May
31, 2000
Delaying Breakfast
Cleo taking her ease in the window seat
I've decided to not feed Cleo immediately on getting up. I always need to feed Puss first, anyway, because she's waiting outside the bedroom door. In fact, some mornings Puss decides I've slept too long, and she tries to paw her way into the room. Thank goodness she's not one of those cats who can open doors!
Anyway, I'm not trying to be cruel to Cleo. I'm just figuring that she's more likely to eat if she's really hungry. Probably a false hope, but there you go. Although she's waiting by her water dish (where she's fed), she doesn't seem perturbed not to get food. Of course, she did get into the garbage and the pizza crusts last night.
I fed her the first time today at 8:30 am. Just a little Iams Senior and tuan, mixed in with her meds — one Winstrol, and a quarter Reglan. I warm it in the microwave for about eight seconds (after all, would you want to eat cold muck?). She's totally uninterested until I take a little tuna on a fork and hold it into her noise. That, she likes. So I lead her over to the food and place the fork into it. She eats the tuna off the fork, then invariably eats more of the food. This continues for about twenty mintues, until she's almost eaten it all.
Unfortunately, she then goes and pees in front of our bedroom. She has decided that's where she wants to go, not the litter box. I'm at a loss as to why, but obviously we don't like it. I know that I need to get a new litter box with lower sides (she's also got arthritis along her spine now). But where to put it? There's no room in the laundry room, where we have the present one. I could put it in our second bathroom, but that's where I'm feeding Puss. I could put it in the kitchen, but that's where she eats.
I tried the Friskies Senior food on her this afternoon. She really liked that a lot, but I'm not sure how much she's really eating. She seems to lick it to death, but not eat nearly as much of the food as I'd like. I thought for sure she wouldn't eat it again this evening, but she did. We had salmon for dinner, and I did let her lick just a little off the plate.
With all the talk of sub-q's on the CRF support group, I'm beginning to wonder if she needs them. She's drinking pretty good. The vet seemed to think that she wouldn't take well to sub-q's. If that would help her feel better, thought, I'd be willing to try.
We seem to be in status quo right now. She's eating, but only a tiny amount. Saturday night is the only night she's vomited so far, so at least she's keeping it down. But I don't think she's gaining weight, and she still seems pretty weak and unsteady.