Yvonne, my previous cat was allergic to milk. She would drink it but would throw it up immediately, so I was a bit hesitant to try it with this one. I did try some buttermilk, put some in her mouth with a dropper, thinking she might like if if she'd just taste it. Nope. I remember your post about the dog Bubbles and looked for Kefir at Kroger, but never could find it. I will try some canned milk. But I can't get raw milk. They used to sell canned goat milk at Kroger. Sometimes I think all these different food trials is making things worse. Maybe I should just go back to the usual routine with the same food she quit eating when all this started. Ha!
Kefir should be in the organic dairy part of the store. Our Kroger has it, so yours should have it also. Be sure to get plain kefir.
@Yvonne Smith She drank some canned milk. Straight. She liked it !!! A couple of tablespoons. No throwing up so far. Fingers crossed. If it makes her sick, or makes her stomach hurt, she probably won't ever try it again, so I'm going to wait a while to see what happens. Thank you!
All through grade school, breakfast was hot cocoa made with canned milk, and a slice of toast with butter. Canned milk makes really good hot chocolate. Good in coffee too. I guess they call it "evaporated" now.
It's been an upsetting week concerning the cat. I've been keeping track of the daily blow-by-blow details elsewhere. Adding a summary here, for the record. -------------------- As expected, she wouldn't touch milk a second time. No food at all for the next 3 days. I have a refrigerator full of cat-temping food. She stopped drinking water Friday and started hiding. I decided to take her to the Vet School Friday night for a second opinion. They can do an ultrasound if necessary and are open 24/7/365 for emergencies. Called to request an email copy of the regular vet's lab reports to take along. I had her half way into a carrier when a Dr at the vet practice called back. The phone ringing in my pocket spooked her, she bolted, and I lost the only chance to trick her into the carrier before she knew what I was up to. An untimely coincidence of bad luck.... but maybe not Tried the routine I used on Rusty and followed her calmly all over the house. She would only stop just out of reach. After almost 2 hours I gave up. How sick can she be to do that for 2 hours? Not too happy to find out the so called "elevated" ALT level on the lab report was only 14 points above normal range (114 for a normal range of 10-100). Decided to wait it out until she either got too weak to run away or snapped out of it. The next 2 days felt like being on a death watch. Going downstairs to check on her brought back memories of trips down to the barn to check on sick goats, which never turned out well. It never gets easier. Even I stopped eating. The turn around: Monday morning she started eating dry cat food and drinking water. She has been back to normal through today (Thursday), except will only touch dry cat food now. Ironically, the specialist vet called Monday afternoon and said they had a cancellation and I could bring the cat in for an ultrasound Wednesday, which I declined. The last 2 days she waltzes in the room, tail up, to remind me it is dinner time, with her usual... "I have entered the room, pay attention to me" .look. Woke me up this morning requesting breakfast. I'm not sure she is out of the woods, because this whole thing started 2 months ago when she wanted to eat all the time. She weighed 10 lbs at the vet. That's probably a pound too much. Her rib cage looks distended, but not her stomach. Maybe it shows in the picture below. Still not able to shake the doom and gloom feeling from the weekend. ----------------------------------------- Speculation on what might have happened: Her eyes have been a little runny with sneezing, occasionally. Now I'm thinking it might have been a URT (upper respiratory tract) viral infection. She had this as a kitten when I first found her, and the vet warned me the virus would stay with her and reappear when she got stressed. She had one flare up since, a couple of years ago, but didn't quit eating that time. I read where cats can't focus up close with their eyes and can only find food in a dish by smell, and are reluctant to eat if they can't smell. [COVID-19? lol ] Could the slightly high ALT level be from just not eating much for 2 weeks after a month of eating too much? Anyway, now she's on a diet!!! No more than maintenance calories. I figure about 160/day. What a roller coaster ride.
I'm glad she's doing a bit better, Nancy. I know the anxiety of having a sick pet. She's a beautiful cat.
(9/23/2020) Out to feed the hummingbirds. There are only 2 females left. They should be leaving the first week of October. Someone has been inside the gate again. Fence Man's excuse for not hauling gravel this summer was all the rain. It did rain a lot. Then the tropical storm passed through, and it's raining again today. Passed by the other small patch of surviving planted pines, and picked up pieces of the glass jar I ran over with the tractor. These are way too close together. The plan was to thin them later, but only about a dozen survived. This picture looks fake. The camera did it. In the middle must be an offspring of the planted pines, because it has that characteristic split in the trunk at the top. The tree on the right looks like it has been struck by lightning in the past? What else would cause that split?
(9/25/2020) Another project. The last one is on the back burner until Christmas, simply because it doesn't tickle my fancy at this time. When my parents moved here from Florida they hated the carpet in the mobile home and had it replaced almost immediately. I cut out a chunk of the old carpet and laid it down, wall to wall, on the upstairs hallway. It was supposed to be temporary until I figured out what to do up there. That was almost 25 years ago. Last night the new vacuum (with beater bar and its own headlights ) showed a cloud of dust coming up from the carpet. The pad underneath had pulverized in high traffic areas. At 9 pm I decided to tear it all out. By 2 am it was gone and out onto the front porch to haul away. There are a few large shrink gaps between the boards, but those just give the floor character. It's in better shape than I thought it would be. Going with one or two braid rugs if I can find them. The floor is easier to keep clean right up near the baseboards if it's left bare. Debating whether to sand a little and put one coat of polyurethane on the floor. The only areas that could use it will be covered. I've never done that before, and would probably mess it up. The finish was chewed off the threshold going into one room where the rough carpet touched the wood. The threshold looks hand carved, so there isn't much way I could make it look worse. If you wet your finger and touch that worn off spot, it will turn red. ( I don't understand it.) Meanwhile I gathered up every extra throw rug I could find and threw them on the floor up there to keep from scratching it any more. The throw rugs may stay there for the next 25 years. I can take them outside and shake them. Even easier.
(9/27/2020) Sunday This afternoon there was a Bobcat sitting up near the road. First thought, it belonged to Fence Man, so I took off to see what he did. Instead it belongs to whoever does the trimming for the power company. This year it looks like a moonscape where they've been. I'm impressed. A click on the picture below will bring up a video I took walking most of the area. There is a little bit more to do to get down to the cabin. If it weren't for two steep banks I could almost make an alternate road down to the cabin where they cleared. Maybe the tractor with the box blade could flatten the banks, at least enough for the cart? Not committing to trying this, just speculating. Will take a closer look after they finish. Maybe do another video, delete this one, and try not to walk like John Wayne next time. ps. I completely missed the strange attachment on that Bobcat until I saw the picture. Turns out it's called a Forestry Cutter. Explains a lot.
(9/28/2020) Monday Just happened to look out the back window and saw two dog-like animals together in the yard. At first I thought young coyotes. Tried to get a picture, but they were too far away. Changed to video with zoom, and they look more like grey fox. Going mostly by the length of the tail. The one on the left ran away. The one on the right looks incredibly thin. Put out some left over cat food. Probably a bad idea, but I couldn't help it. Foxes are very shy. Never dreamed they were in town. This has been the strangest summer for wild animals in town because of reduction in human activity. The hedge on the left needed no trimming after I cut it down to waist height. The deer have kept it at least trimmed low all summer. I wish they were a little better at shaping it, but I'll take what I can get. Videos show things you don't notice at the time. I enjoy tinkering with them. A great time waster to edit and prepare. Only interesting to me, because they are from my back yard, so to speak. I wish things like this were available decades ago. We were always too frugal to even take many pictures with film.
She is fine. Still won't touch anything but dry cat food. Fine by me. Just a little strange, that's all. Thanks for asking, Beth.
Joyce Kilmer wrote the poem "Trees". (He was a man) Bass-Baritone Paul Robeson was an Operatic singer. He was branded a Communist during the McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950s. Another great Bass-Baritone was William Warfield, whose rendition of "Old Man River" from the musical "Showboat" was the best I've ever heard. H.P.