First, the heaven. Osage, aka Muffine Eloise, enjoys the front porch this lovely Sunday morning. This is why we did it.
Second, the congestive heart failure hell.
On Thursday Mystic started throwing up. It initially seemed in response to his food, so we got different food only to learn that he was throwing up other times too. Then his cardiology vet had us stop the meds thinking something was causing nausea. He continued to vomit.
I found two hair balls, and at one point two of our other cats vomited one time each.
We took Mystic in to have bloodwork done and his numbers all look even better than last Friday, so that was a relief.
Suddenly the vomiting stopped but he now flatly refuses to eat the premium grain-free canned cat food he's been eating for the past year.
I purchased some high end frozen raw food yesterday and he ate two meals of that and now doesn't want that either.
The one thing he is reliably eating in the past 48 hours is human grade meat and fish. So I spent the morning mixing up a couple of batches of cat food using Dr. Pitcairn's recipes from my well-worn volume Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide To Natural Health For Dogs and Cats.
Meanwhile Mystic is back on the two most important heart meds per his vet. I'm feeding those using pill pockets and doing it in between the meals so he doesn't associate meds with food any longer.
Apparently this is a common issue for cats with congestive heart disease. He's alert and happy, playful and purring, but the food thing has been difficult for several days. I hope the home-made cat food continues to work.
He goes back to the cardiology clinic for a follow up in a week.
I'll be scheduling an appointment with our homeopathic vet too so that we can come at this from both ends of the medical spectrum. Will keep you posted.
Meanwhile, Pixie shows off HER version of front porch cat haven heaven:
Hope you get the patient's meal plan sorted out - how worrisome.
ReplyDeleteKitty haven/heaven looks comfy :D
Thanks - we have 3 meals down the hatch with vigor today, two doses of meds, and zero vomiting. I hope the second batch I made goes as well!
ReplyDeleteThe cat heaven looks like...well, "cat heaven". Glad they are enjoying it so much.
ReplyDeleteHope the special diet works and continues to entice Mystic to eat. It sounds like a good sign that his blood work was good.
The bloodwork was actually better than last Friday so we were very happy to see that. As of today he has eaten from the second batch of food I made, a completely different recipe, and loved it. And he has another two doses of meds down the hatch. I am hoping this blip is done. I'm sure there will be more to come but this gives us some practice and some good info on managing this condition!
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