Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Josie's Progress Report


A month ago, I became concerned that Josie was suffering from a hairball that would not go away. She was throwing up fluid, either clear(ish) or brown. This was not her sensitive stomach bringing up food that didn’t agree with it. So I put her on a schedule of hairball remedy. It’s not an arduous schedule: once on Saturdays and once on Sundays, I shoot three or four millilitres of goo into her mouth which, upon swallowing, will smooth the way for any hairballs to leave her wide body.

The results have been good. I realised this weekend that my Chubs has not thrown up any fluid in a couple of weeks. To be honest, I don’t know if there is or was a hairball involved. But the vomiting has ceased, at least for now. Since I don’t know for certain what the cause of her problem was, I can’t be any more certain that I am providing the solution. But I will continue to give Josie the hairball remedy. If my suspicions about the cause of her troubles were correct, then this will, hopefully, prevent a recurrence. If not, then she will need to be rid of hairballs anyway.


The Great White is doing well. She is eleven this year, and has been free of any major health problems in her life. Because she can’t reach her bum to clean it, I do that for her periodically. She enjoys that as much as she enjoys the delicious malt flavour of the hairball remedy, "which all cats love". (The unfortunate malt taste follows the unfortunate fish taste of an earlier medicine.) But a few minutes washing her nether regions, and a couple of oral injections of goo a week are a very small price to pay for health. Now, if I could only get her to commit to some weight-reducing exercises...

12 comments:

  1. "She enjoys that as much as she enjoys the delicious malt flavour of the hairball remedy..."

    That cracked me up, as I do recall her opinion of the malt flavour (as well as the previous product).

    I'm glad it's working! I'm trying Nicki on the Greenies hairball treats, to see if that helps. But not the 12 per day he "should" have, according to the package. Half that. Don't know if they'll help, but he doesn't get a lot of fibre in his diet (very little dry), so they probably won't hurt.

    Can't help with the weight-reducing, though. The boys have been on food "restriction" since early August, and while Nicki seems to be slimming down a bit, Derry certainly doesn't. He still looks like a sitting Buddha cat. :-)

    (Food "restriction" meaning I no longer leave any canned out for them. They either eat at meal times or go hungry.)

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  2. Glad to hear Josie is much improved! As far as 'nether' region washings, Annabelle requires that often too and she enjoys it as much as Josie! MOL

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  3. Yay, Josie, so glad that the throwing up has ceased. Maybe the hairball stuff worked. You are very luck that Josie lets you do that. None of mine will allow it and so the stuff goes all over their bodies and all over me. So good for you Josie.

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  4. I give our cats femalt (hairball remedy) at least once a week. Many of my clients use it on their cats, too. It is all good. I'm not sure how you are feeding your cats, John, but I do know that most dry foods are very high in calories and if you can cut back on that by not leaving it out for them to graze on, sometimes that is enough to rid them of a few pounds. I have one cat, Annie, that is also a bit over-weight and I have to supervise her eating. Deb

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  5. We're glad to hear the hairball stuff is helping Josie. The mom gives us some hairball treats because we don't like eating that goo.

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  6. I used to think the same thing about Silas, that he needed to lose weight. Then he was diagnosed with cancer. He went from 22 pounds to less than 7 when I finally made the decision to let him go.
    Sami is my roly poly girl now and though I need to help her with some cleaning, I won't try to reduce her food intake.
    Just think of it as more of Josie to love!

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    1. It's difficult to reduce the weight of some when others don't need it. Tungsten needs to have food available to her whenever she wants it, and she isn't strong enough any more to get to where others can't.

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  7. I am glad the hairball remedy appears to have stopped Josie throwing up. I had to give it to Eric on a regular basis as he only had to look at his fur to get a hairball.
    Flynn has never really suffered from them before this year. Maybe it is because we had an unusually hot early summer and he lost more fur than usual, but he was getting small hairballs quite regularly so now he gets the remedy too, but he loves the taste of it.

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  8. Well, if she is not throwing up, it seems to be a victory :) She may be a bit chunky but she seems happy and healthy. Hope you all have a great week!

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  9. Dad found one of Rumpy's hair ball on the counter this week. He was not happy as NO cat is allowed on the counter and he has threatened bringing out the 'egg' thing that hisses so loudly when anyone goes near. We have been good since.
    Rumpy also needs a regular wipe. He may not feel his nether regions so kind of ignores it. Dad has been giving him special daily treat sessions in the bathroom. Now he runs right in for his wash.
    Very good as when he gets upset he can have an asthma attack and we love our big white one
    Timmy

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  10. Isn't she lovely. She looks like she's going to start to talk to us at any moment!
    We're glad and relieved that Josie is feeling better. Several years ago, my little ebony boy started to make sounds like he was trying to bring up a fur ball. But it did sound a bit odd. Turns out he had asthma. Needed two types of inhailers for some time.
    As long as your vet doesn't think Josie's current weight will put her at risk for developing diabetes and her lab work looks good, a bit of extra weight might no be so bad.

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