Krista's Care

[tarasgirl06]

Yes, my thoughts exactly, MissClouseau on the little catfeet. How can anyone resist?
And yes, daftcat75 It's a difficult thing at times. I know Elvis likes to snork anything he really loves, and a lot of the time it is promptly regurged. I try to get him to slow down and enjoy, but does he listen?

 

[daftcat75]

Oh she doesn't scarf and barf. That would be easy. I would get instant feedback, and course correct.

No, she was snacking and yakking. It looks like normal cat eating. But I guess she ate herself fat and then kept going back to nibble whenever she saw there was still more food left. She must have reached capacity after first dinner.

She's been eating much better since then. Her portions are right-sized again, and she's finishing them. Except the little extra in second breakfast. But she has 4 hours instead of 3 to finish that little bit after a good hide hole morning nap. We'll just keep it like this with the little extra in second breakfast and first dinner. Then I taper her portion sizes for lunch, afternoon, and overnight to give her a chance to digest before the breakfasts and dinners again.

 

[daftcat75]

7am:

Or at least that's when I woke to find it. So polite. It wasn't announcing itself in the box. And she actually gave a go at burying it this time.

I'm loving these remarkably consistent perfect poops! This is the first step to weight gain and she's acing it!

 

[tarasgirl06]

7am:

Or at least that's when I woke to find it. So polite. It wasn't announcing itself in the box. And she actually gave a go at burying it this time.

I'm loving these remarkably consistent perfect poops! This is the first step to weight gain and she's acing it!

*YES!!!*

 

[daftcat75]

3:30 PM:

I collected her Animal Biome sample. I didn't read the directions thoroughly before beginning and didn't realize there was a liquid at the bottom of the collection vial. Fortunately, they included two collection vials. A sample you send in and an extra you retain. I'm not sure why I'm retaining extra poop. It's not like I couldn't collect another sample if they lose the one I sent in. I moved the sample label to the extra vial and that's what I sent in.

 

[tarasgirl06]

3:30 PM:

I collected her Animal Biome sample. I didn't read the directions thoroughly before beginning and didn't realize there was a liquid at the bottom of the collection vial. Fortunately, they included two collection vials. A sample you send in and an extra you retain. I'm not sure why I'm retaining extra poop. It's not like I couldn't collect another sample if they lose the one I sent in. I moved the sample label to the extra vial and that's what I sent in.

*PRAYERS* for good, helpful results!*

 

[daftcat75]

4:30 am

Chemo today. It’s a good thing we only do this every two weeks now. She doesn’t particularly care for the anchovy flavored dose anymore. But a little bit of salmon oil goes a long way. At least the length of a cat’s digestion.

Speaking of which...

5am

 

[tarasgirl06]

4:30 am

Chemo today. It’s a good thing we only do this every two weeks now. She doesn’t particularly care for the anchovy flavored dose anymore. But a little bit of salmon oil goes a long way. At least the length of a cat’s digestion.

Speaking of which...

5am

Salmon's one of of our faves here, too. Whenever I break out a tin of Soulistic salmon, which is soft, soupy and fragrant, I KNOW I'll get a positive response. Three of them, in fact.

 

[daftcat75]

Salmon's one of of our faves here, too. Whenever I break out a tin of Soulistic salmon, which is soft, soupy and fragrant, I KNOW I'll get a positive response. Three of them, in fact.

Salmon protein is an IBD trigger with her. She used to eat chicken and salmon all the time. She still comes running into the kitchen any time I am cooking with salmon.

Salmon oil is just the fat though. Thankfully, that shouldn't trigger a reaction. But it is a boost of fat into her diet. So I look to her next delivery with some trepidation. But we only do this every two weeks. It shouldn't be nearly as disastrous as the daily fish flakes or antibiotics. Not on the whole anyway. For one movement, it could be anything goes. To be honest, I don't even know if she reacts to the anchovy flavoring like she reacted to the duck flavoring. In any case, it's not like I'm going anywhere tonight or tomorrow. Whatever and whenever it happens, I'll be here for it. With my Bissell soldiers at the ready.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Salmon protein is an IBD trigger with her. She used to eat chicken and salmon all the time. She still comes running into the kitchen any time I am cooking with salmon.

Salmon oil is just the fat though. Thankfully, that shouldn't trigger a reaction. But it is a boost of fat into her diet. So I look to her next delivery with some trepidation. But we only do this every two weeks. It shouldn't be nearly as disastrous as the daily fish flakes or antibiotics. Not on the whole anyway. For one movement, it could be anything goes. To be honest, I don't even know if she reacts to the anchovy flavoring like she reacted to the duck flavoring. In any case, it's not like I'm going anywhere tonight or tomorrow. Whatever and whenever it happens, I'll be here for it. With my Bissell soldiers at the ready.

Yeah, salmon is VERY rich.
It's so sad that sometimes the things we love the most are bad for us! None of my cats has ever been allergic to/had bad reaction to any foods I've fed them, thankfully.
Yes, Bissell soldiers at ease, for now, and hopefully in the future.

 

[daftcat75]

2 pm:

It was a little softer, a little paler, a little stinkier as if we got early returns on the salmon oil. But it was still perfectly formed.

 

[daftcat75]

2 am:

Or sometime between 11 and 2. I wasn’t awake for it. Which is just amazing! I can finally leave her unpoopervised!

 

[daftcat75]

7am:

At least that’s when I found this polite pale pile. I think this is a slightly less formed but still formed return on the salmon oil. Or the chemo. She did get a chemo dose yesterday. Hence the reason for the salmon oil in the first place. In either case, I still give it a thumbs up.

 

[tarasgirl06]

7am:

At least that’s when I found this polite pale pile. I think this is a slightly less formed but still formed return on the salmon oil. Or the chemo. She did get a chemo dose yesterday. Hence the reason for the salmon oil in the first place. In either case, I still give it a thumbs up.

Excellent! Good girl, Krista! Keep up the great work!

 

[daftcat75]

In other Krista news, not only have I found her on the media bench a few more times this week indicating that she's making her way up those steps, but I'm seeing other encouraging signs as well. She's jumping onto the bed again instead of merely climbing up. She also jumped from the bed to the ottoman. She wiped out a little but it was still an effort she didn't make in the two weeks prior. I have seen her trot, almost run from the kitchen to her feeding spot. Her walking is getting better. There's still a little wide-legged waddle but it's very slight now. She still has jerky head movements now and then. But her head tilt looks like it is also getting better. I get almost a daily belly ride. And those mornings that she doesn't park on my chest, she'll do a few laps across it. This is just as good because it challenges her balance. This is physical therapy for her that I can volunteer to help with. The surgeon made it sound like stopping antibiotics would stop her recovery. But I'm not seeing that. If anything, I think she's finally getting better. She does still shake her head sometimes. And when she does, she can shake herself off her feet. But she's come back from a ruptured eardrum. She can come back from this too.

 

[tarasgirl06]

In other Krista news, not only have I found her on the media bench a few more times this week indicating that she's making her way up those steps, but I'm seeing other encouraging signs as well. She's jumping onto the bed again instead of merely climbing up. She also jumped from the bed to the ottoman. She wiped out a little but it was still an effort she didn't make in the two weeks prior. I have seen her trot, almost run from the kitchen to her feeding spot. Her walking is getting better. There's still a little wide-legged waddle but it's very slight now. She still has jerky head movements now and then. But her head tilt looks like it is also getting better. I get almost a daily belly ride. And those mornings that she doesn't park on my chest, she'll do a few laps across it. This is just as good because it challenges her balance. This is physical therapy for her that I can volunteer to help with. The surgeon made it sound like stopping antibiotics would stop her recovery. But I'm not seeing that. If anything, I think she's finally getting better. She does still shake her head sometimes. And when she does, she can shake herself off her feet. But she's come back from a ruptured eardrum. She can come back from this too.

Yeah, they always want the entire course of antibiotics to be used. There may be more reasons for this than the obvious. But the proof, as they say, is in the pudding (or solids!) right? Sounds like she's making excellent progress. Yeah, don't you love it when she makes a jump, or gets more exercise! I'm like that with Tar, too. Sometimes she calculates her jump up onto the weight bench, which is where she eats; sometimes I'll wait for her to jump, but sometimes I can tell she'd really like some assistance, so I give her an airplane ride up to her dish, which we make a game out of, with accompanying airplane-ish noises, and which she loves.

 

[daftcat75]

I have thought about offering a second dish of food on the steps to the kitchen counter. I do miss her up there supervising meal prep. When she meows at me from below, I tell her, “why don’t you come up and say that to my face?” But I also understand her reluctance to return. The path up is not nearly so difficult for her as the path down. The last couple times she tried it, she wiped out on the descent. Though she did find a novel way to descend last time that I thought had promise. But maybe just to get her to come up to the first level of steps would give her some extra muscle restoring exercise. I want to see what this next week brings us. I feel like I am seeing changes in the first week after antibiotics already. I don’t want to rush her into the stairs and develop an aversion if she’s still not ready for them.

The surgeon did admit that she didn’t know whether another month or two of the antibiotics would help. She said there’s no way of really knowing (short of another MRI?) whether her wobbles and tilt are from infection or inflammation or some combination. But she also agreed with me that she can’t lose any more weight. That’s more important than a prophylactic pill and pray approach.

 

[tarasgirl06]

I have thought about offering a second dish of food on the steps to the kitchen counter. I do miss her up there supervising meal prep. When she meows at me from below, I tell her, “why don’t you come up and say that to my face?” But I also understand her reluctance to return. The path up is not nearly so difficult for her as the path down. The last couple times she tried it, she wiped out on the descent. Though she did find a novel way to descend last time that I thought had promise. But maybe just to get her to come up to the first level of steps would give her some extra muscle restoring exercise. I want to see what this next week brings us. I feel like I am seeing changes in the first week after antibiotics already. I don’t want to rush her into the stairs and develop an aversion if she’s still not ready for them.

The surgeon did admit that she didn’t know whether another month or two of the antibiotics would help. She said there’s no way of really knowing (short of another MRI?) whether her wobbles and tilt are from infection or inflammation or some combination. But she also agreed with me that she can’t lose any more weight. That’s more important than a prophylactic pill and pray approach.

I know. I want to encourage Tarifa to jump and climb and walk as much as possible too. My philosophy is that hard work is good for us all and when we cut back on work and/or exercise, it's not a good thing at all, and it can start a downward spiral. You're right -- you don't want to spook her on anything positive. She seems to be making really good progress in such a short time. Slow and steady does it, like in strength training. It's a shame her diet is so limited. If there were a wider variety of safe foods she'd eat and like, it might help her regain weight faster. But her enthusiasm for what she is eating is very good.

 

[daftcat75]

Every can of Rawz is slightly unpredictable. Some are firmer. Some are softer. Turns out she really likes the softer ones. Put down soupy rabbit and she makes the plate clean in one go. Give her something to chew on and it’s going to take awhile.

*It has to be soupy at full strength. If I add water, she objects.

Also, 5 pm:

Or at least that’s when I woke up.

 

[Rylka]

Glad the output is getting better! I've found the same consistency issue with Dr Elsey's, and Instinct when I was feeding that. Not sure what causes it, and it's often different in cans from the same case