Caaaaaaaaats...
Oh, cats. Last Friday night Cream wasn't himself, being terrified for no apparent reason, so he had to hit the vet on Monday. Good news: he seemed fine as of noon Saturday, and got a clean bill of health at the vet (though he needs shots). He's 21lbs 1oz, though, so it's time for reconfiguring how feeding was happening... Miles needed his last(!) blood test for the hyperthyroidism, and he's down into high normal! Also got up to 15.1 lbs! Then we discovered Peaches was going into the litterboxes a lot, and not much was happening, so HE had to go in. Bladder crystals, it turns out. :/ But, not a blockage, so he's got special holy-crap-expensive food and some medications and, for this week, subcutaneous fluids. He's taking it all pretty well (even the subQ!) and is actually being more affectionate with me than he was before, for some reason. Oh, and 22lbs 10oz. No, I didn't typo that. Peaches and Cream are still massive critters under the plumpness -- the vet called them fe-linebackers. Heh. They're supposed to end up around 17-18lbs eventually...
The whole food situation's had to be changed, though. So now instead of free-feeding a pretty decent pet store brand, we've got to go to two servings a day, one of prescribed dry and one of wet (two of prescribed wet instead, for Peaches). Trying to get five cats to just eat from their own bowl (Peaches gets his in another room) is not easy. The vet tech assures us they'll learn, and that her 10(!) got the idea after a week or two. So. Let's hope these guys do.
The worrying thing is that Peaches is supposed to be getting something like 14.5oz of the special wet a day, but he doesn't eat more than about 3oz at a time -- so he's getting at most 6oz of it instead. He doesn't seem too hungry, but I worry he might lose weight too fast. In fact, only Miles seems willing to eat more than about 3oz at a time -- most of the others don't even get near finishing that. Erf. I hope it's enough.
Meanwhile everyone else really needs to get in for a checkup and a rabies shot. Bertie and Callie oughtn't be an issue, but I don't know how I can manage to get Little to a vet without destroying what trust we've managed to build up over the last few years. She's still pretty skittish, but has finally gotten to where she'll come over and sit on me for a couple minutes of petting at a time.
Do any of you know of any particularly good feline food/treat puzzles, btw?
Oh, and in case anyone else was still wondering -- no, we're not going to be able to manage OryCon this year. :/ I hate to miss it, but alas. Next year, perhaps.
The whole food situation's had to be changed, though. So now instead of free-feeding a pretty decent pet store brand, we've got to go to two servings a day, one of prescribed dry and one of wet (two of prescribed wet instead, for Peaches). Trying to get five cats to just eat from their own bowl (Peaches gets his in another room) is not easy. The vet tech assures us they'll learn, and that her 10(!) got the idea after a week or two. So. Let's hope these guys do.
The worrying thing is that Peaches is supposed to be getting something like 14.5oz of the special wet a day, but he doesn't eat more than about 3oz at a time -- so he's getting at most 6oz of it instead. He doesn't seem too hungry, but I worry he might lose weight too fast. In fact, only Miles seems willing to eat more than about 3oz at a time -- most of the others don't even get near finishing that. Erf. I hope it's enough.
Meanwhile everyone else really needs to get in for a checkup and a rabies shot. Bertie and Callie oughtn't be an issue, but I don't know how I can manage to get Little to a vet without destroying what trust we've managed to build up over the last few years. She's still pretty skittish, but has finally gotten to where she'll come over and sit on me for a couple minutes of petting at a time.
Do any of you know of any particularly good feline food/treat puzzles, btw?
Oh, and in case anyone else was still wondering -- no, we're not going to be able to manage OryCon this year. :/ I hate to miss it, but alas. Next year, perhaps.