Life, Interrupted

Well,

I come to you today to ask for suggestions. My local pet store stopped carrying California Natural Chicken & Rice for Cats after the last salmonella scare. It was something like the fourth since Proctor & Gamble took over the food line. I understood that this was probably not a good idea for my kitty's kibble. But I was uneasy, because Merlyn is 18 years old. He's a spry 18 (88 in human years) but change is not always good.

He is hypothyroid and in the very earliest stages of kidney distress. So I can't feed him grain-free. He liked a mix of CN Ch & rice dry and Science Diet K/D dry. So I went in search of a new mixer food.

My pet store has offered suggestions and even lets me return the $%%^## bags, but we have gone through SIX, yes SIX dried foods since I found out about the recall in August. The seventh is sitting, ignored, in a bowl next to the Science Diet crunchies. Thank the universe for the Science Diet crunchies, because he won't eat ANY of the premium dry chicken ^ rice I've tried him on, having lost a half pound (and he only weighted 8 pounds to begin with.)

I've tried Nulo, Wellness, Felidae, Nutri-Source and three others. Nada. I'm feeding him SD crunchies, and meat twice a day, but more than a heaping teaspoon is not good for him. At this point, I would let him just eat the SD crunchies alone except that it's only because he's hungry--he could stand to gain back that half pound. We have little enthusiasm here.

Anyone have a suggestion? I hesitate to go back to California Natural, for his sake and mine. One of these was even lamb & rice, but apparently too weird.

Here's the link -- this effects ALL Chicken & Herring during both time periods, BTW.

ARGH! Now I know why he's vulturing me!

I thought Max was trying to die on me Sunday am. He had spent the night in one of his favorite places -- on top of me. But when he got moving, he was standing braced, his head hunched down like a vulture. I, of course, jumped to an obvious conclusion, that he was finally ready to Go Ahead, and called W so he could come say good-bye. He cleverly called a dance buddy who owns 16 cats -- and when you have 16 cats AND highly recommend your vet to people, apparently you get the vet's home number. After some kibitzing, it was decided to take him in, because I actually thought a stroke had happened, with the odd tilt on the head and slight staggering. Kidney failure, not much left to do. A stroke? That they could work with --

Well, much money later, the vet at the EM Clinic suggested that low potassium was the culprit. We did a slow IV drip for him during the day, and I picked him up and brought him home around 10 pm. I heated the big rice bag for him, and he was happy there all night. I even turned off the overhead fan, because he would go hide in the closet, a fan free zone.

The new cat vet was not in on Monday, but I took him in for a look-over and observation. The guy on the "EM" section of the place said he was as puzzled as I was -- no pain apparently, nothing about the blood work yesterday unexpected. He said he didn't see dehydration, although he recommends upping Sub-Cue to twice a week. A small possibility was a brain tumor, but neither radiation nor surgery is appropriate for a 17 year old cat. So I brought Max home and heated his rice bag for him. He hopped out to hit the water bowl and box once, but otherwise, he's sleeping.

I tried massaging his neck -- the muscles are very tight, vibrate when I touch them. I have a very mild oral/topical painkiller, and right now I figure I will give it to him in the next hour, to see if that will give him overall relaxation.

Any theories? I'd think strychnine poisoning, but there's nothing for them to get into except laundry detergent, which is boring. I thought stroke, because that happened to our Persian, long ago. But that made Rocky circle. This does not work like that.