Dear Cat

[Bethany1]

Thanks for all the help. I do give both of my cats canned food, just not every day. Probably once or twice a week. Favorites seem to be Fancy Feast and anything with fish or chicken of some other brands. Tuna fish out of the can when I make sandwiches is a big hit as well.

Absolute no-no favorite for both cats is chocolate milk. If my kids don't put the glass away, one is dipping its paws in to drink out of it.

It never hit me as a UTI as he has been using the litter box.

And yes, I'd rather put the money into canned food than a huge vet bill.

[Biciclista]

good luck
dry cat food is also known in some circles as kitty crack. they put something in it that makes it SO appealing. I look forward to the day that i have a cat who never had dry cat food.

Thanks for all the help. I do give both of my cats canned food, just not every day. Probably once or twice a week. Favorites seem to be Fancy Feast and anything with fish or chicken of some other brands. Tuna fish out of the can when I make sandwiches is a big hit as well.

Absolute no-no favorite for both cats is chocolate milk. If my kids don't put the glass away, one is dipping its paws in to drink out of it.

It never hit me as a UTI as he has been using the litter box.

And yes, I'd rather put the money into canned food than a huge vet bill.

[indysteel]

I've admittedly had trouble totally weening mine off dry food entirely. One cat will only eat a small amount of canned at a time, even without access to any other food. The other cat will inhale any food he leaves behind so I have to supervise every meal. Well, there's only so many times a day that I can give him wet food and only so much of it that he'll eat, so we end up leaving a high protein dry food out for them as well. He is drinking a decent amount of water these days, too. It's not perfect, but it's arguably going to have to do. The vet is happy with his labs and appearance. Thankfully, our younger cat poses no problem. She lives for canned food.

[winddance]

Just as a side note about the high-protein, I was switching my cats over from another premium dry to EVO canned only when the Orange One developed pancreatitis. I used to be somewhat of a food snob and got preachy about the benefits of a more natural, appropriate diet for my cats. In DOGS, it is common to have a high- or different-fat/pancreatitis correlation, but not so much in cats. I was told the causes of feline pancreatitis are not really understood. Still, after episode #2, the vet recommended we try a low fat diet, which has kept him out of the hospital for pancreatitis. I used a premium, low-fat food (combination wet/dry.) After he had a urinary tract blockage on said food, we had to switch him again to a food that addressed both issues. The vet mentioned they were starting to see more pancreatitis, particularly in dogs, as people switch to these super premium diets.

Now that my cat is the third most expensive thing I own, I put my reservations aside and decided I don't care what he eats as long as he's eating it, thriving, and not racking up vet bills. I picked the "better" (read: not Hills/Science Diet) of the market available prescription foods. We did work out a, "this actually has food in it" non-prescription wet food to augment the prescription dry food. He refused the prescription wet, as he thought it contained aliens, and doesn't eat any wet food consistently.

So....I'm just saying. I get it. My cats are family, I fed them as family, and took them to the doctor as family. This "step down" in food quality was a big deal for me. But it's working, so I am not going to complain and am just going to be happy my beloved kitty is still here and trying to get into my fridge so he can eat all my yogurt.

I also agree that various water bowls tucked away across the house are preferred and more heavily used. I left some out after his blockage and they proved so popular with my two that they all but abandoned the fountain. I do think they're both drinking more.

Whatever works!

[smilingcat]

How odd that as we are reading and replying to this thread, my problem cat started do the trying to pee here there but nothing kind of thing yesterday morning. Still was doing it around noon so off he went to the vet.

They managed to get urine sample, his bladder wasn't full. Went over his history with the new regular vet. Came home with some pain med to make him relax so he would pee.

Sure enough after 30 minutes or so he went and seems to be fine now. His urine sample came back normal. No crystal everything was normal. So we must be doing something right with his diet. We water down his food so its bit soupy. This forces him to drink more water.

The vet suspect that he may have had a small kidney stone that his body was passing. Pain meds helped him with the pain, relaxed him and he peed it out. Today he is acting normal. All is well except my pocket book.

[Blueberry]

Dear Kitties:

Please behave yourselves while the house is on the market - please!

We are boarding you for a week in a kitty palace for the initial market push (seriously, I found the vet with the big room you can stay in instead of a cage), and then you are coming home. We have a very well thought out showing plan for you for your safety. Please don't be mad at us for it!

Please don't eat the realtor's staging stuff. Please don't destroy the house otherwise. We really need to sell the house so we can move on with our lives - please don't sabotage it!

Your loving owners.

[indysteel]

Good luck, Blueberry! I'm jealous that you have a kitty palace to use. What a great option.