Amy&TrixieCat
Member Since 2011
Yesterday
It looks like Trix has decided to settle in to this dose.
I spoke with one of the vets (but not "our" vet) a little while ago about Zen's BW. Basically everything looks pretty good, but unlike Petey's elevated calcium, Zen's calcium was a tad below normal, as was his phosphorus. Eosinophils were slightly elevated, all of which - as we already knew - points towards some sort of inflammation and/or malabsorption issue. These values weren't alarmingly out of range, just notable. And, DH reported the first full "splat" in the litter box since we switched the food back to Orijen from Blue Basics. We knew it was just a matter of time before that was going to happen.
Before we jump into doing a biopsy for IBD, we're going to try one more food trial, since we've seen how dramatically diet does affect their litter box situation. The problem has always been in getting them to continue to willingly eat the fuds that help with the littler boxes. Usually, they'll eat the limited ingredient foods long enough for us to see improvement, and then they'll refuse to touch the food anymore. It has been years of frustration - times three, since all three littermates have similar issues.
So, I'm forcing myself to think differently about cat food...after years and years of learning and researching what I want my cats to eat, I'm having to try and change my directions, for their sake. I hate to type this out because I have been such a cat food snob for years, but I'm going to try Science Diet Hairball. We wonder if the high protein foods are too rich (despite the fact that they are cats), and the fiber levels are too low. The Blue Basics was lower protein/higher fiber, and their poops firmed up pretty well...but then they started barfing and not eating. The Science diet has a fairly limited ingredient list, while the Blue Basic has all sorts of fancy "extras" (cranberries and the like) that really don't belong in a cats' diet, and maybe that's what was upsetting their stomachs.
And I do have to admit that it seems people who don't think twice about what they feed their cats have perfectly happy, healthy, worry-free cats. The cate I grew up with ate Cat Chow and Tender Vittles, and lived to be 16 without a single health issue until the very end. One of my customers at the store told me that any time she's tried a higher-quality food, her get cats the runs. I'm going with Science Diet, as much as it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, because it seems that many cats just luv the stuff...if it helps with the boxes AND they're willing to eat it, we've got to go with it.
Anyway, if we can't find a fuds that works in all directions (barfing, eating, poops) sooner rather than later, we'll go with the biopsy and think about adding in meds.
Thank again, for letting me use Trix's condo to hash all this out. As I've said before, no one understand cats, beans, and the special bond that folks like us have more than LL people do. I truly appreciate it.
With that...time to run errands! Have a great day, everyone!
Amy
It looks like Trix has decided to settle in to this dose.
I spoke with one of the vets (but not "our" vet) a little while ago about Zen's BW. Basically everything looks pretty good, but unlike Petey's elevated calcium, Zen's calcium was a tad below normal, as was his phosphorus. Eosinophils were slightly elevated, all of which - as we already knew - points towards some sort of inflammation and/or malabsorption issue. These values weren't alarmingly out of range, just notable. And, DH reported the first full "splat" in the litter box since we switched the food back to Orijen from Blue Basics. We knew it was just a matter of time before that was going to happen.
Before we jump into doing a biopsy for IBD, we're going to try one more food trial, since we've seen how dramatically diet does affect their litter box situation. The problem has always been in getting them to continue to willingly eat the fuds that help with the littler boxes. Usually, they'll eat the limited ingredient foods long enough for us to see improvement, and then they'll refuse to touch the food anymore. It has been years of frustration - times three, since all three littermates have similar issues.
So, I'm forcing myself to think differently about cat food...after years and years of learning and researching what I want my cats to eat, I'm having to try and change my directions, for their sake. I hate to type this out because I have been such a cat food snob for years, but I'm going to try Science Diet Hairball. We wonder if the high protein foods are too rich (despite the fact that they are cats), and the fiber levels are too low. The Blue Basics was lower protein/higher fiber, and their poops firmed up pretty well...but then they started barfing and not eating. The Science diet has a fairly limited ingredient list, while the Blue Basic has all sorts of fancy "extras" (cranberries and the like) that really don't belong in a cats' diet, and maybe that's what was upsetting their stomachs.
And I do have to admit that it seems people who don't think twice about what they feed their cats have perfectly happy, healthy, worry-free cats. The cate I grew up with ate Cat Chow and Tender Vittles, and lived to be 16 without a single health issue until the very end. One of my customers at the store told me that any time she's tried a higher-quality food, her get cats the runs. I'm going with Science Diet, as much as it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, because it seems that many cats just luv the stuff...if it helps with the boxes AND they're willing to eat it, we've got to go with it.
Anyway, if we can't find a fuds that works in all directions (barfing, eating, poops) sooner rather than later, we'll go with the biopsy and think about adding in meds.
Thank again, for letting me use Trix's condo to hash all this out. As I've said before, no one understand cats, beans, and the special bond that folks like us have more than LL people do. I truly appreciate it.
With that...time to run errands! Have a great day, everyone!
Amy
