Today Annie is a bit off her food. I think Buddy knocked some of his NF on the floor yesterday and she ate it. She's sneaked his food in the past and it gives her an upset stomach. Buddy managed to devour a decent amount of food today and I spent the day cooking for all of us.
Back to last winter: Everyone was doing well. Annie was looking better but she also had the additional problem of some gum irritation over one of her upper canines. The vet dentist looked at that and prescribed some powder to add to her food; it made short work of that issue. Buddy was holding his own, weight-wise and otherwise. My brother was helping me with Buddy and his meds; I was finally starting to calm down.
During this time I kept thumbing through the books and trying different recipes which met with varying degrees of success. Then things got a bit hectic so I decided to try concocting my own meals for Annie since I was finding it a bit hard to cook large quantities of food, mix it together, puree it and portion it. The process wasn't going as smoothly as I'd hoped. It seemed like I was always just one step ahead of another mealtime.
Cooking for Buddy was now following none of the feline recipes but rather the "mouse model" which is mostly meat. Cooked chicken, turkey and sometimes pork added to his NF along with canned clams or canned tuna became what he ate and continues to eat. Occasionally we add clam juice, canned pumpkin, peas and Whiskas pouch food to the mix.
One day Buddy decided he no longer wanted dry food (much to my relief). Before I started to cook for both of them Spot's Stew (chicken and salmon varieties), Holistic and Merrick's canned dog food became Buddy's meal of choice. Concern about Buddy wanting dog food led me to call the vet's office. Dr. Young said to feed him spaghetti and meatballs if that was what he wanted - with his condition the main goal was to keep him eating.
Now we were into the summer, mid-June to be exact, and Annie started to pass what looked like small clots in her urine. She appeared listless, a bit warm and with a bit of discomfort. She had several accidents involving large amounts of urine alternating with piddling small amounts of urine frequently.
Off we went to the doctor's. Could this be from leaving the water dish out all day? A tumor? No to both was the doctor's response. If it was a tumor, the bouts wouldn't come and go. The consensus was this was coming from outside and the doctor suggested baby wipes to clean her after she did her business. As an added preventative we should stir a small amount of cranberry juice into her meals.
My mission now was to find unsweetened cranberry juice. Finally located the needed elixir at a Park Slope health food store. Mission accomplished!
This post pretty much brings us up-to-date. Future posts will consist of what we're doing to improve Annie and Buddy's health.
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