On cats
I may have found the solution to my cats' unpleasant habit of recreational vomiting.
As I was putting up a flyer at my vet's office, a lady at the desk recommended a local purebred rescue who she thought might be able to help with Siamese. I contacted the person and told her about my cats and their peculiar habit, and she suggested that it could be a food allergy - apparently it's fairly common in purebreds to not tolerate the corn filler in cheap food. Makes sense to me, since cats are not designed to digest corn in the first place, and it would explain the inherited (rather than behavioral) origin of the problem. Their dad, Lucky, was a Siamese who loved to puke as well.
With her recommendation, I switched them to Iams, which doesn't contain the fillers and dyes used in the cheap stuff I've always fed them. They even make a food for senior indoor cats with hairball control and weight management. Sounded perfect! And it seems to be working, at least after about 2 weeks. Instead of coming home to 3 to 5 pukes a day, there have been 2 total since I switched foods. So perhaps she was on to something!
Unfortunately she is not able to actually take them in and give them a home, though. The local no-kill shelters have been next to useless since they are currently (as always) full of kittens, and won't take animals over 3 years of age anyhow. So I've put them up on petfinder.com and gotten one completely inane email which I'm not entirely sure wasn't written and sent by a bot, and I have a couple of folks offering to take them in if their only other option is to be put down. I appreciate the offers and everything, but I'd really prefer someone to take the cats because they actually want them rather than because they feel they had to, and might resent the decision later.
Once my brother is done moving into his girlfriend's house, I'm going to ask him to see if he'd consider taking them, but given that he's talked only about getting a kitten (and the fact that he's about 500 miles away) don't indicate that I might have any success there either, but it's worth asking.
Cross your fingers for me, and moreso for my girls. We're going to need all the luck we can get.
As I was putting up a flyer at my vet's office, a lady at the desk recommended a local purebred rescue who she thought might be able to help with Siamese. I contacted the person and told her about my cats and their peculiar habit, and she suggested that it could be a food allergy - apparently it's fairly common in purebreds to not tolerate the corn filler in cheap food. Makes sense to me, since cats are not designed to digest corn in the first place, and it would explain the inherited (rather than behavioral) origin of the problem. Their dad, Lucky, was a Siamese who loved to puke as well.
With her recommendation, I switched them to Iams, which doesn't contain the fillers and dyes used in the cheap stuff I've always fed them. They even make a food for senior indoor cats with hairball control and weight management. Sounded perfect! And it seems to be working, at least after about 2 weeks. Instead of coming home to 3 to 5 pukes a day, there have been 2 total since I switched foods. So perhaps she was on to something!
Unfortunately she is not able to actually take them in and give them a home, though. The local no-kill shelters have been next to useless since they are currently (as always) full of kittens, and won't take animals over 3 years of age anyhow. So I've put them up on petfinder.com and gotten one completely inane email which I'm not entirely sure wasn't written and sent by a bot, and I have a couple of folks offering to take them in if their only other option is to be put down. I appreciate the offers and everything, but I'd really prefer someone to take the cats because they actually want them rather than because they feel they had to, and might resent the decision later.
Once my brother is done moving into his girlfriend's house, I'm going to ask him to see if he'd consider taking them, but given that he's talked only about getting a kitten (and the fact that he's about 500 miles away) don't indicate that I might have any success there either, but it's worth asking.
Cross your fingers for me, and moreso for my girls. We're going to need all the luck we can get.