A Minor-Miracle Food

I experienced an unnerving yet interesting incident with Cammie this week. If you have read previous entries about the princess’s digestive issues, you know that by now pretty much any soft-food will cause her to vomit, and continue to vomit even after her stomach has nothing left to give. I have found that the only solution to this dire problem is an injection of Cerenia.

For several months, I have had Cammie on a hard-food diet of Z/D, a product designed to cause no allergic reaction. She does eat Orijen, though not a great deal, and that has not given her any bad effects. I am sure she finds her diet monotonous, and know that she misses soft-food. Z/D must taste good because several other cats will eat it if they can get to it, so there is that consolation. Even so, I must be vigilant regarding Cammie, and make sure that she doesn’t get into any soft-food, any and all of which seems to trigger her problem. This is easier written than done, with a population of six cats, all of which will eat only if they are apart from the others.

On Tuesday, Cammie must have consumed some soft-food. She threw up her breakfast, the results including both hard- and soft-food, so I knew she had gotten into what she shouldn’t. This usually spells disaster, and a trip to the veterinary hospital. I hoped that this time would be different and she would not continue to vomit. When I came home at noon to check on her, I saw that someone had thrown up their food. The number of times they had done it, and where, suggested that it had been Cammie.

But something was different. Cammie was hungry a few hours later, and wanted some food for dinner. Usually, during such episodes, she doesn’t like to eat, thinking it would only cause her to upchuck. I fed her a small amount, and waited. Normally, when she can’t keep anything down, she can’t keep it down at all - it comes back up immediately. But this time, her small Z/D dinner remained in place. She ate a little more at snack-time, about eight o’clock. This suggested to me that her stomach felt differently to her this time.

She had not thrown up again by the time I went to bed. I am attuned to hearing my cats wretch, as sad as that is, and I wake immediately when I hear the tell-tale sound, or anything like it. Cammie did not wake me.

The Z/D seemed not to be rejected by the stomach even when it was denying all other food. Normally, what Cammie takes in after she begins her episodes wouldn’t matter; it would still be thrown out. It’s true that Z/D is designed to give no reaction, but in such a case as Cammie’s, that usually would be immaterial: the initial cause of her illness (the soft-food) should still have been exercising its malign influence and making her wretch. In other words, once her stomach becomes violent, even the Z/D should be thrown up. But it stayed its course and, in fact, seemed to act as oil on stormy waters. I wonder if the Z/D’s hydrolysed composition fooled the stomach into letting it through.

Whatever the reason, Cammie has been fine since that day, and I am very grateful for Z/D. It has given her a safe food that she continues to like, and has even, it appears, lessened the problems caused by lapses in my security. Now, if it would only help me cut her claws…