shame on you, you fool me once

So I haven't really posted about this except for on Twitter and Facebook. But lets face it, I haven't had a real livejournal post in quite a while. That's probably b/c of having the swine and working on NaNoWriMo and knitting a sweater for Operation Santa.

Anyway, Buddy the Birthday Kitty started having bathroom issues last week. He would squat in different corners in the house trying to pee. He had an appointment at the vet's two days later for his annual check-up and shots. But because he was squatting like this, we decided to call the vet and see if he could be seen sooner. So we took him in that night, which was Tuesday last week. After a night in the hospital to get a urine sample, they decided he didn't have a UTI. He has what is called FLUTD, which stands for Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease. There are a bunch of other names for it too, but this is the one I remember.

Basically the symptoms are the same as a UTI; pain and the constant urge to go even when you don't, but it's not an infection. FLUTD is a chronic condition that has to be dealt with for the cat's entire life. My mom's all pissed b/c all of the three cats we've had have had major health issues. Luckily tho, Buddy's issue is VERY easy to deal with and lets us have a kitty shopping spree ;D

What you have to do to make symptoms better is firstly give pain medication while his symptoms are happening. But the thing that helps him the most is fluid intake, which is actually hard when it comes to cats. As a human, when we get UTI's we just drink a helluva lot of cranberry juice with our antibiotics. The thing with cats is that you can't make them drink. There's just no way. The best way for them to get regular fluids is to feed them canned food. Which is way healthier for them than dry food anyway, which I'll explain a little later. Also what you can do is buy them a water fountain. They're crazy expensive, but they really do make cats want to drink more. It's proven. Friends and family have actual personal experience with it. So we'll be ordering him one ASAP. We found one on Walmart.com that is awesome that you don't need to buy filters for twenty-four-seven.

So while at the vet's we got Buddy two cans of two different kinds of prescription cat food for urinary tract health. He only liked one of the foods. So my mom went to pick some food up on Monday and they were all out. That really pissed her off b/c she called them six hours beforehand and told them she was coming to pick it up and paid for it and everything! Luckily, he doesn't necessarily need the prescription food. He just needs some canned food. It's more about the moisture intake than anything. So Mom and I trekked it down to Petco to get him some food. We found some by Friskies that was actually for urinary tract health. There were three flavors so we got two of each.

Turns out, Buddy doesn't like ANY of them!!!! Mom was freaking out b/c the stores only carry, like, 2 canned foods that are for urinary health. The rest are all HARD FOOD, which is completely frickin stupid. But then I reminded Mom that the vet said as long as they get canned food it doesn't matter too much, altho it's slightly better to have the urinary tract kind. But really, any canned food will do as long as they eat it. So we're going back to Petco tonight to return the unopened cans and get Buddy some Science Diet wet food. They fed him the hard kind of Science Diet when he was at the shelter and we were feeding it to him too, so we know he likes it. We hope that since he liked that brand of hard food, he'll also like their canned food. So we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Now, as to why it's better for a cat to eat canned food. Basically the vet told us that as far as dogs are concerned, you can actually turn your dog vegetarian and it's no problem. They can live off the dry food without an issue. Cats on the other hand cannot. They can tolerate hard food, but they have to have meat in their diet. Hard food is made with a ton of carbohydrates to help make it into the little pellets. Cats aren't made to eat a lot of carbs. She said that cats are basically the epitome of the Atkins Diet. lol. Basically the cat's body runs the best on a high protein low carb diet. So canned food is basically all protein b/c it's actual meat. Hence why it is soooo much better for them.

To prove a point, since Buddy started eating his canned food he has all but stopped begging for food. He's been begging the past couple of days though b/c he hasn't liked the food we've been giving him, therefore he hasn't really been eating it and we've had to give him more hard food... which doesn't fill him up b/c of the carbs. It also makes him more hungry b/c of the carbs. But on the canned food (that he likes and eats) he'll be sleeping on the couch and I'll be working on Nanowrimo and all of a sudden it's 6:15 and I haven't fed him dinner and he hasn't made a sound about it! But as soon as I ask him if he wants to eat, he gets up and goes trotting out to the kitchen :) It's really nice to have him not beg for his food all the time. And I think it makes him happier.

So yes, this is my Buddy update. Now I must go shower b/c I have my social worker coming over in one hour and then she's taking me to see my new therapist for the first time. I need to get my ass in gear!