A Minor Mystery

Though the Thanksgiving weekend was a good one, it was marred to a small extent by a mystery that affected Josie. For about two and a half days, she was throwing up her food. This is not uncommon with my Chubs, though it is usually sporadic, and if she throws up two consecutive meals, it’s abnormal. This time, she was vomiting every mouthful of soft-food.

It would happen about two hours after consumption, though once she regurgitated a meal immediately. The food concerned was not a new variety: Merrick surf ’n’ turf. Josie enjoys that flavour, and has never had a problem with it before. I thought that it may have been the tin, though Tucker ate some - it isn’t one of his first choices - and did not bring it back up. Even so, I tried some beef flavour. This caused the same reaction in Josie.

The Great White could eat hard-food with no trouble, though this was sometimes returned with the soft. Her consumption of treats did not suffer, either. But if the soft-food was coming back up, and latching on to the hard as it climbed, then Josie was not getting much nutrition. I tried the old stand-by: Fancy Feast.

A small amount of ocean whitefish went down readily enough, though it had been so long since my Chubs had eaten it, except as a garnish, that she was hesitant. But two small helpings stayed down. This was encouraging. I repeated the performance half a day later; that too was a success. Whether the Fancy Feast was more settling to her stomach, or its arrival there was coincident to a separate recovery, I don’t know.

But I expanded my field of operations by opening a new tin of Merrick - rabbit flavour - and set that before Josie at her next dinner-time. All was well. The rabbit went through the g.i. tract as it should have done. As Sherlock Holmes may have said, “It was alimentary.” Perhaps he mayn’t have. In any case, I was pleased.

Since then, Sunday afternoon, Josie has been eating well but not heartily. Her appetite is a bit off, and she is consuming less of both hard- and soft-food. However, having weighed her and her roommates yesterday, I know that her poundage is good. She has gained a small amount of heftitude in the last month. (So has Cammie, still a little under-weight from her summer sickness; the boys are almost steady.)

I am guardedly optimistic. My Chubs seems to be over her problem, whatever it was. Since her illness earlier in the year, the princess receives a small ration of soft-food before bedtime; I may do the same for Josie. I will watch and weigh. Josie is now thirteen and has had no serious medical problems in the eight years she’s been with me. Of minor mysteries, she’s had a few, but as long as they remain minor, and lead to nothing major, they can stay mysteries.