Krista's Care

[daftcat75]

She has so very little interest in the Feline Comfort Plus that I had to replate her food three times this morning to convince her to eat this morning.

“Okay, not mixed in.”

“Okay, not even a little hiding under a bite of yeast.”

“C’mon! It’s only yeast and a tiny amount of flora which you’ve never minded. Okay, here’s some unseasoned food right next to it.”

The unseasoned food brought her back to the plate where she finally decided to give the yeast plus flora portions another go. I think she’ll likely finish these portions before next breakfast. Next breakfast I’ll give her just a little of the yeast and nothing else. I’d rather she eat regularly and well. And slowly build off of that.

 

[Furballsmom]

Excellent, thanks!

 

[Furballsmom]

Would you have any interest in handfeeding?
My boy is very finicky, but he'll allow me to utilize a popsicle stick to get a bit of pate' with some probiotic mixed in onto his tongue...this particular method was a major lifesaver back when he was sick and needed meds that he Would. Not. Eat. otherwise

 

[daftcat75]

There are only so many interventions she will tolerate. The every other day mirtz is pushing it. B-12 I’m getting better about. Everything else, I’d prefer if she got on board herself. I have hand fed her before. But I’m sympathetic to what antibiotics and C. perf is doing to her stomach. She’s not needing hand feeding. She just needs another day or two to regulate after metro killed everything off. In the meantime, a quarter mirtazapine every other day keeps the acid and bile barfs away. She’s tough. She’ll get through this.

 

[Furballsmom]

She’s tough. She’ll get through this.

She's an amazing cat

 

[daftcat75]

After being bunged up for over 50 hours, she's gone several times since. There isn't an urgency nor are there accidents. There also isn't the repeated trips to the box (or carpet campaigns) in the same session. And at least some of them are approaching poop even if they are still liquid. I think her gut has some regulating to do after metro killed (most) everything off. I continue to give her yeast with each meal. I sneak Feline Comfort Plus into her food and it's a tough, tough sale. I have also started adding a little bentonite clay which is easier to get into her. I do A/B testing with her where one plate is prepared one way and the other plate another. Clearly, the clay is an easier sale. I may have to re-plate the Feline Comfort Plus plate. Probably won't need the FCP if I can make a batch of meat stock...that won't make her sick. I was going to see how her poops settled out last night. I guess I'm making a batch tonight.

 

[FeralHearts]

Meat stock for the win?

 

[daftcat75]

Meat stock for the win?

So nervous about giving it to her again. But when it was right, it treated her so well!

 

[daftcat75]

This batch defatted so well. It set up nicely and then I took the skimmer for a generous glide across the top half inch or so. It looks and smells much better than the last batch. Krista thought so too. She ate her spoonful like it was the best stuff ever. When it’s done right, it kinda is!

She had her spoonful of stock. I made a tight yeast and clay ball. I’m halving her clay dose to 1/2 mL (about 1/8 tsp) from 1 mL of about 1/4 tsp twice a day. I’m halving but not eliminating the clay to see if the dose is too high for her to poop.

She’s not eating very well since last night. She has to poop to eat. But she has to eat to poop. And I don’t dare give her anything to help her poop. Not yet anyway.

So she’s had her stock and yeast and clay and she did nibble on some food somewhere in between all that. She also played a bit with me and some on her own too. So she still shows encouraging signs of engagement. I just think we’d both feel a lot better if she had a good poop already.

If it’s not floods, it’s drought.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hang in there!

 

[daftcat75]

Two great looking poop nuggets at 4am. I’m hoping this is not just the plug before the next round of squirts.

She’s eating well this morning. Must be feeling better now that she’s cleared some space.

I gave her a larger than I intended spoonful of stock this morning. I tried to hide a half mL of clay underneath it. She’s no dummy. She ate around it.

But she’s trickable. I put a different half mL of clay into a half portion of food and I think she’s going to finish that half portion.

 

[daftcat75]

For anyone still keeping score or trying to piece this together from a clostridium or saccharomyces search, this is her current medicine stack:

• Mirtazapine, every other morning for appetite stimulation. Between fleas and clostridium, I’m just not messing around here.
• Sacchromyces boulardii, a yeast probiotic useful against clostridium infections. And having anti-inflammatory properties, she’ll be getting a maintenance dose the rest of her days. For now, she’s still getting a pretty high dose of at least 500 mg (10 bln CFU) split across two meals, or 1 capsule of the Jarrow S Boulardii with MOS with first breakfast and another capsule with first dinner. Sometimes I’ll split yet another capsule across her other meals just to entice her to eat since she likes the stuff so much. She loves this stuff and will eat a capsule’s worth off a plate by itself.
• 0.5 mL Bentonite clay to soothe and flush her gut as well as absorb excess moisture in her stools. There is at least one study on medline saying bentonite clay was useful against clostridium.
• Turkey meat stock, 1 spoonful before first breakfast and another before first dinner to provide her some easy to assimilate nutrition as well as some useful building blocks for gut repair (glucosamine, gelatin, and other collagens)

The clay is the only hard sell but certainly not as hard a sell as the Feline Comfort (w/ or w/o the Plus) or slippery elm bark by itself. Because it is such a small amount and because she’s eating again, I just mixed it in well rather than trying to hide it into a medicine meal—as small a meal I can prepare and still get her to finish usually a bite or two. For those medicines and supplements that Krista doesn’t eat readily, medicine meals are my preferred way because we both knock it out quickly and I can plate an un-poisoned portion after she’s taken her medicine.

 

[daftcat75]

This week’s weigh-in: 8.5 lbs

Hopefully we turned a corner with her pooping and eating and that can come back up.

 

[stacydc83]

Glad you got poop! I'm still waiting. You would think after giving her pumpkin and a little olive oil, I'd see something but nope! I'm not too stressed her mood is good this morning and she walked around outside the house.

 

[daftcat75]

Glad you got poop! I'm still waiting. You would think after giving her pumpkin and a little olive oil, I'd see something but nope! I'm not too stressed her mood is good this morning and she walked around outside the house.

I'm not sure olive oil will help at all.

Constipation comes down to insufficient amount of poop to signal release or not enough water retained in the stool to make for a smooth release. One of the colon's jobs, besides collecting poop, is conserving water from the stool. If the poops sit in the colon too long, they dry out making it that much harder for them to pass.

If your cat isn't pooping due to a lack of bulk, pumpkin is appropriate here to add bulk and also moisture.

If your cat has plenty of bulk but just can't pass it due to a lack of retained moisture, pumpkin will make matters worse by adding more bulk. When your cat stops eating due to constipation, that's a clue that she's full up and needs to make room before eating again. In the case where moisture is needed without adding bulk, use Miralax instead.

How do you know which one your cat is experiencing? If she's eating well, she probably has little trouble with bulk. In this case, use Miralax. If she isn't eating so well, she's likely not producing enough stool before it dries out. Use pumpkin here. If she was eating well and then slowed down or stopped eating, she's probably all full up and doesn't need more bulk. Use Miralax.

 

[daftcat75]

I know I gave her a mirtz this morning. I know it actually made it in her because I was love-bombed several times this morning. And she's cleaning her plates again. Still. I am nervous that she's cleaning her plates only to have it run too fast through her again. So I mixed in another half mL of clay. One plate of second breakfast is already clean. The other will be cleaned I'm sure.

 

[daftcat75]

Shoot! How frustrating for her! For us both. She’s finishing her food because it’s ripping through her. Tonight wasn’t as bad as last time. But it was still a multi-trip mess that included a small carpet rope. I’ll keep mixing a little clay into each portion as long as she’s going to be finishing these portions. Hopefully it’s not the glucosamine or chondroitin in the stock which she has been sensitive to before. Not in the stock (maybe?) but definitely in GlycoFlex/Cosequin products. I gave her an oversized spoonful this morning trying to hide some clay.

So she’s pretty much done with first dinner now. And I think she’s done pooping. I hope so because I’m going out to pick up dinner for me.

Second dinner AND the overnight feeder portions will all have a little clay in them. Second dinner will have the second half of first dinner’s yeast.

She has a little more spark today than she had the past couple days. She had some “eff this bird in particular!” kind of attitude going with playtime. She cracks me up sometimes. Most of the time.

I think even though she’s got some speedy bits in her poop, I did also see some formed bits. I think she’s getting some nutrition.

I need her to hang in there long enough for the stock, clay, and yeast to keep working its magic and healing her up.

Because if I can’t get some traction on her recovery at home, I might have to see what her options are for in-patient care. $$$$ But isn’t that why I’m still paying her insurance premiums?

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[daftcat75]

At least she got 24 hours this time before. But it doesn’t seem like we’re making any progress.

Tonight was worse. She started with ropes and it only got worse. She vomited after her third or fourth box trip. She was only making box trips because I had her in poop jail. When it looked like she was done, I let her out while I finished up only to find her in the middle of a carpet bombing.

I had an idea to mix the clay into the can and then serve premixed food. But she’s no dummy. I ended up having to mix leftover food that didn’t have clay into the clay-added can to get something more acceptable to her.

I had an idea to mix slippery elm bark into the yeast. That was a no go. I want her to have SEB. I’ll keep trying.

And I’m having doubts about the stock again. She’s moving better and playing more. But still! I’d feel better if she would eat store bought bone broth or slippery elm bark.

 

[daftcat75]

I'm ambivalent about mirtz'ing her this morning. I don't want to her to shovel in the food if it's going to run through her like a river. It's clear to me that this condition is causing her post-meal discomfort. Now mirtz has some anti-inflam and anti-emetic properties. But if she is eating herself into pain.... I'll keep an eye on her today and I'll mirtz her if she stops eating to the point of acid barfs. But otherwise, as long as I can get some yeast and clay into her, I'll let her slow eat today if she wants to.

So far, I put out about an ounce of food mixed with 0.5 mL clay and 5 bln CFU of s. boulardii. And a pre-meal spoonful of stock.

I'm probably going to take half a day off to see if I can find her some blander food, e.g. some turkey breast I can poach or maybe make her some duck-based raw (or possibly cooked) food since the raw feeder coop has the duck patties she liked last summer. Maybe the owner will be there. She would probably have some input or insight. I'll also go to the vitamin shop and see if there's another s. boulardii that has other strains too that may work better.

I also need to try harder to get either feline comfort plus or just slippery elm bark into her. I think we had a more solid poop the day after I was able to get some feline comfort plus in her. It may have been coincidence in the timing of the sporulation phase of this awful bug. But I'm desperate for something to take already so I can know, "yes! that's the thing we need to keep doing."