her Revolution day, so breakfast was an angry eat kinda meal.
I put in half a slider of the smallbatch with the homemade and used the "steam the plate" method to heat up her food (nuked a bowl of water and then put the food plate on top of it). It worked really well, and I feel better about not wasting a ton of water and plastic bags on each of her meals.
Just a few more weeks on the beef rotation, then we get to move on to turkey! I still need to find a supply of ground that doesn't have rosemary extract added to it for homemade, but I'll have more options in canned and frozen raw if she likes it enough to continue that. And it should be easier to get her higher protein, less fat with turkey than with the beef.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #62

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
Such a good couple of days for my girl! Her ears are both as clear as they've been since we started this whole mess, and zero acne! She had fun and crazy zoomies last night...ended up making dashing circuits of the whole house, including leaping onto the bed, running across my back and jumping off to start all over again.
Today was the last day for the Mometamax drops and we'll both be happy to stop doing that business. On the vet's recommendation I will probably need to keep cleaning her ears out, but that will be more of a weekly/as needed treatment as opposed to a daily one. Hopefully this means that she'll leave her ears alone long enough to let the fur grow back. It makes me so sad to see the back of her ears so bald :sniffle:
I think I'm going to return the smallbatch raw...she is still completely uninterested in it and the extra prep plus much shorter feeding window isn't going to work for me long term. If she had been even half as enthusiastic about it as she is with the homemade cooked it would have worked out, but ah well.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #63

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
Well, we've had quite a week! Frida got constipated, with several days of normal eating and peeing but zero pooping. I called the vet and she recommended miralax, so I gave her that for 2 days, and then gave her about 1/4 tsp pumpkin twice a day for the next couple of days, along with adding considerably more water to her food throughout.
The miralax got the poop moving again, but it was very small, dry and hard. But this morning she had normal poop, so yay!
Follow up vet visit today was OK, but not great. She's still at 14.2lbs, so I need to dial back her calories a bit more. After 2 weeks of basically no acne, Frida got a bad bit yesterday and it was a bloody mess when I cleaned it this morning.
Her ears, while much better, still aren't clear. Vet did another cytology and there is still a lot of yeast deep in both ears. They sent me home with an ear cleaner to use daily and transaderm drops to use twice a day, with the theory that the mometamax wasn't getting in deep enough.
We're in for a rough couple of weeks, but I'm still hopeful that we can beat this.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #64

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
As we get closer to the end of the beef trial, I realized I don't have enough of the Dr Elsey's to make the transition to turkey, and another case would be way too much. Current plan is to grab a few cans of rawz beef and liver to tide us over.
Two days of twice a day drops and Frida is definitely over it. Just 12 more to go, baby. We got this.
Her poop is still normal, and she tolerates the extra water and pumpkin well so I'm going to keep going with it.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #65

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
Gah, post work brain is not as functional as weekend brain. I forgot to use the ear flush before I put in the drops tonight. Hopefully not that big a deal, but I'll definitely have to add the flush to our morning routine. I was trying to avoid that because we have to wait 15min between cleaning her ears and putting in the drops, and every minute counts for me in the morning. But if I can't rely on myself to remember at night, morning it will be.
I went to a cat show for the first time yesterday, and it was amazing. Such beautiful cats, and a lot of breeds I'd never seen in person before! There's another in Feb closer to me that I'm really looking forward to attending. I also got Frida a new wand toy, and she likes it about as much as her Cat Dancer! They also make different toys to go on the end of the wire, but the vendor was sold out of them. I'll keep an eye out at the next show. Anything we can add to the play rotation is a good thing, and the quality on this seems excellent.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #66

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
Morning cleaning and drops accomplished! Even having to miss some extra sleep in the am, I think this will be a better time to flush her ears. She's used to getting drops then, and I'd rather keep evening medication to a minimum.
I'm psyching myself out about moving to turkey. What if she has a reaction? Will I ever be able to feed her "normally"? Or, heaven forbid, actually stop giving her ear drops for more than a week at a time.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #67

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
The indignities continue...but at least Frida is a lot easier to dose now.
I got her a new XL open litter box last night and she seems pretty happy with it - pooped within an hour of me setting it out and peed in it overnight! I'll move the original box into my room if she continues to use the new one today. Will definitely need a new mat for the front though...she dumped a bunch of litter when she buried her "gift" last night :/
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #68

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
The new box is a hit! But she is still spilling litter all over the floor when she buries. I spun the box around so the lowered "entrance" is against the wall. It's still low enough for her to easily get in and out, and hopefully this will contain the flying litter.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #69

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
Not a great day for administering Frida's drops. She was squirming all over the place, and what makes it worse is that she scratches at her ears after, so she's opening up new wounds because of the meds that are supposed to stop the itching and infection in the first place. We're also back to her being mad at me pretty much all the time because I'm dosing her twice a day. Every day I just have to tell myself it's for the best, and hope this is the last set we need to do.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #70

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
Evening dose went much better than the morning. Frida knows she's getting a treat (a bit of meat mates fd beef) after dosing now, and she moves right over to her plate for it. Tonight her left ear looked 100% normal, but her right is still darker. Not gunk per se, but like a thin coating of dirt. Progress!
Turning the new litter box around was a success! Still super easy for her to get in and out of, but now the front is high enough to keep the litter in when she digs.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #71

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
I haven't had much to report on the ear front...her left ear is still great, and her right ear still has a lot of wax. I'm happy that I'm not seeing more of the gunk associated with her infection, but now I have the new mystery of what's causing the wax buildup.
Frida's poops have normalized since being on 1/2 tsp of pumpkin a day. Her follow up with the vet is on Feb 1.
I'm prepping now to move onto the next food trial, this time turkey. The Dr Elsey's canned has 202 cal/can, which is significantly more than the beef and I find it really odd. I'm going to look for another canned option, and try to source ground turkey without rosemary extract for her homemade.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #72

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
Checked in on Frida via catcam to see how she was doing...and found out she's flipped her feeder over. They can't open and I can't get home for another 4 hours at least. I'm trying to get in touch with my roommate but she normally isn't home during the weekends either :(
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #73

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
Woo-hoo my roommate came home and got the feeder sorted! Frida happily munched through both portions, so I'll need to give her a half meal when I get home and call it a free day haha
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #74

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
The course of transaderm is finally over! Frida still has a lot of ear wax in her right ear, so I'm continuing to use the ear cleaner every other day. She's also got scabs on the shell of her ears from scratching, which will hopefully clear up now that I don't have to mess with her ears so often.
I've started the transition over to turkey as of this morning, with Koha LI shredded turkey. Honestly it scares me a lot. I really, really want to find other proteins she can eat. She's been really hungry lately and I'd like to feed her a larger quantity of food for the same calories so she can continue getting back to a healthier weight. But what if she has a bad reaction to this too? I don't want her living her life constantly suffering because I can't figure out what she's allergic to without putting her through more pain. And she's been doing so well with the homemade, I'd love to keep feeding that to her...but it limits me to the proteins I can get and store. Maybe I'm imagining the worst, and our vet visit Saturday will give me good news. I desperately hope so.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #76

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
So far, Frida isn't liking the turkey nearly as much as the beef, but jury is still out on whether she's having a bad reaction to it. I made a batch of homemade, so maybe that mixed with the beef canned will entice her more than the beef homemade with canned turkey. And we still have the vet visit tomorrow to get through, along with her next vaccine booster shot.
In good news, we got in a very good play session today. Work being crazy caused me to slack a bit on these, so I'm happy to get to spend more time playing with her as it eases up! I read a lot about people playing with their cat for an hour at a time, but Frida seems to max out at about 20min sessions...I wonder if it's just age (she's 5) or temperament? Maybe it's me and she's just bored of seeing me drag the wand toy around the house :lol: I'm still on the lookout for different toys, and am thinking of buying one of those robotic toys that moves around, since she only plays with moving objects 99% of the time. Anyone have experience with those?
 

She's a witch

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 21, 2018
Messages
1,780
Purraise
2,371
Location
Europe/WA, USA
So far, Frida isn't liking the turkey nearly as much as the beef, but jury is still out on whether she's having a bad reaction to it. I made a batch of homemade, so maybe that mixed with the beef canned will entice her more than the beef homemade with canned turkey. And we still have the vet visit tomorrow to get through, along with her next vaccine booster shot.
In good news, we got in a very good play session today. Work being crazy caused me to slack a bit on these, so I'm happy to get to spend more time playing with her as it eases up! I read a lot about people playing with their cat for an hour at a time, but Frida seems to max out at about 20min sessions...I wonder if it's just age (she's 5) or temperament? Maybe it's me and she's just bored of seeing me drag the wand toy around the house :lol: I'm still on the lookout for different toys, and am thinking of buying one of those robotic toys that moves around, since she only plays with moving objects 99% of the time. Anyone have experience with those?
You mean Hexbugs nano? Small robotic “worms”? :) my cats used to love them, now they only watch them lazily when these toys run around. They get lost easily :)

I play with my girl for hours, but I need to change the toys in the process. She gets bored with one way of playing and usually lets me know when it’s time for a change. I rotate wand toys, strings, these days exercise band it’s the best :) But she’s very active girl and if I didn’t play with her that long, she’d get frustrated. She absolutely loves playing with humans.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #78

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
You mean Hexbugs nano? Small robotic “worms”? :) my cats used to love them, now they only watch them lazily when these toys run around. They get lost easily :)

I play with my girl for hours, but I need to change the toys in the process. She gets bored with one way of playing and usually lets me know when it’s time for a change. I rotate wand toys, strings, these days exercise band it’s the best :) But she’s very active girl and if I didn’t play with her that long, she’d get frustrated. She absolutely loves playing with humans.
Those robo-bugs look cute but pretty sure they'd be lost under the furniture in 3.5sec flat, haha. I was thinking about something more like this PetDroid Boltz. Basically an automated wand toy I guess? It's great that your kitty is interested in so many types of toys! I'll have to try the exercise band...not like I really use them for their intended purpose all that often :flail:
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #79

Rylka

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2019
Messages
122
Purraise
146
Frida was much more enthusiastic about the homemade turkey with Rawz beef, so I'm very happy about that! The homemade turkey has significantly fewer calories than the beef I was making, so I'll be able to get the Dr. Elsey's turkey to go with it even though that is higher in calories than their beef. Which honestly shocked me, and I'm glad I checked.
The vet visit is this afternoon, fingers crossed for good news...or at least a bill less than $200.
 

She's a witch

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 21, 2018
Messages
1,780
Purraise
2,371
Location
Europe/WA, USA
Good luck for great result and reasonable bill!
My girl absolutely loves Rawz Turkey and liver. Other decent option is Redbarn Turkey, it’s very nicely priced and very pallatable. But with her issues, maybe it’s best to stick to gums free.
 
Top