A non-feline question… Fred writes, you write, which is appropriate… y’all or ya’ll.. I think grammatically, it’s y’all with the ‘ taking the place of the missing ou in you, but ya’ll seems more balanced from aesthetic perspective… goodness! this has become a deep thought – BEFORE caffeine… never done learning… Love & Hisses – your one stop shop for cats, kittens, and grammar.
It’s y’all. It’s always been y’all, it’ll always be y’all, I will hunt you down and challenge you to a duel if you use ya’ll, I swear I will.
(Okay, I won’t. But it’s y’all. It really is. FIGHT ME. I mean, don’t. But it is.)
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I have a question for your Friday column. My cat, Mewlan-is almost 5 years old. Healthy, eating – but she does have constipation issues. She eats dry food but won’t touch the wet stuff. I’ve tried numerous brands to introduce moisture to her diet, plus including the cat milk, clam juice, those packages from Hartz which my other cats love, like seafood bisque. I’ve never had an animal so unmotivated by food. Baby food she may deign to eat sometimes – but I’d love if anyone has ideas for wet food for a very picky eater!! We have lactalase, but I hesitate to give it to her, she is so skittish, if I can avoid stressing her by forcing it into her mouth with a syringe, I will. Plus, I would like a solution that isn’t just one or two times, basically a way to get her to drink, or eat moister foods. I appreciate any help!
Jeweled Skye said: I don’t know about hydration, and, truthfully, I don’t know the pros and cons of this, but my cats are 15 & 10 and still alive 🙂 and going ‘seniorly strong’… This may assist with the constipation as it works for hairballs… when my cat or cats are working on a hairball and running around with ‘unproductive wretching’ (hows that for a term?), I give them chunk light tuna canned in oil – not the whole can but a heaping spoonful on a saucer… usually the hairball comes up then within a few hours, I’ve not noticed any ‘runny’ or ‘less firm’ bowel movements afterwards… but may help the other way by ‘lubricating’ the innards… That’s all I got… it’s early here and I’m not a vet, but it’s helped my girls…. yikes, right?
I have two suggestions, both of which you may have already tried. First – a water fountain? Might the movement of the water catch her interest and make her want to drink from it? If you haven’t tried, it’s certainly worth a try. Secondly – goat milk. I have yet to meet a cat who doesn’t like it, you can find the canned kind in the canned milk aisle of the grocery store (near the condensed milk), and it’s another thing that’s worth a try.
That’s all I’ve got for you, but hopefully there’ll be more suggestions – if y’all have suggestions, please chime in!
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New month, new calendar pages! If you have a Crooked Acres Permanent Resident calendar for 2017, then when you turn to September, you will see…
Maxi!
And our calendar girls and boys for the Love & Hisses foster calendar are…
The Fakers! Let’s see if I can do this from memory. In the front we have Bert Macklin and Art Vandelay; in the center, we have Chanandler Bong. And in the back row we have Princess Consuela, Susie, and Ken “Moe” Adams. (I could not do that from memory – I mixed up Chanandler and Susie.)
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I realized late Wednesday that Mercury had stopped eating. The last time I’d seen her eat was mid-afternoon, and a while after that she’d left a pretty unpleasant surprise in the litter box. She wouldn’t eat no matter what I offered her, and except for drinking just a bit of water, her intake was pretty much down to nothing. She was keeping the kittens fed, so I asked Fred to check on her when he got up yesterday morning. He did, and woke me up a little after 4:00 to tell me that she’d had another litter box incident. I went up to clean up after her (oh, the SMELL) and to try to get her to eat something, and she still wasn’t having it.
By the time I took her to the vet at 10:00, I’d convinced her to drink a little watered-down canned goat milk, but still couldn’t get her to eat. They checked her temperature at the vet and took a fecal sample, and the vet examined her. Her temperature was normal, she wasn’t dehydrated, and her fecal showed no parasites. Mercury, who had been doing nothing at home but laying and letting her kittens nurse, was all OVER that exam room, sniffed every single inch of it, all curious and bright-eyed.
Then the vet opened a big container of treats, and Mercury was all “HALLO THERE I SEE YOU HAVE SOMETHING FOR ME” and proceeded to suck down a bunch of treats. The vet went and got some sensitive-stomach food, and when she popped open the can of food, Mercury said “WHY THANK YOU. THAT LADY WAS REFUSING TO FEED ME AND I AM STARVING! SHE IS A VERY BAD LADY.”
So we ended up with a couple of cans of the food, a probiotic, and some anti-nausea medicine just in case. As of bedtime last night, she had eaten a couple of servings of the canned food mixed with goat milk (including the probiotic, sprinkled over one of those plates of food), drank plenty of water, and ate some kibble. She was also back to her friendly, talkative self, which was a definite relief.
“What? I wanted a vacation!”
Aurora, daydreaming. Oh, those blue eyes!
Hubble, in the middle of the pile.
Nurse Stardust is all “Are you okay? You feel warm!”
Pretty, pretty Stardust.
Phoenix, keeping an eye on Mama.
“Paws up, y’all!” (Stardust)
Hubble looks a bit dyspeptic.
A tussle of kittens.
Phoenix, waving her paws in the air ’cause she just don’t care.
Hubble thinks I’m weird.
::boop!::
The kittens are spending most of their time out of the nest, though they return to it occasionally for napping or to nurse. They’ve been all over the carpeted part of the room, and have even ventured onto the floor occasionally. They’ve got their first few teeth – well, Stardust does, at least; I’m assuming the rest of them do too, but haven’t checked to be sure – and they’re still a little wobbly, but move around with no problem. My favorite part: they’ve all climbed into my lap at one point or another.
I’ve put out some small litter boxes. None of them have been used yet – it’s a little early, really – but they’ve all climbed in, chewed on some litter, looked disgusted, and spit it out.
These kittens are growing up WAY too fast. Can’t we slow them down a little? (I’m sure Mercury votes “NO.”)
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Videos! In the first, Phoenix is a genius. Okay, maybe the video isn’t THAT exciting – but she’s 3 weeks old, it’s kind of fun to watch her figure stuff out.
In the second, Hubble learns the first rule of Kitten Fight Club: you gotta be CLEAN. And then you’ve gotta TELL everyone that you’re clean. They might ignore you, but who cares?
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Khal Drogo (formerly known as Fancypants v2.0) on the platform in the back yard. I took this picture through the window, and it’s a good thing – when I stepped outside to get a clearer shot, he vamoosed.
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Previously
2016: Throw Back Thursday: Terry.
2015: Terry update!
2014: Oh, it’s so fascinating when she tells that story. I can’t wait.”
2013: No entry.
2012: RAZZIE HAS BEEN ADOPTED!
2011: These kittens are the standing-up balancingest kittens I’ve ever seen.
2010: Jake of the l’Unervilles.
2009: “O crystal ball, when will I get my fancy new eyelips?”
2008: I know. I’m an unreasonable monster.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: Morning kisses.
I wonder if cats get postpartum depression?! I’m glad Mercury seems to be on the mend.
For the reader with the constipated kitty – my old cat, Hocus, had major problems with constipation. The vet suggested pumpkin and it worked pretty well. I would make a mishmash of tuna, water, wet food, canned pumpkin, and the medicine laculose. The pumpkin is supposed to have laxative effects. Hocus wasn’t big on wet food either, but he would eat this disgusting concoction.
Max had “issues” as well and wouldn’t eat wet food either, but he LOVED his spoonful of canned pumpkin (and, of course, make sure it’s not the pie filling, just plain canned pumpkin). Occasionally, if needed, I sprinkled a little Metamucil on top and he scoffed it right down. The only iffy bit was when canned pumpkin suddenly went in short supply 🙂
I was going to recommend 1tsp to 1Tbsp of plain canned pumpkin mixed in with the food. NOT pumpkin pie filling.
It helps address either constipation or un-solid outputs.
Gosh, Mercury, you gave me a serious scare! Fingers crossed you won’t have any more eating problems.
Pheanix, you ARE a genius! There are times this level of brain-limbs coordination is beyond my scope of skills! 🙂
Khal Drogo is so handsome! Swoon!
I love that photo of Khal Drogo, it has an ethereal quality, what with the soft focus foreground the sunshine on the leaves in the background. Plus… that face, lol so majestic!
I had a cat who developed serious constipation problems when I went away one weekend and decided it’d be better for my neighbor if I just had her put out dry food. He was basically never the same after that. He was willing to eat wet food, though, and we put him on a low residue diet of both wet and dry that I think was an IAMS Veterinary product. For my others I use kibble soaked in water that I make up in a small tub and store in the fridge – they like the kibble (Purina ONE) and it carries lots of water. Because they also like wet food I mix it with the soaked kibble.
In vet school, we called it therapeutic car rides. 😉 Amazing how well it works sometimes. Glad she is feeling better
Miss Mercury apparently just needed a few hours away from the kids. And Phoenix…you can almost see the smoke coming out of her ears. 🙂
For the constipated kitty: a little mineral oil on the dry food; maybe a hairball treatment; or anything that usually gives a normal cat diarrhea such as milk, yogurt, ice cream, soft cheese.
Good luck!
Mercury-don’t scare us like that again, please!
My cat was constipated and the vet had me put 1/4 tsp of Miralax on his food. He does eat wet food so it was easy-just mixed it in and he didn’t realize it. Maybe you could spritz the dry food a little so the powder will stick to it.
I heard that about pumpkin too but if he’s not eating wet food…
Good luck!
Thank you for confirming the spelling of y’all. It makes me want to scream when I see it misspelled, especially in a book or some other print.
And I’m awfully glad Mercury was just wanting an excuse to get out of the house for a spell and isn’t seriously ill.
I see what you did there: “if y’all have suggestions” 🙂 I grew up in the north and moved south (Louisiana) when I was 16. I swore I would never say y’all or go “Southern.” Well, I moved back home to Northern Illinois 6 years later, been back here now 25 years and still say y’all. It’s probably the best word or phrase I picked up and will keep till the day I die. hahahaha I love it. I will admit to misspelling it until I knew better. And will still catch myself from time to time, but at least I do catch it and correct it.
And “all y’all” is pretty great too. Hee
Ok Mercury, just because Halloween is around the corner doesn’t mean you need to start scaring us already.
The picture of Khal Drogo is really good. His eyes just pop out of his majestic black fur surrounded by all that green.
I saw that sneaky ‘if y’all have suggestions…’ too! Dang, she’s smooth! I am in Southwestern Illinois; and I, too, will never give up y’all (especially now that I know the correct spelling) as long as I live! I love ‘all y’all’ as well and am particularly fond of “bless your/her/his heart” with a tilt of the head and a slight roll of the eye!
I’m not Southern myself, but I have a sneaking fondness for the Southern use of the phrase “bless your heart”.
Which secretly means to people in the South, “That’s a load of BS.” 🙂
Mercury, girlfriend, don’t scare us like that!!
As for “y’all”, also understand that it is plural. You don’t call one person “y’all” – ever! If you’re going to speak Southern, at least speak it correctly! 😉
Have you seen this? Designs for cat patios. http://www.oregonlive.com/hg/index.ssf/2017/08/cat_patio_plans_diy_book_chomo.html
part of me hates it when cats pull that, but the other part is just thankful they are eating again that I don’t care I look like an idiot.
As for the dry food thing, My recommendation is an obnoxiously slow transition. Feed mostly dry with a tiny scoop of wet under it. It will probably be ignored, but after a while, the kitty should get used to the scent and start associating it with mealtime and then start associating it with food. Once it is eaten, try increasing that and reducing the dry a bit. You’ll increase to a point where you’ll have a mostly wet meal, you can try griding up bits of dry to flake on top if needed.
I can attest that this works. I adopted my brother’s cat who had only eaten dry, and got her to eat canned food this way. And then I transitioned her from canned to raw, and she eats like a champ. (Mind you, she was 19.5lbs when I got her in 2014, and down to 15.5lbs now lol.) That girl sure does love her food. 🙂
Have you tried warming the canned food in the microwave? That worked for my senior kitty.
One more easy way to heat up wet food to increase its (apparently appealing) stinkiness: I run hot water over the cans (I have 6 cats and a cat-food-loving dog) before I open them. Good luck!
Mercury is clearly a skilled graduate of the feline school of how to persuade human slaves to buy more expensive food.
Uh, hi. Yeah, um… I’d like a “Tussle of Kittens” to go, please. And can I also get extra napkins and a tray, if you have one? I hear they come stuffed with extra marshmallow goodness.
Aww Phoenix IS a genius. It was cute t watch her figure out that clearly her right leg is longer than her left and she should led with it.
Glad Mercury is okay and just needed a break.
I had to look up the meaning of dyspeptic, only to discover that I am dyspeptic.
Beautiful shot of Kahl Drogo! Have a good Labor Day weekend!
Thanks so much for all the ideas on my constipated cat! We have tried pumpkin, all our other cats love it, but not her! That was our go to remedy for constipation. These are some great suggestions, I am definitely going to give them a try. I never thought about the hairball treatment, she is a long haired cat who lets me brush her every day, but occasionally she will cough up a hairball.
I appreciate your help!
I cracked up reading about Mercury’s day out-I’m so glad she is OK.
As far as the cat who doesn’t like canned food. My cat, Jada, doesn’t like the fancy, high priced brands. She LOVES Fancy Feast Pate. Mi put a little warm water I it to make more gravy and she chows down.
The neat thing about Fancy Feast Pate — there aren’t any starch products in it. It’s actually very high in protein and low in carbs. I feed my diabetic cat that at 1/3 the price of the prescription nonsense that isn’t low in carb at all, and he’s doing great at 17.
So happy Mercury is back on track – certainly a scare! These kittens are adorable – and sooooo smart! Khal Drogo – such a handsome mancat!
My cat has had constipation issues. I give her Lax-eze http://www.allergicpet.com/products/lax-eze-full-treatment-pack.html
It’s an all natural supplement you can add to their food. I’ve been using the granule supplement for over a year now, and have had no constipation issues since.