Taking on Potty Training.... The CATs!

Yes people. I have decided old cats can learn new tricks and I am on my way to having atleast 4 potty trained cats, maybe 5.

I ordered this a couple weeks ago when I ran upon this thing called a Litter Kwitter on some animal website when I was looking for a Jolly Ball with a handle on it for Roxie. It has always been a running joke in our house that we go through so much litter that it would be much cheaper to potty train. So I ran it by The husband... and wah la (or how ever its spelled) 60 bucks for a hunk of pastic & the UPS fairy dropped it on my doorstep this morning.(On the door step because I wouldn't get out of bed & fight the barking & jumping dogs just to answer the door.)

But day one seems like it is going ok. The 4 cats that I have introduced it to seem pretty comfortable jumping up on the toilet seat already. They will get up there and sit when its closed. So I figured for now I would skip step one of putting the tray on the floor beside the toilet.

I figure Moejo will be the first to use it. Copper and him still have their off days so he likes to be able to see around him while using the bathroom.

Copper I figure will be next because he seems to be the next brightest and inthosed to sit and scratch. The other two, Romeo & Dewy are about 7 years old and I am not sure how they will fair with training. Romeo seemed ok to sit there. And Dewy was really unsure about the whole thing. But he is easily frightened. Storm ha strained her hurt leg again so I don't want her jumping right now. Not sure if she will really be interested anyways. Beltane I figure I have no hope unless the other cats teach him. He is a touch me not, that stays hidden all day and comes out only at night after the Pibble, his archenemie, is in bed. He will let us pet him a little but otherwise he is happy doing his own thing on his own time...
With atleast 4 potty trained cats I figure we will be able to cut down on the around $40 I spend on cat litter a month. So if this works it will be well worth the money, the health of the cats, and our earth.

O ' yeah I read reviews that it will not fit an elongated tiolet. We have one and it fits it just fine. It doesn't cover the entire toilet seat. But it does cover lost of it and it hasn't popped off.

Wish me luck ;)

Storm

Storm, our only female cat, has a knack for needing to go to the vet. Well a couple times a year. When she does its normally at least the visit, x-rays, and some meds. Normally her appointments revolve around her bowels. About 5 years ago we were moving. She got really sick. I came home and found her having a seizure on our kitchen floor and rushed her to the emergancy center. She had seizure almost the whole trip. I really though she was going to die. It was so scary. I told them to do everything possible to help her. I wanted x-rays done. But they passed on that. They did all kinds of testes. Told me she was in renel falure (Kidney failure) and had her on IV fluides. She pulled through and her kidneys were doing much better so they sent her home on Monday morning and told us to just watch her. So we took her to our vet the next day. I told her what had happened and her quiestion was like mine. What would cause renale failure and why would she just come back from it so quickly. So I asked her to do x-rays. She told me I may want to get an ultra sound at the Vet hospital. So the following day we took her there. They did an x-ray and found she had ate a charm. A big charm and it was lodged where her stomach meets her intestines so they rushed her into surgery only to call me to tell me she has a 20% chance of making it because the charm she swallowed had a string connected and it tore up her intestines really bad and they had been spilling into her stomach cavity all this time. John and I decide to finish the surgary and see how she did. They took over 50% of her intestines and she recovered slowly at first. We had to put her on a feeding tube. But after we started feeding her she recovered very quickly.

Every once in a while she will get constipated and her stomach will get sick. We have to take her in quickly and get X-rays to make sure she hasn't eaten anything harmful. Luckily, knock on wood, she hasnt't. But we have to put her on stomach meds to get her straightened up again. We also have to make sure she is diguesting her food properly since alot of her intestines is missing. Your intestines take the nurishment from your food. Other wise she is a normal, happy, attitude driven, cat.

But last week she decided to jump up where she always sleeps on the pile of covers ontop the washing machine. When she jumped down she messed up the ligements in her left, rear knee. Took her to the vet. Luckily everything still feels intact. She has alot of swelling. So they put her on a low dose of steroids to help with the swelling. They told me to watch her and if her progress stalls to take her to a specialist. I have my fingers crossed that she will continue to get better. But she has been using it more now and I am afriad she will over compensate and cause more problems. I am still giving her her meds and hopeing for the best. Hopefully all will be well :)

Chicks, Chickens, Gaint Eggs, & Gardening

The Chicks are growing and becoming out going little ones. They run around with their little wings flapping. One will start and then the others will follow. So sweet. They jump up and lay on Lil Bantis back and she clucks a calming motherly cluck. So sweet. She is loving being a Mama. Yesterday was the first day they went out and into the grass. They pecked, scratched and ran around. Lil Banti took her first dust bath in a can't tell you how long. Actually she decided to take it in the only bare spot she could find... The chick feed... I know crap picture. She laid there flopping he feathers in the dirt & chick feed and I think she was actually teaching her babies while enjoying it herself. They starter trying. They would lay and copy her. The lil white chick fell over on her back and had to use her little wings to put her self back on her feet. But they laid and basked in the sun. They loved it. To bad it rained and was cool out today. They never came out. But they are very healthy. They are feathering so fast. It is hard to believe. We have had them for a little over a week now and they are even starting to get tail feathers. Their food intake is steadily increasing. They are a joy to watch. Just like the other chickens. I love watching them all. They still are not out around the other chickens. Gaia & Mabon especially look at them like they are walking meals. So it will be a good while before they are allowed out with them. But they are being raised right beside them so they can get used to each other.

Two of the chickens are laying huge eggs ever so often. Except in the last 8 or 9 days I have seen 4 of these giant eggs and I have brought them in to weigh them. Regular Eggs are between 2.0 and 2.3 grams. The big eggs are 2.8-3.2 grams. So a whole gram bigger than normal. I think it is Gaia definitely lays some big eggs. The light colored huge egg I have no clue who laid them because we only get that color sometimes... Not very often. Some of the eggs are shaped weird, a weird color, or uneven colored. I am not sure what to think about these eggs. The Vet said not to worry if it wasn't frequent. But when one chicken lays 2 in a week that is kinda frequent. Am I doing something wrong? I don't know... But I hope I can figure this out.

Regular Size Top. Bigger Bottom. Size Comparative. Uneven color. Mis-shapen egg

I did finally figure out who the most of the different egg colors belong to though. From Left to right. Gaia, Ivy, Mabon, Big Red, And Isis.

Started working on the garden beds yesterday too. Cleaned out 2 of them with Johns help. I didn't use them last year so they had totally over grown with dandelions and weeds. So I cleaned them out and fed the weeds to the chickens. They really enjoyed them. Then we covered the beds with black garden bed covering until we add more organic soil and straight sow or plant starters. So no more weeds... Still need to cover the other place we are starting a garden bed..

Grass is starting to grow on the little hills of dirt we have been leaving there to spread out. So we better get to it. I am also going to put a garden bed in front of the front porch but I am not sure that is going to get done while the growing season is still realistic. I hope so though. I am still so excited about this growing season. I hope it turns out great. But so far I am not having luck with my starters. I have very few plants starting. I think that first rain storm did my plants in by moving the seed out and around. Starting plants in containers seems to be much harder than starting them in the ground. I have never really found any info about it either. Luckily I checked out a book from the library yesterday. Its called Good Garden Magic. This book has a lot of good, basic info that I am finding useful. It is understandable and is almost like having someone there to tell you basic gardening techniques. Its not a large book but to me its very useful. I plan on ordering a copy soon. We did a couple other things too. When we went to the library we walked. That was the first time we have walked to town in years like 6 or so years. But I enjoyed the walk and John did too. We hung out at the library for an hour and then came home.

The day before we went to Books- A- Million and sat for a few hours looking through books. I haven't done that in a couple years either. I miss just going and having a laid back day with John. It was so nice!

This 4 day weekend has been really, really great! :)

Cat Urinary Tract- Struvite Crystals in Urine

A quick run through

We are now dealing with Moejo not only having IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) but now he is having a problem with Crystals in his Urine.
I noticed him having trouble urinating a couple weeks ago. I knew about the condition. So I knew what to look for. But for those who don't know.

If your kitty is:

Spending alot of time in the litter box.
Straining to Urinate or maybe you think he might be having a hard time defecating.
Yelling out in pain.
Painful to the touch.
Urinating a little and stopping or not urinating at all
Urinating out side of the litter box or in weird places
Licking their genitals alot
In male cats the penis may not withdraw into the sheath
Blood in the urine
Weird color of urine, Brownish, dark yellow (can mean blood)
Struvite crystals sometimes stick to the fur around the penis
White or yellowish discharge around penis

If you see any of these symptoms it can be a life of death situation and you kitty should be taken immediately to the vet! a cat can die from as little as 12 hours from not urinating. The urine backs up into the kidneys and the kidneys will stop producing urine! Which means all the toxins in the busy will build up and send the kidney's into kidney(renal) failure. So it is very important to watch for those signs! And be quick you kitty may need catheterized to release all the urine and help him clear some crystals of stones!

What causes crystals in the bladder? Alot of scientists think it is caused by high amounts of ash in the food. Cheap food has way, way to much ash. But evidence in a lab setting has not showed favorable out comes for this theory. They have not been able to prove that ash causes stuvite crystals in the bladder. But just in case and for many other reasons it is important to feed your animals a good quality food. Which I do feed all of our animals very good quality food.

So why Did Moe get crystals?

Crystals are formed in the bladder when magnesium levels are to high. This causes the bladder to become acidic and causes struvite crystals to form. To much magnesium in animal food can cause this. But I think Moe's problem is that one of our other cats pick on him so he doesn't come out of the bedroom much. So I don't know how much water he normally intakes but I would guess probably not enough.

and yes not enough water can cause their to be not enough liquid in the bladder to keep the alkalinity normal. There for causing buildup of to many toxins and making the bladder acidic.

Moe also has a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection). This could have caused some of the crystals or could just be secondary caused by all the crystals.

So what will they do for your Kitty at the vet?

• 1st is a urine sample. Needs to be collected in a clean container. No cat litter! Just urine. They will test it for several different things including a Crystal count. Moes count was so high that they could not come up with a number. His urine was also dark and some of the other tests could not be read correctly and will have to be done again. At our normal clinic I paid $31 for the urinalysis.

• 2nd they will check for Kidney stones! Specially in Male cats. Their Urethra is alot smaller so if a kidney stone is flushed out it could cause a block. This is normally done with an ultrasound.

They will shave kitty's belly and put a jelly on it and look around with their hand held. Hopefully no stones are found. This will range in price from $80 to $250 and it includes the office visit. Hospitals will charge alot more then Vet clinics. So always check clinics first. Moe was lucky and has no kidney stones to be seen.

• So next he has been put on Clavamox ($30 every 10 days) for 4 weeks for his UTI and I would assume to stop any further complications due to infection.

• He was put as SD ($1.60 a can) food. Which is very high in sodium and will be on it for 4 weeks. The sodium will make him drink more and will help flush his kidneys out. Next we will need to do a full blood panel to check and make sure his kidney function is doing ok with the high Sodium food.
  This will run about $100 to $120 dollars.
• At some point in the next week or so I will need to send in another urine sample to test again. To see how things are progressing. To see if the "flush" is doing its job. And to see if the other tests, that were messed up by the color of his urine the first time, can be completed. Another $31

This will not be the end. He will have to be on special food for at least 2 to 3 months if not for the rest of his life. It will not be the SD. It will be a food a little lower in sodium but higher then normal food. It will also be low in Magnesium and Phosphorus.

After you kitty gets crystals once it is something you will always have to be awear of and make sure kitty is urinating normally at all times. It can be a returning problem.

Moe is doing ok today. He has been relaxing in the bedroom and I have now put water and food bowls all over the house to make sure he is getting enough. I will update later.