Introducing Betty White

[tarasgirl06]

Hoping the "hope" is for good reason!
And lisahe , Maybe the Mouser becomes a special treat?

 

[lisahe]

And lisahe , Maybe the Mouser becomes a special treat?

Yes, that's what I'm thinking: special snack/treat. Assuming, of course, that they even like it, since, well, cats...

 

[daftcat75]

First breakfast finally in the books. She usually shows up in the office an hour earlier than she did.

I plated lunch. But she's in deep sleep mode. I backed off the Rx Clay by a smidgen spoon. For a smelly change, I put Rawz rabbit in the feeder this afternoon as it has more aroma than Mouser. She usually likes Rawz and that she hasn’t had it in a week should play to our advantage.

Oh poor Betty! She must have been ambushed with a surprise vet visit one too many times. (Even though I tell her about her appointment several times in advance, they are still a surprise to her. ) When she sees me getting ready in the middle of a workday, she goes under the bookcase to hide. I’m not sure how she differentiates between workdays and weekends. Or why she believes she’s safe from a weekend vet visit. Or how she knows the difference between me getting ready to go out for errands vs going out for a run. The shower. I don’t shower before a run. But she doesn’t hide on the weekends either. So Cats!

 

[tarasgirl06]

First breakfast finally in the books. She usually shows up in the office an hour earlier than she did.

I plated lunch. But she's in deep sleep mode. I backed off the Rx Clay by a smidgen spoon. For a smelly change, I put Rawz rabbit in the feeder this afternoon as it has more aroma than Mouser. She usually likes Rawz and that she hasn’t had it in a week should play to our advantage.

Oh poor Betty! She must have been ambushed with a surprise vet visit one too many times. (Even though I tell her about her appointment several times in advance, they are still a surprise to her. ) When she sees me getting ready in the middle of a workday, she goes under the bookcase to hide. I’m not sure how she differentiates between workdays and weekends. Or why she believes she’s safe from a weekend vet visit. Or how she knows the difference between me getting ready to go out for errands vs going out for a run. The shower. I don’t shower before a run. But she doesn’t hide on the weekends either. So Cats!

*PIX PLEASE!* (Of BETTY. Under the BOOKCASE.)

 

[daftcat75]

She’s skipping lunch again. And the feeder isn’t opening. I guess that means we go back on the ondansetron tonight.

And I made it to the office so all I can do is watch her sleeping in her corner cloud and see a plate untouched and a feeder not opened.

 

[daftcat75]

The feeder finally opened. She still hasn’t touched either portion. But if I’m allowed a little hope, she’s finally woken from her cloud nap and has started grooming herself. Often she grooms herself after a nap and before she goes down to visit the plate(s). She likes a little hair in her belly before a meal and a little hair in her belly after a meal. Maybe I should just put some of her hair in her meal.


I need to give her enough time to visit the plates. But not so much time that she can wait until 5pm to visit the plates and ruin her dinner. She’s got a small window to make a dent on a plate or a feeder. At this point, I’ll take a 20 gram portion of either.

 

[daftcat75]

On the one paw, she did really well with lunch eating 24 grams of the I/D and 20 grams of the Rawz. On the other paw, it took her most of the afternoon to approach the plates. She was enthusiastic asking for dinner and showed up on the counter. But when I served it, she took but a few bites before calling it. Perhaps she’s still digesting her very late lunch. I just realized she hadn’t been eating with her paw since pred and that has returned in the last day or two. Well, let’s see if she really falls behind tonight or if she’s just running late. I can always restart ondansetron in the morning if she truly does fall behind tonight.

 

[tarasgirl06]

The feeder finally opened. She still hasn’t touched either portion. But if I’m allowed a little hope, she’s finally woken from her cloud nap and has started grooming herself. Often she grooms herself after a nap and before she goes down to visit the plate(s). She likes a little hair in her belly before a meal and a little hair in her belly after a meal. Maybe I should just put some of her hair in her meal.


I need to give her enough time to visit the plates. But not so much time that she can wait until 5pm to visit the plates and ruin her dinner. She’s got a small window to make a dent on a plate or a feeder. At this point, I’ll take a 20 gram portion of either.

Maybe a furburger. Thin layers of fur with food in between. Yeah?

 

[daftcat75]

She ate a half ounce. This is where I’m glad I have duplicate plates. I can weigh the plate in progress without having to scoop and replate.

I really want to give her an honest chance to get off the ondansetron. But I miss the eager eater of the last couple weeks. Granted. One of those she had a mirtz double whammy.

As long as she makes calories, I’ll hold off on the ondansetron. If she’s truly falling behind, she’ll go back on it. She did so well that first day without it. I didn’t expect us to hit day 2 speed bumps. I was hoping we would be proceeding with the pred taper tonight. Guess that’s on hold for another day or two.

 

[catloverfromwayback]

I’m just slowly reading through this thread and finding so many parallels with Daisy! She also had an ulcerated eye a few months ago; she’s a shelter cat I adopted November 2020; she’ll be five this year (I had thought from your other mentions of Betty as a golden girl that she’s a senior cat); and she doesn’t care for any fish!

 

[catloverfromwayback]

View attachment 409095
This is what I share daily in my advocacy work. It might help to bear it in mind. IDK who arrived at these conclusions, and I'm sure they are different for different individuals. But it may quiet your mind some to know this.

That’s so interesting, and highlights how much Daisy had to go through - found on the street, handed to the pound, nobody claimed her , sent to the RSPCA, adopted by me first day she was on their website, only then spayed, and month later we had to move interstate, so she and Phoebe had weeks of staying in kennels because the removalists were incompetent and I had to stay in a hotel till they deigned to deliver my furniture. No wonder the poor love spent a year crying every time I left them alone in the house!

 

[Margot Lane]

I have a (highly unscientific) theory about the hairball treats: have noticed ‘bout halfway through the bag, they get stiffer & staler, even if you seal up the bag. For my one fanged guy, this makes them less appealing…but, maybe even if you break them up they lack freshness?

 

[daftcat75]

I have a (highly unscientific) theory about the hairball treats: have noticed ‘bout halfway through the bag, they get stiffer & staler, even if you seal up the bag. For my one fanged guy, this makes them less appealing…but, maybe even if you break them up they lack freshness?

I think pred (and ondansetron) was working in my favor with the last bag. This new bag started out strong. I think her unwillingness to eat all four halves of her two daily treats this morning was just symptomatic possibly of the recent ondansetron withdrawal. Taking away the ondansetron has certainly taken a step or two out of her eager eating. I may try her on a day of ondansetron perhaps tomorrow or Friday to see if her eating does pick back up. That would be pretty clear to me that she still needs it. Perhaps we wait until next week to try the pred taper while we sort out the ondansetron question.

But that’s a good theory and I should double bag this bag. I believe the local bag she rejected maybe sat on their shelves too long compared to possibly a higher turnover with Chewy?

 

[tarasgirl06]

I think pred (and ondansetron) was working in my favor with the last bag. This new bag started out strong. I think her unwillingness to eat all four halves of her two daily treats this morning was just symptomatic possibly of the recent ondansetron withdrawal. Taking away the ondansetron has certainly taken a step or two out of her eager eating. I may try her on a day of ondansetron perhaps tomorrow or Friday to see if her eating does pick back up. That would be pretty clear to me that she still needs it. Perhaps we wait until next week to try the pred taper while we sort out the ondansetron question.

But that’s a good theory and I should double bag this bag. I believe the local bag she rejected maybe sat on their shelves too long compared to possibly a higher turnover with Chewy?

It's such a problem in this day of supply chain problems, food supply uncertainty etc. We never know what's been where and for how long. Human and feline food supply are extremely dicey now. I will say (knock wood!) that so far, so good with ours. Yeah, I had some bunged-up cans but that was a LONG time back. Everything else has been good. Not saying petco.com is better than any other venue, but just glad for our good fortune.
catloverfromwayback Daisy is lovely! Hoping her eye healed well and that she's happy, healthy, comfortable, and knowing she is LOVED. (Love that pillow and the textiles, too!)

 

[daftcat75]

She finished her first and second dinners and her overnight Rawz portion. I wonder if we simply have to rotate between Rawz and Mouser to keep her interest. She only ate half of breakfast. Plenty of time left to finish. But I miss my eager eater. I don’t know that we can taper the pred the way her eating slowed down. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt today. But tonight I’ll put her back on the ondansetron and evaluate her over the weekend. Perhaps we need to finish a food transition before we can taper the pred. I’ll ask for another IM callback to see what he thinks we need to do here and in what order.

She ate 1/2 of a hairball treat before snubbing the other 3 halves. I mushed it up the pieces on a plate with a couple rabbit treats and she maybe ate another half. I don’t know if we have a bad bag or a fussy nauseated Betty. If her earring picks up with the ondansetron but she still snubs hairball treats from this bag, we’ll get a new bag. And maybe look for another hairball treat that isn’t so dodgy with her. Something other than Greenies though. Those were a disaster with her. One thing I liked about these treats is that they use hydrolyzed chicken. If she does need to be moved away from chicken, she can still have these.

 

[daftcat75]

I watched her jump off the bed, look at her food plate, and then walk into the office meowing and licking her lips at me.

I’m wise to you. I saw you skip your food.

I didn’t want another long day of worrying whether she would or wouldn’t rally. I busted out the ondansetron and let her finish the small medicine mound of A/D used to coat the pill so she wouldn’t have the pill hitting an empty stomach. Hopefully she should be feeling it by lunch. Not sure if breakfast gets finished.

Ha! Just kidding. I had to finish up our fuss session for a work email. After a brief moment of hopeful longing that I would come down and fuss her some more, she left the office, and finished breakfast. I watched her on the camera. I don’t regret giving her the ondansetron. I’ll monitor her appetite over a day or two and see if her eager eating returns. If so, I know the doc will probably recommend a diet change. Hopefully she’ll come back to Mouser and perhaps we can rotate between Rawz and Mouser to keep her interest. I wish we had other good canned rabbit options that don’t have peas or other proteins (mouse excepted.)

Limited Ingredient MY SS! None of them should be allowed to call themselves Limited Ingredient that include peas, a second protein, or more than one gum. Some of these so-called LIDs contain all three of these.

Check that. I had to go back out to the front room for my phone charger, and she's left some remainder on the plate. I'm not going to sweat it because she got some extra A/D with the ondansetron. Hopefully daytime meals will go a lot easier.

 

[tarasgirl06]

I watched her jump off the bed, look at her food plate, and then walk into the office meowing and licking her lips at me.

I’m wise to you. I saw you skip your food.

I didn’t want another long day of worrying whether she would or wouldn’t rally. I busted out the ondansetron and let her finish the small medicine mound of A/D used to coat the pill so she wouldn’t have the pill hitting an empty stomach. Hopefully she should be feeling it by lunch. Not sure if breakfast gets finished.

Ha! Just kidding. I had to finish up our fuss session for a work email. After a brief moment of hopeful longing that I would come down and fuss her some more, she left the office, and finished breakfast. I watched her on the camera. I don’t regret giving her the ondansetron. I’ll monitor her appetite over a day or two and see if her eager eating returns. If so, I know the doc will probably recommend a diet change. Hopefully she’ll come back to Mouser and perhaps we can rotate between Rawz and Mouser to keep her interest. I wish we had other good canned rabbit options that don’t have peas or other proteins (mouse excepted.)

Limited Ingredient MY SS! None of them should be allowed to call themselves Limited Ingredient that include peas, a second protein, or more than one gum. Some of these so-called LIDs contain all three of these.

Check that. I had to go back out to the front room for my phone charger, and she's left some remainder on the plate. I'm not going to sweat it because she got some extra A/D with the ondansetron. Hopefully daytime meals will go a lot easier.

"Limited ingredient" seems just to mean "no chicken" and "no meat combos, to speak of"-- in other words, things most cats eat and allergic cats probably don't. It's confusing, though. In my experience, cats like variety, so your idea seems to be a good one and I hope it is. That said, my roomie fed her guy ONLY one kind of food (Hill's W/D, wet and dry) at every single meal and since he didn't have any alternative, he ate every crumb at every meal.

 

[daftcat75]

"Limited ingredient" seems just to mean "no chicken" and "no meat combos, to speak of"-- in other words, things most cats eat and allergic cats probably don't. It's confusing, though. In my experience, cats like variety, so your idea seems to be a good one and I hope it is. That said, my roomie fed her guy ONLY one kind of food (Hill's W/D, wet and dry) at every single meal and since he didn't have any alternative, he ate every crumb at every meal.

Krista ate Newman's Own Organic Chicken and Brown Rice kibble for most of her life with me--about ten years--before she started presenting problems in her twelfth year. (She was adopted at two years old.)

I would be happy to feed any food this fussy cat wants to eat sufficiently, reliably, and preferably joyfully as long as it supports her and benefits her. It seems like my only choices though are feed her foods with too many proteins to know which to blame, feed her foods with too many carbs, or feed her foods with known irritants or other nonsense ingredients. I have one food that she seems to really enjoy but I'm not 100% sure it is good for her because of all the carbs. I have two foods that she seems to enjoy for a short period of time before she turns her nose at them. I would love to find an I/D replacement that she reliably eats and enjoys. I was hoping that would be Mouser. Maybe I should pick up some other flavors of Mouser. I don't know if chicken is really forbidden with her or if it's merely all the carbs that give her grief.

There's too many proteins in the Tiki Cat After Dark Rabbit pate. That said, I may give it a try to see if we can get it in a rotation with Mouser and Rawz.

She ate about a half ounce each of I/D and Rawz on lunch first pass. Not bad. At least we didn't have to wait until 4pm for first pass today. She would have finished that whole Rawz portion (20 grams) but she ran into the pushing some to the edges of the feeder problem. I re-grouped it and she'll probably finish it on second pass.

 

[daftcat75]

I had thought from your other mentions of Betty as a golden girl that she’s a senior cat

I meant she was silver haired and made a loose attempt to link her to her namesake. She's got captivating eyes and a wonderful smile. And what else was I going to name a white cat when the late Betty White was still very much in the news cycle. Her 100th birthday would have been Jan 18 and I adopted my Betty on Jan 25. But I'm pretty sure I looked at her shelter picture for a good five or seven days before I was finally convinced.

So you adopted Daisy at five as well. So you don't have Daisy kitten pictures either? My only real regret of adopting adults is not having any kitten pics. I mean, yeah, it would be fun as all get out to have kittens around. But they get into everything. They eat you out of house and home. And their tiny kitten guts produce some foul stools for many months until their biome matures. I like the pace of an adult. Though Betty is a little slower than I was expecting. Krista really enjoyed playing and self-play. Betty occasionally self-plays. But mostly her catnip stuffies are companions more than toys. Betty also only goes for about a minute or two of play. Maybe when her gut is all sorted, we can see if she might benefit from any joint supplements. She also needs a dental.

 

[catloverfromwayback]

I meant she was silver haired and made a loose attempt to link her to her namesake. She's got captivating eyes and a wonderful smile. And what else was I going to name a white cat when the late Betty White was still very much in the news cycle. Her 100th birthday would have been Jan 18 and I adopted my Betty on Jan 25. But I'm pretty sure I looked at her shelter picture for a good five or seven days before I was finally convinced.

So you adopted Daisy at five as well. So you don't have Daisy kitten pictures either? My only real regret of adopting adults is not having any kitten pics. I mean, yeah, it would be fun as all get out to have kittens around. But they get into everything. They eat you out of house and home. And their tiny kitten guts produce some foul stools for many months until their biome matures. I like the pace of an adult. Though Betty is a little slower than I was expecting. Krista really enjoyed playing and self-play. Betty occasionally self-plays. But mostly her catnip stuffies are companions more than toys. Betty also only goes for about a minute or two of play. Maybe when her gut is all sorted, we can see if she might benefit from any joint supplements. She also needs a dental.

Ah, no, Daisy was three and a bit when I adopted her - that was December 2020, so she’s pushing five now. Yes, it’s a shame not to have kitten pics. She’d have been an adorable kitten. Phoebe is determined to be a kitten forever and she’s pushing eight, lol. They play together on occasion, usually whenI’m trying to sleep. I don’t know how old Phoebe was when we got her - the shelter and our vet had very different estimates, because she was very thin (turned out she has IBD or something like it) - the shelter said 14 months, the vet said 8 months.

So right about kitten stool, it’s something else! There’s a particularly hideous green car paint I see that I call Baby Cat Poo.

Early Daisy pic: