Well, The 100th Stampede of Calgary is now over. Too bad it's over and I unfortunately, didn't get down to the Stampede grounds this year. I did however, check out some of the fireworks even though it has been somewhat of a crazy time for me. My old cat has been ill and I am going through enough money to start a small business or buy a nice car. Instead it has all been spent on Kiki,
His paw had been infected from snagging his claw on a blanket and I took him to the vet right away when I noticed it was not getting better. For some reason the antibiotics were somewhat resistant or so the vet said. We are finally coming to the end of that antibiotic and hopefully things clear up, but all the while his poor 1st and 4th digit nails do still bleed. I keep his paws clean and followed all the prescriptions, and sometimes if he wouldn't let me clean his paw but I make sure to get it done. I try to do it thoroughly. I needed to make sure we did everything, on time and consistently, like taking the pills.
So, I was insistent and I didn't let Kiki off the hook on taking any medications or cleanings, but then he was wasn't eating enough with all the medicine. He seemed like he was listless and throwing up, and not himself. So I feel like the meds are too harsh and making his overall health worse and tried to talk to the vet about it.
So, the newest detail is that there is protein in Kiki's urine, from the vet's test results. I don't know how many urine collection this, and urology that and a lot of terminology later to know it will cost cost me too much money to finally find this out. It meant there is starting to be mild to moderate kidney failure. Hundreds of dollars doesn't bother me but it is annoying, and when it started to add up to thousands, I just started to step up my sales at work to afford the bills. I could not get my cat on medical insurance since he is elderly. Being he is an 18 year old cat I suppose it's not uncommon and he now has to change his diet to be supportive in his kidney health.
"Friskies" Chicken Dinner is not going to cut it anymore, although that was just the food to stick to for his diabetes health and was good to our price point. Now, the food prescribed to Kiki is J/D formula, which is $2 per small can, and he should be eating 1 1/2 of those per day. So now he doesn't eat all of it. I mix it a bit with the remaining "Friskies" brand that I have to get his system to adjust. He should be used to eating the new food on it's own soon.
My main reason for writing this post tonight, is that I wanted to let other cat or pet owners know that I am reading a book, and it's called "How to Keep Your Cat Healthy, The Natural Way". It actually is very interesting, and speaks about canine and feline diets in the wild versus commercial feed. I will fill you in more if requested, but basically if you feed your pet commercially made food his or her health will start falling apart especially as they age.
It's because they are not eating enough of what they need, especially if you are not finding all the nutrients to give them. Of course, there are other factors to good health, but say skin problems, are most likely caused by a deficiency, which thus was caused by lack of nutrition. Cats in the wild eat whole birds or mice, and those little animals ate all kinds of nuts, fruits, greens etc. because a cat won't eat broccoli doesn't mean they don't need some foliage. So fresh grasses such as cat grass, that I have grown for him is great, but they need it all the time.
Stay tuned for more updates on Kiki and more information that can help you manage your pets health. I will try to keep up on the updates although in some past posts I may not have if no one expressed interest in a subject. I am trying to learn more about pet health but also more on my own as well. Here's a picture of Kiki's shaved paw, about 3 weeks ago. It doesn't look good and it now looks worse. I hope it gets better.
Have a nice day.
