farley loves the sun

farley loves the sun
Originally uploaded by farlykat

Sunday morning, and Farley is sitting out in the sun. We took him to the vet this week for another round of blood tests. This time, the bloodwork went out to a lab for testing to see about his thyroid. It looks like he is doing okay for now, but his thyroid shows signs of problems. Hopefully we can keep that in check.

Although the kidney disease indicators were up this time, the vet says they aren't a significant increase. I've got to figure out a way to slow this progression down.

If loving him as hard as I could would fix it, he'd live forever.

Food Review: Sensible Choice

The cats don't care much for sensible choice. Sophie was the only one who paid much attention to it, but everyone else wandered off pretty quickly.

We won't bother with this one again.

Science Diet KD... Maybe not

So I was looking for a link to an image of the bag of science diet KD, and instead, I found all these articles talking about how it is at best a scam and at worst, I'm poisoning Farley by feeding it to him.

On the other hand, the vet says to go with it, and there are as many articles talking about how so-and-so's cat lived to be 19 on KD.

There is just no simple answer to this. It is so hard to know what to do, but on the face of it, it makes sense to me that a cat would not naturally eat brewers rice, corn meal, etc. And those ingredients are among the first in KD. Plus, the dry food is very low moisture, and he needs all the water he can get to help clean out his kidneys.

So, in spite of my post a few minutes ago, I may abandon KD in favor of a high-quality canned diet, with comparable dry food if he ever wants something crunchy.

3 days of KD

So for the last 3 days, I've managed to get Farley to eat dry KD food. I'm hopeful that by getting him to eat some of the special diet, along with some high quality foods for variety, that he will gain weight and his kidneys will stabilize, if not improve. He never eats much KD, though. This morning, he might have eaten about 1/8 cup. But some is better than none.

By the way, Farley voted for Obama, but Jezebel voted for Palin. She really loved that line about pitbulls and lipstick.

Fred is too young to vote and Sophie is a communist.

Food Review: Evanger's Seafood Dinner for Cats

I was really hopeful about Evanger's Seafood Dinner for cats. It is premium quality stuff. Unfortunately, it makes Sophie VOMIT. We tried it twice, and both times, she VOMITED.

The other cats were mildly interested in it, but not enough to deal with the hassle of separating everyone at meal time or cleaning up VOMIT.

Normally, Sophie only VOMITS when she eats beef. This didn't have any beef in it, but she VOMITED all the same.

Food Review: Merrick Cowboy Cookout

Merrick's Cowboy Cookout was not well liked. It was really runny and I just poured it out of the can on to the plates. Farley and Jezebel would not even lick it. Fred ate a little but not with any excitement. The vomit comet didn't get to participate. I am really disappointed that this one didn't work out. I had high hopes. Also, I really wanted to call Farley buckaroo every time I fed it to him. Bummer.

Food Review: SOrganic Beef

SOrganic's Beef was not well liked. They ate it after a bit but not much of it. Sophie didn't get to taste. I'm sure she would have loved it and then vomited in at least three different hard to clean spots.

Food Review: Merrick Surf & Turf

Merrick's Surf & Turf is another winner! They were not as excited as when I opened the Fromm tuna but they ate the whole can. Sophie didn't get to participate since this one has beef in it. I know that beef makes her vomit. Farley has eaten way more than normal of these last two cans.

Food Review: Fromm Four-Star Tuna Entrée

Whohoo!! Fromm's Four-Star Tuna Entrée is a winner! Everyone loved it and they ate the whole can in one sitting. That's a first! Farley ate all that was on his plate and then went to lick Jezebel's plate. No vomit yet from Sophie. Fingers crossed!

Food Review: Instinct Lamb Formula

DO NOT BUY Instinct Lamb Formula EVER AGAIN!

This makes me want to vomit. I don't care if the cats like it. The smell is disgusting. I had to leave the room and ask Winston to throw it out. I am reviewing it two days later and still want to vomit just thinking about it.

Food Review: ZiwiPeak 'Daily-Cat' Cuisine - Venison

ZiwiPeak 'Daily-Cat' Cuisine - Venison didn't smell too bad. Jezebel turned her nose up at it, but everyone else seemed to like it. No vomit yet.

Update at 11:54 AM: sophie vomit all over the entry rug. time for a new rug.

Food Review: Evanger's Organic Turkey & Butternut Squash Dinner

Evanger's Organic Turkey & Butternut Squash Dinner smelled like Thanksgiving. All cats liked it ok. Had to get up twice in the middle of night to clean up Sophie vomit.

Food Review: Grammy's Pot Pie

Merrick's Grammy's Pot Pie looked great and smelled almost good enough for me to eat.

Fred gives it his seal of approval.
Sophie eats anything.
Jezebel acts scared of it.
Farley gives it the stare of ambivalence.

I think we should try it again sometime. The consistency is very moist--almost like a gravy. The pieces of turkey and chicken are very small, but not completely ground up into a mush. You can see tiny bits of potato in it. I'm not sure that cats give a damn about potato.

Overall, the cats seemed only mildly curious about it, but maybe they're not used to eating at 7am on a Saturday.

Eating and Not Eating

Farley wasn't a good eater the last two days. Late last night--around 11pm or so--he finally ate some dry food, but then he threw it up a few minutes later. During the night, he kept licking the cardboard on his scratcher. This morning, he turned his nose up at NF, KD, Fromm's, but finally ate some Evanger's Braised Chicken (canned). He may have eaten about 1 teaspoon when he finally stopped.

eyebrows

occasionally sophie has a black eyebrow
Originally uploaded by farlykat

occasionally sophie has a black eyebrow and it always freaks me out a little. i think she has had a couple of black whiskers too.

Morning Feeding

Farley ate a little canned food and a little Fromm's kibble. He didn't like the canned EVO chicken food very much, so we won't get that one again. Fromm's is clearly the winner in the kibble wars--for now.

farley likes to nap face down

farley likes to nap face down
Originally uploaded by farlykat

today, we tried a few new food options that were non-prescription and Farley ate more than he has the last few days. he ate so much he was tuckered out and took a nap. most naps he sleeps face down.

Second Try on Feeding

Farley kept turning up his nose at everything we put out for him to eat. Then, we tried giving him a pouch of Nutro Weight Management food, and he got really excited. He went to town, but he pretty much just licked the gravy stuff off the pieces of food. Maybe we need to try more pouches.

Morning Feeding

Last night, Farley wasn't eating much of anything--not even fancy feast--so we put all the food up before we went to bed. I was hoping that if they weren't able to snack at night, the cats would all wake up hungry.

I forgot to add this last night, but about 30 minutes after we gave Farley his amoxil drops, he threw up. I think it might be because he hadn't eaten, but I don't know. He definitely threw up the medicine, though, because it was pink.

Anyway, this morning, when I got out of bed, Farley ran ahead of me into the kitchen. I put some dry KD food in the bowl, and he ate about 5 or 6 pieces of it. (not much) Then, he lost interest and walked over to look out the window at some birds. We're going to try giving him some more fancy feast in a few minutes.

Jezebel is eating fine. Fred ate a little of Jezebel's food. Sophie might not have noticed that the food is out at the moment.

Getting Old

I was scooping the cat box tonight, and Jezebel walked over and clearly wanted in. I finished up what I was doing, and turned to her to let her know she could use it, when I noticed she was squatting down and pooping right on the floor. It was gross, but I have to give her credit for at least walking over to where the litter boxes are. At least she isn't senile... Just incontinent.

mouse head

mouse head
Originally uploaded by farlykat

Fred is patient

Morning Feeding

Farley ate about 1/4 can of beef flavor fancy feast. He wasn't interested in anything healthy. We gave him some fish oil at about 9:30am.

Jezebel ate some dry "wilderness" food.

Sophie and Fred ate anything they could find.

Jezebel Went to the Vet Today Too

Jezebel just got home from the vet, and they said her glucose levels were perfect. We are supposed to keep giving her 2.5 units of insulin, twice daily.

Farley Went to the Vet Today

Farley went back to the vet today after his visit 10 days ago on 9/20/2008.

Farley weighs 5 pounds, 10 ounces today. This is up 2.5 ounces.

His BUN levels were down to 45 from 60. (good)

His Creatinine was up to 2.6 from 2.3. (not good)

The vet said we can start giving him his potassium supplements every other day instead of daily.

Otherwise, most of his levels from the bloodwork appear to be in the normal range. The biggest problem is that he refuses to eat. He hates KD in a can. He seems to mostly not want dry KD, but he will eat it from time to time. We've tried a small amount of dry NF, and he seemed to be curious about it. We haven't tried canned NF, but it is next on the list.

This morning, before going to the vet, Farley ate a tiny amount of Nutro Weight Management food from a pouch. He seemed really interested in it, but what he needs to do is gain some weight.