Introducing Betty White

[daftcat75]

I plated a small amount of both Instinct and Nature’s Logic on the same plate as her first dinner rabbit. She eventually came to the rabbit plate and left me a message.

For second dinner, I warmed up an I/D portion from fridge to baggie to hot water bath. Say what you will about those junky carbs in the I/D, but the gravy keeps together well in a baggie bath. Betty sent me another message when she saw her beloved I/D for second dinner.


There is 2023 vintage (a good year ) Rawz rabbit in her midnight feeder.

I called the IM dept and left a message telling the doc that food transition didn’t go so well and need a callback to determine next steps. I’m kinda curious to see if we can taper the pred without a diet change. Since the primary presentation was hairballs and she hasn’t had one in a month, is her food all that problematic? We won’t know until we taper the pred dose. But I also want to give the current dose one more week to make sure the transition back to I/D holds and doesn’t fall apart.

 

[daftcat75]

She’s so happy to have her I/D back and I’m so happy to see her eating joy return.

Now I could be imagining this, but her coat is already feeling thinner. I guess that’s the ingredients quality difference between Rawz and Hills. I don’t know that there’s anything to be done about it. Not at this pred dose. I want to try raw with her.

 

[tarasgirl06]

She’s so happy to have her I/D back and I’m so happy to see her eating joy return.

Now I could be imagining this, but her coat is already feeling thinner. I guess that’s the ingredients quality difference between Rawz and Hills. I don’t know that there’s anything to be done about it. Not at this pred dose. I want to try raw with her.

*And of course no one ELSE enhanced that first message.*
Hoping Betty's doctor comes up with a good Plan B (Or Plan F)
Hoping it is just your imagination.

 

[daftcat75]

*And of course no one ELSE enhanced that first message.*
Hoping Betty's doctor comes up with a good Plan B (Or Plan F)
Hoping it is just your imagination.

That first image was two small mounds and one large one. It was Betty who ate the into a .

 

[tarasgirl06]

That first image was two small mounds and one large one. It was Betty who ate the into a .

Betty is quite a PURRformance artist.

 

[Twylasmom]

She’s so happy to have her I/D back and I’m so happy to see her eating joy return.

Now I could be imagining this, but her coat is already feeling thinner. I guess that’s the ingredients quality difference between Rawz and Hills. I don’t know that there’s anything to be done about it. Not at this pred dose. I want to try raw with her.

You probably already know this but prednisolone can sometimes cause thinning of the coat. So if you are seeing something it may not be because of her diet.

 

[daftcat75]

You probably already know this but prednisolone can sometimes cause thinning of the coat. So if you are seeing something it may not be because of her diet.

Yeah. It could be that.

It could be bias that I wanted to believe the Rawz made her coat more luxurious.

But it could very well be a difference in ingredients quality. Rawz is low carb/high protein and no nonsense ingredients. I/D is high carbs and lower in protein and fat. The protein in I/D is of a lesser quality than that in Rawz.

But I can't get any more of the Rawz that Betty enjoys. And even if I could, it's clear she enjoys the I/D even more. I never saw so much hangry crying and disappointed moping out of her as I did in the last few days.

If it's alright with the IM, I want to leave her at her current pred dose one more week while I adjust serving sizes and feeding schedules to both see where she is right now and give her some room to decline a little with a pred taper. In other words, I feel like she could eat more than I am feeding her today especially in the size of her meals, not so much the frequency. Then if her appetite does taper off some with the tapering of the pred, she'll still come in good for calories and nutrients.

 

[artiemom]

I, also feel that prednisolone does a number on our kitties skin and fur.. never mind what it does to their innards....
Geoffrey has lost so much fur due to both the pred and the chemo.. He has patches missing fur--top coat; along with a general loss of fur. .. I know it is primarily the prednisolone, because Artie was on long term prednisolone; and, had many areas of missing/thining fur.. Geoffrey is having hat now.. I blame the pred, more than the chemo or stress grooming.

Now that he is not taking the pred, I am hoping some fur will regrow...

 

[tarasgirl06]

All drugs have side effects and IMHO all drugs are to be avoided whenever possible. But sometimes it's not avoidable. So hoping for improvement for Geoffrey post-pred, Cindy!
And hoping you can find another high-quality, high-protein, low-carb-and-junk alternative for Betty, daftcat75

 

[daftcat75]

Such a joy and such a relief to have her eating eagerly and joyfully once more.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Such a joy and such a relief to have her eating eagerly and joyfully once more.

YES!!!

 

[daftcat75]

Finally broke down and got the portable AC out and rigged up since it was approaching 90 degrees inside.


It’s not quite as loud as I remember. But it drones.

And that whole setup is so janky because the last time I tried, I couldn’t find a door kit that fit. So I’m stuck with this soft solution hack that’s just ugly as all get out.

The front room is dark and loud. But it’s cool. I don’t know what part of that Betty objects too. But she has not left the office since I set up the AC in the front room. I mean she came into front room briefly while I was setting it all up. But I had to bring her lunch into the office for her to eat it. And now she’s toughing it out in the warm office with me when she could be cool in the front room.


I guess I’ll bring her feeder in here too. I think we’ll swap the AC into the office after hours.

 

[artiemom]

So hoping for improvement for Geoffrey post-pred, Cindy!
daftcat75

Geoffrey is not doing well. For more information, see my thread.. I am not going to hijack Betty's Thread...

 

[tarasgirl06]

Finally broke down and got the portable AC out and rigged up since it was approaching 90 degrees inside.
View attachment 431016
View attachment 431017
It’s not quite as loud as I remember. But it drones.

And that whole setup is so janky because the last time I tried, I couldn’t find a door kit that fit. So I’m stuck with this soft solution hack that’s just ugly as all get out.

The front room is dark and loud. But it’s cool. I don’t know what part of that Betty objects too. But she has not left the office since I set up the AC in the front room. I mean she came into front room briefly while I was setting it all up. But I had to bring her lunch into the office for her to eat it. And now she’s toughing it out in the warm office with me when she could be cool in the front room.
View attachment 431015

I guess I’ll bring her feeder in here too. I think we’ll swap the AC into the office after hours.

Hoping you find a way to keep cool that works for your both! Didn't know it was getting so hot up there, too. It's been over 100F every day for ??? days now (the days run together when it's so hot, even with AC because I have it set at 80F) and even HVAC is somewhat noisy. I actually like it because it's white noise that masks some other, much less desirable noise.

 

[daftcat75]

Betty is having a hard time with this heat. And she doesn't like the AC beast.

I think we'll sit with it in the front room for a bit tonight so she can get used to it. And then sometime before bedtime, I will move it to the office, and set a sleep timer to run it for a few hours. Maybe I'll restart it for a few hours in the morning before bringing it back to the front room.

This week is going to kill my electric bill like a January in September.

I am not terribly concerned about Betty eating today because of the heat. But I want her to eat anyway since she doesn't drink water. When I moved her lunch into the office, she made short work of it. When I moved her feeder into the office, she nibbled and passed. I think it was maybe too cold or too old for her.

I am still trying to work out how to retain fridge cold leftovers for her feeder portions. I think I kept a portion too many and so lunch feeder portion got mixed with an even older leftover from the night before (second dinner was a fresh half can with the other half going into the fridge.) I think I need to label the leftover portions in the fridge so I know when I have enough fridge leftovers for the feeders.

I don't know why this is so hard to wrap my brain around right now.

First Dinner: 1/2 new can, 1/2 into fridge for overnight feeder
Second Dinner: 1/2 new can, 1/2 into fridge for lunch
Overnight: The second half from breakfast
Breakfast: 1/2 new can, 1/2 into fridge for later (we now have two halves in the fridge)
Lunch: 1/2 can from the fridge
Afternoon snack: Second half can from fridge

She ate the warmed up lunch but snubbed the afternoon. I think somehow a portion too many got mixed in somewhere and leftovers mixed with leftovers didn't do it for her.

Sadly, I took away her afternoon snack when it seemed like it was getting too close to dinner. And shortly after I dumped her snack, she started looking for it.

Won't be long now, Betty.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Betty is having a hard time with this heat. And she doesn't like the AC beast.

I think we'll sit with it in the front room for a bit tonight so she can get used to it. And then sometime before bedtime, I will move it to the office, and set a sleep timer to run it for a few hours. Maybe I'll restart it for a few hours in the morning before bringing it back to the front room.

This week is going to kill my electric bill like a January in September.

I am not terribly concerned about Betty eating today because of the heat. But I want her to eat anyway since she doesn't drink water. When I moved her lunch into the office, she made short work of it. When I moved her feeder into the office, she nibbled and passed. I think it was maybe too cold or too old for her.

I am still trying to work out how to retain fridge cold leftovers for her feeder portions. I think I kept a portion too many and so lunch feeder portion got mixed with an even older leftover from the night before (second dinner was a fresh half can with the other half going into the fridge.) I think I need to label the leftover portions in the fridge so I know when I have enough fridge leftovers for the feeders.

I don't know why this is so hard to wrap my brain around right now.

First Dinner: 1/2 new can, 1/2 into fridge for overnight feeder
Second Dinner: 1/2 new can, 1/2 into fridge for lunch
Overnight: The second half from breakfast
Breakfast: 1/2 new can, 1/2 into fridge for later (we now have two halves in the fridge)
Lunch: 1/2 can from the fridge
Afternoon snack: Second half can from fridge

She ate the warmed up lunch but snubbed the afternoon. I think somehow a portion too many got mixed in somewhere and leftovers mixed with leftovers didn't do it for her.

Sadly, I took away her afternoon snack when it seemed like it was getting too close to dinner. And shortly after I dumped her snack, she started looking for it.

Won't be long now, Betty.

Yeah, it's often hard to convince-a-cat to eat when it's hot. I don't worry much, either; but Elvis has his high quality kronschiez, and he loves his fountain.
Your schedule looks workable and good to me.
Fridge cans work pretty well for us when I get the one I'm going to serve out half an hour or so before serving it. He usually starts eating it right away now, even though it's a little cool. We've gotten our schedule worked out pretty well that way. One half can for breakfast, refrigerate the other; same thing with a new can of different variety for dinner. So he gets the same thing for two days in a row. But he is eating well, and doesn't seem to mind. Sometimes I do feed the disposal, still, but as long as he's eating SOMETHING on a regular basis and drinking well, I'm not worried. No one that I know of eats a lot when it's hot.

 

[daftcat75]

Yeah, it's often hard to convince-a-cat to eat when it's hot. I don't worry much, either; but Elvis has his high quality kronschiez, and he loves his fountain.
Your schedule looks workable and good to me.
Fridge cans work pretty well for us when I get the one I'm going to serve out half an hour or so before serving it. He usually starts eating it right away now, even though it's a little cool. We've gotten our schedule worked out pretty well that way. One half can for breakfast, refrigerate the other; same thing with a new can of different variety for dinner. So he gets the same thing for two days in a row. But he is eating well, and doesn't seem to mind. Sometimes I do feed the disposal, still, but as long as he's eating SOMETHING on a regular basis and drinking well, I'm not worried. No one that I know of eats a lot when it's hot.

She is actually doing just fine with breakfast lunch and now first dinner. It was just that afternoon snack that she doesn’t really need but I like to bank extra calories whenever we can to weather out the fussies.

She’ll do just fine on the overnight.

 

[tarasgirl06]

She is actually doing just fine with breakfast lunch and now first dinner. It was just that afternoon snack that she doesn’t really need but I like to bank extra calories whenever we can to weather out the fussies.

She’ll do just fine on the overnight.

Yeah. Afternoon is one of the hottest times of the day, at least it is here. From 3 on, it gets really "warm."

 

[daftcat75]

There must have been heat bleed on the back end of the AC or the janky vent kit. This room feels like it didn’t get all that cool now that the AC is off. We have a FLEX ALERT up here saying don’t run large appliances at this hour when I need the AC the most. Well, I want to watch the game without the droning anyway. We’ll create our cool oasis in the office tonight after the flex alert has passed (after 9 pm.)

Sometimes I think this is all Betty really wants. Food and after food scritches. Digestive scritches.

 

[daftcat75]

Rawz wrote back and said

They said the recipe hasn’t changed. Perhaps the rabbits they sourced for the 2023 batch were tastier than the ones sourced for the newer batches. But even when I was serving from the good cans this weekend, she still didn’t have the same enjoyment.

Specialist called back. He said the I/D is probably not the best from an inflammatory perspective. But if that’s what she’ll eat and she seems to be doing well on it, we can take the temperature of where we are at and begin the taper without a food change. We’ll figure out what her pred needs are on I/D. My hope is that the kibble she was eating before I adopted her did the damage—the inflammation. But not enough that she needs to give up chicken just yet. I’m hoping we got to it soon enough that the pred has brought the inflammation down and we can revisit a food transition further down the road.

Doc is also okay with me waiting a week to make certain she’s doing well back on the I/D full time as well as waiting out this heat wave. Doc agrees that perhaps tapering pred in the middle of our hottest week of the summer is too much to ask right now.

Doc also is against raw and pred. I kinda understand where he is coming from. But I also think stomach acid is the first and best line of defense against food borne infection, and that doesn’t change with pred use. He said let’s find our breaking point with I/D and pred. While he can’t say there is a safe dose of pred that he’d be okay with a raw diet, he said that maybe we can conduct a trial and perhaps if she does well enough on raw, we might be able to use that to lower her pred dose further.

It was one of the more straightforward conversations we had. He’s still under the impression that diet is playing a bigger part of this. But I’m thinking, although it’s far from perfect and it’s not novel, perhaps I/D was a big enough diet change compared to where she was coming from—a likely kibble addict.