First of all, Charlotte's veterinary news: she got a clean bill of health! (Well, as clean as someone who is on daily medication can get.) Her lungs are clear, chest x-ray looks good, her vitals are still good. In fact, the vets can see no deterioration since her last appointment, in April. So... yay! I guess the coughing spell was a one-time occurrence that had nothing to do with fluid build-up. Maybe she's heard ME coughing so much that she decided that it was what we queens of the household did. I guess all of that worry was for nothing.
But we WERE told that she needed to lose weight. Sigh. I actually need to put all cats on a diet except for Bit, who I think could stand to gain some. So that should be a fun dynamic. Cat people: how do you put your cats on a diet? (The well duh answer is to reduce their food intake, but I am looking for something a little more specific than that!)
Maera had a second melt-down when we left her in her crate on Monday. I came home from work and she'd pulled a blanket that had been draped over her crate to shield her from the cats THROUGH the ceiling of her crate, along with a small stack of clean laundry that I'd folded but gotten distracted from putting away, and had things twisted in every which direction. The bottom of the crate was knocked somewhat askew, and it looked like she had been trying to dig her way out.
So. I don't think we're going to be able to crate her for anything besides night time sleeping. (That I still insist on, to avoid dog v. cat conflict/misunderstandings/shenanigans.) Today my husband worked from home, which normally means both dogs sack out on beds in the study while he works on the computer. But this time we baby-gated both dogs into the dining room. They each had a bed, fresh water, toys, and kongs to keep them occupied. And there they stayed all day. It went pretty well as far as we know. We don't think anyone tried to jump the gate... so tomorrow I think we'll gate them in there again; this time left alone in the house. We'll see how it goes. I take some comfort in knowing that if they DO jump the gate, all we're likely to find is that they went into the living room and took over the couch. (Too bad it isn't practical to drag the couch into the dining room; they'd NEVER want to leave!)
I'm trying my best to keep all of these hooligans healthy and happy. I feel like I've been pretty good at keeping it all moving along - even though they've definitely been trying to challenge me this month!
Pets are such a challenge! Me knows that the new baby Cinnamon gets into everything, including my litter box! She likes to drag things all over the house too! Mommy and Daddy left her home when they went to the farm Market and they put her in her cage in the kitchen! Me loved it! Me sat on the counter and teazed her!
ReplyDeleteKisses
Nellie
I am no help on the cat diet! We put outs on diet cat food, followed the directions to the letter, and the cats just kept getting fatter!
ReplyDeleteI think Maera will be a lot happier with the new arrangement tomorrow! ;)
Oh dear. I wish I could help with the diet -- but the best I can do is commiserate with the distraction around the laundry. That kind of stuff is happening to me ALL the time over here. One cat! That's all it takes! Cats off to you, many times multiplied.
ReplyDeleteAnd joy re Charlotte. Great news.
I tried for years to get my cat to lose some weight, and the only thing that worked was switching her to raw food. She lost the weight she needed to lose while still eating plenty (some of the kibbles she could barely have anything per day, and still didn't lose weight). She has been maintaining perfect weight for months now. I think all the carbs in kibbles just pack on the pounds for an animal meant to be a carnivore.
ReplyDeleteMelanie, I looked into this diet question a little more the slightest bit, relying on my Jackson addiction to lead me to littlebigcat and, thence, to the Feline Nutrition site. Looks like K-Koira (above) is on the money.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.littlebigcat.com/health/feline-obesity/
http://feline-nutrition.org/health/feline-obesity-a-cat-as-big-as-omaha
Hope this helps. I've been wondering myself; Bugs is growing! Let me know how this works?
Cat diet: I third the above recommendation of raw food. While I didn't do that at the time my cat needed to go on a diet, I did remove all the dry food from the house (dry food = BAD), and put them on a grain free, high meat content wet food (Wellness). It worked great! My cat lost his excess weight AND gained a soft, shiny coat. :) Good luck!
ReplyDeleteOh, for sure about the shiny coat. I've given Bugs raw food pretty much from the git-go -- but I always figured his amazingly shiny and soft coat came from Dr. Pitcairn's Healthy Powder. That reminds me -- so --
ReplyDeleteHere's a link with the Healthy Powder ingredients -- but careful with the other stuff on this site. From what I've seen, we must NOT spray our cats with tea-tree oil (flea repellent). Apparently it's v. bad for them (who told me this? Jackson? His vet colleague? the people @ Spirit Essences? can't remember now).
Do go for the Healthy Powder, though -- it's been a winner for us. Ingredients @ health-food store. (But lecithin granules are NASTY by me. Pee-yew, plus they clump together and are a pain in the patooty -- heaven forbid they should catch the slightest hint of moisture in the air. Pain, like I said. Who knew. But regardless. Something's working well for Bugs; raw meat, raw egg, Healthy Powder, whichever.)
http://www.banditsbuddies.com/recipes.shtml
Glad to hear Charlotte is on the mend. Hope the new arrangement works for Maera!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all of the advice, folks! I'm not sure that I can do the raw thing, but I am going to start investigating my wet food only options. The more I hear about the evils of dry food, the guiltier I feel for feeding it to them.
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