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?
no subject
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.