Success!! :)

This is a bit long, but I wanted to report on all the stuff that's
been going on with Smudge, along with a bit of info about my other
cats.

This morning I gave Smudge her aspirin dose, but I cut it down to 1/4.
I crushed the 1/4 tab under a spoon, and the mixed it with about a
teaspoon of Fancy Feast cat food. She gobbled it right up! As a reward,
she got the rest of the can of Fancy Feast, which she also gobbled up.

I had also bought some kitty treats over the weekend that have
glucosamine and chondroitin, which Smudge happens to love, so I gave
her those for dessert - she ate all of that, too. So she's well-medicated
today.

I had a conversation with a woman who lives on my street, who has been
feeding Smudge. I had asked her to stop because I want to control Smudge's
food. Especially since I'm giving her medication, I want her to be hungry
and ready to eat when it's time for meds, so I can hide the medication
and she'll still be willing to eat it. The woman agreed to stop feeding
her, although she sounded sad - I think she's really enjoyed the special
time she spent with Smudge.

She also reported that she's been giving Smudge Fancy Feast, which
apparently Smudge *loves* (and I saw that for myself today), so I'm
going to add that into her diet. I'd like to continue giving her the
really high-quality stuff that has mostly meat and no artifical
additives. But on medication days, I'll give her FF. Or maybe I'll
mix some FF in with the Wellness. Not sure - I'm still experimenting.

Meanwhile, Licky ate his food, plus he gobbled up his chewable
glucosamine pill (which he regards as a treat), along with his cranberry
powder chewable treat. So all in all, today was a good day, cat-wise. Only
Roxy seemed to feel a bit left out - she liked her food, but she didn't
get any treats. She sees me going into the bedroom or computer room with
a bag of treats to give one of the other cats, but she doesn't get any.
I had bought the glucosamine treats with her in mind - she doesn't have
arthritis, but she is 11 years old, so might as well get her started.
She didn't like them, though. I'm going to have to find a nice treat for
Roxy so she doesn't feel like everyone's having fun except her.

I'm glad I live in an apartment that has a couple of rooms with doors.

Oh, btw - calling other vets for other opinions was a bust. Nobody wanted
to give me any information without my bringing Smudge in to see them.
CYA, I guess.

Thanks, everyone, for all the great suggestions! If this method starts
to fail at any time, I have a file with everyone's posts so I can try
something else.

--
Joyce ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.

wrote:
This is a bit long, but I wanted to report on all the stuff that's
been going on with Smudge, along with a bit of info about my other
cats.

This morning I gave Smudge her aspirin dose, but I cut it down to 1/4.
I crushed the 1/4 tab under a spoon, and the mixed it with about a
teaspoon of Fancy Feast cat food. She gobbled it right up! As a reward,
she got the rest of the can of Fancy Feast, which she also gobbled up.

I had also bought some kitty treats over the weekend that have
glucosamine and chondroitin, which Smudge happens to love, so I gave
her those for dessert - she ate all of that, too. So she's well-medicated
today.

I had a conversation with a woman who lives on my street, who has been
feeding Smudge. I had asked her to stop because I want to control Smudge's
food. Especially since I'm giving her medication, I want her to be hungry
and ready to eat when it's time for meds, so I can hide the medication
and she'll still be willing to eat it. The woman agreed to stop feeding
her, although she sounded sad - I think she's really enjoyed the special
time she spent with Smudge.

She also reported that she's been giving Smudge Fancy Feast, which
apparently Smudge *loves* (and I saw that for myself today), so I'm
going to add that into her diet. I'd like to continue giving her the
really high-quality stuff that has mostly meat and no artifical
additives. But on medication days, I'll give her FF. Or maybe I'll
mix some FF in with the Wellness. Not sure - I'm still experimenting.

Meanwhile, Licky ate his food, plus he gobbled up his chewable
glucosamine pill (which he regards as a treat), along with his cranberry
powder chewable treat. So all in all, today was a good day, cat-wise. Only
Roxy seemed to feel a bit left out - she liked her food, but she didn't
get any treats. She sees me going into the bedroom or computer room with
a bag of treats to give one of the other cats, but she doesn't get any.
I had bought the glucosamine treats with her in mind - she doesn't have
arthritis, but she is 11 years old, so might as well get her started.
She didn't like them, though. I'm going to have to find a nice treat for
Roxy so she doesn't feel like everyone's having fun except her.

I'm glad I live in an apartment that has a couple of rooms with doors.

Oh, btw - calling other vets for other opinions was a bust. Nobody wanted
to give me any information without my bringing Smudge in to see them.
CYA, I guess.

Thanks, everyone, for all the great suggestions! If this method starts
to fail at any time, I have a file with everyone's posts so I can try
something else.




Sounds good. What is the name of the special treats? MLB

MLB wrote:

Sounds good. What is the name of the special treats? MLB

It's called "Happy Hips". Catswell is the company.

http://www.petfooddirect.com/store/p..._id=1003&Page=

The only thing I don't understand is how they measure the amounts of
some of the ingredients. Most ingredients are listed by percentage of the
entire product, so that's easy enough to understand. But when they say
there's "10mg" of something, how do they know how much of the treats you're
giving the cat? It doesn't say "10mg of XYZ contained in every treat".

It's listed like this:

Other ingredients

Vitamin E 5i.u. (min)
Glucosamine hydrochloride 10mg (min)
Chondroitin sulfate 5mg (min)

How many treats would you need to give to achieve these amounts? Most
human food has a nutritional analysis on the package, and at the top
they define a "serving size". Then they go on to say how much protein,
fat, carbs, vitamins, etc, are in one serving, as they defined it. This
package didn't have that, or if it did, I missed it.

--
Joyce ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.

On May 12, 4:23*pm, wrote:
This is a bit long, but I wanted to report on all the stuff that's
been going on with Smudge, along with a bit of info about my other
cats.

This morning I gave Smudge her aspirin dose, but I cut it down to 1/4.
I crushed the 1/4 tab under a spoon, and the mixed it with about a
teaspoon of Fancy Feast cat food. She gobbled it right up! As a reward,
she got the rest of the can of Fancy Feast, which she also gobbled up.

I had also bought some kitty treats over the weekend that have
glucosamine and chondroitin, which Smudge happens to love, so I gave
her those for dessert - she ate all of that, too. So she's well-medicated
today.

I had a conversation with a woman who lives on my street, who has been
feeding Smudge. I had asked her to stop because I want to control Smudge's
food. Especially since I'm giving her medication, I want her to be hungry
and ready to eat when it's time for meds, so I can hide the medication
and she'll still be willing to eat it. The woman agreed to stop feeding
her, although she sounded sad - I think she's really enjoyed the special
time she spent with Smudge.

She also reported that she's been giving Smudge Fancy Feast, which
apparently Smudge *loves* (and I saw that for myself today), so I'm
going to add that into her diet. I'd like to continue giving her the
really high-quality stuff that has mostly meat and no artifical
additives. But on medication days, I'll give her FF. Or maybe I'll
mix some FF in with the Wellness. Not sure - I'm still experimenting.

Meanwhile, Licky ate his food, plus he gobbled up his chewable
glucosamine pill (which he regards as a treat), along with his cranberry
powder chewable treat. So all in all, today was a good day, cat-wise. Only
Roxy seemed to feel a bit left out - she liked her food, but she didn't
get any treats. She sees me going into the bedroom or computer room with
a bag of treats to give one of the other cats, but she doesn't get any.
I had bought the glucosamine treats with her in mind - she doesn't have
arthritis, but she is 11 years old, so might as well get her started.
She didn't like them, though. I'm going to have to find a nice treat for
Roxy so she doesn't feel like everyone's having fun except her.

I'm glad I live in an apartment that has a couple of rooms with doors.

Oh, btw - calling other vets for other opinions was a bust. Nobody wanted
to give me any information without my bringing Smudge in to see them.
CYA, I guess.

Thanks, everyone, for all the great suggestions! If this method starts
to fail at any time, I have a file with everyone's posts so I can try
something else.

--
Joyce * ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.

Joyce,
Thank you for this post. I'm so sorry Smudge is having to go through
this but I truly enjoy coming here and reading a post about a member's
cat(s). I can picture your neighbor and Smudge sitting down to tea in
the middle of the afternoon and enjoying a little chat and I can
picture the expression on Roxy's face when she thinks she's the only
one not getting a treat. I just enjoyed your post very much and
appreciate it tonight.

Julie

GaDragonfly wrote:

Joyce,
Thank you for this post. I'm so sorry Smudge is having to go through
this but I truly enjoy coming here and reading a post about a member's
cat(s). I can picture your neighbor and Smudge sitting down to tea in
the middle of the afternoon and enjoying a little chat and I can
picture the expression on Roxy's face when she thinks she's the only
one not getting a treat. I just enjoyed your post very much and
appreciate it tonight.

Thank you, that's nice to hear.

--
Joyce ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.