Krista's Care

[Leomc123]

Did the vet say what caused Kristas eyes to look like that ? It doesn't seem right after the operations pulling teeth out and etubes insertion .

 

[daftcat75]

Did the vet say what caused Kristas eyes to look like that ? It doesn't seem right after the operations pulling teeth out and etubes insertion .

She also had a lot of junk in her ears. The Horners syndrome was a result of a ruptured eardrum while trying to clean her ears. That’s long since resolved.

I know now there is a food allergy component to her ears. I stopped giving her tuna flakes. And anytime she starts shaking her ears again, I look to her food or supplements first before I book a vet appointment. Usually just eliminating the offending food and administering home remedy of chamomile tea and apple cider vinegar, a few drops in each ear, gives her relief.

 

[daftcat75]

Weigh-in: 7.9 to 8 lbs. Two readings. So stable to slightly down. . Thinking maybe Thurs regurg plus the smaller portions to prevent a repeat regurg reduced her calories this week. I’m going to resume the very slow climb to larger portion. I also wonder if bonus poops have been compromising her digestion. She seems to be doing well with a small amount of the dirt (probiotic.). Maybe by my birthday in June, we can collapse her schedule to four meals.

 

[daftcat75]

She's such a stinker! I fix her 6am breakfast and climb back into bed with my phone. I like to stay up long enough for her to decide whether she's going to use the litterbox or not before going back to sleep. So she uses the litterbox and then comes straight to lay on me in full sphinx. She wants loving before going back to sleep. This would be really sweet. If I wasn't thinking something along the following, "I didn't hear the hundred scratches in the box, but I do smell something faint, but she didn't clean herself before mounting me, and yes, I do smell that, gross girl! Clean your butt! But you are being super sweet right now. Okay, your purring is putting me to sleep and I need to roll onto my side to sleep. You're nowhere near being full up on scritches are you? I will commence the full body strokes then. Ah there we go! You curl up to sleep. I'll go flush your toilet and meet you back in bed in a minute." We have achieved the, "The bomb in the box can wait, you must love on me now" level of intimacy and poop stability.

 

[daftcat75]

I essentially cut her salmon oil by 25% by adding Rawz turkey without oil. Twice a day she gets the probiotic dirt which she thankfully doesn't seem to mind. I honestly like the look and smell of the rabbit flavor more than the turkey flavor and would rather keep plating the rabbit. But the turkey has more calories. The mix is resulting in stable poops and clean plates. I'm inclined to leave the mix where it is rather than progressing to a full turkey plate. If we lose poop stability or clean plates, we can revisit the mix.

 

[daftcat75]

Also it's Tuesday. I am on hairball watch....

I'm cautiously optimistic that 25% less oil will result in 25% less hairballs.

 

[daftcat75]

Another great poop! I think we have the oil and probiotics worked out.


And so far...so far! No hairballs today. The night is still young!

 

[daftcat75]

We had a bonus poop and then almost a carpet pretzel. I caught her squatting and was able to stop her. Interestingly, after I chased her to the litterbox which was the first place she ran, she had nothing left to offer. I briefly jailed her in the back half of the apartment until the desire to drop a carpet bomb had passed. We ended the feed shift with a half Sphinx snuggle. I’m cool with the half this time because I don’t know if it’s the air or her bum that still stinks. It’s a good thing I adore her otherwise. She crawled off me and went straight to sleep next to me. I’m still winding down from an eventful shift.

But no hairballs.

 

[daftcat75]

Her coat is feeling fantastic and her appetite is lagging. She could be brewing a most magnificent hairball. Or she could just be feeling the return of the heat. She was eating in spurts last week when the weather was warmer and apartment was hot(!). I was enjoying that weather. I was getting out, getting active, and eating better. Then the weather cooled. I started winter eating again and hibernating once more. But those cooler days, she was finishing her plates in one go. The apartment should cool down quickly on the overnight. It’s not that hot out here yet. Then again, she always eats better on the overnight anyway.

Now that we’re doing mostly well on the gut and butt, I’m determined to work on play and exercise with her. The two seconds she spends with a catnip mouse during her poop zooms is not enough play or exercise for her. And I need to have a better relationship with her besides telling her when it’s time and when it’s not yet time to eat. And finally, I think exercise is the missing piece for hairballs, for digestion, for appetite, for mood, and for weight gain.

 

[Leomc123]

i am glad krista is doing better, moving around and eating well. Exercise should make her more regular with bowel movements. Go kritsa !! You can do it girl !!!

 

[daftcat75]

We've been playing more. It's been fun. I realize there's something there for me too. I need to learn to be more present for her and could use the mindfulness practice instead of always thinking about what's the next thing I need to do, what's the next app I open. I'm kind of a cat with my phone. There's a number of apps I open and survey their contents like they are my territory. And maybe they are. But Krista is right in front of me and she's more important than Angry Birds or the stock market or my email.

At the end of our most recent play session, I decided to try a new treat with her. I picked up freeze-dried minnows. Oh she was so happy to have one! Except...She doesn't have enough teeth. Poor girl! She just sort of gummed that dry fish around trying to get two or three good teeth into it. When she took a break, I grabbed it from her and tore off the head for her. ("Fish heads, fish heads, rolly poley fish heads!") I thought that would keep her busy for a moment. I turned my back for a second to throw out the minnow body and that head was gone! See! Mindfulness. The trash could have waited. I missed my girl's first minnow murder!

And now the long wait to see how it treats her. Crossing whiskers and toes that she doesn't bring up a partially chewed minnow head and whatever other collateral damage (hairball? her last meal?) in her stomach.

 

[Leomc123]

Fingers crossed It is good that she is playfull and getting back to her self again.

 

[daftcat75]

I think she's getting bored of the turkey-rabbit mix. Her plates are coming back a little less clean lately and she's not eating all the way through her portion in one go like she was when I first brought turkey into the mix. So I'm bring duck into the mix. And this is where things get tricky. Duck has salmon oil. I can't feed her 100% portions with oil because that will add up to too much oil in a day for her poor pooper. Generally what I've been doing is 10 g food w/o oil. Lately that's been turkey. A few extra grams of turkey with oil so we keep the same amount of oil in her because the omega-3's in the salmon oil have been helping. And then the rest is rabbit with oil. It comes out to about 3:1 oiled portions to no oil. Duck has an unknowable amount of oil in it already. This is after all how I found that she loves salmon oil. So this last meal was 10 g turkey, 7 g duck, and the rest (22 g) is rabbit. She likes all these foods. But I don't think she likes this mix. Probably doesn't help that there's also a little dirt (probiotic) in the meal.

She took a few bites and then just laid down next to her meal staring out the window. I was going to wait her out into eating it. But she's pestering me right now asking me to remake it. I think we skip duck this meal and try again without the turkey or the dirt next time. I'll have to open a rabbit can without oil to balance out 3:1 ratio. For now, let's just go with what was working before.

 

[daftcat75]

11 g turkey w/o oil and 28 g of rabbit with oil. I'm watching her on the hidden camera making her way through this plate.

Maybe I just give her a duck tweener (between meals snack) later rather than trying to get the mix oil mix right.

Maybe I don't need to be messing with this right now. Cats with too many choices get choosy. With as many meals as she gets, I don't want to be remaking meals to her tastes.

 

[daftcat75]

She finished about half the portion. This is the daytime eating shift which is notoriously slower than the nigttime shift. I liken these daytime meals to midnight and late night snacking. She may finish that portion before next feed. Or she'll be hungry enough to finish the next portion. I won't overthink this.

I bought a ticket to see Avengers Endgame this afternoon. It's a risky proposition because I'll be pushing her schedule a little. I also don't get enough sleep these days that I'm not entirely certain I'll be awake for the whole movie. It could be that the lights go out to a cat-less recliner and I'll go right off to sleep. Probably not the worst way to spend the afternoon.

 

[daftcat75]

Huh! I wonder if duck doesn't make her feel well. She only had a few bites at breakfast earlier. But I thought I'd give her a little distract-a-snack while I was cooking my own breakfast (about 7 g or a tablespoon.) After both meals, she has gone into hiding for the first time in what seems like weeks. I won't offer her anymore duck today. I wasn't planning on it anyway. I always wait 24 hours before progressing with a new food, and this is new enough to her.

I did end up remaking her breakfast this morning with only rabbit and turkey (and oil) and she finished that without issue.

We will pause on the duck. I hope she's up for her next meal before I leave for the movies.

 

[daftcat75]

Fingers crossed It is good that she is playfull and getting back to her self again.

She's in pain. She has arthritis. I thought her mopeyness and stinkface was digestive. But she's polishing plates like a cat with digestive issues wouldn't do. I was researching cats and arthritis last night and she very much looks like she's in pain all the time. That would explain what I call her mopeyness. Play and exercise should help some. I know my back feels better when I'm more active. But it still hurts when I'm not. Even when I'm laying down, sometimes especially when I'm laying down, it still hurts. Like I can't catch a break. And so I can empathize with Krista when she mopes around the house like, "it hurts. it's all pain. it never goes away." I wish I could have kept giving her the GlycoFlex. But the pooper distress and the stress of her not wanting to use the litterbox anymore wasn't worth it. I would like to try the Grizzly Joint Aid oil. I recognize it's got some of the same problematic ingredients. But maybe we can work it in more easily than the powders or soft-chews since I'm already measuring and managing the amount of oil I add to her food. And if that doesn't work out for us, I may consider the Adequan injections.

This is all to say that it's been a long time since I've seen her old self. I hope I can find her some relief. But I find myself maybe ten times a day sitting on the floor next to her or across from her, looking into her eyes, and asking, "where has the youth gone and how much time do we have left?" Several times a week the dimming of her light just tears me to pieces!

 

[daftcat75]

I just ugly cried into my breakfast. I don't want to talk about or think about her mortality anymore. I just want her to pop out of hiding right about now, and pester me for another meal.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Can you make her bone brother or broth from chicken feet for the chondroitin and collagen? Or will that upset her tummy?

 

[FeebysOwner]

Perhaps, you should consider Adequan - as my vet said I might want to do for Feeby. That is assuming that the new bag of Glyco Flex Plus doesn't have the same positive effect as the previous ones did before what I am assuming was a bad-batch-bag.

I haven't looked into Adequan yet, and am not impressed with the fact that it is a once a week shot for the first 4 weeks, followed by a shot every 3 months thereafter. But, if Feeby doesn't do another turn around on this new bag of Glyco, I will truly be looking into it.