Alabama blood/urine test

Vet thinks Bama may be in the early stages of CRF - renal failure. Abnormally high are her Calcium, cholesterol, Eosinophils levels. Her Specific Gravity is just below the normal range, her thyroid t4 is 2.7, up slightly since May. And her Creatinine is up from 1.4 to 2 since May as well.

update

Bama threw up yesterday, twice in a row in the morning after I fed her and went back to bed, and again at dinner time. Not sure why. We got through a whole week, so that wasn't bad. She bounced back and is eating like a champ again.

I put off taking her to the vet yesterday after she had a big healthy poop on Wed night, found out I can't use baby food as veggie, there's no fiber. I added celery/cauliflower to her food and that seems to help. Hopefully she'll poop again today or tonight.

Seem to notice she pees less on days she poops, so maybe the more frequent pee has been because of the lack of fiber in the baby food.

I may still take her in Monday to get blood and urine tests, just to be sure, but will see how the digestion goes over the weekend.

one week and no throw up!

The new pork diet seems to be working wonders, no throw up in a whole week! Still working out the constipation issues, but have Lactoferin from the vet if we get in a bind, it worked like crazy yesterday.

I added some vitamin E to her food when I made a new batch last night, and just a pinch of Lactoferrin to get her used to it, that is supposed to be great for rodent ulcer and IBD.

The only thing I'm concerned with is she's peeing about 8 times a day and drinking lots of water, but she's out on the porch a lot in the heat and humidity, so that could be it. Will go back to the vet at the end of the week, get her weighed and maybe do a urine and/or blood test to be safe. Don't want her to get diabetes, although she came up negative 2 months ago and hasn't had a steroid shot since.

feeeding schedule update

I broke down and fed Bama some liver bits out of the weruva 9-liver canned yesterday, she just wouldn't eat the pork food and I figured she might have been turned off after puking it the day before. Last night I cooked up a new batch thinking the smell might get her excited again. It did but not to the extent it did the first night. She's eaten a bunch of pork since last night and knock on wood, no puking yet. I'm only going to add probiotics now, none of the prescribed herbs as of yet, and see how she does. I'm hoping this limited diet will get her immune system back in sync and fight the rodent ulcer and IBD.

So today will be the official first day of pork, hopefully she'll be able to eat this for the next couple months. I had to cut the chunks up into smaller pieces, she seems to do better with them right now.

We'll be seeing the dermatologist again in a couple weeks, will get her weighed, the holistic specialist says she should start filling out again and gaining some weight on this new diet. I may have her regular vet check her teeth. I'm not sure but I get the feeling one might be bothering her. She's still eating okay, I don't see any overt signs of something like that, will research the symptoms and keep an eye on it.

new diet

Cooked for Alabama tonight for the first time, seared pork, egg yolk and other stuff, so far she's keeping it down and cried for it like I"ve never seen. I hope this is the end of feeding commercial cat food.

update

Bama threw up about 4:30 this morning, in her litter box. She can't get grass, so it must just be the same old thing. Took her food away for a few hours, fine after that.

Bought some probiotics today, adding them to her food so hopefully counteract the antibiotics which are probably upsetting her system. We've got about 4 days left then hopefully her lip infection will be gone and we can recover and try to tackle the IBD and rodent ulcer.

She wasn't eating much today, doesn't seem too interested in the NB, so I broke down and gave her some Weruva beef frittes, at least there's no chicken. Can't wait to get off the antibiotics.

new herbs & diet

Started Bama on her new diet yesterday, which is only Natural Balance Venison & Pea, and Duck & Pea - I wish they made more limited ingredients formulas, I keep hearing how much this food has helped other kitties with allergies. The herbs from iHerbs came yesterday, Bama ate her food, she doesn't love it but she's eating it.

I'm going to wait until Monday and if her lips are still infected, will take her in to the vet probably for an anti-biotics shot. Went by the vet yesterday and they told me 8-10 days for these to start taking effect. Today is day 9. They gave me 2 extra pills so we've got about another week to go. I keep stuffing them in the Halo freeze dried treats, it's not easy but it works and she eats them so fast the pills go right down.

She has been playing, doing some running around when we play bottle-caps-on-the-floor, but she's also sleeping a lot. But that might just be because it's so hot and humid, it's not comfortable outside and she gets bored inside. She took a huge huge poop yesterday, so that is good. The healthiest one I've seen in months.

I pray to God these herbs help her. So far no puking (except the 2 times from grass) but the baby gate I bought at Toys R US for $62 is amazing, it's 17 feet long and keeps her out of the garden but she still gets the light and air. Keeping my fingers crossed and praying the solution is coming!

Going back to the vet tomorrow

This is strange, since I took Bama off that crappy Royal Canine food her throwing up has stopped but she still has the yellowy oily stuff on the inside of her paws that she gets when she grooms herself after eating and rubs her paws up against her lips and cheeks. So her lips are still infected. She has been on the anti-biotics 7 days now, I'm going to have to call the vet in the morning, the oral pills don't seem to be helping.

Also, her rodent ulcer looks worse. Now it looks like there's s new spot on the same side as the ulcer but more towards the center and more on top. It almost looks like she's getting a herpes cold sore.

I'm going to keep her on the NB duck & pea, and the NB Venison & Pea limited ingredients, there are no by products like the S/D and Royal Canine canned foods, she like the duck but not so much with the venison, but I don't know what else to feed her. I think she needs to be off chicken, beef, and fish. I've been stuffing her pills into freeze dried salmon, so maybe I need to stop that as well. If she gets an anti-biotics shot, which I suspect she will, I'll stop the treats - bummer. There is an NB salmon limited ingredients but maybe I should stop that too and just feed her the duck and the venison?

lip bleeding again

Just noticed Bama's lip is bleeding again, there's blood on the inside of her right paw again from her rodent ulcer on that side. Today is day 6 of anti-biotics. I don't know what to do, it seems to be a few days in between, I think she's on the mend, then there's blood again. Knock on wood, it's not nearly as bad as it was, but it just can't seem to heal. I don't want to put the cone on her again.

vet called back

Said I need to give the anti-biotics a week to take effect, so will have to be patient.

Will see how keeping her on just the Natural Balance and Evo, grain free, limited ingredients diets goes the next few days.