This will be my first post since my introduction. Well ... not really. I've done one post since then, but I deleted it soon after posting it. I was so nervous that it wasn't good enough, or it wasn't long enough. I checked the grammar a million and one times trying to make it perfect. I stressed over if it was engaging; if anyone would read it.
I let those worries eat at me to the point that I was paralyzed. Every time I tried to write a post I would feel this wave of anxiety rush over me. So I would back away from the keyboard and forget about blogging for a few days. Then something would make me think ... WOAH I should blog about this.
And the cycle would start over again.
Recently I've had this push to .. just do it. Start writing, see where it takes me. If the post is boring or terrible people will probably just ignore it and move on with their day. But if I don't post at all I won't get any better.
So here I am writing a blog, seeing where it'll take me. My goal is to try and post each week, whether the post is short, or boring. I'll write it, edit it, and post it. Then I'll move onto the next thing. I won't sit and dwell on my mistakes, or the possibility of someone not liking what I have to say. Because if I live in constant fear of someone disagreeing with me I may never speak again.
While I'm on the subject of just doing things, and not over thinking them; I may as well tell you where this sudden push is coming from.
We recently had to put my cat down. The cat my mother recently posted about. He wasn't getting better, and his quality of life was compromised. The veterinarians did everything they could but they couldn't stabilize him. So last night we made the decision to put him down.
I stayed with him the whole time, petting him and comforting him until he stopped breathing. I am going to miss him of course, but I'm not devastated in the way I thought I'd be. I've decided to take a lesson from him.
I'm going to live my life in the best way I can. No second guessing and giving my love every chance I get. I began applying this lesson last night, when I decided I needed to paint. (Something I tend to over plan) So I painted, I just did it, and I felt satisfied. I'm also completing a sewing project today, and reading a comic my dad gave me. I'm not going to over think a crazy detailed schedule for my day, as I am wont to do. I'm going to do what I feel I want to in the moment I'd like to do it.
I'm doing this even now, as I write this blog.
I'm just going to do it, and I will be satisfied.
Showing posts with label Pet care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pet care. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Sunday, January 18, 2015
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men......
The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry... (Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck, John) that is the story of my life. That is especially the story of my weekend. A few weeks ago I noticed that my baby puma (we have a 22 pound, but not overweight just a very large and long cat) seemed not to be eating his food. He was still very active and loving. I figured that he was being finicky, after all the finicky nature of cats is legendary. A cat food launched an empire based on the discriminating nature of felines.
So after a week of his not eating I decided to see if it was in fact the food. He had lost some weight (down nearly 8 pounds when I weighed him), so I visited my favorite local pet store PetSaver and picked up the uber expensive brand of food that my cats had been eating. I bought 2 small bags of 2 flavors of this food. Now keep in mind that we feed our cats well. I avoid grains in their foods and when possible I try to keep the food to high quality. The food they were eating was Acana brand cat foods which they loved. The food sky rocketed to $60ish a big bag. With my being unemployed I selected an acceptable brand that was around $30 for the same size bag.
At first the expensive favorite brand of food did the trick. For 3 days he was eating, but then he stopped eating and then there was rapid weight loss. I changed the flavor and he was still disinterested. He was down 5 pounds in a week. The hubs was very concerned because he was starting to look very thin and not acting his usual self (tired, lethargic, etc.) so he asked me to make a vet appointment.
Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. I headed over to the Rochester Community Animal Clinic. The staff, vet techs and vet were all very compassionate. They got Twiz in quickly. Based on the Vet's examination she suspected a lung issue. She was able to do a lung tap and fiv test. The lung tap and the fiv test came up negative. The recommendation was to head over to Irondequoit Animal Hospital for x-rays. The x-rays confirmed no fluid in his lungs. The staff at Irondequoit gave Twiz some O2 and prednisone. The recommendation was for some blood work a CBC (complete blood count) and another test as well as a primary diagnosis of Asthma. We were sent home with the hopes of results on Monday (a holiday).
Friday evening did not go great, but Saturday was even worse. Twiz did eat small amounts, but he had several seizures with loss of bladder control. Each of the seizures was preceded by rapid breathing. What really helped was that the vet herself called us Saturday afternoon to check on Twiz and deliver the first of the test results. Nothing in those to help us.
We spent a very long Saturday with Twiz worrying and watching. I woke up this morning somewhat concerned (I was fully expecting that Twiz did not make it through the night). Instead I found him standing eating his food. He spent almost all of Saturday sitting on his blanket in the chair and only eating small amounts (1 tsp) while laying in the chair. When I explored the litter box (the other two cats were upstairs all night long) I found evidence of pee. This means, despite our bringing one litter box to the floor he was staying on, he went all the way down to the basement, peed and returned to his chair. Saturday he did make the trek to the litter box in the basement, but after a very long and difficult pee he was unable to make it back up the stairs.
He flopped over on the floor in front of the steps and let out a miserable meow. I carried him back up stairs to his chair where he had a seizure. Today he is eating well. We may be looking at a lifetime (his) of medication, but he is looking good today.
However, I have to give in and admit that I am sick. I have been sneezing more than the usual for the past few weeks, but I woke up this morning with a non-stop running nose, chills and still tired. I am sure the stress of Twiz's ordeal could have pushed me over the edge, but today is a day for me to sit and relax.
Please know that I have never received any compensation from Arcana, Rochester Community Animal Clinic and/or Irondequoit Animal Hospital. I am sharing my experiences because I believe they gave me great customer service.
So after a week of his not eating I decided to see if it was in fact the food. He had lost some weight (down nearly 8 pounds when I weighed him), so I visited my favorite local pet store PetSaver and picked up the uber expensive brand of food that my cats had been eating. I bought 2 small bags of 2 flavors of this food. Now keep in mind that we feed our cats well. I avoid grains in their foods and when possible I try to keep the food to high quality. The food they were eating was Acana brand cat foods which they loved. The food sky rocketed to $60ish a big bag. With my being unemployed I selected an acceptable brand that was around $30 for the same size bag.
At first the expensive favorite brand of food did the trick. For 3 days he was eating, but then he stopped eating and then there was rapid weight loss. I changed the flavor and he was still disinterested. He was down 5 pounds in a week. The hubs was very concerned because he was starting to look very thin and not acting his usual self (tired, lethargic, etc.) so he asked me to make a vet appointment.
Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. I headed over to the Rochester Community Animal Clinic. The staff, vet techs and vet were all very compassionate. They got Twiz in quickly. Based on the Vet's examination she suspected a lung issue. She was able to do a lung tap and fiv test. The lung tap and the fiv test came up negative. The recommendation was to head over to Irondequoit Animal Hospital for x-rays. The x-rays confirmed no fluid in his lungs. The staff at Irondequoit gave Twiz some O2 and prednisone. The recommendation was for some blood work a CBC (complete blood count) and another test as well as a primary diagnosis of Asthma. We were sent home with the hopes of results on Monday (a holiday).
Friday evening did not go great, but Saturday was even worse. Twiz did eat small amounts, but he had several seizures with loss of bladder control. Each of the seizures was preceded by rapid breathing. What really helped was that the vet herself called us Saturday afternoon to check on Twiz and deliver the first of the test results. Nothing in those to help us.
We spent a very long Saturday with Twiz worrying and watching. I woke up this morning somewhat concerned (I was fully expecting that Twiz did not make it through the night). Instead I found him standing eating his food. He spent almost all of Saturday sitting on his blanket in the chair and only eating small amounts (1 tsp) while laying in the chair. When I explored the litter box (the other two cats were upstairs all night long) I found evidence of pee. This means, despite our bringing one litter box to the floor he was staying on, he went all the way down to the basement, peed and returned to his chair. Saturday he did make the trek to the litter box in the basement, but after a very long and difficult pee he was unable to make it back up the stairs.
He flopped over on the floor in front of the steps and let out a miserable meow. I carried him back up stairs to his chair where he had a seizure. Today he is eating well. We may be looking at a lifetime (his) of medication, but he is looking good today.
However, I have to give in and admit that I am sick. I have been sneezing more than the usual for the past few weeks, but I woke up this morning with a non-stop running nose, chills and still tired. I am sure the stress of Twiz's ordeal could have pushed me over the edge, but today is a day for me to sit and relax.
Please know that I have never received any compensation from Arcana, Rochester Community Animal Clinic and/or Irondequoit Animal Hospital. I am sharing my experiences because I believe they gave me great customer service.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Let's Talk Litter!
This site has been up for a little over a month and it is time to get into routine publication. I have a number of topics I want to discuss, but right now I want to discuss cat litter. Why litter? Litter, because we have 3 cats, and good litter is key in this household.
What I want from my cat litter:
Safety - I want the litter to be safe for my cats and for my family (so as little dust as possible)
Smell - I don't want my litter to smell like anything (not even something pretty)
Convenience - I want the litter boxes (all 4 of them) to be easy to clean
Cost - the cheaper the better, but I will not compromise safety, smell or ease of cleanup for a cheaper brand.
Growing up my cat always had clay cat litter, I didn't know there was any other option for litter. Why clay?
Clay cat litter is cheap! Don't believe me.... take a walk down the cat litter aisle you will find most bags of clay cat litter are fairly cheap; if you're lucky you'll see a bag or two of alternative litter options.
There is no science as to whether or not clay cat litter is safe for cats or for people. In other words, there are no studies to prove safety or lack of safety. I don't use clay cat litter because of the dust when the box is cleaned, and when the litter is added to the box. This can't be good for me, my family or my cats. There is also some controversy around the method in which clay litter is collected (strip mining). My other complaint about clay litter is the collection of wet on the bottom of the box that becomes like concrete (and smells).
When we found our kitties (brother and sister) I opted to use Swheatscoop. I purchased Swheatscoop because I inadvertently believed it was a good environmental option. I thought the product was a use of remnants from wheat manufacturing. Instead it's wheat grown specifically for cat litter. I was a Swheatscoop customer for many years. I found Swheatscoop to have as much dust as clay litter. It did a decent job controlling the odor, but like clay litter the wet would accumulate on the bottom like concrete. What I loved most about Swheatscoop was the loyalty rewards. In every bag came a coupon, collect 14 and get a coupon for one free bag of litter (the same size as the previous 14 bags you purchased). Then one day I got a letter in the mail from Swheatscoop that they were discontinuing the loyalty rewards program. Since this litter was messy, hard to clean and no better on the lungs than the clay litter, I opted to check out other litter options. (Business owners take note, reward your customers and they will be loyal, discontinue those rewards for personal gain and you may well lose loyal customers).
My current litter choice is Blue Diamond walnut litter. This litter is made from Walnut shells (grown in the USA) and is biodegradable if properly disposed of. I find that it does not have the dust that I had with wheat or clay, and it DOES NOT cake to the bottom of the litter box. I also find that I use way less litter than the clay or wheat versions. Since I like to support local businesses I tend to get my cat supplies from PetSaver in Greece or Pittsford.
I ran out of litter and did not realize it, so late one Sunday I ran to PetSaver, I just missed the store hours by 5 minutes. Since I also needed to grab some groceries (we'd been out of town for the weekend) I decided to grab litter at the big W.
The only non-clay litter I could find was a recycled paper litter. I poured the pellets into the empty litter boxes and I was wary. The litter seemed hard and not inviting for a cat. Seems my cats agreed with me. They did not bury their business and used the very edges of the box (presumable so they didn't have to stand on the pellets for long). This litter also lacked odor control.
We went back to Blue Diamond.
I would love to use compost for my litter and a local company Community Composting has been promising a kitty litter composting program.
I have not been paid or received any compensation for my opinion about any of the above litter brands. This is purely my personal experience and opinion.
What I want from my cat litter:
Safety - I want the litter to be safe for my cats and for my family (so as little dust as possible)
Smell - I don't want my litter to smell like anything (not even something pretty)
Convenience - I want the litter boxes (all 4 of them) to be easy to clean
Cost - the cheaper the better, but I will not compromise safety, smell or ease of cleanup for a cheaper brand.
Growing up my cat always had clay cat litter, I didn't know there was any other option for litter. Why clay?
Clay cat litter is cheap! Don't believe me.... take a walk down the cat litter aisle you will find most bags of clay cat litter are fairly cheap; if you're lucky you'll see a bag or two of alternative litter options.
There is no science as to whether or not clay cat litter is safe for cats or for people. In other words, there are no studies to prove safety or lack of safety. I don't use clay cat litter because of the dust when the box is cleaned, and when the litter is added to the box. This can't be good for me, my family or my cats. There is also some controversy around the method in which clay litter is collected (strip mining). My other complaint about clay litter is the collection of wet on the bottom of the box that becomes like concrete (and smells).
When we found our kitties (brother and sister) I opted to use Swheatscoop. I purchased Swheatscoop because I inadvertently believed it was a good environmental option. I thought the product was a use of remnants from wheat manufacturing. Instead it's wheat grown specifically for cat litter. I was a Swheatscoop customer for many years. I found Swheatscoop to have as much dust as clay litter. It did a decent job controlling the odor, but like clay litter the wet would accumulate on the bottom like concrete. What I loved most about Swheatscoop was the loyalty rewards. In every bag came a coupon, collect 14 and get a coupon for one free bag of litter (the same size as the previous 14 bags you purchased). Then one day I got a letter in the mail from Swheatscoop that they were discontinuing the loyalty rewards program. Since this litter was messy, hard to clean and no better on the lungs than the clay litter, I opted to check out other litter options. (Business owners take note, reward your customers and they will be loyal, discontinue those rewards for personal gain and you may well lose loyal customers).
My current litter choice is Blue Diamond walnut litter. This litter is made from Walnut shells (grown in the USA) and is biodegradable if properly disposed of. I find that it does not have the dust that I had with wheat or clay, and it DOES NOT cake to the bottom of the litter box. I also find that I use way less litter than the clay or wheat versions. Since I like to support local businesses I tend to get my cat supplies from PetSaver in Greece or Pittsford.
I ran out of litter and did not realize it, so late one Sunday I ran to PetSaver, I just missed the store hours by 5 minutes. Since I also needed to grab some groceries (we'd been out of town for the weekend) I decided to grab litter at the big W.
The only non-clay litter I could find was a recycled paper litter. I poured the pellets into the empty litter boxes and I was wary. The litter seemed hard and not inviting for a cat. Seems my cats agreed with me. They did not bury their business and used the very edges of the box (presumable so they didn't have to stand on the pellets for long). This litter also lacked odor control.
We went back to Blue Diamond.
I would love to use compost for my litter and a local company Community Composting has been promising a kitty litter composting program.
I have not been paid or received any compensation for my opinion about any of the above litter brands. This is purely my personal experience and opinion.
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