Thankful Wednsday - What is up at Casa de Gato

I was planning on writing this post for Thursday, as it is basically a whole bunch of stuff I'm thankful for, but I got a phone call last night that changed my time table.. but more on that in a bit.  So I'm swapping my "Wordless Wednesday" post with my "Thankful Thursday" post..

So last I updated you, Jack was peeing blood and Fleurp was showing signs of anemia..

Well after a week we seem to have Jack back on track *knock wood* as he hasn't peed anywhere inappropriate for the last five days.  It was touch and go there for a bit, and I was so concerned and feared I might have to take him back to the vet.. especially when we came home from work and found one more big bloody puddle of urine in the middle of the great room and Jack had apparently laid in it.. I mean talk about frightening.. but he was up, and dry and eating and active so I held off and tried to clean him up with a wet face cloth - which didn't go all that well - and kept going.. and he is doing SO much better.  Unfortunately he ended up needing a bath, so I filled up the tub with nice warm water and after a lot of love and condolences I put him in there.. which elicited one major hiss.  Such language coming from my boy!!  I talked softly to him and kissed his head and we got through most of the hand scrubbing I intended to do while he was in the water with out another swear, but once I stopped talking he hissed again.. so I talked softly and worked quickly.  No soap, but I did get most of the rest of the urine off his fur.  Today he is back to his old self.. hopefully he stays that way this time

Fleurp is also doing very well.  Her homeopathic remedies seem to be helping, as she started off being far less pale then she was, and she stopped hanging out by her favorite cement lick.  When I realized she wasn't eating raw, I started feeding her Fancy Feast classic Turkey and Giblets - which she LOVES.  In an attempt not to spoil her and get her back on to raw as soon as we could, I do not feed her it until at least an hour after meal time and I lock her away for far longer than necessary to keep it less than ideal.  She scoffs at my feeble attempts and she is now spoiled rotten.  she runs down the hall after me every time I walk towards the bathroom I use to feed her, she does the dance and chirp of joy when she thinks I'm about to give her canned food.. She has gained back about half of the weight she has lost, and once she has gained it all back I'm going to cut back on the canned and see how it goes..

and finally the reason for the Thankful Wednesday post.  I got a phone call yesterday from the shelter.  Might I want a 3 week old kitten?  What made them call me when I already have kittens?? well.. Because no one else wanted her..

Why?

Figured it out yet?  Look again, she has no eyes.  Apparently she was born with a sibling who did not make it.  At "three weeks" she was turned into the shelter with out her mother - which just peeves me.  The scuttlebutt is that she wasn't getting enough milk from the mom but she is quite plump and doesn't feel malnourished in the least  *shrug*  so no idea what the real story is.  When I fed her this evening I noticed that her milk teeth are in quite a way, so I have a feeling she is a bit older than three weeks..  She ate pretty well, didn't much like it when I went to rub her belly to make her burp, and she kept pushing my face away when I went to kiss her (talk about friggen adorable!! and I so need to clip her claws!!) She's also pretty quite.  Didn't make a peep driving home, nor when I showed her off.. she squeaked at me when I went to rub her belly, but on the whole, she doesn't have much to say - but she does purr :)

It really is a huge mindset change on my end though.. when I set her up in the tub in my office I had the thought that I should leave the light on so she could get used to the way things are laid out.. but by the time I finished that thought I had that D'UH! moment.. I still felt horrid shutting the light off.. but I did it

If she survives to wean (and with the known death of a sibling I do not take it for granted that she will do so) she is going be one heck of a lot of trouble, I can see it already..

and it makes me smile.

Catswell - an update

stupid me.. never ever EVER tell the universe you expect the worst is over..

in the back bathroom

drips in the bathroom

Drips leading out of the bathroom

My poor boy

So last night I saw one small dribble in one of his normal spots.. it was slightly tinged with pink, so I have already started him up on meds.. but this morning (according to my husband) he peed in the laundry room as well as the main bathroom which he cleaned up before I woke up.. He told me before he left for work, and I got up and checked on Jack.  He's acting like he's doing OK, but the story in the back bathroom tells a whole different story.

Fortunately I had a dose of pain meds left over and as I said we already have started him on meds

So according to "Soap Opera Laws" I am to never ever say he is better.. and we will never get over this *looks around for what ever enforces SOL* and will be dealing with this FOREVER!!    *knock wood*

Esmay

Well Esmay is doing fine.  She's not all that thrilled about getting the antibiotics she has been given - and considering she didn't have any bacteria in her urinalysis, I have no idea why I'm giving them to her.

As a reminder, she was surrendered to the shelter at 13 years of age and started drinking and urinating excessively while up for adoption.  She went to the vet and the UA had lots of protein, blood and glucose in her urine.  A BG was in the 350 range.  She was diagnosed diabetic with a secondary urinary infection because if it (very common for diabetics who have a lot of glucose in their urine)

She was diagnosed on the 18th, came to my house on the 21st.  I don't believe she had insulin given to her by the staff... but they did give her the antibiotic.  When I got her home I tested her blood sugar and it was in the 50 (which was very low) it slowly rose until it leveled out around 70 - anything under 100 is not diabetic. I am so glad that she was sent to me, because if anyone had injected insulin into her body while she was in the 50 range (heck even at 70) it would have killed her.  I don't use that term lightly.  Maybe someone would have been around to see her go into hypoglycemic shock and been able to do something about it, but there is a real possibility that even if they had been aware of it that they couldn't have been able to counter the insulin.

So now we really only have to deal with this ear of hers.  Poor thing.  Reading through her history she has had several bouts with discharge from that ear, and I have no doubt that what ever is causing it (it is suspected polyps - which makes total sense to me) made her scratch her ear so badly that she damaged it causing a hematoma.  (no spell check, I do not mean tomato!) which means that the area between the inside and outside of her ear is inflamed - generally when it happens it fills with blood (and sure, it can often look like a tomato but that doesn't mean I meant tomato)  Often fixing it means surgery, and if there is a polyp in there, they can take that out as well.  Doesn't mean that is what is next for her, but that is a possibly - but not until she's done her antibiotics, so she's here for a few more days - unless she never forgives me for pilling her in which case she'll go back sooner and be stuck in a cage so she can't hide from who is going to medicate her..

I do want to say that I'm really loving her eyes, they look a bit like really cool marbles..

Jack.. the vet visit..

So, I have to admit, I was a complete and utter chicken and broke down and brought Jack to the vet.  I'm not sorry I did (although I am a little aghast by the bill) even though I'm exactly where I was before I went but at least now I have someone else - a professional -  telling me the same thing. Dealing with crystals is not something to be taken lightly..

So as a recap, Jack has had two serious bouts with urinary crystals.  The first as in 05 when he was three.  He blocked and needed emergency intervention. He had a bladder the size of a baseball! I brought him home with a tube in his urethra so he didn't have to spend the night at the e-clinic.  They let me because I worked at a vet clinic at the time, and I assured them I knew what I was doing (although looking back I'm still a little surprised they did it).  he blocked again a few days (weeks?) later.  this was shortly after Eli had been peeing blood and had been diagnosed with urinary crystals too.. and Em was diabetic.

My cats were getting a "premium" brand of dry food, and I was shocked we were having these issues.. oh how ignorant I was as to what causes these issues.  (a good part of the reason I share these things on my blog is to help get the word out.  I want to join the growing choir of voices singing the praises of species appropriate foods for an obligate carnivore and the wonders it can do)

Anyway.. I started reading what other people with cats with urinary crystals were doing and the majority of them at places I visited said that simply switching them to canned food and getting rid of dry would keep the problem from re-occurring.  Working at the vet I got 'prescription' food at cost, but reading over the bags and cans it kept saying for occasional use only - which always bugged me.  These cats were on this for the rest of their life, why did it say for occasional use??

Then there was the question of multiple cat households.  Most of the people buying the food gave it to every cat in the house.  This didn't seem right.  There was also the issue that a lot of cats on this food quickly became overweight.

I read and read and read.. I put Jack and Eli on an over the counter urinary canned cat food.  Eli did fine, Jack blocked (the second time)  I kept reading.

This is when I learned.. that while they do not know what causes some cats to get urinary crystals  they do know how to prevent it from becoming a problem.  You basically need to do two things, keep the urine slightly acidic - in the 6.0-6.5 range (neutral is 7.0) and keep them well hydrated.  As I posted yesterday: 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.

You can keep a cat's urine naturally acidic by feeding it a mostly animal based diet.  The fewer plant based ingredients the better. Which is one reason why I chose to feed my cats exclusively a raw diet (except for treats.. and when we run out of raw, I feed a canned food with as few plant based ingredients as I can find) Except Jack - my chow hound, my dishwasher, my garbage disposal, my incredibly food motivated boy - has other ideas. He has chewed through more bags of treats, bags of dry food I bring home for foster kittens (I am now extra careful not to leave them in the house, they stay in my car until I am ready to head down to the kitten room) and a bag of Swheat Scoop which is wheat based and several bag of Worlds Best Cat litter which is corn based. I do my best to limit treats. Plants work against the cat in that they make the urine alkaline. When the urine is alkaline the crystals either form easier or aren't broken down by the acid so they accumulate more easily. Dry food has far too many plants in it - it has to in order to form kibble shapes. They get around this problem by adding acidifying agents such as the low cost dl-methionine (if you have a bag of kibble, go look, chances are that is in there)

Anyway, back in 08, he got into a bag of something, and then I was overly generous with the treats, and he ended up peeing in the bath tub. I was not as well versed in treatment options as I am now, so off to the vet we went. One thing I did know that he, like a lot of cats with crystal problems, generally doesn't have a bacterial infection to go along with it. When the vet gave me an antibiotic (clavamox) along with the recommendation of 'prescription' foods, I asked if she saw an infection. She admitted she didn't, but then told me that the clavamox would help acidify the urine. I have not been able to confirm that anywhere, and I believe she simply made it up on the spot for some unknown reason... probably to justify having dispensed it to me. There are better, cheaper, and less dangerous ways to acidify the urine.. (the over use of antibiotics is just as dangerous for pets as it is for people)

More reading, more learning,and more websites including ones for alternative /  holistic care and I came to a set of protocols I was comfortable using when he gave me the signal he was uncomfortable (which will happen when he breaks into a bag of something, or I get heavy handed with treat time - it is just so hard not to, the cats love it so!) for four+ years I have been able to keep a handle on this. Actually I haven't really had to do anything other than watch his diet for the past two or three years.

It happened so very fast.  Usually I don't notice that he is having an issue and it is the pee in the tub that tips me off, so I imagine this hit him very fast.  I started supplementing him, and making sure he had plenty of tempting acidifying foods that had extra water in them.  I was a little afraid I was behind the eight ball and that I was foolish for trying to take care of this myself, but after a night he seemed to be doing better.   I backed off the supplements afraid of over acidifying him and causing more problems and unfortunately he started leaking urine.  back to the dose I originally settled on, but things seemed to be progressing faster than I could take care of it.  The irritation of the crystals caused my boy to start peeing blood.  I can only imagine the pain he must be in.

Being that it is the weekend, I thought it would be negligent to not get to the vet.  I know full well that a blocked cat can die very quickly.  So I made a call and got squeezed in.  There was an xray taken, and the urine was looked at (although there was so many red blood cells it was hard to get a good look) fluids were given and pain medication was given (and dispensed in case he needs it over the weekend)  I am very happy with this vet in that they didn't lie to me, didn't push anything (script food was offered but he didn't push when I declined it) I was a little less than thrilled on a few accounts, but I know I'm horribly picky and I'll probably never have a vet that I 100% agree with and I can accept that and not nit pick here.

When Jack got back in his carrier he let his bladder go again (I can only imagine how painful it is to 'hold it') and his urine is so red it looked like cherry kool-aid.  I am very fortunate that my boy has enough dignity to keep himself to easily cleaned surfaces now that he is dripping urine.  Even still to spend some time away from him (he is isolated in one room to keep cleaning to a minimum) coming upon that is really heart breaking.  There are drops everywhere, and frankly it looks like a bit of a massacre happened.. 

Sadly I can not prove it was the Catswell treats I gave him that caused this.  I have been going over the past week trying to think if he got into anything else, think if I might have given too many treats.. come up with ANY other reason why this would have happened now.. and there isn't anything else.  We did have a couple of visitors, a couple more than is standard but Jack loves people (more people to tell him how HANDSOME!! he is)   I supposed that I could give them again after Jack gets better, but there is no way on earth I'm risking that.

I am specifically not mentioning what I use to help Jack simply because I do not want anyone to follow my lead with out doing their own reading and research and understand exactly what issues can arise if you are not careful because I am not a veterinarian nor do I play one on the Internet.  I am very happy to get into an email conversation (or facebook) if you want to learn more about what I use and why.

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