So, what happens if Kiwi eats just those and not her regular food? Does she go back to eating her regular food after a brief change up?
) be turning around. I've done two recent flea combing sessions on her, and yielded 2 or 3 really sick or dead fleas, a bit of flea dirt, and very little 'red tint' to the paper towel when I dry the comb before the next stroke. However, this could also be because I wasn't as thorough as normal - to help prevent her from going ballistic on me. After the last flea combing, she got her first Adv II treatment since July 30.
After I started adding canned food to her diet (she used to eat dry food only), she weaned herself off dry altogether. I did try smashing up some of her dry as a topper to the wet and she refused to eat any of it!! What I didn't do was actually mix them together, so might still try that too.
I loved bone broth for Krista. Until I gave her clostridium from an undercooked drumstick. Then I never had quite the same level of trust in bone broth that I did before. The important thing is that if you are making it yourself, it's better to cook it too long than not long enough. If you're buying it, then they probably have thermometers in the mix to make sure everything gets cooked to a minimum temperature.Mini update - 8/18
Got Feeby on the scale - she weighed in at 14.2 lbs. (Last week, I charted 13.8 - 14.0) I tried as hard as I could to set my feet in the exact same spot when weighing myself and making sure the placement of the scale on the floor is in the exact same location as it was in previous weeks - but it appears this scale will vary by a couple of ounces no matter what I do. If she would have come under 14.0, I probably would have weighed her a couple of more times. But, this is in the ballpark - despite her lesser caloric intake - so just going to go with it.
She has practically abandoned her 2 accidental bed-boxes; but has recently been using another older one that has a drape covering the entry way. She also started resting in a place against the wall that she used months and months ago. For the life of me, I can't remember if there was anything specific going on when she last favored that spot. Hope it is just her cycling through all of her 'options'.
Testing out the bone broth added to her food - too soon to tell if it will make any difference.
When was the last time she’s been to the vet? Has she had her teeth checked out recently?
She is past due for her semi-annual check up (April). As with many folks, I am not the least bit happy about the current 'drop off' approach. I am in the midst of asking them to explain to me just how they are handling this - with video chat, follow up call, or what. When the vet checked her teeth during her last check up, he indicated that she has some minor gingivitis - something he said was not enough for him to want to do anything about it. He said based on her age, what she had was pretty much inevitable. I haven't pried her mouth open yet, but did a thorough 'petting' of her jaw/neck/cheek area to see if there was any sensitivity - none.
The current "drop-off" approach isn't going anywhere. If you're lucky, you might be able to convince a mobile vet to come into your home. Otherwise, I'd take her down for that overdue checkup. Don't let the pandemic be an excuse to overlook this necessary care as she gets older. The specific details will probably differ according to your vet. But the few times I've navigated the vet since Covid, I dropped Krista off. If I wasn't expecting her to be seen right away, that was it. I'd drive off and wait for a follow-up call from the vet. If it was a recheck visit we had scheduled, like those for her post-surgery follow-ups, then I waited in the car in the parking lot for the follow-up call and for them to bring my tiny patient back to me. Maybe it was just her condition, but I think this method might have been less stressful on her. The times they had to sedate her to see her since Covid dropped to zero. Maybe without the waiting rooms full of animals, it had become a less stressful event for her. Or maybe the new vets she saw were just more skilled at navigating her grumps.
I think this would require a face-to-face discussion, which I am guessing is not in the cards at this point.
