Introducing Betty White

[daftcat75]

Too soon to say if the double dose of s. boulardii last night did anything. But she did finish the feeder and half the plate. 149 calories.

If the pattern holds, today may be a 120 calories day.

We're so attached to our routines around here that when the 9:30 automation shuttled me into the office, I figured it's probably better for her if I obliged. Having freshly vacated my lap and contemplated her existence for an inordinate amount of time while staring at nothing in particular, she returned to her plate and halved her remainder. She's been doing that a lot. She halves breakfast on first pass and then halves that remainder on a second pass. But she doesn't return for a third pass.

There's a rabbit treat I sneaked into her carrier last night that she still hasn't found....

 

[daftcat75]

She finished both dinners and most of the feeder last night. She needed that since she left half of lunch behind. 149 calories.

Yesterday I read that s boulardii should be given a minimum of twice a day. I need to ask AB if their SB and their Gut Restore can be given at the same meal. Just to be safe today, I gave her an SB at breakfast and the poop pill with her Greenies a few hours later during my breakfast.

I want the clostridium in her gut managed already. And I want the good bacteria to return. If her overnights hold like the last two, it seems that even if the clostridium isn’t causing litterbox disturbances, it still seems to be giving her grief that the SB may be relieving.

 

[tarasgirl06]

She finished both dinners and most of the feeder last night. She needed that since she left half of lunch behind. 149 calories.

Yesterday I read that s boulardii should be given a minimum of twice a day. I need to ask AB if their SB and their Gut Restore can be given at the same meal. Just to be safe today, I gave her an SB at breakfast and the poop pill with her Greenies a few hours later during my breakfast.

I want the clostridium in her gut managed already. And I want the good bacteria to return. If her overnights hold like the last two, it seems that even if the clostridium isn’t causing litterbox disturbances, it still seems to be giving her grief that the SB may be relieving.

Well yeah. Top priority is a comfortable, happy Betty, hopefully adding a healthy Betty to those. Hoping you can try more good varieties on her after her dental. In the meantime, hoping her appetite picks up a little bit--and not relying on just carpet morsels!
IDK why but I keep not getting informed of new posts even though I am following you, which is always why I'm not on for a couple of days. But glad to see all is basically well(?)

 

[artiemom]

Well yeah. Top priority is a comfortable, happy Betty, hopefully adding a healthy Betty to those. Hoping you can try more good varieties on her after her dental. In the meantime, hoping her appetite picks up a little bit--and not relying on just carpet morsels!
IDK why but I keep not getting informed of new posts even though I am following you, which is always why I'm not on for a couple of days. But glad to see all is basically well(?)

I stopped getting email updates, a long time ago. I just take it as less email junk to sort out.

 

[Furballsmom]

tarasgirl06 have you tried rebooting your device?

 

[tarasgirl06]

tarasgirl06 have you tried rebooting your device?

I don't think that has anything to do with it, but the short answer is "No." TYSM for suggestion, though.
There are a lot of problems for a lot of people with Yahoo, though, I hear, every time I have to call tech support.

 

[daftcat75]

First day yesterday with the morning inclusion of s. boulardii is inconclusive. She didn't eat all that much better on the daytime. I am told that it can take a few days to build a steady state at twice a day administration. I wonder if we haven't been effective because we've only been doing once a day. She left a rather large remainder on dinner and she hasn't been finishing breakfast. Actually remainders all around. Only lunch was clean. 139 calories. I'll take it.

In addition to the reading I have been doing on s. boulardii, I have also started reading more about FOS vs. MOS. It seems her appetite really took a turn when we finished our first bottle of the AnimalBiome GMP and started the new one. In between the first sale and the second, they changed their formula and switched from MOS to FOS. I plan to pick up the old standby, a non-expired bottle of Jarrow s. boulardii with MOS and make up some capsules tomorrow. The one bright spot from our last AnimalBiome report is that she no longer has detectable levels of e. coli in her stool. I'm saying the phage in AnimalBiome's product did its job against e. coli but hasn't done much for the clostridium levels. Now fortunately, she's not symptomatic for the toxins. But I still don't like seeing that one high outlier there from one report to the next. And its clear her appetite is not as perky as it was on the old formula. So let's skip the phage ingredient and simply try twice a day Jarrow administration--plus her poop pill and regular meds (ondansetron twice a day and 2.5 mg prednisilone once a day. This kind of information may seem repetitive to some of you. But if I'm going back through this thread later, it's nice if I have the context here rather than searching my memory for this period of time.)

My findings from my readings this week:

- The phage in AnimalBiome GMP is excellent at clearing e. coli. It's clearance of clostridium is another cloudy story. It seems it works better for some strains than others. This has me believing that it if it hasn't cleared the clostridium in Betty's gut yet, it probably won't with continued administration.
- S. boulardii works better with a minimum of twice daily administration. It works like a decoy gut. Pathogenic strains attach to it and are carried out with the poop. Its story is much more complex than this and it has other benefits too. But I found this to be the most compelling reason to give it twice a day like internal scrubbing bubbles for bad bacteria.
- The bonds in FOS can only be broken by certain beneficial strains in the gut. Thus FOS is like a lunchbox for these beneficial bacteria. Trouble is. Betty may not have those bacteria. Large swaths and whole phyla of beneficial bacteria is missing from her report. I'm concerned the FOS is just wasted if there's no-one to pick up and eat from those lunchboxes.
- MOS, on the other hand, is made from yeast cells and thus has the same "scrubbing bubbles" effect as the s. boulardii. From my reading on Raw Feeding for IBD (they are huge fans of MOS) MOS works synergistically with s. boulardii.

I think Betty is still in the scrubbing bubbles stage of microbiome management. Perhaps as the SB + MOS clear out the bad strains, there will be more room and less inflammation for the good strains in her poop pills to finally take hold.

After her dental, we can revisit her diet including some combination of reducing her carbs, increasing her fiber, and adding more quality protein. I also want to discuss the possibility of changing her to an every other day dosing of pred instead of the next taper step in her daily dosing, e.g. 2.5 mg every other day instead of 1.25 daily. Not sure if that would work. That's why he's the doc and I'm not.

 

[tarasgirl06]

First day yesterday with the morning inclusion of s. boulardii is inconclusive. She didn't eat all that much better on the daytime. I am told that it can take a few days to build a steady state at twice a day administration. I wonder if we haven't been effective because we've only been doing once a day. She left a rather large remainder on dinner and she hasn't been finishing breakfast. Actually remainders all around. Only lunch was clean. 139 calories. I'll take it.

In addition to the reading I have been doing on s. boulardii, I have also started reading more about FOS vs. MOS. It seems her appetite really took a turn when we finished our first bottle of the AnimalBiome GMP and started the new one. In between the first sale and the second, they changed their formula and switched from MOS to FOS. I plan to pick up the old standby, a non-expired bottle of Jarrow s. boulardii with MOS and make up some capsules tomorrow. The one bright spot from our last AnimalBiome report is that she no longer has detectable levels of e. coli in her stool. I'm saying the phage in AnimalBiome's product did its job against e. coli but hasn't done much for the clostridium levels. Now fortunately, she's not symptomatic for the toxins. But I still don't like seeing that one high outlier there from one report to the next. And its clear her appetite is not as perky as it was on the old formula. So let's skip the phage ingredient and simply try twice a day Jarrow administration--plus her poop pill and regular meds (ondansetron twice a day and 2.5 mg prednisilone once a day. This kind of information may seem repetitive to some of you. But if I'm going back through this thread later, it's nice if I have the context here rather than searching my memory for this period of time.)

My findings from my readings this week:

- The phage in AnimalBiome GMP is excellent at clearing e. coli. It's clearance of clostridium is another cloudy story. It seems it works better for some strains than others. This has me believing that it if it hasn't cleared the clostridium in Betty's gut yet, it probably won't with continued administration.
- S. boulardii works better with a minimum of twice daily administration. It works like a decoy gut. Pathogenic strains attach to it and are carried out with the poop. Its story is much more complex than this and it has other benefits too. But I found this to be the most compelling reason to give it twice a day like internal scrubbing bubbles for bad bacteria.
- The bonds in FOS can only be broken by certain beneficial strains in the gut. Thus FOS is like a lunchbox for these beneficial bacteria. Trouble is. Betty may not have those bacteria. Large swaths and whole phyla of beneficial bacteria is missing from her report. I'm concerned the FOS is just wasted if there's no-one to pick up and eat from those lunchboxes.
- MOS, on the other hand, is made from yeast cells and thus has the same "scrubbing bubbles" effect as the s. boulardii. From my reading on Raw Feeding for IBD (they are huge fans of MOS) MOS works synergistically with s. boulardii.

I think Betty is still in the scrubbing bubbles stage of microbiome management. Perhaps as the SB + MOS clear out the bad strains, there will be more room and less inflammation for the good strains in her poop pills to finally take hold.

After her dental, we can revisit her diet including some combination of reducing her carbs, increasing her fiber, and adding more quality protein. I also want to discuss the possibility of changing her to an every other day dosing of pred instead of the next taper step in her daily dosing, e.g. 2.5 mg every other day instead of 1.25 daily. Not sure if that would work. That's why he's the doc and I'm not.

It all makes good sense to me and it's not "repetitive" if it's helping you and Betty on her journey to wellness. This isn't simple. If it was, everycat would be in perfect health all the time.
WHY is it that when something, or some formula, does what it's supposed to, is effective, works, etc., that it gets changed?
Wishing you both a lovely CATurday night.

 

[daftcat75]

Most of overnight. None of the feeder. Big breakfast remainder. 141 calories. I’ll take it.


I’m sad I didn’t get last week’s weigh-in photo. She’s being more difficult to get on the scale these days. I don’t understand it. All she has to do is climb into the cradle and she gets an extra treat. Cats!

It seems last week was also 10.6. Could it be that we finally found her calories target? Last week’s daily average calories was 139. So 140 will be our target for this week.

I want to say it’s too soon to see results. But I made up four SB with MOS last night to see how many size 3’s per 5 billion CFU (one original sized capsule.). Four. That’s perfect because the recommended dose is 1/4 pill twice a day. So anyway. After struggling to finish breakfast all week. Her first morning back on the MOS and she finished breakfast while I was brushing my teeth and doing morning stuff. 9am and breakfast is already in the books. I don’t have to hide in the office this morning waiting for her to wake and come around to the remainders. Though I do need to make up a batch of these SB capsules. And her weekly meds.

 

[daftcat75]

Why didn’t I think of this sooner? I bought orange and pink capsules to color code her meds for my more bleary-eyed mornings. There’s been more than one occasion where I’ve had to open up the capsule because I couldn’t remember if I took from the right compartment. This should also make it easier for the sitter whenever I start sitter training with her.


She takes an orange (ondansetron only) in the morning and a pink at night (prednisilone plus ondansetron.) Not repacking the white preds because those are packed pretty snug. We’ll just finish those this week and pack only orange and pinks from here.

(The Cer(enia) and Mir(atazapine) compartments have thankfully been empty for months now!)

 

[tarasgirl06]

Why didn’t I think of this sooner? I bought orange and pink capsules to color code her meds for my more bleary-eyed mornings. There’s been more than one occasion where I’ve had to open up the capsule because I couldn’t remember if I took from the right compartment. This should also make it easier for the sitter whenever I start sitter training with her.
View attachment 437340

She takes an orange (ondansetron only) in the morning and a pink at night (prednisilone plus ondansetron.) Not repacking the white preds because those are packed pretty snug. We’ll just finish those this week and pack only orange and pinks from here.

(The Cer(enia) and Mir(atazapine) compartments have thankfully been empty for months now!)

Looks and sounds like you and Betty are settling into a comfortable and successful pattern! of "easy-catness" as you've said you wanted in the past. What a nice update on a Sunday afternoon! and wishing you both to HAGE/N!

 

[daftcat75]

She did quite well yesterday. Perhaps too well at 157 calories. One day doesn’t make a pattern. We had a couple 150+ calories days last week. We also had a few 120 calories days.

She had her first perky first pass on breakfast in awhile. 25 grams. She has a very approachable 11 gram remainder. And even if she leaves it, I’m rooting for some remainders. Right now I’m plating more than she should eat because I can’t predict where her remainders will be left. I’m hoping as the SB+MOS does its thing, perhaps there won’t be remainders to predict. Then it will be up to me to rearrange her portion sizes to meet her needs.

I’m getting nervous about her dental next week—how many teeth they may take, how smooth the recovery may go, and whether they’re going to want to use antibiotics and set her gut back once more. Then there’s the matter of my car repairs the following week. I still haven’t heard from them whether the part arrived and we’re still a go. But to be honest, I wouldn’t be disappointed to be put off another week or two to give more recovery time after her dental before I lose the ability to drive her to the vet for a week or two. But I also don’t want to call to reschedule because I fear being put off another two months. I will if I have to. If her recovery isn’t going well, she takes priority over my bumper.

 

[tarasgirl06]

She did quite well yesterday. Perhaps too well at 157 calories. One day doesn’t make a pattern. We had a couple 150+ calories days last week. We also had a few 120 calories days.

She had her first perky first pass on breakfast in awhile. 25 grams. She has a very approachable 11 gram remainder. And even if she leaves it, I’m rooting for some remainders. Right now I’m plating more than she should eat because I can’t predict where her remainders will be left. I’m hoping as the SB+MOS does its thing, perhaps there won’t be remainders to predict. Then it will be up to me to rearrange her portion sizes to meet her needs.

I’m getting nervous about her dental next week—how many teeth they may take, how smooth the recovery may go, and whether they’re going to want to use antibiotics and set her gut back once more. Then there’s the matter of my car repairs the following week. I still haven’t heard from them whether the part arrived and we’re still a go. But to be honest, I wouldn’t be disappointed to be put off another week or two to give more recovery time after her dental before I lose the ability to drive her to the vet for a week or two. But I also don’t want to call to reschedule because I fear being put off another two months. I will if I have to. If her recovery isn’t going well, she takes priority over my bumper.

That's how so many things are in life these days. Chaos reigns! Hoping and praying it all fits in right and that Betty and you come out on the other side of her dental well, healthy, and better in all ways, with all that worry/concern (how well I know these!) behind you and only good in front of you.
Also hoping the car matter is solved in convenient and effective way(s), around Betty's top-priority healthcare.
Really hoping and praying for best! and awaiting (hopefully good!) reports/updates.
I guess we all have times of eating more, or less, depending on a lot of different factors.

 

[Margot Lane]

Awww. I have a dinged bumper too, and cat food and vet bills always take precedence. As long as my car works fine, the ding stays.

 

[daftcat75]

Awww. I have a dinged bumper too, and cat food and vet bills always take precedence. As long as my car works fine, the ding stays.

Its beyond a dinged bumper. It’s hanging on. But it really needs to be replaced. And I don’t know if there is other damage hiding behind the bumper until they get the car up on the rack. I don’t know if you remember. I got rear ended trying to avoid being struck by the jackack who went straight in front of me from the left turning lane next to me. That dumback got off without a scratch. And you know what? I saw the same damn maneuver at the same intersection the other day just a couple cars in front of me. Could have been the same dumb-ack! Was tempted to follow him/her. If I see it again, I’m getting a dash cam. This needs to stop!

And everything rattles more than it used to now. At least the repair bill will be picked up by the other driver’s insurance. Too bad the rental benefit is not really a benefit when it comes up 75% short.

 

[Furballsmom]

I’m getting a dash cam.

worth it.

 

[Margot Lane]

Its beyond a dinged bumper. It’s hanging on. But it really needs to be replaced. And I don’t know if there is other damage hiding behind the bumper until they get the car up on the rack. I don’t know if you remember. I got rear ended trying to avoid being struck by the jackack who went straight in front of me from the left turning lane next to me. That dumback got off without a scratch. And you know what? I saw the same damn maneuver at the same intersection the other day just a couple cars in front of me. Could have been the same dumb-ack! Was tempted to follow him/her. If I see it again, I’m getting a dash cam. This needs to stop!

And everything rattles more than it used to now. At least the repair bill will be picked up by the other driver’s insurance. Too bad the rental benefit is not really a benefit when it comes up 75% short.

i totally remember…was just touched by your priorities. Definitely get a dash cam…who knows who else he’s been ramming? stay safe!!

 

[daftcat75]

worth it.

Does it pick up license plates? And do cops act on citizen reported cam footage? Because if I can't nail this fugger with painful correctional consequences, then I have other things I can spend my finite financial resources on.

 

[Furballsmom]

And do cops act on citizen reported cam footage?

If a crime is being committed.

Does it pick up license plates?

The videos of dashcam clips I've seen do, but I don't know if that's dependent on specific brands.

 

[daftcat75]

I shaved about a quarter ounce off dinner last night since she’s been leaving dinner remainders anyway and that’s the shortest eating shift before overnight only four hours later. She ate most of the overnight and none of the feeder. 148 calories.

Her first passes are perky once more. No sniff and snubs since we went back on the SB with MOS. I’m going to finish out the week collecting data. If this holds, I’ll definitely let AnimalBiome know that the GMP formula change was not a hit with Betty.