Biscuit wasn't hungry this morning, and he was straining again. I was pretty freaked out.
I told Ron, later, at a quiet moment. We had "the talk" and agreed we would not torture Biscuit should it come to that. No more catheters and hospitals. I'm not doing that, he was terrified and miserable.
But when I came home he got in the box, strained again for a while, but peed a good amount. He also demanded the breakfast he didn't want this morning. I found that encouraging.
But we are still on the roller coaster. I am not sure when I will feel Biscuit is recovered, but the appetite issue and the straining tell me he is still sick. Ron wanted a refund from the vet. I said cats don't come with guarantees.
I took a nap, Torbie got on top of me. Ron and I both figured the "next" cat would be Torbie, as she's so old (at least 13). But she was very lively, pawing at my face every time I stopped petting, purring loudly, then going in her igloo and loving on the hand I placed in the doorway. Biscuit slept on the floor, where he normally does, near the cat door. There was a draft :( I would feel much better if he slept in the bed on the heated mattress pad, but he doesn't want it. Torbie is nice about sharing the bed with Biscuit but not Baby Girl.
I do plan to look into some senior cat formula for Torbie, I am seeing diet really is huge for a cat's health and clearly the Blue is OK for some... but not all. I will talk to the vet about it.
But, overall, Biscuit is acting "normal". Except for the straining, which Doc did say to expect. I would just feel so much better if he climbed in one of his boxes and took a good whizz like he used to do. I want to make sure I am doing the right thing for him, too.
I am giving him his medicine.
I am the only one feeding him anything, that being his special bladder formula.
I am keeping him away from the other cats' food, when I feed them, and keeping them away from his food as well.
I have provided plenty of water all over the house, and cleaned the litter boxes this morning.
Now it's just a wait and see. I have a couple of days off so I can continue to keep a sharp eye on him and make sure he is alright.
15 comments:
Cats are extremely thirst tolerant. They are also capable of conserving body water by concentrating their urine much greater than dogs or humans. These evolutionary adaptations make sense for a carnivore that evolved in a dry, desert climate. Cats obtain most of their water from their prey. Rodents, birds, and small reptiles are 60% water!
What this means is that cats are much less likely to seek sources of water even when their body needs it. This is the main reason they are so susceptible to urinary crystals and stones. The more concentrated the urine the more likely minerals can become crystals and eventually stones. This has been the major reason that special dry diets have such variable results with preventing urinary crystals and stones in cats. These diets only contain 10% water.
So how do you make a cat drink more water? You can’t. But you can get more water into them by changing their diet.
I have spent my entire veterinary career trying to convince cat owners that a wet food diet was more important than the brand of diet for cats with a tendency to form urinary crystals. More water and dilute urine are for more important than the urine pH and ash content of the diet. In fact, we now know that the ash content of the diets is largely an irrelevant concern.
"I have provided plenty of water all over the house, and cleaned the litter boxes this morning." NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Cats just won't go and drink like people or dogs do. Please you are killing Biscuit by not adding water to his food and also by continuing to feed him dry food right now with NO water. If he dies now it will be on you because I have given you the information and if you do not do it you are basically killing him.
Ron does not deserve to have any input re: Biscuit. Or any animal, but at the very least, Biscuit.
It has been my experience, cats of all ages loathe water in their food and will not touch it.
It is important for Biscuit to eat his special diet. He is doing so. He is my cat and I am doing what I was told to do, by the vet. He has 3 water bowls just in the front room, and is using them. He is also urinating more and I have seen it clumping in the box. He is getting enough water.
To the two posts I deleted, I am not a message board to put up your ad. And I have already published the "add water to the dry food" viewpoint and countered it. Cursing at me was really not the way to make a point and got that post deleted.
I am feeding Biscuit small amounts on demand. Some times he eats 1/4 cup, sometimes just a tablespoon. But he is eating when I am awake and see he is hungry. It would be impossible to "save" moistened food in a palatable form. Cats hate refrigerated food. Microwaving cold food would destroy all nutritional value.
When I was feeding wet food it was not very popular, some brands more than others but he would only eat a bite or two and the rest went to waste. This food is not cheap, and it isn't fair to Biscuit to force him to eat nasty, soggy, crap just because some random person on the internet ordered me to do so. I don't know you. You really have no say in what I do.
I would value an opinion from someone with a DVM, someone I had built a relationship over the years, someone proven to be compassionate and knowledgeable of my cats' issues. Someone my cat trusted. You have none of that. Frankly, you remind me of the people who think the government puts alien implants in my mental illness medication.
Any further cursing or promoting your "magic" cure for FLUTD will result in deletion.
"It has been my experience, cats of all ages loathe water in their food and will not touch it. "
What is the harm in trying to give him the water with his dry food? Why can't you give him wet food? You are talking about putting him down if this doesn't get better but you are not willing to try anything to get him better other than what the vet has told you. Which from the information others have provided is not very accurate.
He need water. Have you seen him drinking? If you won't do the above then you need to get a syringe from the vet and give him water that way.
You trust your DVM then call them and tell them that he refused food this morning and was having trouble going and ask them about the water and the wet food and see what they say.
" Frankly, you remind me of the people who think the government puts alien implants in my mental illness medication."
You are one crazy bitch. Makes sense why you stay with that abusive piece of shit you call your husband. P.S. dumb ass all of Rons shit you put up with causes a lot of stress on your cats and also is a reason for biscuits issues.
Evolutionary lol
Rude. The vet didn’t instruct her to water down the kibble. If he thought it was necessary he would
Have told Heather to water down the kibble. She’s not killing him. He may just be sick and it’s out of heathers control but she’s doing her best following the vets instructions. As long as she doesn’t listen to asshole Ron regarding the treats, leave her TF alone.
Having several bowls out and possibly getting a fountain is sufficient. The absence of water from dry food will not guarantee his death. Idiot.
My cats would tell me to go to hell if I tried to serve them wet kibble
I can not imagine you would do anything other than what the Vet wants you to and the fact the diet is from your vet and you are following instructions and he is getting better? Sounds like everything is going well Heather I am so glad ..I agree about not making animals suffer but I think once you are out of the woods and he is on his Rx diet you can keep him healthy for a long time! My mothers cat lived to be 20 years old and only needed a few medication tweaks over the years mostly thyroid some crystal issues as well she was on a very strict diet and lots of love, indoor cat who lounged in the bathroom sink . But I digress ..there are ALWAYS people who are going to blast knowledge online . But Biscut won the kitty lotto when he was adopted by Heather, consider the lives of so many cats discarded , Biscuit, Torby and Baby Girl are very lucky kitties but I do wonder if the stress of Ron’s rants do have a negative effect . Much love Heather stay strong keep healthy and keep filling your own bucket .
I plan to take him in the next couple days, get another exam/checkup. I will ask about it but like the other poster said, my experience they loathe water in their food. For now, I want his "diet" to be a good thing he enjoys eating. I am praising God he does like it (gobbled it down this morning) because one cat I had would not touch his special diet. It was a real battle of wills the cat won. But he kept getting sick and eventually died.
I will only put Biscuit down if we can't "fix" this, if Biscuit is clearly suffering, and the vet agrees. We are not at that point but he is still straining. I would feel much better if that ended.
My cats have no problem when I mix a little water in with their dry food.
"Rude. The vet didn’t instruct her to water down the kibble. If he thought it was necessary he would Have told Heather to water down the kibble." So what? Many vets give misinformation or are misinformed ALL the time. Most pet owners don't even bother to research anything themselves. Same with doctors as people just do whatever the doctor tells them (even if it is hurting them).
Sure you can take the vets advice but at least do a little research alongside of that advice. It took me 4 tries to find a decent vet and that was at the almost cost of my cats life.
One vet was even going to do surgery on my cat for a lump without doing a biopsy first (we thought he was being nice trying to save us money but no that was not the case). I am grateful we backed out of the surgery after a questionable and unprofessional blood draw.
Went to a second vet and did the biopsy first and it was just a pimple (no infection and no need for surgery). So NO vets are not always right and it is the owners responsibility to do their due diligence also.
With the second vet we thought we had a good one but then our cat got sick from the vaccine (kidney infection). Vet told us he was in stage 4 renal failure and wanted us to enroll him in a study letting us know they would pay us. I posted on a renal failure message board and was advised to get another opinion and that it sounded like he needed antibiotics for an infection (even thought blood work seemed normal and btw that vet did not do a urinalysis before saying cat was in renal failure).
Went and got a second opinion on that. Vet gave us a course of antibiotics and cat got better but we didn't go back to that vet because they did not seem trustworthy with our cat.
Finally found another vet on the recommendation from facebook and that is and will always be our vet. She was the first vet to look at the blood work and tell us she did not see renal failure in our cat. She was the only vet who recommended gassing our cat to do the exam and blood draws because he is very scared and stressed at the vet and she is the only one we will trust with our cat. And even at that we still research and ask questions and don't always take all of her recommendations such as the covevina antibiotic shot because it stays long term in cats system and if he had a reaction we couldn't just stop the meds.
And NO our cat was NOT in renal failure in case you were wondering. So 2 vets giving incorrect diagnosis and treatment plans for our cat was enough for me to know that vets are not gods. They are human and just like ALL humans can and do make mistakes. Only their mistake can cost your cat their life before his/her time.
So to the anonymous person who called me an idiot. No. What is being an idiot is not doing your own research and trusting a person just because they have the words DVM in their title.
I'll say it again, I trust our vet. We have had her since we bought the house and she has always been good. She gets aggravated they are fat, but that is all.
She has never put an animal down for us, that is generally done at the emergency hospital. But I am sure she would be professional.
I bought an electric water fountain, we used to have one and they liked it. As soon as I plugged this one in Biscuit came running to investigate, and Torbie drank some.
Torbie had one sign of renal failure but the bloodwork came back OK. And that was a difficult draw for everyone so I haven't repeated it, she is in good energy so not worried. Torbie, after her time at the shelter, does not like being handled. Petted, yes, but not picked up or restrained. She is healthy acting and happy, and I wouldn't do extreme measures on any cat.
That's just me. I saw a couple of people who took it too long...
Heather you're not an idiot.
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