Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Inching Forward

There is good news and there is bad news but, fortunately, the former outweighs the latter. The good news is that Cammie ate on her own yesterday.

I came home from work and found that someone had regurgitated hard-food in two spots. I suspected it was Cammie. She has been trying to eat hard-food but has been unable to keep it down. Even though that suggests she has been hungry, she has not wanted any soft-food. On my way home, I purchased several tins of food of varieties that we have not yet tried in our household. I opened two at dinner-time and served them, in turn, to the princess.


She ate the portion of Blue Healthy Gourmet flaked salmon entrée. This surprised and delighted me. I wanted to give her more but decided to wait. She had eaten soft-food recently and simply brought it up again subsequently. But this time, after a couple of hours, she had not thrown up. So she received another small portion.

This was the pattern for the evening. At snack-time, about eight-thirty, Cammie was hungry enough for a third portion, though she did not finish all of it, as she had the first two. But I provided a last dish of food before bed-time and that she ate hungrily.


This is, as you may imagine, a great relief to me. I suspect that Cammie was relieved that she was not force-fed last night. Why did she choose to eat this variety and not her usual favourite (of which I had recently purchased one hundred and thirty-two tins)? Perhaps she associates that with vomiting. Perhaps the smell of the new is more enticing. Perhaps it’s just new. I am not naive enough to believe that she will continue to eat Blue Healthy Gourmet just because she ate it one day. Cammie is, after all, a cat. But with sick animals, my attitude is 'one day at a time'.

Now, the bad news is that the princess is suffering from - a cold! She must have developed it yesterday. She is sneezing and sniffling and looks, well, like someone who has a cold. Since her smell is affected, her taste - and therefore her eating - is also affected. I noted that this morning, when she declined another portion of the Blue Healthy Gourmet. I do have another flavour of it ready but I thought that a snotty nose might smell something a bit more pungent, so I garnished her breakfast with some Almo chicken, the taste of which I know she favours. This helped, and she ate all in her dish. She did not want more, but she tucked away as much as she usually does at one meal when healthy.


I will watch her progress over the next few days, of course, as her cold could develop into something worse. A friend told me that Cammie’s earlier symptoms sounded similar to what goes through her cat population periodically, though her beasts usually have respiratory problems with it. Well, now Cammie is suffering that, too.

But she ate on her own. Why she cannot stomach hard-food, I don’t know. If a basic problem is an upset stomach, the hard-food may simply be more difficult for the belly to handle. But even individual kernels are regurgitated. I may try different hard-food in her case. In the meantime, I will offer her more soft-food than she would normally receive.

So, with Josie untroubled by her health and Cammie inching her way forward, I am cautiously pleased. I want to thank all those who have given sympathy and advice. Please know that none of it is wasted, even if I don’t use the suggestions given. All the information is stored and, in the past, I have referred to help received through the Blogosphere in overcoming troubling situations. Like food and medicine, the more information one has, the more one is prepared for adversity.

20 comments:

  1. Poor Cammie. Poor you! I think having a sick animal is sometimes harder on the pet parent than on the animal. Paws and fingers crossed that Josie, Renn and Tucker will remain healthy and that Cammie will soon be well!.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just visited Cammie during my lunch-break and she is sniffling, looking miserable - but ate a good portion of the new food she likes. Bit by bit...

      Delete
  2. dry food is very hard on the system, and is harder for cats to digest. It takes longer in the system than canned food which takes longer in the system than raw.

    Just like when you are ill you can't stand foods, and then want jello or broth, cats can sometimes have a hard time getting back to their regular foods.

    I'm sorry to hear she has a cold. I hope she gets better quickly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good points. I'll be feeding her soft-food as often as she wants it, and hope that the hard-food - that she evidently likes - will eventually return to her stomach's favour.

      Delete
  3. Oh, it's great she's been eating on her own! Not so great that she has a cold now. Fingers and paws crossed it passes quickly. I'm still scarred from the Feb/March wherein both boys were so sick with whatever cold and respiratory infection was going around at the time. (Two or three years ago now.)

    I used to give Lysine, but (a) the texture of it makes the boys' canned food less appetizing, apparently (or maybe it's the slightly salty taste), (b) they won't eat the rubbery Lysine treats available in pet stores or at the vet clinic, and (c) there is new evidence to suggest that Lysine either doesn't help or actually can have negative consequences in other ways (I'd have to Google to refresh my memory).

    So I'm guessing it's a wait-and-see for you, and for Cammie. And hope it doesn't hit everyone!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm a little leery of Lysine, so I'm going to see how Cammie does with good food, warmth and comfort. I just came back from visiting her at noon and fed her some more of the thrice-the-cost-Fancy-Feast food that she now likes. But she's eating, she's keeping it down; I'll pay the cost.

      Delete
  4. Cammie....my stars girl, the old adage: a cat wont eat what she can't smell, does hold true. please ask your dad to look into L-lysine as it's great for the common cold and such.

    If dad goes with this, tell him to purchase it at a health food store if possible, and if not, just dont get a brand that contains propylene glycol.

    { there's been some scuttle in recent years about whether or not it is indeed safe }

    A nice warm sun spot and several long naps will help as well, and as much as you'd like to, don't sneeze on the others as they will only "return the favor" at a later date.

    Hugs from dai$y =^..*= ♥♥♥

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She is recovered more by now (easter weekend) and is eating her old Fancy Feast again. That's good, as the new food seemed to give her some mild reaction. No one else seems to have contracted her cold.

      Delete
  5. we've notice Tim sometimes yacks up everything and it looks unchewed....mom suspects he gets overly anxious and just bolts down a meal without chewing and his system revolts (literally). and of course she won't eat what you just bought a lot of to stock up - there are rules about that. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe she doesn't know how much I bought, because she's started to eat her favourite food again, slowly. We have to outsmart them at least once in a while...

      Delete
  6. So glad Cammie is eating better. Hope she is over her cold soon! You will need a vacation after all this!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cammie is doing better this long weekend, and I am at last relaxing - with the cats.

      Delete
  7. Poor Cammie, but it is good she is eating now.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cammie,maybe the nasty cold is keeping you from eating. We hope you feel better soon, dear one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She is regaining her appetite and can keep hard food down again, which is a relief.

      Delete
  9. I wonder if she hasn't been feeling that cold coming on and it's put her off her food. Glad to hear she is eating again, and hopefully the cold will be gone soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The sniffles have largely disappeared, thank goodness.

      Delete
  10. Where on earth did you get 132 tins of cat food from? I don't even think Homes Alive keeps 2 flats of our preferred brand in the store at a time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fancy Feast isn't sold at pet-supply shops; I look at grocery stores, and buy only when it's on sale. Cammie ate only Fancy Feast (until recently), so I wanted to stock up as much as possible. I cleaned out four different shops of their Fancy Feast ocean whitefish.

      Delete