- Joined
- Apr 15, 2012
- Messages
- 1
- Purraise
- 0
Hello all. My name is Kate and together with my husband (Dane) and son (Gavin), we have two cats. A female DSH, Cassie (short for Cassiopeia), age 11, and a male DSH, Theo (short for Theodore), age 9.
Cassie is the reason I found this site. She is quite old, and has never had good health. She followed Dane home from school when he was 11 (he is 28 now), and was already between 1 and 2 years old. She was diagnosed years and years ago with herpes, had a couple of teeth removed when she was about 5. She has always been sidekick to Dane, warmed up to me years ago (but still prefers Dane), and grew to tolerate Gavin, who is now 9. Put bluntly, she's lived a crabby, sickly, solitary life, always preferring to be alone, squeezed in a corner, a basement, or next to the nearest radiator. She's not aggressive; quite the opposite. She was always very skiddish, though has mellowed a bit in her old age.
Theodore came to use three years ago, from the Wisconsin Humane Society. He is a tubby boy, weighing in at 22 pounds, and every ounce is filled with love. He is very mild mannered, playful, and probably the best cat I have ever had the pleasure of sharing my life with. He is a social, interesting, and loveable cat. Theo is a wonderful addition to the family.
Cassie does not like Theo, but tolerates him. She generally steers clear of him, but this supports her personality anyway of being a loner. Theo is apathetic toward Cassie, in general. He will sometimes try to engage her in play, but she will just hiss and run away, and Theo goes about his business. They have never shown aggression toward each other. Both cats have lived with other cats before.
Cassie's health has started to decline dramatically in the last year, year and a half. She stopped eating dry food, and lost a bunch of weight. She was always a smaller stature cat, but did have some roly-poly to her once upon a time. All of that is gone, and when we weighed her on our Wii Fit board the other day, she's down to 4 1/2 pounds. She can no longer jump, and struggles to "climb" more than 12 inches. Her balance is somewhat off, and it seems as if her eyesight is failing as well. Her sinuses (which have never been strong) are now an almost constant source of strife.
With Cassie, we feed her canned food (right now she is eating Tiki Cat whole fish cat food), but I am considering a higher calorie food. She does not like many other canned foods, and prefers extra water added to her foods now. She does drink the fresh water we put out every day. We have found that the stronger smelling the cat food, the more likely it is that she will eat it. She does eat on a regular basis, and still knows that she gets fed once in the morning, and once in the evening. She is fed separately from Theo, who will come and eat her food (he eats dry food, Halo's Spot's Stew, Salmon recipe) if left unattended.
As far as supplements go, she gets a nutritive paste mixed into her wet food, as well as Sinu-Rite tablets crushed (made by PetAlive, a homeopathic formula for respiratory health; Theo gets these too). I recently came to this board looking for at home support for her herpes, which seem to have begun to flare up more and more as she ages. I found a suggestion for L-Lysine, and purchased some from work yesterday (I work for Whole Foods), and will begin adding this to her regimen as well. At this point in Cassie's life, we're going with more of palliative care than rehabilitative. I am trying to make her comfortable in her elder years. She will never be as playful and sociable as she was (even though that was rare to begin with), and I hope when she does decide to leave this Earth it is quickly, and without pain.
So there's our family. Glad to "meet" you all! If anyone has any suggestions or similar stories, I would love to hear them.
Kate
Cassie is the reason I found this site. She is quite old, and has never had good health. She followed Dane home from school when he was 11 (he is 28 now), and was already between 1 and 2 years old. She was diagnosed years and years ago with herpes, had a couple of teeth removed when she was about 5. She has always been sidekick to Dane, warmed up to me years ago (but still prefers Dane), and grew to tolerate Gavin, who is now 9. Put bluntly, she's lived a crabby, sickly, solitary life, always preferring to be alone, squeezed in a corner, a basement, or next to the nearest radiator. She's not aggressive; quite the opposite. She was always very skiddish, though has mellowed a bit in her old age.
Theodore came to use three years ago, from the Wisconsin Humane Society. He is a tubby boy, weighing in at 22 pounds, and every ounce is filled with love. He is very mild mannered, playful, and probably the best cat I have ever had the pleasure of sharing my life with. He is a social, interesting, and loveable cat. Theo is a wonderful addition to the family.
Cassie does not like Theo, but tolerates him. She generally steers clear of him, but this supports her personality anyway of being a loner. Theo is apathetic toward Cassie, in general. He will sometimes try to engage her in play, but she will just hiss and run away, and Theo goes about his business. They have never shown aggression toward each other. Both cats have lived with other cats before.
Cassie's health has started to decline dramatically in the last year, year and a half. She stopped eating dry food, and lost a bunch of weight. She was always a smaller stature cat, but did have some roly-poly to her once upon a time. All of that is gone, and when we weighed her on our Wii Fit board the other day, she's down to 4 1/2 pounds. She can no longer jump, and struggles to "climb" more than 12 inches. Her balance is somewhat off, and it seems as if her eyesight is failing as well. Her sinuses (which have never been strong) are now an almost constant source of strife.
With Cassie, we feed her canned food (right now she is eating Tiki Cat whole fish cat food), but I am considering a higher calorie food. She does not like many other canned foods, and prefers extra water added to her foods now. She does drink the fresh water we put out every day. We have found that the stronger smelling the cat food, the more likely it is that she will eat it. She does eat on a regular basis, and still knows that she gets fed once in the morning, and once in the evening. She is fed separately from Theo, who will come and eat her food (he eats dry food, Halo's Spot's Stew, Salmon recipe) if left unattended.
As far as supplements go, she gets a nutritive paste mixed into her wet food, as well as Sinu-Rite tablets crushed (made by PetAlive, a homeopathic formula for respiratory health; Theo gets these too). I recently came to this board looking for at home support for her herpes, which seem to have begun to flare up more and more as she ages. I found a suggestion for L-Lysine, and purchased some from work yesterday (I work for Whole Foods), and will begin adding this to her regimen as well. At this point in Cassie's life, we're going with more of palliative care than rehabilitative. I am trying to make her comfortable in her elder years. She will never be as playful and sociable as she was (even though that was rare to begin with), and I hope when she does decide to leave this Earth it is quickly, and without pain.
So there's our family. Glad to "meet" you all! If anyone has any suggestions or similar stories, I would love to hear them.
Kate
