The post (mostly) about Eli

This is Eli. It is a pretty low-quality photo of Eli as I had my phone on me at the time and he was being a huge pita this afternoon so it was what I had on me at the time.

For those of you who are new to the blog (am I even getting new readers at this point? I mean what is a foster kitten blog without foster kittens??) Eli was a foster of mine back in 2002 that I ended up keeping. Yes, this means Eli is 15 years old (he was born sometime in the late summer). I ended up "ruining' him by medicating him for a particularly harsh strain of URI. He was so afraid of me that he could barely stand to be in the same room as me for the first few years of his life. It was over ten years before he finally reached out to me on his own. He is still quite fearful and a bit paranoid and is not a fan of you even think too much about him.

This afternoon I was in the kitchen and I heard him scream out. He doesn't meow, he squeaks, and when he wants attention he squeaks quite loudly. I wasn't sure what was going on with him so I set out to find him and he was in the kitten room hanging out on the litter box. I couldn't coax him down, he just seemed to want me to pat him. So I did.

Hello? We heard there was attention going on and we want some, please.

His abdomen was a bit tight - like it gets when he is stressed and when he is stressed it leads to bladder issues for him - so I was a bit worried about him, so I hung out with him and continued to pat him. He soaked it all in. He still didn't want to seem to leave the kitten room for some reason, but he was completely fine with my bringing him treats, which he ate, and patting him, so I'm guessing he was just having a weird.

Jack was so determined to get up there to get some of the attention going on.
He was soooo proud he figured out how to do it since he was unable to jump up like Eli does.

Sadly, Eli has developed a rather large but shallow lump on the side of his rib cage. At first, I thought it might be a bit of an abscess because we occasionally get tussles in the household that get a little rough; we have had a handful of them over the years. The vet was unsure of what it was. He was being seen for stress and possible bladder issues at the time so we didn't get too far into it. She said to watch it, etc. so that is what we have been doing. It is still there and it seems to have grown a bit over the last few months.I should probably take him back in to have it checked out further, but with his disposition, there is really no kind way to treat him extensively for that kind of growth. Either it is a lipoma (he already has two on his legs) and there is nothing to do or it is cancer and it would require surgery and recovery and possibly chemo - all of which are not really a good idea on a high stress. He is fifteen and has had a good life. This is probably nothing, but it might be something, so I'm basically making note of it for future reference.

Life with Jack

Jack was being particularly cute the other day laying on my bathrobe. I bent over to take a photo of him and he decided that this would be an appropriate time to start taking a bath. I actually wondered if he was just trying to be presentable to his adoring public. As I stood there bent over, waiting, all I could think of was this is my life as a cat blogger... (they are phone photos so they aren't the best)

The other day, another Nebelung I met through Instagram posted a video of their kitty meowing. I thought how different it was from Jack's screech. I have been trying to capture Jack's insistent meow ever since but he hasn't felt the need to talk to me recently. Yesterday, he was telling us that it was time for a belly rub, so I grabbed my camera and every single solitary time I turned the recording on he would stop. every. single. time. Finally, I just decided to let the video continue to see what would happen, after a minute I became a little frustrated so I started talking to him. This is what occurred.

Just so you know, this is one of the reasons I love this boy so much.. (too long, don't want to watch the whole three minutes? Jump to a minute in to find where I start talking to him, and just before the two-minute mark is the reason I'm sharing the whole thing)

I had a bit of a scare with Jack about two weeks ago. I found a small little lump on his chest. It felt a bit like a mosquito bite in size and texture. I know lipomas can pop up (Muffin has one behind one of her ears) but with what just happened with Kit I immediately went into panic mode. It was the weekend, of course, and so I knew I would have to wait a few days to see the vet, so I decided to attempt to not go insane and convinced myself it was nothing. I kept checking it obsessively for the next few days. I know this isn't good because it can be irritating, so when it didn't change in the first few days I did my best to not continue to look for it.  The last time I checked it was still unchanged. I need to get Fleurp and Skippy into the vet in the next few weeks/month or so, and I will take Jack in at that time and have it documented so we can know when it popped up and keep an eye on it. My boy is 15 years old now.. so these things shouldn't be taken lightly.

With thoughts of Jack and the Crystals

So I have been obsessing over what on earth could have caused Jack's problems.. Then I saw this..

No, I haven't been giving Jack dog treats, but I did get a couple of bags of Catswell treats.. the salmon and the chicken, and he got a few of each over the weekend..

It still doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense, as I didn't give out that many and he didn't eat all that I gave out (but a lot, a good portion of The Crew was totally not interested in them) I got them for free from PetSmart (they had a FB promo) and while I wasn't overly thrilled with the ingredients, I figured as treats what harm could they do..

I'm not saying this was the cause.. but it is seriously making me think - and I doubt I'll be giving any more of them to my kitties.. I don't want to risk it.  Now the question is do I bring them back to the store??



the products in question are being recalled because of the quality of the meat involved.  it comes from China where they use antibiotics and other ingredients that make the chicken unacceptable to be sold to the humans of the US.  Petfoods have no such restrictions.  I can not imagine the quality of the chicken caused Jack to develop urinary crystals, but I can not imagine anything else he ate did either.  I haven't pinned anything on this, it is just the one thing that has changed in my house in the past two weeks, but I will keep thinking about it.. 

Guess who.. (and guess what!)

These are NOT bunny buts..

They are Jack feet.
You knew that... right?

We have actually been dealing with some pretty serious issues with Jack the past couple of days.  The other night I got home from work and while I was having the "How was your day" discussion with my husband, I turned and saw Jack watching "Mirror Jack" and looking pretty uncomfortable.  He could have just paused halfway through a sit (hey, it happens!) so I kept watching him, and even my husband noticed that he looked uncomfortable.

I went to check him out and his stomach was very taught and he actually shivered while I felt him over.

Since Jack has had several bouts of urinary crystals, my mind immediately flew there.  I offered treats and he ate.  I isolated him and gave him dinner and he ate that too, but he was still very uncomfortable and restless, and he started doing the "pee pee" dance - that stance cats take when they are about to spray.  Yup.. my boy had crystals again.

Crystals are very serious.  They can easily bind together and block a cat which is deadly. No one knows why some cats get them over others, but they do know how to prevent them once a cat shows they are prone to them. You need to keep their urine acidic (6.0 - 6.5 on the PH scale) and you need to keep them well hydrated to flush them out regularly so they don't bind up if they form.  There are other schools of thought that you need to keep ash low or potassium low or magnesium low or calcium low - or all of the above - but to me that just seems to open the door up for nutritional deficiencies   I feed my cats what they were designed to eat - raw meat and as little plant based ingredients as possible.  This has kept Jack crystal free for quite some time.

The last time he got them was because he broke into a bag of food I brought home for the foster kittens. Another time it was a bag of wheat based litter he chewed through and ate.  This time I have no idea what brought it on this time.  I also find it very peculiar that I didn't get the warning signs before it got that far.  Usually he pees in a tub and I know to be very careful with what he eats for the next couple of days to keep things "flowing" if you will.  I'm quite concerned with this.. but I have no answers so I have none to give.

But this time he was uncomfortable, and miserable, and I immediately started him on the few supplements that I know will help him.  This is the first time I have had to deal with this after making the decision that this was something I could deal with without a vet.

Now be aware that I take this VERY seriously.  I know how to palpate his abdomen and feel for a full bladder. I could not feel Jack's so I knew he was not blocked.  He was eating, he was not lethargic, if he was "blocked" it was very recent and at this point did not pose a danger - the danger being an overly full bladder backing up and causing problems with the kidneys and even rupturing..   I would NOT let that happen, and would bring in a vet if necessary..

While I knew he was treatable at this point, it didn't stop me from being panicked.  I checked in with him every few minutes - and I swear I heard him tell me to stop hovering.  With an acidifying amino acid on board, and a few other things to help calm his bladder, and his being locked in the bedroom with me so I could be right there if something else happened.. we called it a night.

Um, momma... you are forgetting to let us in!!

In the morning he was better but yet things were worse.  There were a few small bits of urine in the litter box, a positive sign... he was hungry.. a positive sign.. and when I paid attention to him he danced around and leaked urine on the floor.  which is good - but oh so much worse to me..  ah well.. "better out than in" as the saying goes..

Another round of supplements, and a trek home at lunch time found Jack looking seriously bothered.  The poor boy had puddles all over the room.. and his rear end quite wet and smelled of urine.  I cleaned him up the best I could, and I would have just said the heck with it and run him to a vet if we didn't have a clump in the litter box that was 50% larger than what had been in there that morning. (and a quick check told me his bladder wasn't full - so there was no blockage)

Come dinner time he was dry and cleaner than he had been when I had left at lunch.  there were no more puddles around the room, and there was several clumps in the litter box! :) He was also far more comfortable in his own skin and far less guarded when I touched his middle.

I do not, nor would I ever,  advocate people abstain from their vets when their cats look uncomfortable or have urinary issues.  I do believe in empowerment though. There are things you can take care of yourself.. As you learn and grow in alternative healing, at some point you have to take that leap of faith that you know what you are doing and just do it... but always with the cautious mind that if things get out of hand faster than you can 'fix' them that you will need to get to a professional.  It is also why I am not mentioning the supplements I have been using here.  I'm more than willing to share with anyone who asks, but I wouldn't want someone to stumble upon this post thinking they could just give them with out knowing a lot more about them.

At this point I say we are "out of the woods" but they are just right over there.  I need to keep a close eye on him and watch his diet carefully.

and clean the room..

Urine under black light

Same photo just with a little more light so you can see where it is..
that is the baseboard near where he did the "pee pee dance" several times