We’ve lately been obsessed with the contents of our two cat boxes. Which is to say, we’ve been obsessed with cat poop.
Yes, we’re weird. The thing is, this is a late-onset kind of thing that involves Rio, our wonderful old Maine Coon, who you see here.
A couple of months ago he started experiencing diarrhea. I mean, to the extreme. We figured that it would go away. It didn’t.
This occasioned a trip to the vet’s office. He was examined, some blood was drawn, we were given some meds for him and sent home.
Now, this is a healthy, strong, 16-pound cat who will not be held. Forcing meds down him? Not gonna happen. First, the meds were in liquid form and were given orally using a plastic syringe. We’d squirt it into his mouth, he’d appear to swallow, and we’d let him go. Next thing we knew, the medication, which was white, appeared all over the house’s floors.
Back the vet’s. She scratched her head and recommended an ultrasound of his abdomen. The result showed irritable bowel syndrome. She had a paste of the same meds compounded. We were supposed to mix it with his food. Or maybe he’d just eat it alone. Hah! Not gonna happen.
Meanwhile, the problem continued and he started losing weight. This never is good for a feline. I trolled around through the Interwebs and found several things. First was that IBS is chronic. It never goes away. Second was that it often responds to a change in diet.
We’d been feeding our two cats, Rio and his buddy Vivian, whatever they would eat. Picky eaters, for sure. Their diet included kibble containing grain and vegetable products, and also canned food like Fancy Feast. They really liked their crunchies. But they’re not good for them. So we transitioned to an all-meat diet.
Well, duh! Cats are carnivores. Just check their teeth. All sharp, no molars with which to grind grains and vegetables.
Seems obvious, but even this has not been a slam-dunk. Ideally, you’re supposed to feed them raw chicken or turkey, fish, or beef. They won’t eat that, though Rio will snack on cooked salmon. So we’ve been buying various canned concoctions that contain meat, mostly cooked. Naturally, there’s a case at the pet-food section of Whole Foods Market that contains this kind of cat food. They seem to like that. Naturally.
This has made a big difference for both cats. Vivian, who occasionally suffered from diarrhea, now does not. And Rio is much better. Not completely well, but very much better.
He’s 17 now, so we will continue to watch him to make sure that the problem remains under semi-control. He deserves that. And as we do close inspections of the cat boxes every day, we’re no longer at max stress levels over what we find buried there. We deserve that.
See? It’s all good.
-JFT