8/31 Twice Update

Good morning LL!!

It's been awhile since we posted and Twice wanted everyone to know he is doing marvelous His numbers are staying nice and steady in the 60-70 range, and he is one happy purry boy.
As many of you know, I converted the entire crew to ff wet when this all started. Because we have 10 kitties of our own and several outside guests, we cannot afford the higher end wet foods. All kitties were previously on Hills w/d dry exclusively, and except for what happened with Twice developing what we believe was Prednisone based diabetes, they were doing very well on this diet. Nice coats, good activity levels, overall health=good. And it worked for many of their individual issues: urinary crystals, obsessive licking, overweight struggles, etc. Since the switch, many of them have developed dull coats, are shedding more, one licked all the hair off her legs and belly, and they just seem a little...off. Most are also in the 10+ yr old range. I'm thinking of offering their old diet back to them once a day, and supplemented with the wet diet, but I'm nervous about Twice. I've been sitting on this fence for a couple months now, and trying to figure out a way to keep him out of the dry. :roll: :?

We did get some bad news this past week about drooler Murphy. He had started stumbling around and shaking his head for 2 days. We took him to the University of Sask Vet Hospital for an MRI. He has a brain tumor deep in the 3rd ventricle. It is inoperable, and radiation was quoted to be about 10k. That being said, the Saskatchewan Cancer Society is funding a trial on dogs (because they apparently get the same cancers as we do) to try Mini Beam Laser Radiation. If the trial on canines is effective, they will begin human trials. By random selection, Murphy will either receive the SRT (the current radiation treatment being used) or the MBLR. The cost is $900, and it will be given in a series of three treatments starting Monday the 8th of Sept. and ending that Friday.
We are absolutely terrified, but if we do nothing, they give him only a month...maybe two, as the tumor is blocking his cerebral fluids from flowing. His general health is an A+ and his activity level until the other day was very high. He's too young to leave us, so any vines and prayers would be greatly appreciated.

As always, love you all and I am always here, watching and rooting for you. :YMHUG: :YMHUG: cat_pet_icon

Kim

 

Many, many vines for Murphy. (((Kim))) That's a challenge on the food. Maybe offer the dry and pick it up after 15 mins?
Liz

 

Great update on the kitties and happy to know that Twice is doing well, too. Sending lots of good juju and healthy, cancer-free vines to Murphy! :YMHUG: Good to hear from you, Kim. Have a wonderful Sunday!!

 

Hi Kim,

We're new to the Board but make some visits each day to connect and learn.

We're wishing Murphy the best result with his treatment on the 8th. Time for an affirmation: Magic Murphy will clear that tumor under either treatment!

Have a good weekend,

Georgette and Clare

 

I'm glad Twice is doing well. Sorry the switch in food has caused some issues with some of the other kitties. It's so hard to know what to do in a multi-cat household sometimes.

Sending prayers for Murphy and hugs to you. :YMHUG: :YMHUG:

 

We've only been hanging around LL for a few months. So good to hear your Twice is doing so well. I have a much less challenging food issue here. Polly, of course, eats the low carb wet, usually FF classic. But Boomer needs to put on some weight and tends to barf if he eats too much FF so I try to sneak him some higher carb foods. And my third cat, well, she's healthy, 'cept for that attitude problem!, and can eat anything.

Polly gets her T/F/S in the bathroom. I put out Boomer's get-'em-plump food in the main house and Rowsie gets fed in the cat room 'cuz she is so annoying and steals Boomer's food. Everyone gets about 15 minutes to eat. I pick up the high carb food, put a dash of FF on Boomer's and Rowsie's plates; shoot Polly, let her out. Everyone at that point still plays musical plates, but they've all had what they need first and this grazing is just game-playing.

So sorry about Murphy. Just really sorry. My Polly kitty will be doing SRT at Colorado State starting Sept. 8, too. We'll be sending lots of light north by northwest for your drooler starting now and intensifying while we're at Fort Collins. Prayers.

Marilyn and Polly

 

That's great news about Twice! I wonder about the wet food with your other kitties though. Maybe some of them have food allergies.

I hope the clinical trial goes well for your pup.

 

It's great to see a Twice condo; it reassures me that Jersey hasn't convinced Twice to take you out yet. ;-)

It's so interesting that you mentioned the food. We were a Meow Mix household until Jerz's diagnosis and then switched to Wellness Core canned. When that got too expensive, we switched to FF. Still too expensive....so we switched more recently to Friskies special diet. Now that the gang is refusing it, we're back to FF. Everyone seemed to be okay with the Wellness Core, but civie Chappy's coat fell apart after we moved to the FF and Friskies. His coat is rough and separated (almost like it has gel "spikes" in it). Although the others' coats aren't as bad, they aren't just super shiny and slick. DH and I have been discussing moving to Young Again zero carb dry in combination with canned food. I originally bought the YA for emergency road trips so that I would have something to leave out while I was gone. I've fed it occasionally to the outdoor civies, but Jersey hasn't had any yet. I'm terrified of what it might do to her numbers, although it "shouldn't" have any more carbs in it than some of the canned foods she's been eating. Anyway....I'm wondering if it would help civie Chappy. It just seems like the FF doesn't agree with his system (as evidenced by the poor coat).

Perhaps YA is an option for you? It's super expensive, I know, but maybe not much more expensive than the Hill's in the grand scheme of things? If you used the YA, perhaps you wouldn't have to worry -as much - about Twice sneaking some kibbles, either. Just something to consider.

I'm so truly sorry to hear about Murphy. I'm sending tons of prayers for him. Please keep us updated on how the trial goes/how he's doing. How old is he?

:YMHUG:

 

Hi Kim!

Thanks for visiting Eddie's condo! I'm so sorry to read about Murphy but optimistic to read about the trials. Tons of calming and healing vines headed your way.

Great to read that Twice continues to do well! When I need a little encouragement, I go through the list of OTJ kitties and look at SS's, and Twice's always stands out to me. :mrgreen:

Food can be hard in a multi-cat household. Thankfully, of our five cats, there really aren't any dietary restrictions (other than FD) so the kitters all get the same LC as Eddie. We feed some FF but often the higher quality stuff - Weruva, Wellness, etc. I've found the Merricks brands to be a little more reasonable and they seem to be pretty decent quality. It most definitely does get spendy to feed 5 cats this diet, so I can understand the financial aspect to feeding your crew. I can tell you that two of our civies were difficult wet-food converts. Since switching, we have kept a small amount of relatively "healthy" dry on hand for purposes of getting the two picks to eat if they are turning up their noses at the wet.

I don't know much of anything about raw, but I understand it to be more economical. I wonder if supplementing the wet with raw would help with the cost and also up the nutritional value? Otherwise, you may just have to isolate the ones that seem to need the dry, let them finish, and pick it back up. We did that initially when we were getting the dry out of the house. Eddie was an easy convert to 100% wet, but we did have to continue the dry for a while with the two civies to ensure that they actually ate something. They were previously grazers, but they did learn that one the dry food was picked up, it was gone, so they got used to eating smaller and smaller portions of it when it was offered. Now, if they are being picky, three or four crunchies put on top of their food is enough to get the to eat their wet food. The only other thing is that with the licking - could that be an allergy to an ingredient in the FF?

Have a great day Kim!

 

Great update for Twice! Bummer the food change has affected some of the other furkids. I am certainly learning a lot about feline nutrition through this dance. I hope you find something that works.

Strength and comfort vines for Murphy and the family!! I hope the trial goes well and he gets some relief.

 

Hi Kim.

Nice to see a Twice condo. I'm glad to hear he's doing so well.

Bummer about the rest of the crew having problems with the wet food. I have had some issues with feeding my multi-cat family, but I only had four or five at a time, and my issues were never as bad as the ones you are having. I'm in agreement about the idea of isolating the ones that need to have some dry and having it available for only a short time. I know that can be a challenge - I have one kitty that is almost impossible to isolate. I hope you find some solutions that work for all of you. Sending many vines.

I'm so sorry about Murphy. I have two kitties with cancer - we aren't treating Cinco right now, as it appears that the surgery got all the tumor and chemo would upset the delicate balance of his FD regulation. Sasha, however, just finished radiation and is about to start chemo for a vaccine-related sarcoma that cost her her right front leg. All told, we will have spent upwards of $10k on her, too. We aren't counting that, though. We just want to keep our darling baby with us, happy and healthy. How wonderful that there is a study available that will cut the costs for you and offer some hope. Sending many vines and prayers your way that Murphy comes through with flying colors. Please do keep us updated. :YMHUG:

 

Hi Kim,
Wonderful to read that Twice is doing well.

I am so sorry to hear about Murphy.
Sending many healing vines and prayers for successful treatments.

 

Hi Kim - good to hear from you and get a Twice update. Many scritches to him from me.

I only have a two cat household and feed raw so not much help with the multi cat issues.

Successful treatment vines going out for Murphy and calming ones for you. We did SRT at Colorado Statue University and it was a lot cheaper there. There's another clinic in Calgary that is the other place in Canada that does SRT, also for about the same price as you were quoted at U of S.

 

Hi Kim - it is great to hear from you. I am glad that twice is doing so well, as well as the others. I am sorry about Murphy I hope the trial goes well, and does help him. I will be keeping you guys in my thoughts.

Be good Twice!

 

Hi Kim!

It's great to see you and Twice. I'm glad to hear he is doing so well.

Sending many vines for Murphy and prayers for you and DH. I hope Murphy gets the treatment he needs.

I've started feeding Merrick after Gracie just decided she was not liking WN anymore

 

Wonderful report on Twice....I'm so glad he's enjoying life at The Falls!

Bummer about the food issues....I know first-hand how challenging it is to balance a multiple cat household with dietary issues. Most of my civvies have digestive sensitivities and they need a diet that is the polar opposite of Trix's diet. It's not easy, but we do what we gotta do!

Sending endless prayers for sweet little Murphy. Please do keep us updated....

 

Hi Kim,
Great news that Twice is doing so well and enjoying life at the falls. Sending vines to Murphy. I hope the treatment will help him.

Interesting about the foods. Are you feeding the "classic" pates? Sienne suggests to be on the lookout for foods being a possible allergy-producer. Many of the FF flavors have fish in them even though fish is not in the food's name. You have to look at the list of ingredients. Fish is a common culprit. We found this to be the case with Rusty.

Nice to see you.

Ella & Rusty

 

Good luck with the food issues. I hope you find something that works.

Sending perfect and successful treatment vines to your Murphy.

 

Thank you everyone for the wonderful visit. Sure do miss that part of the daily condo posting
I am going to try as suggested and feed the dry once/day to the civvies while Twice eats his canned. I am also going to up the quality of the canned food as I should be going through half of what I do now. Food allergy may indeed be an evil culprit here! Thanks for the heads up Sienne Ella, I had completely forgotten but had read on here before about fish being a common ingredient in some diets. Thanks for the reminder.

Murphy and I are very appreciative of the white light and vines coming this way. This tumor seems to have showed it's ugly head out of the blue, but in hind sight we are very suspicious that he didn't have this for a long, long time. He has always been a very odd boy...sweet as you can imagine...but odd. Maybe it is a very slow growing tumor. Marilyn we will be keeping you and Polly in our hearts and thoughts on the 8th as well. Positive white vines to Tricia's Sasha with her chemo.

I love you all more than you know. As always, sending vines and prayers to all in need. :YMHUG:

 

so good to see you and Twice! you're a bright spot when you visit, kim, and a lot of help with encouraging people.

punkin got the SRT done at Colorado State too - it was easier on him than i expected. I don't know how similar it is to what's being proposed for Murphy, but I documented everything and perhaps something in there will be helpful to you.

Punkin's SRT Adventures & CSU presentation

Sending our best thoughts your way - we love our little ones. they're family. :YMHUG:

please let us know how things go 9/8 - you know we'll be thinking of you and wondering how Murphy is.

As far as the food, I'd try a novel protein before I'd try dry. I'm so leery of dry food after seeing cat after cat arrive here on dry. If you go to a locally owned pet store (ie, one with knowledgeable staff) they should be able to recommend something to try. You can always find ways to get what you want more cheaply - look online for coupons, go through http://www.mrrebates.com, buy sales in bulk, etc. i do wonder about a food allergy, because in general, cats' coats appear better with canned food.