Automatic Litterbox Central

This food thing is making me crazy. that place I found is sort of funny. I had no idea there were laundermats for dogs! there were 2 cops in there the night I went, washing their dogs.Its kind of like a self service car wash only inside. Power hoses. Apparently it has been there for several years so it must be making money.

No, Lily hasnt been seen yet. Dr. Leslie Lyons, the head of the genetics dept. is the one who is interested. I think they are pretty busy. Thanksgiving day someone in modesto had a fire in their greenhouse. The green house is where a whole bunch of mega big tortoises lived. They were burned pretty bad. The people at UCD stepped up and saved the majority of them, I think. About 20+ people left their thanksgiving dinners to rush to the hospital to be there when the turtles arrived. Not that this has anything to do with genetics, just saying the whole place is like that. Busy.

There is not really any treatment for what ails Lily. There have been some trials in people with some different drugs that are supposed to somehow make the bones stronger, but the reported side effects have put that on hold.I think the side effects were gruesome. Stem Cell stuff may be in the cards for people afflicted but it is so rare in cats I think they just want to study and observe. It is pretty rare in people, too, from what Ive read. Most vets have not ever heard of it. There is very little written about it relating to animals.

Western medicine is so not up to speed with so many different things. If there isnt a buck to be made, it doesnt seem to be a high priority. I am a supporter and user of complementary and alternative medicines. Just because the FDA doesnt recognize stuff (read: cant make a buck off of it) doesnt necessarily mean it isnt effective. I have Lily on a few homeopathy formulas and she gets cranial sacral therapy. After a treatment, she feels a ton better. It is kind of chiropractic/massage but not really. very light touch and very gentle. He barely touches her but she comes away with a straighter more aligned spine, which is normally all jacked up, so she can poop easier. Constipation is the main thing we have going on now, but with meds and the c.s. therapy, it is mostly under control. Ack I have learned how to (gag) give her an enema. I don't know how I do it, but I manage to gag my way thru it. She hasnt had any breaks for quite a while now and is feeling bright and chipper. I think once they reach the point when they stop growing, it mellows out. For people its about puberty. They have less frequent breaks after that point. It picks up again about menopause age. Sounds like to me the hormones have something to do with it. Cats are about a year when they are full grown, give or take. Lily has been spayed so I don't know about her hormones. She is just 9 months old and weighs less than 5 lbs. She is a tiny little thing. I have never had little cats! Mine always seem to be hulks. I think the smallest cat I have ever had was 8-9 lbs! Most are up in the teens, poundage wise.

I shudder to think about how many bones they broke when they spayed her! they lay them out and strap them down. the whole procedure is fairly quick when the rescue groups bring in 25 cats at a time. Not a lot of time for hugs and kisses kind of therapy. No one had the slightest clue that there was anything wrong with Lily, so she didn't get any special treatment as far as being careful with her. poor thing.

I will let you know when I hear from UCD again. I'm kind of disappointed that I havent already. dr Lyons seemed so enthusiastic about it. She is a good friend of Lilys vet and assured her that she is still on track with it.

(Those poor turtles!)

I totally agree with your comments regarding Western medicine, Abbey. Having just developed an interest in nutrition as it relates to health and illness and with some lighter allergies, I have discovered that food appears to play a huge role in how my body feels -- a role, by-the-way, that I can effect fairly rapidly (within 24 hours!) by eating differently. And I think this is why I chose to purchase the INNOVA along with California Natural. I am partial to vegetables... Omega 3, etc. But the cats get fish products almost daily so I likely don't need to worry. Plus they are hunters -- I think that is their Asian Leopard genes coming into play. They eat spiders and small insects and that is a part of the Asian Leopard diet along with, by-the-way, some plant matter (and rodents).

Yes, it might take some time for Dr. Lyons to get to Lily. As sad as Lily's body is, this could prove to be a golden opportunity for Lily and Dr. Lyons. I would be interested in knowing what happens. Lily is lucky to have you -- (an obvious meant-to-be relationship!).

I just happened on this topic--decided to add a couple of comments.

About Lily--I feed one of my kitties a little plain canned pumpkin with each meal, feeding twice a day, it really seems to help with his digestive problems. He seemed to go from one extreme to the other, but I started the pumpkin at my vet's suggestion and it has really balanced him out. You might want to check with the vet to see, I think it's the extra fiber. & I've been feeding him Avoderm canned food and he really likes it.

As far as other food, I have had success with dry Blue Buffalo Indoor Cat for Sensitive Skin. Two other of my cats eat that (and the others who eat canned due to urinary problems would like to, as well) and we haven't had any poo problems. I like it because you can add water and let it plump up or serve it dry, and it has a smaller serving size than about anything else so that makes it cheaper to use. My cats seem to be healthy and look really good on it. But, I have two on Science Diet Indoor Chicken, and don't have any problems on that either.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the suggestion Inky. Lily will not touch pumpkin! That really surprised me because she eats everything else. I wish all of my cats would eat like her!That was one of the first things I tried because it is so fiber rich. It has always worked for my other cats. Lilys problem is unique. Her pelvic area has been fractured a few times and it is now misshapen. I believe that is where the problem is coming from. It really boils down to finding the correct combination of laxitives and stool softeners that will allow her to poop more frequently. It tears my heart out to see her straining and crying out. Once she manages to get the poo out, shes rarin' to go! She eats like a champ, is super playful and very chatty as if nothing happened.

abbeytoo, I understood the root of her problem was due to the pelvic fractures, I'm sorry to hear she won't eat pumpkin--my cat eats it like it's a treat. Lily's such a little darling in the pic. I just had a thought--one more idea to offer--I wonder if something like Benefiber, it's advertised as flavorless and colorless and could be added to anything. Or, maybe you've tried/thought of that, too. Good luck with everything.

Oh, yes, we've tried benefiber too. Some things that have been semi effective that I use are Swiss Kriss, a natural laxitive, Moving Colon, a homeopathy preparation, Rosemary Tea pills, from traditional chinese medicine, Flaxseed oil and Lactulose which is a stool softener, and mega doses of Liquid Vit C. Dr Belfield, who I mentioned in the first post, worked with Linus Pauling on the vitamin C studies that he won awards for. He is a believer in mega doses of vit c for many different things. If you go to his website, http://www.belfield.com/ he has many success stories of curing things commonly thought not curable, that he attributes to mega C. Anyway, the doseage for vit is is usually given as 'to bowel tolerance' which translates to take it until your poo is starting to get soft. So, I give Lily lots of it. Past the bowel tolerance so it gets is moving. Occasionaly she will also get acupuncture treatments and cranial sacral work done. The cranial sacral straightens out her spine and believe it or not, does help her to poo. The guy that does it is just amazing. Its almost like he has magic hands! Lily adores him and likes to have him work on her. It is a very very gentle touch and she usually ends up falling asleep purring.

The challange is finding out which and how much of any of these to make her regular. And boy, it is a challange!