The antibiotics I was given made me really nauseous. Me being sick made Mummy really nauseous. So the slippery elm bark had to come out of the cupboard for both of us!
Slippery elm bark is a supplement that can help with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea…many good uses for slippery elm bark. You can read more about it at Little Big Cat. It’s great because it’s a natural supplement, non-toxic and safe to use. Mummy has found it to be really effective as well.
You can get slippery elm bark in a capsule or powder form. Normally if I am having a little bit of the runs but still eating, Mummy will sprinkle the slippery elm bark powder on my food. About 1/8 or a teaspoon worth. But because I’ve been sick and haven’t had a good appetite, Mummy initially tried making small slippery elm bark pills using the empty gel capsules and pilling me. I would get the slippery elm bark pill before food. Unfortunately, because the antibiotics also made me throw up, I would throw up the slippery elm bark pill along with all my food.
So Mummy tried making a slippery elm bark syrup or slurry instead to feed it to me using a dropper. Following the instructions on Little Big Cat…
half a cup of cold water
one teaspoon of slippery elm bark powder
whisk into the cold water. and simmer on low heat until reduced/thicken.
let it cool and keep in the fridge
I think slurry is a better description of this mixture than syrup. It doesn’t really look like a syrup…although when it is reduced it becomes pretty gloopey. Little Big Cat says you can keep it in the fridge for 7 – 8 days but Mummy just makes a new batch every 2 – 3 days.
She uses a small dropper to feed me some before food. I’m surprisingly ok to eat the slurry. I don’t really try to spit or drool it out.
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Hi everyone…for those following me on Facebook and Twitter, you already know by now that I’m sick…
On Wednesday morning, I refused to eat any of my breakfast even when Daddy put crushed freeze dried treats on it and when I refused to eat even a freeze dried treat on its own, that’s when Mummy and Daddy knew something was seriously wrong. I was perfectly fine the night before. Eating well and loving my treats. And suddenly in the morning..wham.
They brought me to the vet and I had a fever of 40.5º celsius (cat’s normal temperature range is 38º celsius to 39º celsius or 100.4º to 102.5º fahrenheit). The vet did a blood chemistry panel test and nothing was overly alarming…liver was fine…kidney was ok…glucose a little high although that could have been due to stress and I was definitely dehydrated. A complete blood count test was not done because the machine was down. A thyroid test was done and thyroids were fine.
So the vet said maybe infection. Viral or bacterial, Mummy asked. Don’t know..can’t tell the vet said. The vet also said..fever could also be caused by inflammation or cancer…inflammation would probably need an ultrasound or something to see if it is. Cancer very unlikely in a young cat like me. But yes Mummy thought..throw the word cancer out there anyway to scare the heck out of the pawrents but cover your own butt because if it turns out that it IS cancer..you did mention it right?
So…I’m just going to put it out there and say “modern” medicine is highly unsatisfactory in SO many ways but it is unfortunately the “best” we got.
The vet gave me some underskin fluids because of the dehydration. Gave me Clavamox an antibiotic, Prednisilone a steroid and Cyproheptadine an appetite stimulant.
Antibiotics because…well that’s what all doctors prescribe when there is a fever and they don’t know the actual cause right? If the cause is an infection and the infection is viral, antibiotics will do nothing for it. And even if it was bacterial, not all antibiotics work on all bacterias. The antibiotic will only be useful if it works for that particular bacteria. And all antibiotics have side effects. At best all you get is pretty bad nausea or vomiting. At worse, possible blindness (Baytril) or kidney damage (Meloxicam).
So Mummy doesn’t like the idea of anyhow taking antibiotics for me. But unfortunately…that is just how it is with “modern” medicine. It’s not quite a science…it’s a huge and you hope educated guessing and gambling game. You guess that it could be a bacterial infection and you hope that it is a bacteria which a broad spectrum antibiotic like Clavamox will work on.
But since the Clavamox side effects didn’t sound too scary and it’s not a bad antibiotic for kidneys, Mummy decided to start me on the course of antibiotics even though she doesn’t like the approach and isn’t happy about it. But she does feel like she doesn’t have much choice because we just don’t know what exactly is wrong.
Prednisolone…steroids. The vet didn’t want to prescribe a normal fever medication for me because the vet sees me as being a CKD cat and he said the fever medication is no good for kidneys. So he gave me steroids instead. I don’t know if that actually is how it works..but Mummy read up on prednisolone and it’s a common steroid which is prescribed. What she doesn’t like about it is that it can suppress the immune system. Why would you suppress my immune system if I am highly potentially fighting an infection…..Mummy decided not to start me on the steroids. If my fever persisted then maybe she would have given it to me.
The appetite stimulant didn’t seem too harmful and it would be helpful because cats MUST eat. A lot of people have been saying to Mummy that I’m probably not eating because I don’t feel well and humans are like that too. But unlike humans, cats MUST eat. So Mummy is giving me the Cyproheptadine but as little as possible.
I was willing to eat very little and very unwillingly on Thursday and on Friday because my appetite was still not good and I was still lethargic, I went back to the vet. Thankfully my temperature had come down. Sadly…the vet couldn’t run any other tests on me because I was cat from hell man. I was screaming, spitting, hissing, swiping…I’m a sweetheart at home. But I am every inch the bad black cat you see on Jackson Galaxy’s my cat from hell intro when I am at the vet.
It was very odd though that I was SO fierce on Friday because Nurse J was there and I am usually manageable if Nurse J is there. Nurse J is awesome…she has no fear or apprehension of me unlike everyone else at the clinic and she doesn’t try to scruff me or roughly restraint me. So Mummy had no idea what was going on when I was completely going berserk.
Then she found out that on Wednesday at the vet where they took my blood, my temperature and gave me the subq, the nurse that was there put a towel over me, flipped me on my side and pressed me down with his forearm by leaning his weight on me!! I had been manhandled and painfully restrained. Mummy had NO idea because she was so stressed out she had left the room so that her stress wouldn’t affect me. Ok so maybe it’s also my “fault” because I am so fierce at the vet’s but the vet will ALWAYS be a hated horrid place if everytime I go, this is what happens to me. Already I get poked and prodded which is already a huge shock to my system. Mummy is wondering if this is why I am getting worse and worse and more and more difficult when I go to the vet. She needs to do something about this…and make the vet a less painful and hated place.
So apparently, this type of manhandling is probably normal but hopefully last resort measures for fierce and difficult cats. I totally understand not wanting to get hurt by the cat and needing to get the cat in a “position” where the vet can do the things the vet needs to do. But is there no better way? Mummy heard that in New Zealand or something…they do not tolerate this type of manhandling of cats and don’t even approve of scruffing. They prefer to leave the cat in the room for like half an hour or more to let the cat familiarise itself and relax. I don’t know if this will work for every cat…maybe not. But we kitties remember these experiences you know…and if one experience is bad, why would we be cooperative and willingly allow you to do it to me again? And as we get more difficult…you get rougher with us? That just doesn’t seem like a good solution…
If anyone has had or has seen or heard of a kinder way to handle difficult cats at the vet, please let me know. Or if you have any ideas as to how to do things at home to help a cat deal better with going to the vet, please also share! Mummy is really worrying about my worsening behaviour at the vet and how the hell she’s going to get my tested and treated the next time I fall sick. This is an SOS…
I really hope I get better soon. Right now it’s hard to say if the poor appetite and lethargy is purely the infection or is being caused by the antibiotics which I still have 4 more days of…please pray for a speedy recovery for me! Being sick really sucks…for me and my pawrents…
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I know I’m pretty behind on the curve on this one because tons of my fwens already have this….but the supermarkets in Singapore (namely NTUC and Shop n Save) sell this shopping trolley that makes a great stroller for kitties!! And it’s only SGD13 or SGD15!!
My current stroller looks something like this…not exactly this one. But it has the all around zipper to enclose my inside and the mesh panels so that air can get in and I can look out. The view is not really that great because the mesh panels are made up of a very small grid. No matter…I hate going out anyway so big or small mesh…hated it! It was always a struggle to get me into the stroller. But for those of you with kitties/doggies who don’t hate strollers..this one’s pretty good and basic. It folds up and you can buy on eBay for less than USD100. It’s probably not as sturdy or fancy looking as the SGD300-400 ones you can find in the pet stores here though.
Photo source: eBay
Mummy and Daddy bought me the stroller/trolley so that they could bring me down to the condo grounds for walks. They’ve also tried walking me on a leash but they’ve gotten slightly paranoid about me ingesting toxins from the walk because the condo does weekly insect fumigations. Also, the initial training I was getting to walk on the leash has gone down the toilet because (a) on the day I looked like I was starting to get used to the idea, I encountered a dog and completely freeeaaaaked out and (b) after I got massively sick (see here), we stopped leash walking for so long we’re back to square zero.
Mummy heard about the NTUC trolley from Chewy’s mum and then noticed photos of kitties in these trolleys being brought to Cat Welfare Society’s events. It’s so much cheaper then pet strollers and Mummy really loves that the grills are relatively widely spaced apart so that I can get unobstructed views of the outside. Mummy’s been thinking of getting it for a while now and finally grabbed one when she saw it at Shop n Save.
is that a butterfly??
The trolley is really sturdy because it’s made of metal. It folds up. It has a cover which you flip up and down and a little hook to hold the cover firmly down. It’s slightly easier getting me into this trolley than the stroller because once Mummy and Daddy have managed to get me into the trolley (I struggle and resist a lot), they just have to flip the cover down, hold it down and hook it. As opposed to zipping up the stroller.
awesome alternative to a pet stroller..and waaaay cheaper.
Mummy and Daddy put some magazines/newspapers at the bottom for a more stable base for me and put some towels or old clothing on top for a more comfortable ride.
stabilise the base
comfortabalise the base
When we go out, Mummy and Daddy also put a towel on top of the trolley so that they can the trolley in case a dog comes along or I need some time out from the outdoors exposure overload.
where we going??
i better make sure no dog is following us
So this trolley is really fantastic..it’s not a looker but it works great, in Mummy’s view better than the mesh panels in normal pet strollers because it allows for more air and views and most importantly..it’s so cheap compared to pet strollers.
That being said..it doesn’t mean it makes me want to go for walks though. The pawrents still have to chase me around the house to put me into the stroller, it still take both of them to get me in and close up the cover and I protest very loudly when we’re leaving the house and in the lift. Mummy says they’re going to bring me for walks regularly so that I can get used to going out and it’s nice for me to get some fresh air and see some plants…I think I’m perfectly fine looking at plants through our windows thank you very much!
Happy Mother’s Day to all furmoms out there!
i love you Mummy…
Thank you for all your love and care for your furkid(s). Purrzzz, head butts and lickies all around!!
It’s now the 5th month of raw feeding with minimal mixing of proteins in a day/meal and I’m still doing gooood. Eating better than I did before we started this.
Perhaps the previous mixture of multiple proteins in a day/meal just didn’t work so well with my tummy and it ended giving me not so great appetite. I used to take very long to finish my meals or not at all especially on chicken days (Mummy just thought I was bored of chicken) or needed a little treat to encourage me to start eating. But nowadays I start eating almost immediately, I finish my meals and eat pretty fast (too fast from Mummy’s point of view). Even when it’s Grandmummy or T jiejie coming to feed me when Mummy and Daddy are away, I eat well. Because I’m not as familiar or comfortable with Grandmummy or T jiejie as I am with Mummy and Daddy, it used to be even harder for them to get me to eat when they fed me. They’d have to coax me with lots of treats, bring my plate to me when I ran off to hide and sometimes I’d still not finish everything.
So after 5 months of the new “regime”, Mummy and Daddy have worked out how to pack my meal boxes so that each day’s meal has only 1 to 2 types of proteins if possible and if not at most 3. Below is roughly what the feeding/packing list is like now – although it’s not really a strict rule. More like a rough guideline and also depends on what Mummy buys each month.
You will notice that Krill Oil usually makes up the 3rd type of protein because on non-Chicken/Rabbit days, chicken is always the 2nd protein in the form of Chicken Eggshell Powder. So Krill Oil is not given every day to minimise the number of days where there are 3 types of protein – probably every other day.
Chicken Days (1 – 2 proteins)
- Chicken Leg
- Chicken Heart
- Chicken Liver
- Chicken Neck or Chicken Wing (for bone-in meat)
- Lamb Kidney (optional/alternate days, no krill oil on days with Lamb Kidney)
- Krill Oil/Omega 3 Oil (optional, only given on days where there is no Lamb Kidney)
Rabbit Days (1 – 2 proteins)
- Rabbit Meat
- Rabbit Ribs (for bone-in meat)
- Rabbit Organs (small slivers of the organs that come with the whole rabbit)
- Krill Oil/Omega 3 Oil (optional)
whole frozen rabbit cut into 6 pieces for easy defrosting and feeding
organs from the whole rabbit
Venison Days (2 – 3 proteins)
- Venison Leg/Loin
- Chicken Eggshell Powder (for calcium)
- Chicken Liver (optional/alternate days, no krill oil on days with Chicken Liver)
- Krill Oil/Omega 3 Oil (optional)
Kangaroo Days (2-3 proteins)
- Kangaroo Leg/Loin
- Chicken Eggshell Powder (for calcium)
- Chicken Liver (optional/alternate days, no krill oil on days with Chicken Liver)
- Krill Oil/Omega 3 Oil (optional)
Lamb Days (2 – 3 proteins)
- Lamb Loin
- Lamb Heart
- Lamb Liver (alternate days)
- Lamb Kidney (alternate days)
- Chicken Eggshell Power (for calcium)
- Krill Oil/Omega 3 Oil (optional)
Beef Days (2 – 3 proteins)
- Beef Chuck/Rump/Tongue/Other Boneless Cuts
- Beef Liver (alternate days)
- Beef Spleen (optional/alternate days)
- Chicken Eggshell Power (for calcium)
- Krill Oil/Omega 3 Oil (optional)
Turkey Days (2 – 3 proteins)
- Turkey Breast
- Chicken Hearts (for more taurine because the main boneless meat is not a dark meat)
- Chicken Liver (alternate days)
- Chicken Neck or Chicken Wing (for bone-in meat)
- Krill Oil/Omega 3 Oil (optional)
Pork Days (2-3 proteins)
- Pork Loin/Belly/Other Boneless Cuts
- Pork Liver
- Pork Heart
- Chicken Eggshell Power (for calcium)
- Krill Oil/Omega 3 Oil (optional)
Chicken Eggshell Powder and Krill Oil/Omega 3 Oil are not packed into the meal boxes and frozen. They are added into the meals separately.
Although a day’s worth of food may have 1-3 proteins, Mummy tries to make sure each meal only has a maximum 2 proteins so she gives all of the 2nd or 3rd protein in one meal (I usually get 3 small meals a day). For example, on a Lamb with Krill Oil Day, one meal will have Lamb items and all the Chicken Eggshell Powder I need for the day, one meal will only have Lamb items and one meal will have Lamb Items Krill Oil. We even try to match the treats to the main protein of the day…chicken treats on Chicken days, lamb treats on Lamb days etc etc.
Now all the containers have a lot of DOTS on them to label the type of Day and whether the box has kidney/liver/spleen etc so that Mummy and Daddy know what to defrost for the next day!
identifying dots
To be honest the packing of the boxes now takes a little bit more thought because Mummy and Daddy can’t just anyhow throw stuff into boxes anymore but after doing it once or twice, they’ve got a system going and the hang of it so it doesn’t take them longer to pack. Also the labeling of the boxes does take a little bit more effort and a little bit more time, but not very much more. Mummy and Daddy still get everything done in about the same amount of time as before. The marginally extra effort and time is worth it for me because it’s made such a HUGE improvement in my appetite.
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Daily play sessions are so important to keep everyone happy! We try to play games to hone my hunting skills!
Although I don’t know why Mummy thinks she can hide behind a chair………
Mummy asked me to get off her laptop…
i told her to kiss my…
and i still didn’t get off 
