ladyofastolat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladyofastolat) wrote2007-07-09 04:21 pm
ladyofastolat) wrote2007-07-09 04:21 pm
Entry tags:
Cats - and a digression
Honeycat has cystitis again. However, since it seemed fairly mild, and she didn't seem to be in much distress, I thought I'd try various home remedies instead of packaging her straight off to the Evil Scary Cat-Torturing Man. (We in our ignorance call him "the vet", but cats know his true nature. They are wise in such things. Not in many other things, admittedly.)
I've been using Feliway diffusers for 6 weeks now, but they don't seem to have any effect. Not only is Precious still fleeing from Pellinor as if he is the devil incarnate, but both cats are still doing puddles on the front door mat, just inches from the diffuser. Additionally, Honeycat has been waking me up every night for weeks, by standing at the foot of the stairs meowing as if all the demons of hell are after her. This was initially at dawn every day, so I thought she might be shouting out, "I can hear birds! Let me at 'em!", but early last week she started doing it every couple of hours throughout the night.
On Friday evening, when I noticed signs of cystitis, I went round the house putting Honey's favoured beanbags and cushions in lots of nice, friendly me-frequented places. She has been camped out on them ever since, curled up very contentedly. On Friday night, she didn't meow at all, and hasn't since. On Friday and Saturday, she didn't even come into my bedroom. (Ironically, this was just after I'd bought some ear plugs, though I haven't yet used them. The idea of ear plugs makes me very stressed indeed. I can't even wear head phones.) I hope this is because she's happier, but I suppose it might be because the cystitis has interrupted her habits.
On Saturday, I bought a herbal thingy, amusingly called Anxiety. ("Give your cats five drops of anxiety a day.") I also bought some wet food. The vet assured me that I could carry on with the dry food, since it made no difference to the cystitis. If they were put on wet food, they'd just drink less. However, I thought I couldn't in all conscience continue with an all-dried food diet given their recurrent cystitis.
I remember Bunn recommending Nature's Menu, so I bought some of that. This amuses me greatly. "Food as nature intended it," it says, or words to that effect. One flavour on offer is cow. Ah. Yes. Of course. In a state of nature, Honey and Precious would be banding together with the other local cats to bring down mighty herds of cows and oxen. And tuna? Clearly cats would be skilled deep-sea fishermen had man not interfered.
To digress a little, what's with this "as nature intended" thing that people are so fond of going on about? Which bit of nature? I bet the bits of nature possessing of sharp teeth and mighty jaws have rather different intentions from those bits of nature who are unfortunate enough to be shaped as succulent bite-sized morsels. I bet insect-eating plants have a different perspective on things from a grasshopper. Oak trees, I'd imagine, think very slowly about things, and would disagree with a hummingbird. And then we have all those people who point at new developments and say that they interfere with the untouched, natural beauty of… er… thatched cottages, square fields, hedgerows, ruined castles and pretty churches. All of which, clearly, grow from seeds and would be striding the world like colossi, had mankind not intervened. (Not that Colossi stride the world, anyway, rather than bestride it, but the (mis)quotation wanted to be included, and who am I to deny it?)
Anyway… I put the Anxiety on some dried food, but Honeycat recoiled as if it was poison. Maybe this was my fault. I have found that it is impossible to add five drops of clear liquid to a meal without glancing guiltily over my shoulder, cackling, then crooning, "Eat up this lovely poison-free meal, my pretties." Perhaps they understand more English than I know, but are inclined to literalism when it comes to fictional allusions.
Then I tried it with the wet, and she ate it. But here, at long last, comes my question. The sachets are 100g, and the instructions say I should feed each cat 3 or 4 a day. Honey ate one sachet, and waddled away as round as a barrel. She flopped onto a beanbag and slept the sleep of the bloated dead for 6 hours. She didn't scream at me for new food for ages. So, those of you who feed wet food to fairly large cats, how much a day do you give them?
I've been using Feliway diffusers for 6 weeks now, but they don't seem to have any effect. Not only is Precious still fleeing from Pellinor as if he is the devil incarnate, but both cats are still doing puddles on the front door mat, just inches from the diffuser. Additionally, Honeycat has been waking me up every night for weeks, by standing at the foot of the stairs meowing as if all the demons of hell are after her. This was initially at dawn every day, so I thought she might be shouting out, "I can hear birds! Let me at 'em!", but early last week she started doing it every couple of hours throughout the night.
On Friday evening, when I noticed signs of cystitis, I went round the house putting Honey's favoured beanbags and cushions in lots of nice, friendly me-frequented places. She has been camped out on them ever since, curled up very contentedly. On Friday night, she didn't meow at all, and hasn't since. On Friday and Saturday, she didn't even come into my bedroom. (Ironically, this was just after I'd bought some ear plugs, though I haven't yet used them. The idea of ear plugs makes me very stressed indeed. I can't even wear head phones.) I hope this is because she's happier, but I suppose it might be because the cystitis has interrupted her habits.
On Saturday, I bought a herbal thingy, amusingly called Anxiety. ("Give your cats five drops of anxiety a day.") I also bought some wet food. The vet assured me that I could carry on with the dry food, since it made no difference to the cystitis. If they were put on wet food, they'd just drink less. However, I thought I couldn't in all conscience continue with an all-dried food diet given their recurrent cystitis.
I remember Bunn recommending Nature's Menu, so I bought some of that. This amuses me greatly. "Food as nature intended it," it says, or words to that effect. One flavour on offer is cow. Ah. Yes. Of course. In a state of nature, Honey and Precious would be banding together with the other local cats to bring down mighty herds of cows and oxen. And tuna? Clearly cats would be skilled deep-sea fishermen had man not interfered.
To digress a little, what's with this "as nature intended" thing that people are so fond of going on about? Which bit of nature? I bet the bits of nature possessing of sharp teeth and mighty jaws have rather different intentions from those bits of nature who are unfortunate enough to be shaped as succulent bite-sized morsels. I bet insect-eating plants have a different perspective on things from a grasshopper. Oak trees, I'd imagine, think very slowly about things, and would disagree with a hummingbird. And then we have all those people who point at new developments and say that they interfere with the untouched, natural beauty of… er… thatched cottages, square fields, hedgerows, ruined castles and pretty churches. All of which, clearly, grow from seeds and would be striding the world like colossi, had mankind not intervened. (Not that Colossi stride the world, anyway, rather than bestride it, but the (mis)quotation wanted to be included, and who am I to deny it?)
Anyway… I put the Anxiety on some dried food, but Honeycat recoiled as if it was poison. Maybe this was my fault. I have found that it is impossible to add five drops of clear liquid to a meal without glancing guiltily over my shoulder, cackling, then crooning, "Eat up this lovely poison-free meal, my pretties." Perhaps they understand more English than I know, but are inclined to literalism when it comes to fictional allusions.
Then I tried it with the wet, and she ate it. But here, at long last, comes my question. The sachets are 100g, and the instructions say I should feed each cat 3 or 4 a day. Honey ate one sachet, and waddled away as round as a barrel. She flopped onto a beanbag and slept the sleep of the bloated dead for 6 hours. She didn't scream at me for new food for ages. So, those of you who feed wet food to fairly large cats, how much a day do you give them?
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I wanted to be argumentative, I would say that beef and fish is natural for the domestic cat, because domestic cats have evolved to eat what we feed them rather than hunting for themselves. I have a sneaky feeling that this argument stacks up less well for cats than dogs though.
As to the sachet thing, if they only want 2 sachets a day, I'd feed them that to start with. If they get hungry, they will tell you.
Though I'm not speaking from experience here, as ours do get free fed dried food as well. Helflaed might know better.
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After months of experimenting, we found we needed to tie a label to his collar saying 'I have arthritis, I am too fat, please do not feed me'. We cut his food to just wet, just 1 packet a day. I thought we would never hear the end of the wowl. Also vermin brought in went exponential.
Now he is stable, on two packs a day: the motto of this story is - only the scales will show you if 'enough' is enough, or too much - some cats will tell you they are starving.
On "natural". Yeah. Like "processed", it's a romanticisation/demonisation of food. I agree with Bunn that cow and tuna are 'natural' for cats - I have a theory that human society evolved in response to cats' gentle nudges in cat-favouring directions.
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She appears a bit stiff in the front legs when going downstairs, which is why we're trying to slim her down. As most people find, cats don't take kindly to being fed less than they would like - she makes a noise like a rusty hinge.
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Oh, and semi-random +friend (found you from fanfiction.net when looking for good Dark is Rising fics).
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Mine have only once got a bird, buy they do occasionally get mice, and once got a very large fish. (Maybe this proves that tuna is "natural" for cats!) They haven't a clue how to eat them, though. It doesn't even seem to occur to them that such things are food.
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If you are completely removing the dry, the amount of wet you feed your cat will depend on how large said cat is. Three/four sachets should be enough for a medium sized cat, but the only way to tell for sure is to weigh the animal and see if it loses or gains weight. I must admit that I would not be happy feeding a cat only on supermarket wet food - or supermarket dry, come to that.
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