Introducing Betty White

[Margot Lane]

I got a new person on the AnimalBiome support. New to me anyway. Wasn't my usual contact. He was brief in his response. I don't like him. At least not yet. He answered one question about how much fiber to give her. But he didn't comment at all on the report.

He said Betty should have 1/4 tsp of fiber twice a day. Yeah. I don't think that's going to happen. She's already treating 1/32 tsp like poison. I don't see us getting 7 more of those into a meal. She eventually finished lunch and lunch feeder. But it was delayed long enough that she nearly left a 50% remainder on dinner. I got her interested in a second pass and she only has 1/4 portion remaining. I fully expect that to disappear before second dinner. She left a small remainder at breakfast too. But of course that was going to be finished without question since breakfast to lunch is her longest interval without food. You'd think I should put the fiber in her breakfast. And I might. But for now, we'll skip lunch fiber tomorrow and put it into second dinner. Let's see if that has snowballing delays on the overnight like it does on the daytime shift. Maybe she'll take the fiber more readily in a fresh can portion over her fridge lunch. And whatever the schedule, I'm hoping even the small amounts she'll eat will be beneficial. Because I don't see us getting to 1/4 tsp or 1/2 tsp.

If you jammed the fiber inside of a LIVE MOUSE I bet it’d work! The problem there is she’d want to share it with you!

 

[tarasgirl06]

I got a new person on the AnimalBiome support. New to me anyway. Wasn't my usual contact. He was brief in his response. I don't like him. At least not yet. He answered one question about how much fiber to give her. But he didn't comment at all on the report.

He said Betty should have 1/4 tsp of fiber twice a day. Yeah. I don't think that's going to happen. She's already treating 1/32 tsp like poison. I don't see us getting 7 more of those into a meal. She eventually finished lunch and lunch feeder. But it was delayed long enough that she nearly left a 50% remainder on dinner. I got her interested in a second pass and she only has 1/4 portion remaining. I fully expect that to disappear before second dinner. She left a small remainder at breakfast too. But of course that was going to be finished without question since breakfast to lunch is her longest interval without food. You'd think I should put the fiber in her breakfast. And I might. But for now, we'll skip lunch fiber tomorrow and put it into second dinner. Let's see if that has snowballing delays on the overnight like it does on the daytime shift. Maybe she'll take the fiber more readily in a fresh can portion over her fridge lunch. And whatever the schedule, I'm hoping even the small amounts she'll eat will be beneficial. Because I don't see us getting to 1/4 tsp or 1/2 tsp.

I'm hoping you can get someone other than that guy next time and all subsequent times. You are spending a lot with their company (not that amount should matter, but...) and you deserve better treatment and attention than that.
You know, we're different in our approach to our loved ones' health care, but to me, the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies. Betty is eating well, not having digestive upsets or frequent furballs, her coat is healthy, and she seems happy and well. After seeing the reports, I would tend not to trust the most recent one, but rather, the overall State of the Betty. Does that resonate at all?
We probably disagree on the whole "healthcare" subject, but I think we can agree on the obvious: that the "healthcare" industry IS an industry and of course it thrives on CUSTOMERS (not "patients") being sick/needing tests/drugs/operations. Healthy customers don't spend money, after all.

 

[daftcat75]

I'm hoping you can get someone other than that guy next time and all subsequent times. You are spending a lot with their company (not that amount should matter, but...) and you deserve better treatment and attention than that.
You know, we're different in our approach to our loved ones' health care, but to me, the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies. Betty is eating well, not having digestive upsets or frequent furballs, her coat is healthy, and she seems happy and well. After seeing the reports, I would tend not to trust the most recent one, but rather, the overall State of the Betty. Does that resonate at all?
We probably disagree on the whole "healthcare" subject, but I think we can agree on the obvious: that the "healthcare" industry IS an industry and of course it thrives on CUSTOMERS (not "patients") being sick/needing tests/drugs/operations. Healthy customers don't spend money, after all.

Personally, I think the report looks better than they make it out to be. Yes. There are concerning populations of potentially harmful bacteria. But. They don’t seem to be causing her issues. As for the others, when some items are low, others must be high. An absence of bacteroides means there’s room for blautia to thrive. Blautia, by the way, thrives with the s.boulardii I am giving to try to control the clostridium population. I think any amount of additional fiber I can get into her is going to be beneficial just as one salad a day is beneficial even though it falls far short of the six to eight vegetable servings I should be having per day.

At this point, we lost enough time trying to work the biome alone. We have spent enough money on the specialist while ignoring the prescribed treatment. Working a successful pred taper is more important than playing biome whack-a-mole. Hopefully this fiber addition won’t affect the larger goal. But if it does start to get in the way such as end of shift remainders, then we’ll skip the fiber and come back to it another time.

On the other paw, her morning ondansetron takes up a very small amount of space in a size five (or four) capsule. Perhaps I can simply pack some fiber in with her ondansetron and she can get her fiber addition without any knowledge or arguments.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Personally, I think the report looks better than they make it out to be. Yes. There are concerning populations of potentially harmful bacteria. But. They don’t seem to be causing her issues. As for the others, when some items are low, others must be high. An absence of bacteroides means there’s room for blautia to thrive. Blautia, by the way, thrives with the s.boulardii I am giving to try to control the clostridium population. I think any amount of additional fiber I can get into her is going to be beneficial just as one salad a day is beneficial even though it falls far short of the six to eight vegetable servings I should be having per day.

At this point, we lost enough time trying to work the biome alone. We have spent enough money on the specialist while ignoring the prescribed treatment. Working a successful pred taper is more important than playing biome whack-a-mole. Hopefully this fiber addition won’t affect the larger goal. But if it does start to get in the way such as end of shift remainders, then we’ll skip the fiber and come back to it another time.

On the other paw, her morning ondansetron takes up a very small amount of space in a size five (or four) capsule. Perhaps I can simply pack some fiber in with her ondansetron and she can get her fiber addition without any knowledge or arguments.

*YES.*
And you can always add to the salad...with additional vegetables, included or separate...

 

[daftcat75]

Well that seems convincing. After two days of slow uptake of lunch because of the fiber addition, today’s poison-less lunch was taken up nearly completely just as soon as I put it down.

I will find that capsule filling machine I spent money on and start filling some fiber capsules with a little ondansetron at the bottom like the toy in the Cracker Jack box.

 

[Margot Lane]

YOU sent me down memory lane! I just read there IS no more CJ prize, just a QR code. Boo! As for Betty, I bet a live fly would be more exciting!

 

[artiemom]

daftcat75 I have to thank you for a couple of suggestions! One is using nail trimmer scissors to cut the Zofran into fourths. I use the pill cutter for 1/2 lengthwise, then I use the nail trimmer to cut into 4's. Ingenious! It is like a 'dot' so it gets lapped up easily.

The other suggestion is: Since the Zofran dose is so tiny, I out it in a bit of food--- lapped right up!! Great idea!

For the mirtz, I alternate ears, cleaning off the previous ear with a cotton ball, rinsed out in warm water, actually, I use hot but it gets to body temp very fast. I wipe the wet ear, off with a clean cotton ball. You can use make-up sponges, also.
I used those for cleaning up the prozac ointment.

Speaking of which, it is time for some more Mirtz... ugh

 

[tarasgirl06]

daftcat75 I have to thank you for a couple of suggestions! One is using nail trimmer scissors to cut the Zofran into fourths. I use the pill cutter for 1/2 lengthwise, then I use the nail trimmer to cut into 4's. Ingenious! It is like a 'dot' so it gets lapped up easily.

The other suggestion is: Since the Zofran dose is so tiny, I out it in a bit of food--- lapped right up!! Great idea!

For the mirtz, I alternate ears, cleaning off the previous ear with a cotton ball, rinsed out in warm water, actually, I use hot but it gets to body temp very fast. I wipe the wet ear, off with a clean cotton ball. You can use make-up sponges, also.
I used those for cleaning up the prozac ointment.

Speaking of which, it is time for some more Mirtz... ugh

Good ideas, Cindy!

 

[tarasgirl06]

Hoping you and Betty are enjoying your weekend, daftcat75 -- it's quite a bit cooler here in la-la land (78F) and it is up there, too, yes?

 

[daftcat75]

Hoping you and Betty are enjoying your weekend, daftcat75 -- it's quite a bit cooler here in la-la land (78F) and it is up there, too, yes?

It’s like our moderate summer just blazed itself out in a heat wave of glory and then simpers its way into autumn. Maybe we’ll have one last heat hurrah in early October.

In prior years, I would be traveling to LA for Thanksgiving and thus I’d get four warm days in November to thaw my bones between Halloween and Easter. But I don’t know that Betty or myself will be ready to travel in November. I was thinking about that local staycation this month. But she gets stressed enough when I change routine even slightly. We can work that angle another time.

 

[daftcat75]

Well shoot!

I was just about to say how proud and delighted I was for her to get through the first week of the pred taper. And then she has to scarf and barf at first dinner tonight. She basically moved her food from the plate to about five inches behind her. At least she did it right there and then. I know it means nothing because it had no time to hit her gut. I also picked out her pred pill and thus knew I could re-medicate her. Not the same pill, of course. I also plated a half portion for her to get around to when she feels like it. Usually her stomach operates like she ate it even if it came back up. So it probably won’t be until the remainders round that she revisits the plate. We have plenty of opportunities to get this train back on schedule if remainders rounds bumps her feeding times.

I’m only worried if this becomes a pattern. Truthfully, I think she just ate more than her stomach could handle. She usually does 30 gram first pass which is up from the 20 grams she would do pre-pred and then finish the rest on a remainders round. She must have been extra hungry tonight because she did about 35 grams on a first pass and just couldn’t keep it.

 

[Margot Lane]

Dang it! I am still rooting for this to work. I think it will: she has youth on her side. Yes, so just maybe give her a few less grams so she can’t scarf too much. As for her stress from any routine variance, that has to be from whatever she experienced before you. Down the road, when you both feel OK, why NOT try the staycation? Cat do like a little exploration, as long as they know there’s a “safe space,” like next to you, or a certain room.

 

[daftcat75]

Dang it! I am still rooting for this to work. I think it will: she has youth on her side. Yes, so just maybe give her a few less grams so she can’t scarf too much. As for her stress from any routine variance, that has to be from whatever she experienced before you. Down the road, when you both feel OK, why NOT try the staycation? Cat do like a little exploration, as long as they know there’s a “safe space,” like next to you, or a certain room.

I’ve seen her finish the whole plate before without issue. But the last few meals she’s been eating about 30 grams in a go and saving the last ten for the remainders round. I’m not concerned about the scarf and barf because it didn’t have any time to hit her gut. So it wasn’t a gut reaction. There was also no hairball. Maybe she got too much A/D with one of her capsules.

In any case. I don’t think it’s significant of anything until it becomes a pattern. She has regurgitated fewer times than fingers on a hand since I’ve had her.

She came back to the half portion and finished it in plenty of time to not disrupt the schedule.

 

[tarasgirl06]

It's quite common for cats to snork and then have the urge to regurge. Like (some) people, they get very excited when they have favorite prey. Elvis does this from time to time. He's a pretty impulsive guy. I don't think it's really a problem, either. Just a small inconvenience.
Weather here isn't bad -- we had a couple of days in the high 70sF and next week will be in the 80sF but nights are starting to get into the more comfortable 50sF, so we'll take it. Yeah, it always seesaws for a bit around the change of seasons, until it decides what it wants to be.
Whether or not you decide to travel or staycation, hoping Betty settles into her preFURRED routine

 

[daftcat75]

Might have to trim her feeder portions. Or it might be a good thing that some of the non-prescription foods I think she might like have fewer calories than I/D.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Might have to trim her feeder portions. Or it might be a good thing that some of the non-prescription foods I think she might like have fewer calories than I/D.
View attachment 431927

*who's CHORKY???*

 

[daftcat75]

*who's CHORKY???*

I’m a little worried that all those carbs are making her unhelpfully fluffy.

 

[tarasgirl06]

I’m a little worried that all those carbs are making her unhelpfully fluffy.

Yeah, there is that. I like a cat to be healthy AND healthy-looking. Those can be the same, or they can be two different things. But the biome aside, she seems quite, quite healthy IMHO.

 

[tarasgirl06]

I guess Elvis regurged in empathy with Betty.
*or not*

 

[daftcat75]

I guess Elvis regurged in empathy with Betty.
*or not*

In LA, we talked about earthquake weather: a hot spell directly after cold weather that theoretically caused the plates to expand swiftly and violently. Maybe the opposite is true with cats. A cool spell after a heat wave perhaps causes a sudden increase in appetite that’s more than their bellies can take.