Krista's Care

[daftcat75]

It’s like turkey sashimi! Enjoy lil one!

 

[daftcat75]

She finished the rabbit portion and half the turkey portion I left for her on the daytime. She also nibbled from the feeders. I think she’s eating better today.

The stock looks really good. Gelled up nicely! Krista devoured her spoonful!

Then I cut up a little more turkey sashimi for her. I always want to wait 20-30 minutes between feeding stock and anything else so that the stock readies her system for anything else coming. She was having none of the waiting. She was licking the counter. I don’t know what she was licking off the counter. But that’s all I needed to cut up some sashimi for her.

Still hungry? I’m not going to eat in peace unless I drop a plate for you to nibble at? Okay. Have some rabbit.

I don’t know when. But we’re getting a poop tonight. Her eating has picked back up.

Oh! Spoiled girl! I found duck eggs. Let’s see this next poop first. If we’re good to proceed, I will share a little scrambled duck egg with her tomorrow. If no reactions on one end or the other, we’ll be using duck egg yolks (since I suspect a chicken egg sensitivity) in Krista Test Kitchen.

 

[daftcat75]

First round of Krista Test Kitchen was a success.

Turkey leg meat, turkey liver, duck egg yolk, freeze-dried turkey heart, turkey meat stock, seaweed-derived calcium, taurine

Next batch, I'll add vitamin E, kelp power (for iodine), and fish oil.

I plated about 1/4 oz and she ate it all. Mostly. We need to work on the texture. I pulsed it in the food processor and it left a grisly or stringy bit that nearly toothless Krista somehow managed to get stuck in her mouth. She jawed at for a long time and even pawed at it. That's when I realized she wasn't just determined. Once I liberated her from the bite that bit back, she finished the rest of the portion without issue. I will blend or chop or pulse the next serving(s) until we get the winning texture.

 

[daftcat75]

We passed the second meal test, e.g. will she eat it a second time? She did a pretty good job at the first pass. I'm sure she'll come back and clean the rest over the remainder of the hour.

 

[daftcat75]

And she's done! Clean plate!

And finally a poop! A half cigar and a poop cherry. A+! Would scoop again.

I was nervous, between the rabbit and turkey sashimi and homemade and the new stock, that her pooper was going to go soft serve or worse. But nope, that was possibly better than the last one.

 

[daftcat75]

She had another good poop. Then shortly after that, I could see her plotting a carpet campaign. Into poop jail with you! She had just the tiniest soft bit. It was still mostly formed. Like a deflated caramel. But that seems to be enough to slow her eating down again.

This was at 3am. This is why I've been a sleepless zombie for a month or two now.

She's still eating my homemade.


It's the only food she willingly eats a half portion in one sitting. For that reason, I feel a little guilty that it's not complete.

I did have to tempt her into a second pass with freeze-dried turkey heart powder. I grind it to make a topper. It looks like there's still a third pass left on the plate but I'm not going to force that yet. When the raw serving timer is up, I'll check in with her once more about the last bit on the plate.

Also, she's had a small mat in her fur on her back for awhile. I decided to try the olive oil trick. I loaded a syringe with olive oil and kept it in a cup near my TV chair. I waited for her to join me in my lap and while she was getting her scratches and pets, I squirted some oil at the top and underneath the mat. By the end of the day, it fell out like magic. She's looking a little hairless where it used to be. But she must feel a lot better not having something there tugging on her all the time.

 

[daftcat75]

I'm both flattered and a little anxious that she only wants to eat my homemade this morning. But, she's eating it and eating it well. I plated another serving and she's likely going to finish it. I will pick up more turkey and maybe a rabbit and make another batch this week that's fully balanced. If I pick up a rabbit, I can make her a rabbit meat stock.

That's if PG&E doesn't cut my power as part of their proactive blackouts this week.


Fresh servings from new cans of turkey and rabbit are sitting in her dining spot untouched. I'll leave those for daytime nibbles.

 

[daftcat75]

She's not really touching the Rawz anymore.

She nibbles but that's about it. I can get her to nibble a little more if I put a topper on it. But I'm not yet sure how the toppers are treating her because she hasn't pooped in awhile. She needs to eat to poop and she just isn't eating enough. I gave her a squirt of Entyce in the side of her mouth and that did very little. I don't know that we'll be doing that one again.

I picked up more turkey and also a rabbit. I need to pick up a cleaver so I can properly butcher it. I'll cut off the meat and save the organs for her food and make a stock out of the rest. I think I might also try Alnutrin with her again. The turkey will likely cut up to a couple of pounds of meat at least. So one pound I'll use Alnutrin. If she doesn't like that, then the other pound will be the last recipe plus the missing iodine and vitamin E.

I would really love it if she ate a premix so I'm not completely on the hook. But if she only wants something I have lovingly prepared, then I guess that's the new chapter we have begun. I'm likely taking her into the vet this weekend or next week to make sure there isn't something else going on.

 

[daftcat75]

Three hours last night. I was mixing and cleaning and mixing and cleaning for three hours last night. Two different batches of Alnutrin and she didn’t like either.

Now in her defense, the turkey meat for the first batch was a lot of skin because I couldn’t get good meat off the wings. I won’t be using wings for food meat again. Unless I need to add a whole lot of skin. The second batch, I used up my 1 lb chub of turkey meat without even plating only the meat to see if she even likes that grind. I tried to mix it with fresh liver but it wouldn’t mix in. So I put some freeze dried in a grinder and I think I just messed that whole batch up. I feel alright she didn’t like it.

She still likes the stock. . I portioned some of it to small jars instead of ice cubes. I took a jar out yesterday. I reheated it in a double boiler. Then I let it cool again in the fridge and it sets back up again like fresh. So much easier than the ice cubes. I think I’m about ready to be a stock supplier to friends. I think I finally have this down.

Yesterday I picked up a cleaver. Tonight I butcher the rabbit. Tomorrow, I have a manual grinder coming from Amazon. I didn’t want to invest in an electric until I’m certain she’ll eat my food.

I’m powdering up Stella And Chewy’s freeze-dried to use as a topper for her Rawz. She’s not finishing her plates anymore. But she does like the S&C. I figure even if she only eats the topper, that’s food too.

Krista Test Kitchen continues....

 

[daftcat75]

Krista on the half wing! Never seen her do this before. One’s folded while she’s crouched on the other.

I’ve had her thirteen of her fifteen years and I’ve never seen her sit like this. It’s so weird because it looks like 1/4 of her chest is gone. That’s what caught my attention. And then I realized her left side was pulled back into cat wing position. Crouching makes her arms look like chicken wings.

 

[daftcat75]

I thought she was going to like the Stella and Chewy's Selects. But she's not eating enough of it yet. That seems to be a theme around here. She's nibbling everything but still eating very little.

She had a slightly softer poop last night but nothing alarming yet. No carpet campaigns: planned, executed, or aborted. To be honest, with all the new foods I've thrown at her yesterday, I'm surprised it wasn't worse.

So last night, I butchered a rabbit for my cat. I don't even eat meat (except eggs and fish.) I watched a YouTube video and drank beer at the tap room. Then I came home and followed along the video with newly acquired knives: a cleaver and a boning knife. (And nitrile gloves. I went through so many gloves! Every time I had to stop and replay a section of the video, that's a new pair of gloves to keep raw rabbit off the iPad.) Off a 4 lb rabbit, I got nearly 2 lbs of meat that went into the freezer. I also got heart, liver, and kidneys. Krista got a small serving of rabbit sashimi. The rest of the carcass went into the Instant Pot. An hour later, I had rabbit stock and some really nice pressure-cooked rabbit to peel off the bone for her. Krista got a second plate with a small amount of cooked rabbit meat.

I have a manual crank meat grinder coming from Amazon today. Tonight, I will bring back another beer from the tap room. I'll drink beer and grind up rabbit to make cat food. Then I'll chop off the extra 6 inches my beard has grown this weekend from all this savagery.

 

[daftcat75]

When I picked up her Stella and Chewy's Selects yesterday, I also found Feline Natural's Freeze-dried Lamb Tripe Booster. Not only does Krista like the stuff, but they are soft enough that she even managed to chew through one with the few mismatched teeth she has. I ground some up and put it on top of a Rawz rabbit portion. She grazed that layer right off the top. Then she followed me to the kitchen like, "what else you got?" So, I took out some cooked rabbit from last night and shredded that over the top of the remaining rabbit portion. Success! She nearly finished that plate. It's not even 1/2 a portion of what she used to eat. But it's something. I'll take it.

She has a vet appointment this afternoon at 2:30 today. I want to get her checked out again before I put her back on mirtazapine. Plus it would be helpful if she would show more interest in one food over another so I know what to plate when she gets the mirtz munchies.

 

[daftcat75]

We had a stressful and incomplete vet visit yesterday. Usually, I come in and set her down and zip down a side of her collapsible carrier so she has a little more room. Then I go off and brew a cup of coffee and let her get settled a bit.

Yesterday, I barely set her down before we're being rushed into an exam room.

Now in the exam room, I like to open up her carrier and see if I can get her out of it. I think she'll be more receptive to vets and techs if she's not cornered within her carrier the entire time. But, no sooner are we rushed into the room, the high energy vet tech is bringing her face even with Krista's to say hi. Krista had enough and started growling. Game over.

It never got better from there. I told the tech that I wanted to let her out before the Dr came in to see if she'll calm down when not cornered. Nope. She stayed cowered in the carrier even as I left it open for her.

The Dr had to reach in to greet her. Low growl. "Let's get blood first and if she's amenable to anything else..." I was convinced I was coming home with a poop cat.

The dr came back with her in ten minutes and said, "we got enough blood for the organ function panels but it wasn't flowing well enough, and she wasn't cooperating to get a larger amount for the CBC." The dr gave us ten minutes to see if she'd settle down for another go. She was low growling at me even as she was leaning into my scratches. She was done. The dr said her CBC history has been largely unremarkable but I can bring her back for that if I wanted to.

I talked with the tech after and told her, "not blaming you, but she needs time and space next time to adjust and not have a high energy face greeting her when she's stressed and cornered." Tech agreed and no blame or hard feelings will be carried forward.

And if I thought that was the end of her vet experience, they didn't remove the blood draw bandage. Dang it!

I cornered Krista into the home office while I got the dr's office on the phone to see if they have any tricks of the trade. I think I mostly wanted moral support on the speaker phone. The tech is saying, "can you scruff her and cut it with a scissors?" Krista is saying, "you try and I'll cut you." In the end, I grabbed a towel and went for a purrito, but ended up with a taco. I had her belly up on her back in my lap, in the towel, while I cut off the self-adhesive wrap. Those wraps piss her off if I try to unwrap it since it's elastic and tightens up when I pull on it. "Okay, we're not unwrapping it. If you can hold still for a few more seconds, I can cut this off of you. Hopefully before you cut me up."

And she's free! I plated some cooked rabbit meat for her as a treat and off to the tap room I went. I find it's always best for the both of us if I give her some alone time after vet visits.

Now we wait a couple of days for the results. If there's no reason not to, I will likely start her back on the mirtazapine. I can't believe I'm rooting for a pancreatitis flare, but at least that's something we know. I don't want to learn that she's on her next leg down.

She's just nibbling at her food. She does eat the cooked and raw rabbit. I give her the raw rabbit on its own, a few grams like a treat to stimulate her appetite. I hand-shred the cooked rabbit over her Rawz rabbit food like a topper. Or a mix-in. And I've also been using the Stella and Chewy's freeze-dried as a topper.

Let's see what tomorrow's weigh-in says since we weren't able to get her on the scale at the dr office yesterday.

 

[daftcat75]

So I made this meme to explain the lengths that I have been going to keep this cat eating. If you’re not familiar with this meme, you can learn about it here: Xzibit Yo Dawg

I was telling my friend how I was putting Stella and Chewy’s Freeze-Dried rabbit powdered up on top of Rawz rabbit pate with bits of cooked rabbit stuffed into it.


And then I busted out the manual grinder that I got delivered yesterday. After a false start, a tear down, wash up, and watching a couple of videos, I got my grinder working correctly. I think I retained far more fat from the carcass than I needed to. So I skipped a lot of fat. I know some was called for but not this much. I just barely got a pound of meat and organs after the grind. I put all supplements but psyllium, gelatin, and fish oil into this batch. I’m going to omit the psyllium until she suggests otherwise. It was going to be too hard to scale the gelatin down to 1 lbs and she can and does get gelatin from stock. And the fish oil, we can try that next batch. I’m sure she likes it well enough. But I didn’t want to risk it considering the time and effort to get this far.

And did it work? Did Krista like the ground rabbit meat and organs with all the other supplements? The real test is will she eat it again tomorrow and the next day. I’ll do this again for her if she will eat enough of it and it agrees with her.


And just as I was all finished with the prep, packaging, clean-up, her second dinners/overnight portions of Rawz duck and rabbit set out, I was just about to step out with the scraps trash when she decided to leave me one more present for the trash. A full poop cigar and likely a full night’s sleep too.

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[daftcat75]

Still losing weight. Down to 7.8 lbs.

Hopefully today or tomorrow we'll have blood panel results for all but the CBC's. Her blood wasn't flowing fast enough and she wasn't feeling cooperative. Unfortunately, it's the hemocrit or PCV that I'm interested in to see if she's anemic or dehydrated. Let's see what the other panels say first. If she's got something bigger going on, we can address that. If those panels don't show anything, I can take her back for CBC. I want to assess her condition and make sure nothing else is going on before I start her on mirtazapine again.

And she just regurgitated the homemade rabbit food. That's unsettling but also fair. I just had no idea how much fat a rabbit had. And while I did hold back most of it, I'm not a butcher and I don't know how much fat I put in the grind and how much should be in the grind.

We can try a smaller meal next time. Maybe 1/2 oz was too much to start with this morning.

Maybe I can try some homemade turkey food if this rabbit batch isn't going to agree with her.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hang in there!

 

[daftcat75]

Her blood came back good. SDMA is elevated again but nothing else supports that result. ALP is elevated this time. I'm not sure what that one is about or even if the elevation is even significant enough yet. So we need to do CBC to see if SDMA is merely a dehydration result. I personally don't like the SDMA. It seems too sensitive and not very specific. I can tell that she's been producing the same two or three pee balls in the box (morning and night or sometimes middle of the night) that she's been leaving for the last thirteen years. I don't need this number freaking out every time she gets a little dehydrated. I think the plan is to take her in for the CBC and sub-Q fluids since she probably is dehydrated if she's not eating enough.

And I'll start her back on mirtazapine tonight.

And I believe I have one last Rad Cat in my freezer. If ever there was an occasion to bust into that!

And I'll be happy to pick up some turkey thigh meat and grind her some food tomorrow now that I have a grinder and turkey livers.

And that was only my first rabbit that I butchered. So I included too much fat. Beginner mistake. I'll get another and we'll try again.

Aside from whatever is eating her, her other behaviors seem to be that of a perfectly healthy senior citizen. She likes to sleep but she still interacts and plays and follows me around and climbs all over me.

It's hard riding this roller coaster. But I'm not nearly out of options yet!

 

[daftcat75]

Tried to bring her back this morning for the CBC but Krista wasn’t having it. There were two of us holding her down and a third trying to get blood from her leg. Is there a better spot for them to get blood than a leg vein from one of her achey arthritis legs? I’m told that there was just enough blood drawn to do a PCV and that’s it. Tell me she’s not anemic and we’ll call it a week for her. Dr was triple booked so not sure when I will hear back about that single number.

Krista has had about an ounce and a half of Rad Cat today. That’s about all the food she’s eaten that I know of. She may have nibbled a little on the overnight. But not enough to count. So 1.5 oz down and staying down, only 2.5 to 4.5 to go. I’d like her eating 4-6 oz to stop the weight loss. But I’d be happy if she was eating 8 oz again. But not all Rad Cat. I only have 24 oz of that (minus last night and this morning.). It’s got to last at least long enough for me to try a new turkey recipe with her and hopefully succeed.

Otherwise we can try the rabbit again. I picked up another rabbit.

I’m heading back to that store right now to see if they have turkey hearts in the back. Or if they can save them for me when they butcher their whole turkeys for the various cuts they offer.

 

[Furballsmom]

Is there a better spot for them to get blood than a leg vein from one of her achey arthritis legs?

My boy doesn't struggle when they take his blood from his neck, but Krista might be too cranky at the getgo and that's why they went for a leg, thinking it would be a little safer?