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In this Discussion
- Cherry_Pie September 2012
- distant_shoe September 2012
- flossy_log_lady September 2012
- freddy September 2012
- joey October 2012
- Leland September 2012
- Loose_Thread September 2012
- Matthew September 2012
- MirandaJuly September 2012
- swamp_knobbler_mahan September 2012
- the_owls September 2012
- ThickeningAgent September 2012
- UncleBoatShoes2011 September 2012
- YoursTruly September 2012
- zin September 2012
Barfing Snoopy
Our snoopy has been barfing for 12 hours!
Weird gagging hiccupping and floor-licking and like 10 barfs large and small. Much googling and calling of Dove Lewis later, we decided to give him a pepcid and ride it out (if it was bloat, he'd be dead by now, I think). He made it through the night but then was gagging again this morning so we gave him another pepcid. I am told he is resting comfortably now.
The weird thing is that usually when he gets the barfs (though he's never done so this intensely/for this long) it's pretty clear he just ate something sick at the park or whatever. But this time he'd been fully inside for like 8 hours, and hadn't eaten anything, and then ate his dinner and immediately it started.
???
Poor Gus! He had a hard time.
Just wanted to help out your monday morning with a story about dog barf
Weird gagging hiccupping and floor-licking and like 10 barfs large and small. Much googling and calling of Dove Lewis later, we decided to give him a pepcid and ride it out (if it was bloat, he'd be dead by now, I think). He made it through the night but then was gagging again this morning so we gave him another pepcid. I am told he is resting comfortably now.
The weird thing is that usually when he gets the barfs (though he's never done so this intensely/for this long) it's pretty clear he just ate something sick at the park or whatever. But this time he'd been fully inside for like 8 hours, and hadn't eaten anything, and then ate his dinner and immediately it started.
???
Poor Gus! He had a hard time.
Just wanted to help out your monday morning with a story about dog barf
Comments
Also: sometimes my workday includes making lots of telephone calls to people, and I get bored doing this so I surf the net, read the urbanhonkings, whatever, while the phone is ringing. Then sometimes, when the person answers the phone, instead of asking for Ms. Smith or whomever, I come really close to asking for some word that I am reading right when the person answers the phone. That just happened with "barfing"! "Hello, my I speak with Barfing, please?" Except, thank god, I didn't quite say it and managed to blurt out the lady's name instead. Close call!
He's being as big of a dumb dork as always, so that seems like a good sign.
MY BABY!!!!!
that's funny, Flossy. "Is this Mrs. Barfing? I MEAN JOHNSON"
Also, maybe he ate a rotten rat.
If he doesn't clear up soon call your vet. Prolonged barfing is not good. But also not so bad you should go into immediate panic.
It's a mystery though! I don't think he ate anything weird, that's the disturbing thing.
YUCK
it is slimy and disgusting. He puts his sick mouth in there all day long. Yes I know I kiss him on that very mouth but it is different because love is cleansing of germs
Why can't they use their words and tell us what is wrong?? I guess peeing blood on my bed when I'm sleeping in it is Andy's special way of messaging me.
Next pet I get will be a rock.
Since my last post I had to make another emergency vet visit- Andy was all blocked up and not peeing at all. The vet discovered that his bladder was FULL of crystals, some of which had formed the mass that the other vet had felt a few weeks ago. (Good news: not cancer!) She was able to flush out his bladder and remove lots of the crystals, and they kept him overnight to monitor him. After they removed the catheter it was important that he begin to urinate on his own, which after a few hours he did and so I brought him home last evening.
BUT, he's not out of the woods yet. He's still at risk of reblocking in the next few days while he heals up from everything. His urinary tract is all inflamed from the catheter and crystals and all and so pus and/or more crystals could reblock him, which might call for a more extreme surgery. I REALLY hope it doesn't come to that.
Since arriving home he seems a lot happier, but is still having some problems. He's peeing on his own, but still having some accidents outside the box. Maybe he's still trying to tell me he doesn't feel good? Maybe it's just an urgency issue? On the other hand he's making trips to the litter box that are not as fruitful as they should be, i.e. straining and not having much come out. :( That's not a good sign. Also there's some blood in his urine (which is fairly normal after a catheter but still alarming to this layperson.)
So that's the story. Tomorrow I'll probably have to take him back for a recheck and I hope they'll tell me everything is on track toward normalcy. I'm feeling more positive than before, just having a diagnosis and a clear treatment plan. But fuck, it's been so stressful and expensive! The thought that the ordeal may not be over yet is just soul crushing. Say some prayers to the big Garfield in the sky that he's on the road to recovery, ok?
Thanks for being good friends, friends.
crystals! ouch!!! must have been so painful for the lil dude! glad he is on the mend!
I hope he gets better. What's going on now?
Guess who's chasing rubber bands around the living room?
Guess who's eating his breakfast all up?
A!
N!
D!
Y!
My baby is feeling better!
andy, today we sing your name on high
He has accepted his punishment and God has forgiven him
CAT JOB
His physical woes began soon after. It is believed that the dog scared him so badly that he had to collect crystals to ward off the bad vibes.
There is deep truth to what LT says. That damn dog chased Andy up an 8 foot fence in about 7 seconds. Andy has NEVER jumped more than 3 feet before that! Then for two days afterwards he was all freaked out- hardly eating, hiding under the couch. Then boom- two days after that the bladder stuff started again. I think all the freakedness got his system out of whack- dehydrated n stuff. It didn't cause his chronic crystals but it did cause this episode. OR SO WE BELIEVE.
Cat detectives.
Bladder inspectors.
Crystal detectors.
Because now it's my cat's turn to have feline lower urinary tract disease... I only discovered her peeing blood yesterday morning, but I suspect it started when I was gone for a week (cause of stress). The little lady spent the night at the vet last night and Nick drove me to get her back this morning. So far there are no more accidents in the house. She got some shots of antibiotics as well as some pain killers, special wet food, and this weird plug-in thing that should reduce her stress levels.
Part of me feels a little bit like some of the stuff the vet sold me was excessive. I still don't understand which kind of FLUTD she has. It was unclear. Crystals? Bacteria?
I have read up on the matter for a few hours and here are my concerns:
-Should I get her a litter box? She doesn't have one, she does her business outside in the bushes and seems pretty happy about it. I hate litter boxes so much, still maybe it could help me monitor her?
-The vet insisted that I put her on a wet food only diet, specifically the kind of food they just sold me 24 cans of. But I usually feed her much better looking food. All natural, no grains, visible pieces of meat and vegetables. The goop the vet gave me looks so bland and like pâté. Her usual food has a nice broth to it. Then I also read that all wet-food diets are actually bad for cats because they need some crunch once in a while for dental maintenance.
I am sort of thinking I will feed her those 24 cans, then slowly go back to what I did before, except give her more wet food and less dry food. She looks super healthy otherwise and I have read tonight that the special urinary canned food can create more problems in healthy cats in the long run.
Do you guys follow your vet's advice to the letter?
Though the cat doctor is an esteemed expert, I really believe in factoring in your own intuition and careful research as well. I find food prescriptions particularly suspect--most people think it's totally okay to provide the feline equivalent of a lifetime of Cheerios, don't you think? When David was direly frail and ill for 6+ weeks I was feeding her a high-protein wet food that was supposed to get her liver working right. It didn't work. But when I went off a hunch, what saved her life? Feeding her small amounts of raw, then cooked meat. Raw meat has its dangers; I bought what I thought would be the safest from my grocer; I only took the risk because she was days away from perishing outright. Vets I have gone to are prohibitive about "human" food, but to me, the cat food industry is analagous to the pharmaceutical industry when it comes to influencing medical practitioners.
I hope that you and your kitty work through this together, back to full health!
We also give her salmon treats occasionally.
Are cats supposed to eat vegetables? The Rad Cat site says "Staying true to the most natural, evolutionary feline diet, we add no fruits or vegetables to our products." But I have no idea about the actual science behind this.
But I am a little wary of the super pure stuff, I think that maybe by taking in cats and making their lives much longer we are already fooling around with nature enough to justify me giving my cat those extra few vitamins that come in the canned cat food (I mean, even I take vitamins).
The stuff I feed her only has the occasional green pea in it. Otherwise it is mostly hormone-free chicken and sometimes pieces of cooked eggs. The only meat she shows interest in is chicken. She doesn't even care for turkey, or beef. Not that into salmon. She would be obsessed with tuna if I was to let her have any, but tuna is crack for cats and they never eat it in the wild.
Since yesterday she seems to be doing alright. I got home last night and she was sleeping on my bed and just slept through the night till around 9AM. A lot of sleep.
The idea of keeping her confined even for a day or two sounds terrible. She is an outside cat. I asked the vet about letting her out and because he thinks that stress was a factor he recommended letting her go straight back to her usual habits. She has a special key on her collar that opens the cat door and if I take off the key she eventually scratches at the cat door in a panic.
I think I am going to give her a bit or two of her usual wet food every time I feed her the other stuff. As I read up on the matter I encountered a lot of comments made from people who have multiple cats and can't keep their food separated for very long. It made me feel even more like some vets' advice can be unrealistic or even unhelpful in the long term.
I don't think you need to get a litter box for your friend. If she came into the house and peed blood it was her way of telling you she didn't feel good. If she starts to feel yucky again she'll probably let you know in the same way.
RE: wet food. Andy won't eat it but I read A LOT about it and it seems like it is way better for cats all around. I even read that the dry food/dental health thing was a myth and that dry food actually just gets stuck between their teeth. Gross. But Andy is so used to dry food he won't even nibble the wet stuff so I give him a big spoonful of pureed pumpkin with every meal because he will it that and it helps him stay regular and hydrated.
STUPID CATS!!
Anyway, I am feeding her 95% urinary diet food and 5% normal wet food.
Also, she really doesn't seem to drink water so I have been pouring a little water in her wet food and she hasn't noticed. I think she just thinks of it as broth.