Sweet Raggedy Ann



Good-bye, my Love.  (21 Aug 2008- 27 May 2011)

Dr. Becker Article

Here is an excellent article with tips on how to create healthy, raw, species appropriate food for your pets.   You might have to sign up in order to read the article. 

I recently found a place where I could buy the needed supplements to add to my kitties' raw food diet.  The prices are lower at iHerbs and I get free shipping if my order is $40 or more.  All from the comfort of home.  What a bargain!

Thinking About the Upcoming Flea Season

A recent article posted on Dave's Garden got me to thinking about fleas again.  As much as I raved about Comfortis,  I became concerned that when I mentioned it to my holistic vet he expressed misgivings about its use for cats.  Of course it had never been labeled for cats and they had never used it this way.  Even now, as I go back and look at the Comfortis websites, it still has not changed its label to include cats, even though the traditional vet who prescribed it for us supposedly had confirmed it with the manufacturer as approved. 

The article on the Dave's Garden website includes a chart of all types of treatments, their success rate and toxicity level.  I will have to have another talk with the holistic vet about the Comfortis again.

All is Well

It has been awhile since my last post.  The good news is that in all this time there have been no health issues whatsoever!  Perhaps the mayhem of their early little lives is now in the past for good.  

Actually, I take that back... the new addition, Fluffernutter (the stray tom from the back porch), went through a thing last fall.  He became sickly and lethargic, lost his appetite, lost some weight... we soon took him into the holistic vet, when we knew that something was still not right in spite of what the traditional vet had said.   Blood test showed that he was negative for leukemia and neither positive nor negative for FIV.  A test also showed that he had toxoplasmosis.

The local traditional vet whom we had taken him to before, did not do any blood tests!   As sick as he seemed to be, I had to bite the bullet and accept the antibiotics. The standard B12 shot was administered also, which has never bothered me, of course.   And for the FIV, the vets recommended another more exact blood test be run.  This one would have to be sent out to another lab.

Fluffernutter made a fast and marked improvement.  As soon as we felt he was well enough, in he went to be neutered!  Somehow we managed to fall in love with this beautiful, vagrant lug!  After surgery, of course he had to recuperate in the shelter of the house where it was nice and warm... Unbelievably, this outsider proved to be so easy going, that our crew of kitties has had no problem with his joining the club!   UGH!  I can't believe we have six cats in the house!  Six wonderful, loving, precious kitties.  

So no health problems for now.  It's smooooth sailing, hopefully for a very long time.   As for the other FIV test, it came back as one X; two being positive.  We were told by the vet that she had never seen this result before and recommened another test in a few months.   We sure do love this boy!  I think we might be seriously broken hearted if he develops FIV.