:cross: For Tuesday! 
Spooky :rub:
Spooky :rub: -
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Started them on raw tonight :D
- Thread starter ldg
- Start Date
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #722
There are NO STONES in Spooky's bladder! 
....but there is "other debris" and sludge. The vet had other ultrasounds to perform, so we don't have the course of action we're taking. I assume it is going to be put her back on the methionine for another month or so, and probably more aggressive sub-q fluids (daily, not every other day, and for .... 2-3 weeks? Not 10 days). :dk:
Someone will call today or tomorrow.
Flowerbelle's BP was good - so no impact from the krill, and keep her on this level of blood pressure medication.
Billy's weight went from 14 pounds 6 ounces (it was recorded as 14 pounds 9 ounces, the first measured weight) to 13 pounds 13 ounces.
So the rate of loss has slowed (apparently the addition of krill oil didn't help that), but he still lost weight.
...and... upon returning home, there was a little grey kitty on our bottom step, leaning up to sniff Smokey, who was on our top step. The little kitty ran when we pulled in and got out. We put out food, and s/he came out to eat once we were inside.
Little baby isn't skin and bones, didn't eat ravenously... :dk: Looks to be 3 months old to us, so since we're horrible at guessing and always underestimate, the baby is probably 4 months old.
....but there is "other debris" and sludge. The vet had other ultrasounds to perform, so we don't have the course of action we're taking. I assume it is going to be put her back on the methionine for another month or so, and probably more aggressive sub-q fluids (daily, not every other day, and for .... 2-3 weeks? Not 10 days). :dk:
Someone will call today or tomorrow.
Flowerbelle's BP was good - so no impact from the krill, and keep her on this level of blood pressure medication.
Billy's weight went from 14 pounds 6 ounces (it was recorded as 14 pounds 9 ounces, the first measured weight) to 13 pounds 13 ounces.
So the rate of loss has slowed (apparently the addition of krill oil didn't help that), but he still lost weight. ...and... upon returning home, there was a little grey kitty on our bottom step, leaning up to sniff Smokey, who was on our top step. The little kitty ran when we pulled in and got out. We put out food, and s/he came out to eat once we were inside.
Little baby isn't skin and bones, didn't eat ravenously... :dk: Looks to be 3 months old to us, so since we're horrible at guessing and always underestimate, the baby is probably 4 months old.
Yay on no stones, yay on good BP, yay on Billy's weight! (even yay that the stray kitty isn't starved)
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #724
Thanks. 
We haven't been able to trap little baby yet... and looks like we may be due for a hurricane in 2012. One last year wasn't enough?
We haven't been able to trap little baby yet... and looks like we may be due for a hurricane in 2012. One last year wasn't enough?
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #725
GARY TRAPPED THE KITTY! We named her Itty Bitty. She is a she, and she is 10 weeks old.
In the end, he had to use twine pulled through the window to trip the trigger to close the trap.
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/250388/storm-preparations
In the end, he had to use twine pulled through the window to trip the trigger to close the trap.
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/250388/storm-preparations
Oh good, so at least now she won't blow away in that storm you guys are predicted to have
. Where on earth are you going to keep her in that small space you have???????
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #727
Ah Sally, you didn't click the link! :lol3: We don't have any place to separate her, so she's in boarding at the vet. We brought along a hidey box, toys, a bed/blanket and Feliway spray (in fact, we told the staff at the vet they could keep the spray and use it for any cats there, especially during the storm it may help. :heart2: ).
We haven't heard back from PAL (the foster network). We're wondering right now what to do about her. It looks like the storm isn't going to be so bad up here - maybe a bit less than Irene last year. But I don't know if a baby this little could make it through winter.... we're thinking about suggesting to PAL that we become an official foster. Yes, it would mean we couldn't really use our living room, but we could set up a large dog crate for her for a few days (once we know she's parasite free before bringing her home) - let everyone get used to her - and the actually foster her for a few weeks (probably all it would take). Just so long as PAL would show her at Petco for adoptions..... we just have no adoption network/help, it's been far too long that we've been involved in anything other than TNR. PAL takes a few kittens from us each year, but the cats usually show up here older and feral.
We'll see what happens...
We haven't heard back from PAL (the foster network).
We're wondering right now what to do about her. It looks like the storm isn't going to be so bad up here - maybe a bit less than Irene last year. But I don't know if a baby this little could make it through winter.... we're thinking about suggesting to PAL that we become an official foster. Yes, it would mean we couldn't really use our living room, but we could set up a large dog crate for her for a few days (once we know she's parasite free before bringing her home) - let everyone get used to her - and the actually foster her for a few weeks (probably all it would take). Just so long as PAL would show her at Petco for adoptions..... we just have no adoption network/help, it's been far too long that we've been involved in anything other than TNR. PAL takes a few kittens from us each year, but the cats usually show up here older and feral.We'll see what happens...
First off, 
for NO STONES in Spooky!!!!!!!!!!! THEN for Itty Bitty :rub: and I do hope that PAL has an opening for this little darlin'. BUT I bet they would be all for you fostering her temporarily. I hope this all works out for Itty Bitty. She is just too cute and I can't imagine someone not adopting her quickly. She is one lucky baby that she found her way to your home. :nod: :rub: :heart3: and before the storm.
for your and the kitties safety during the storm. :cross:
for NO STONES in Spooky!!!!!!!!!!! THEN for Itty Bitty :rub: and I do hope that PAL has an opening for this little darlin'. BUT I bet they would be all for you fostering her temporarily. I hope this all works out for Itty Bitty. She is just too cute and I can't imagine someone not adopting her quickly. She is one lucky baby that she found her way to your home. :nod: :rub: :heart3: and before the storm. for your and the kitties safety during the storm. :cross:
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- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #729
One year ago today, the kitties had their first 100% raw meal.
Spooky and Lazlo have had their ups and downs with raw. :nod: Spooky becomes easily constipated, and it puts her off food. I've had to "start over" with her several times. I no longer fret about having to feed her canned food sometimes. Right now, she's eating only raw, and though I always keep Fortiflora on hand for her (the only topper that works for her, we've just made the step (again LOL) to not needed the topper.
Lazlo has decided he is NOT on board with three meals a day. Just shortly after I introduced egg yolk lecithin for hairballs, he went off his food and the problem turned out to be a stomach FULL of hairballs. The egg yolk lecithin seems to have eliminated that problem... though he did have the hairball hack a couple of weeks ago. So like Carolina, I've added slippery elm bark powder 2x a week for Tux & Laz (and Spooky, though that's more to help with her tendency to constipation), and that seems to have done the trick. :cross: I don't fuss over Lazlo not finishing his food now. I just stick his bowl in a cabinet, and when he asks for more in 1/2 an hour, I give it to him to finish. Days we're not here, he's hungry at the next meal.
I've tweaked the menu I'm feeding them. mschauer has been so kind to work with me on the nutritional analysis, and that choline being on the edge of acceptable (and several of the kitties not liking egg yolks) was nagging at me, as was the manganese being a bit short.
I'm using a homemade vitamin supplement that consists of:
5 capsules of Twinlabs 10mg manganese
3 tablets of NOW standardized kelp with 150mcg of iodine
15 capsules of NOW 1,000mg taurine
2 capsules of Natural Factors Hi Potency B complex
...and when I run out of the liquid vitamin E, I'll add
2 capsules of NOW dry vitamin E (400iu)
I just toss it all in a coffee grinder we bought for the purpose of making the vitamin mix. I don't bother emptying the capsules, I just grind them up too - the gelatin is good for them.
I add slightly less than 1/32 teaspoon of this to their AM meal.
I continue to switch between eggshell and MCHA, though I do give them ground 4x a week, and 1/4 of a whole quail once a week, so they're getting real bone too.
They also get probiotics daily, and salmon or krill oil daily.
I give them ground 4x a week because that's how I'm getting the egg yolks in them. :lol3: The Hare Today chubs that are 2 pounds work perfectly. I get 3 meals out of each (for 8 cats). So I mix in 6 yolks, which means at each ground meal, each cat gets 1/4 of an egg yolk, for a total of one egg yolk each week. And then I split 4 egg yolks between them, because with heavy freeze dried chicken toppers for Lazlo and Sheldon, flortification for Spooky, and FD liver for Flowerbelle, they'll eat that.
I give the cats that eat it sardines once or twice a week. Lazlo and Flowerbelle hate them; Spooky sometimes does and sometimes doesn't eat them.
Shel continues to not tolerate red meat well. I make the meals 50/50 on red meat days.
Lazlo, Sheldon, and Spooky will not eat or do not keep down fresh liver and kidney. Spooky gets her liver from Etta Says beef liver; Lazlo and Shel get theirs from FD chicken liver (Stewart's). Tux loves kidney, but hates liver, so he gets extra kidney, and FD chicken liver.
Flowerbelle LOVES fresh liver, but hates kidney. I can get her to eat some by sprinkling FD liver on her kidney.
Ming Loy, Billy, and Chumley eat their organs without issue.
I've taken to giving the kitties a smaller amount of the kidney and liver daily rather than a larger amount with a meal 2x or 3x a week. Whether fresh or FD, they get their organs at the same meals.
I'm giving most of them 1/2 a capsule of egg yolk lecithin daily. Lazlo and Tux get a full capsule daily, and as explained above, Laz, Tux, and Spooky get slippery elm bark powder 2x a week.
And here's the current menu:
The BEST of all of this is... Lazlo remains in remission.
Tuxie's hematocrit is stable at a whopping 41%.
Chumley is just doing AWESOME!
Billy HAS lost weight. I don't know how much at this point, but he has a waist, and his shoulders and hips are really well defined.
Flowerbelle bounces around here like a kitten after starting the krill oil.
Ming Loy has lost weight - and looks like the little kitty she is, not a black beach ball!
Other than Laz, everyone's on board with 3 meals a day and doing great! NO ONE bothers me for food between meals. I can't remember the last time Flowerbelle stomped all over me and ripped at my hair to wake me up because she's hungry. :lol3: Lazlo is just spoiled... and we're OK with that. The extra attention is his love & cheese danish. :heart2:
The only downside? They all have so much energy! I HAVE to play with them a lot more, or they do get crazy with each other, and not necessarily in a nice way. But let's face it - we are 8 cats in a small space. So I have to help them use up all that energy.
DAY 4 / EVENING 5
BUT... I did give them 100% raw rabbit this evening. Spooky didn't show up for dinner - but she might not have been hungry. I realized that at lunch I put out their "old normal" amount of canned with the 1/2 oz of raw - which might have been why I had to coax a few to finish lunch. :lo3: But Spooky ate all her lunch, and a bit Lazlo didn't finish. So understandable she wasn't hungry at dinner time. :lol3: They had more food than they usually get.
Lazlo asked for food about an hour before dinner. He, Tux, and Flowerbelle split a 3 oz can of Wellness-something-or-other. Ate the whole thing!
So with that information....Tux finished almost all of dinner (topped with fortiflora as usual); Lazlo ate about half (with the Halo), Shel ate about 3/4, and everyone else ate everything. Including Flowerbelle (who got hers with fortiflora). She was up in her cave in the upper corner of the bedroom, so she got dinner in bed. When I went to fuss with her bowl - it was empty!
Tux and Laz usually pop by for more food almost immediately after dinner. But nope!
Billy and Ming Loy were tearing around for a while, and everyone's having a nice nap now. :lol3:
Day four:
Tuxedo has not gone after Ming Loy in any way.
No one has chased Spooky.
Spooky has not even looked sideways at Chumley again today
No incidents between Laz and Bill. In fact, Billy tried to eat Lazlo's lunch while Lazlo was still eating. And instead of snarling and hitting him, he just kind of moved so it made it more difficult for Bill to get at it. :lol3:
Spooky and Lazlo have had their ups and downs with raw. :nod: Spooky becomes easily constipated, and it puts her off food. I've had to "start over" with her several times. I no longer fret about having to feed her canned food sometimes. Right now, she's eating only raw, and though I always keep Fortiflora on hand for her (the only topper that works for her, we've just made the step (again LOL) to not needed the topper.
Lazlo has decided he is NOT on board with three meals a day. Just shortly after I introduced egg yolk lecithin for hairballs, he went off his food and the problem turned out to be a stomach FULL of hairballs. The egg yolk lecithin seems to have eliminated that problem... though he did have the hairball hack a couple of weeks ago. So like Carolina, I've added slippery elm bark powder 2x a week for Tux & Laz (and Spooky, though that's more to help with her tendency to constipation), and that seems to have done the trick. :cross: I don't fuss over Lazlo not finishing his food now. I just stick his bowl in a cabinet, and when he asks for more in 1/2 an hour, I give it to him to finish. Days we're not here, he's hungry at the next meal.
I've tweaked the menu I'm feeding them. mschauer has been so kind to work with me on the nutritional analysis, and that choline being on the edge of acceptable (and several of the kitties not liking egg yolks) was nagging at me, as was the manganese being a bit short.
I'm using a homemade vitamin supplement that consists of:
5 capsules of Twinlabs 10mg manganese
3 tablets of NOW standardized kelp with 150mcg of iodine
15 capsules of NOW 1,000mg taurine
2 capsules of Natural Factors Hi Potency B complex
...and when I run out of the liquid vitamin E, I'll add
2 capsules of NOW dry vitamin E (400iu)
I just toss it all in a coffee grinder we bought for the purpose of making the vitamin mix. I don't bother emptying the capsules, I just grind them up too - the gelatin is good for them.
I add slightly less than 1/32 teaspoon of this to their AM meal.
I continue to switch between eggshell and MCHA, though I do give them ground 4x a week, and 1/4 of a whole quail once a week, so they're getting real bone too.
They also get probiotics daily, and salmon or krill oil daily.
I give them ground 4x a week because that's how I'm getting the egg yolks in them. :lol3: The Hare Today chubs that are 2 pounds work perfectly. I get 3 meals out of each (for 8 cats). So I mix in 6 yolks, which means at each ground meal, each cat gets 1/4 of an egg yolk, for a total of one egg yolk each week. And then I split 4 egg yolks between them, because with heavy freeze dried chicken toppers for Lazlo and Sheldon, flortification for Spooky, and FD liver for Flowerbelle, they'll eat that.
I give the cats that eat it sardines once or twice a week. Lazlo and Flowerbelle hate them; Spooky sometimes does and sometimes doesn't eat them.
Shel continues to not tolerate red meat well. I make the meals 50/50 on red meat days.
Lazlo, Sheldon, and Spooky will not eat or do not keep down fresh liver and kidney. Spooky gets her liver from Etta Says beef liver; Lazlo and Shel get theirs from FD chicken liver (Stewart's). Tux loves kidney, but hates liver, so he gets extra kidney, and FD chicken liver.
Flowerbelle LOVES fresh liver, but hates kidney. I can get her to eat some by sprinkling FD liver on her kidney.
Ming Loy, Billy, and Chumley eat their organs without issue.
I've taken to giving the kitties a smaller amount of the kidney and liver daily rather than a larger amount with a meal 2x or 3x a week. Whether fresh or FD, they get their organs at the same meals.
I'm giving most of them 1/2 a capsule of egg yolk lecithin daily. Lazlo and Tux get a full capsule daily, and as explained above, Laz, Tux, and Spooky get slippery elm bark powder 2x a week.
And here's the current menu:
The BEST of all of this is... Lazlo remains in remission.
Tuxie's hematocrit is stable at a whopping 41%.
Chumley is just doing AWESOME!
Billy HAS lost weight. I don't know how much at this point, but he has a waist, and his shoulders and hips are really well defined.
Flowerbelle bounces around here like a kitten after starting the krill oil.
Ming Loy has lost weight - and looks like the little kitty she is, not a black beach ball!
Other than Laz, everyone's on board with 3 meals a day and doing great! NO ONE bothers me for food between meals. I can't remember the last time Flowerbelle stomped all over me and ripped at my hair to wake me up because she's hungry. :lol3: Lazlo is just spoiled... and we're OK with that.
The extra attention is his love & cheese danish. :heart2:The only downside? They all have so much energy!
I HAVE to play with them a lot more, or they do get crazy with each other, and not necessarily in a nice way. But let's face it - we are 8 cats in a small space. So I have to help them use up all that energy. 
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I am a certified pet nutritionist and I unfortunately am not surprised that Nature's Variety is the only one you have found. There are very few foods that you can find all the ingredients. By the way Nature's Variety Limited ingredient is what I feed my girlfriends cat and she does great on it. It also has one of the highest ratings you can find.
Have you looked at the commercial brand Organix? I know they are a high quality food with limited ingredients but not much more than that. Also have you tried refridgerated food like Vital?
Have you looked at the commercial brand Organix? I know they are a high quality food with limited ingredients but not much more than that. Also have you tried refridgerated food like Vital?
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #731
Dan, I think you accidentally posted a reply to someone else in this thread? :dk: I feed homemade raw.
But if you see this, I'm curious about the pet nutritionist. What's the process of becoming one? Is it a course by a particular company or is it related to a vet school type of thing? Another TCS member, an advisor in the health forum, is NutroMike - a pet nutritionist with Nutro. Is it like that?
But if you see this, I'm curious about the pet nutritionist. What's the process of becoming one? Is it a course by a particular company or is it related to a vet school type of thing? Another TCS member, an advisor in the health forum, is NutroMike - a pet nutritionist with Nutro. Is it like that?
Laurie, great update! So, as usual, have a question for you.
How is that raw green tripe? Does it smell horrible, or can you be inside as you're feeding it? Do all your furkids love it? I mean, would they eat it for every meal if you served it? But I notice you say in your menu that it's "for 4". Do you only feed it to 4 of the cats? Is that because only 4 of them like it?
Hmmm. I guess that was more than one question
How is that raw green tripe? Does it smell horrible, or can you be inside as you're feeding it? Do all your furkids love it? I mean, would they eat it for every meal if you served it? But I notice you say in your menu that it's "for 4". Do you only feed it to 4 of the cats? Is that because only 4 of them like it?
Hmmm. I guess that was more than one question
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #733
Well, like WIllowy said, the ground green tripe from HT is a weird texture - thick and kind of stringy. I didn't completely dethaw it before portioning it up, so it really didn't have a strong smell. Even when I dethaw it once portioned - it smells like poop, but not overpoweringly so. :lol3: Four of the cats love it (all of the cats that like kidney: Chumley, Ming Loy, Billy, and Tuxedo) four hate it. So yep, that's why Monday night dinner says "tripe for 4."
Well, I would expect it to smell like poop since the freeze dried stuff does, just wanted to see if it was TOO strong to be in the same house with itEven when I dethaw it once portioned - it smells like poop, but not overpoweringly so.
Thanks for the info
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #735
Thanks for the info:lol3:
Always a good laugh here in the raw forums. I see not much has changed!!!! LOVE IT and I have missed you all!!!!!Green Tripe
Yep. Wilbur will enjoy some of that from time to time. I have to plug my nose, hold my breath, almost pass out and sometimes close my eyes when I dole it out. YIKES!!!!!!! None of my cats will eat the tripe - not even Walden 
AW LAURIE!!! I just LOVE this update. SOOOOOO darn tootin happy that all of the furbabies are doing so well
It has been ONE HECK OF A YEAR, HUH???? Ups, downs, side to side, bottoms up, cries, laughs, screams and tantrums. AND TONS OF FUN along the way. CONGRATULATIONS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! arty4: WOOT WOOT 
:high5: 
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- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #737
And here's another good laugh! I'm no longer pilling Flowerbelle. She HATES the krill oil (which is why I was pilling her with the capsule), so I'm slowly adding it to her food. I started with one drop. :lol3: She ate around that piece at first. Well, we're up to three drops.
She hates the stuff so much, she won't even clean up (for a while)!
She hates the stuff so much, she won't even clean up (for a while)!
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- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #739
:lol3: Yep, bright orange!
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Orange? Krill looks red to me. :lol3: Mazy always has a red chin after eating krill. She doesn't like it either, so she gets a dusting of Vet's-Best over the krill when it's in her food, and that seems to be the magic touch. Just a pinch of dust is all that is needed.
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