Musings on a Small Life

The pics say it all. :-P *** So, I'm still working out Derry's food. It's definitely food-related! I've now taken back all the recent kibble purchases and have gone back to feeding him what he was getting before this began at the end of July, am slowly adding in something new that he likes better (for dry). I'll see how it goes. He will be fine for a handful of days, then will have soft-formed output for a bit, which I think depends on how much of the FortiFlora SA I've given him. (I didn't know that there was a new FortiFlora product, but the SA has prebiotics as well as probiotics, plus psyllium.) He had a LOT of poop yesterday. LOL. But now nothing yet today. (I've stopped the SA and gone back to regular FortiFlora, just a sprinkle for taste on his canned.) Anyway, just when I think I've got a handle on the issue, something happens, so it's one day at a time. Pretty much the way it is with my own gut issues. LOL. I wish I'd never messed a...

First, Derry is doing fine at the moment, still on the meds. We'll see what happens after he's done those in another couple of days; it might not have been long enough. He's not impressed at my syringing in the bitter stuff, and lets me know his feelings (if looks could kill!), but we have only four more doses to go.   Second, the vet seems to concur that it's a food issue, so I'm going to try the prescription gastrointestinal biome kibble that he recommended. If Derry were four, instead of fourteen, I probably would investigate other food options, since I'm not a fan of high grain/high carb food for obligate carnivores. However, at this stage of his life I'd be happy to find something that he liked and that worked well for him. I'll continue to give him his usual canned, though, because I would be very surprised if that was the issue, and he does need the added moisture in his diet.   Tummy scritches late yesterday afternoon. Anyway, onto messages from ...

I thought we were making progress last week, as Derry was doing well until last evening when he started having diarrhea again.   His blood work and fecal tests were great, save for above-high normal sodium levels (dehydration, presumably due to the diarrhea he'd been having plus all the water-absorbing additives I'd been giving him).   Since there was absolutely nothing in the results to indicate a reason for the sudden onset, I have to assume it's food/ingredient related. I've recently been trying a few brands of hairball kibble*, added to his usual Orijen, to see if anything would help; maybe that's inflamed his gastrointestinal tract. It used to be Nicki who had such a sensitive system, not Derry. I've got an email into my vet about a gastrointestinal/fibre dry food, since I can't get him to eat the canned, any needed meds, etc. and will pop over later to pick up whatever is prescribed.   I actually wish there had been something in the fecal test, somethi...

Ha, what in life does?  :-P   I was off last Thursday and Friday (July 29, 30) and had a fabulous day catching up with a friend at the mall. She loves to shop, I love to shop; it was great. LOL. I actually picked up six items (clothing) at Northern Reflections and had so many points dollars (didn't know it!) that the entire cost was 54 cents. Yep, 54 cents! Whoohoo! (I must have done more online shopping in the last year than I realized. Ha.) Friday, however, things took a turn. Derry started having acute diarrhea, which he's never had in his 14+ years, and though I picked up some plain Metamucil and some slippery elm bark powder (the latter from a natural foods store downtown), it wasn't helping much at all through Saturday and Sunday. Then he had a massive , tightly bound hairball on Saturday morning while I was out running errands, and I thought oh, that could be it. Sadly, not. By Monday, a holiday for much of Canada, I thought he might have a partial blockage, so off w...