Spay and Neuter your pets

A very creative way of sharing an important message.

Remember, 3-4 million animals are euthanized yearly in the US due to pet overpopulation.

SNIP, SNIP!!!

Zoom Groom to the rescue?

After getting baths, you'd think the cats would be consuming less fur while grooming themselves. But no! Apparently their baths were the trigger they needed to groom themselves silly and get furballs. At 6am Sammi woke me up as she sat at the foot of the bed and gave a funny meow. Felix had a distinctive "I'm going to puke" meow, so I knew what this likely meant. Not wanting to have a barf-laden bed, I grabbed her and put her on the floor. Seconds later, up came a Huge furball. After cleaning it up and going back to bed, not more than 3 mintues later I hear Raven wretching in the hallway. So I go, hurrying to the hall to try to scoot her off the rug and onto the wood floor. Up comes a little furball. But at least it was on the wood floor and easy to clean. Back to bed I go, hoping to get another hour sleep.

Obviously both Sammi and Raven need more brushing or a different de-furring technique. I groom them daily with a natural-bristle brush or metal comb, but every month or so they hack up a furball. And more often than not, it's an abrupt wake-up call between 1 and 6 am!

I've been reading about the Furminator de-shedding tool. My neighbor has one and I used it a bit on her cat. It removed a lot of fur, but I don't plan on using it on my cats. I just can't believe that it isn't damaging the coat. Everything I've read claims it only removes the loose undercoat, but I've also read and talked to people who say to use it only once a week or so. My logic tells me that if it's only removing loose fur, it shouldn't be a problem to use it all the time, so why are they hesitant to use it more often? I suspect you'd end up with a pet with a very thin or damaged coat if you used it more than occasionally.

I read several positive reviews about the Zoom Groom and decided to give it a try. It's a rubber grooming tool with massaging fingers that lift out loose fur. It comes in many colors, but ours is purple - the color of Indulgence! It's affordably priced at $7-8 at the local pet stores.

I've described our experience with it and give more pictures here: http://indulgedfurries.com/cat/products.htm#ZoomGroom It works very well to remove loose fur, and hopefully it will help prevent some of the early morning furball wake up calls. Only time will tell.

Our first Indulged Feline baths

We're lucky to have made it this long in the Indulged Furry home without getting a bath, especially since we were housed in a multi-cat room at the SPCA. But the day finally came when mom decided it was time for us to get deep-down clean.

Sammi was the first "volunteer", and it took two of us to bathe her because with only three legs, she's very hard to hold on to. It's amazing how much extra "grip" you get on a cat when there's another front paw! She's difficult to hold when she's dry and I didn't want to try to hold on to a slippery kitty by myself, so dad helped bathe "his" girl. Sammi did amazingly well with her first bath. Maybe she's been bathed before, but she didn't squirm too much and didn't even meow. We were in and out of the shower in less than 5 minutes. After a good towel dry, she sat in her perch in a sunny window and calmly groomed herself while she dried.

Raven's turn was next, and being awoken from a nap to be deposited in the shower was not what she expected. Since she had quite a bit of dander (or maybe it's just highly visible against her black fur) she got a thorough bathing with a little extra shampoo time and extra rinsing. She meowed a few times, and looked a bit dazed, but was very accepting of her bath. She was not as happy as Sammi to endure the drying process, and chased her wet tail in circles a few times as if something was attacking her. Having a much denser coat than Sammi, it took her a little longer to dry, but she survived.

I admit I'm pretty good at giving cat baths. Everyone claims it's an ordeal, but I've never had any problems giving my cats a bath. I think preparation, calmness, and efficiency are the keys and in about 5 minutes kitty is bathed and wrapped in a towel for drying off. My cat bathing technique is described http://indulgedfurries.com/cat/products.htm#bath Now that they know what the shower is really for, I'll have to wait and see if their second bath goes as smoothly as the first.

We have birthdates!

How can an Indulged Feline properly celebrate her birthday without a date? We joined the Indulged Furry house on December 5, 2008 but since we were adopted from the SPCA our birthdates were unknown. The waiting is over and we're excited to announce that we have official Indulged Furry Birthdates.

It is hearby declared that

Sammi's birthday is January 24.

Raven's birthday is October 16.

We can't wait to see what we get for our first Indulged Feline birthdays.

Fur Control

Fur control is serious business in the Indulged Furries' home. We love our pets, but it comes with the never-ending battle to control fur. This is especially important since the Indulged Furries' dad is allergic to cats! I purchased the Scotch Fur Fighter a while ago and have been using it to clean the carpeted cat perches. It does an excellent job and it's a product I will continue to use. I have the "car interior" version (I didn't realize there were different versions when I bought it). It's about 1-1/2 times the size of a computer mouse with stiff rubber fur-loosening teeth on a fat end and a sheet of microgripper teeth that wraps around a tapered end and onto the bottom. The rubber teeth do an excellent job at loosening and gathering the majority of fur from the perches. After using the rubber teeth, I switch to the microgripper paper and that does a very good job at snagging up the remaining fur. If there's a generous coating of fur in the gripper teeth, it can be pulled off several times before you need to replace the sheet. The tapered end works well for getting in the crevices of the perches. After cleaning up as much fur as possible with the Fur Fighter, I run a sticky-tape lint roller all over the perches to remove the few remaining hairs and the lint.

Could a grain-free diet fix my problems?

Ever since we adopted Sammi 8 months ago she has had intermittent loose stool and diarrhea. And there was no mistaking her stools from Raven's because 1) they were runny and 2) they smelled worse than any cat poop I've ever smelled. She's been treated for intestinal parasites and given a course of antibiotics in case her intestinal flora were out of balance due to the medications she had been given after her amputation. She was also rechecked (negative) for fecal parasites. We were past the point of thinking new-home stress could be factor and had tried several different foods - all with varying degrees of success.

When we adopted them, we started the cats on Blue Buffalo Spa select (both the salmon and chicken versions), but that didn't work for Sammi. We knew that anytime she ate Raven's favorite dry food (Castor & Pollux Ultramix) she got terrible diarrhea. Even the ultra-premium, organic, and minimal ingredients canned foods gave her diarrhea. The Blue Buffalo Longevity adult dry food seemed to work best for her, but she was still having problems. I tried mixing in some of the new Wellness CORE grain-free dry food, and that seemed to help, but then she'd have diarrhea again.

Based on all the different foods we've tried and the tiny specks of stuff that looked like finely-milled grain in her stool, I thougth maybe the rice or barley were giving her problems. But that was just a hunch because I have no idea what those little specks were and maybe it was just a result of everything going through her system so quickly.

We were at our wits end with different foods, cleaning the bathroom floor because she often avoided the litter box when she had diarrhea, and cleaning Sammi's bottom (even her clippered hair was still getting soiled). And she was tired of it too! I sure she doesn't feel great when the best her system can produce is something the consistency of a gummy worm. Usually she was producing something akin to pancake batter. Besides being unpleasant, it isn't good for her fluid balance to be losing so much water in her stool, and I can't imagine she's absorbing all the nutrients properly.

So we called our vet to get his suggestions or make an appointment to start some testing. The vet said it was ok to try Hills z/d to see if a low-allergan formula would help her. Boy was that a mistake! Her diarrhea was the worst it's ever been and we could tell she didn't feel well. That feeding trial lasted only 3 days. The z/d ingredients of hydrolyzed chicken protein and rice gave me the best indication that rice, and maybe other grains are something Sammi's digestive system can't process.

We're transitioning her to a grain-free diet and seeing positive results. We're slowly mixing the Blue Buffalo Longevity out of her diet and switching to Wellness CORE grain-free dry food. She's also eating about 2 tablespoons Wellness grain-free canned food (chicken) twice a day. Her stools aren't perfect, but they're mostly formed, and the best they've been since we adopted her. Another wonderful benefit is that she's using the litter box consistently.

We're hoping a grain-free diet is the solution, otherwise we're in for some vet visits and probably some expensive diagnositc work. Within a few days she should be on a 100% grain-free diet and hopefully after a few weeks of letting her intestines calm down she will have firm, normal stools.

I'm also monitoring another of Sammi's "issue", and that's the amount of dark goop her eyes produce. Every day I wipe gunk from her eyes, and I'm wondering if that's possibly related to her digestive issues. A mom can hope!

I think all the foods we've tried are excellent cat foods that I would be happy to feed my cats. They just don't appear to agree with Sammi's digestive system.

Keep your fingers (and paws) crossed that a grain-free diet is the solution to Sammi's problem.

Thriving on Three Legs

I'm finally getting some much overdue attention.

Being a kitty with only 3 legs isn't all fun and games, but in the Indulged Furry House, it's a pretty darn good life. You can read what's easy for me, what's difficult, and how my caretakers have made my life easier by visiting my Cat with Three Legs information page

Counerfeit Advantage and Frontline

I hadn't heard anything about this in the news until I ran across a blog article about it today. Owners should be on the look-out for counterfeit Advantage and Frontline flea & tick control products. Usually the counterfeit products are from non-veterinary suppliers.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is intensifying its evaluation of spot-on pesticide products for flea and tick control due to recent increases in the number of reported adverse reactions in pets treated with these products. Read more at...
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/flea-tick-control.html

Specific info on counterfeit Advantage and Frontline for dogs and cats is at
http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/factsheets/petproduct.htm#whyaction
Has some info & photos on how to identify potentially counterfeit products.

Raven earned her Naughty Kitty badge.

Raven is an early-morning kitty, often trying to wake us around 6am for playtime. Her arsenal of kitty wake-up tricks include: standing up on her hind legs with her front paws on the bed near her dad’s head, which despite the cuteness is a no-no due to his cat allergies; jumping up on the bed by our heads, or banging on the bi-fold closet doors to make a racket. Rolled up socks tossed at the banging kitty don’t deter her, she just ducks out of the way and continues her banging. She stops banging only when she’s put out of the bedroom – but then you had to get out of bed, chase her through the room, capture her (with snuggles of course), and put her out – which is all great kitty fun.

Sunday morning we decided to sleep in and ignore her invitations for play. Undeterred, Raven amused herself by investigating new heights, the aftermath of which was small-scale destruction and a lot of cleaning for us. When I heard the crash of glass breaking I went running. My first thought was that on her climb to the window, she knocked the empty 5-gallon fish tank off the desk. But when I saw the glass and liquid on the floor I instantly knew where she had been. After 8 months of living in her new home, she decided it was time to conquer the tallest bookcase in the office. She had gotten on top of the bookcase and knocked over a Galilean Thermometer. These are glass thermometers filled with oily liquid and floating things that show the temperature.

I had two simultaneous thoughts: is she ok, and did anything in dad’s office get damaged. I grabbed her and checked her paws for glass, and they were ok. After locking her and her sister Sammi in a bedroom, I assessed the damage and started cleaning.

The Kitty Gods were watching over her because: 1) she was safe and 2) the thermometer fell straight forward spewing oil and glass mostly on the wood floor and missing everything that would have been damaged or impossible to clean.

Oddly, she found the only glass decoration in the house. We don’t even leave drinking glasses standing in the sink overnight because I fear the cats will tip and break them.

When Raven wants to play, even at 6am, it’s probably a good idea to indulge her.

Pet supplies and great customer service

If you're looking for a place to order pet supplies I've been very happy using KV Vet. I've purchased cat and dog supplies (grooming, beds, bowls, poop pick-up bags), Bentley's prescription medications, and medical & first-aid supplies like bandage scissors. They also have stuff for horses & livestock, which is fun to browse, and if you're in need of a sheep blanket or flat-sided water pail, heck you can get one!

If you're purchasing normal-sized items that don't weigh a lot, shipping is free on orders over $50. Otherwise there is a shipping charge (if under $50, or charges for bulky & heavy items). Returns are easy, and there wasn't any fee when I returned items, just the cost of mailing it back to them. They also have multiple item discounts, so if you order 3 of something, the price may be a little better than ordering just one. So if you use the same shampoo or get the same dog toys all the time, you can order several at once and save a bit of money.

What I've also found to be excellent at KV Vet is the customer service. Most recently, I ordered Bentley's prescription arthritis medication and just a couple days later we had to put him to sleep. Medications are not returnable, so I though I'd have to try to find someone who uses the same medication for thier pet, or donate it to a rescue group. But the order had not shipped yet, so I called KV Vet to see if I could cancel it. They were very nice on the phone and cancelled my order without any problems. It was one less thing to worry about during a very stressful event.

If you're looking for someplace to buy pet supplies or medications, give KVvet.com a look. I'm not getting paid to advertise for them, I just thought I'd give them some support since they've been a good company to purchase from.