Moomin Update

Moomin has crystals in his urine. This means I have to institute a couple of lifestyle changes for him.

1) I need to keep him regularly supplied with bottled water. Where we live, the water has a distinct “pool” smell, especially first thing in the morning and the vet said the smell of chlorine can turn a cat off drinking water faster than anything. So now, I am a spring water jug buying machine. Well, not completely, my friend J2, who lives by a lake and has “a complete filtration system”, has kindly offered to let me fill said jugs at her house for free. I love my friend, blessings on her!

2) I need to entice him to drink. The vet recommended I “sprinkle salt on his food”. Not so sure about this trick, then he might decide “all food bad like water”. So I settled for getting a fountain where the water circulates and comes out of a spout like the stream from a faucet. The night I set this up (the same night I popped him back in the house after the impromptu-stressed-out-vet-visit on Tuesday and went scurrying all over town and neighboring town to find the vet recommended changes), Moomin had loads of water swiping fun and I saw him try to “bite” the water a couple times. I have yet to see anyone drink out of it, but the sound it makes should entice the herd to drink and pee a lot (it’s doing a job on me). Of course, Doodle and Hobbes were supremely cautious with the fountain after set-up, doing the whole “slowly slinking so low my belly touches the floor, paws way out in front, eyes bigger than a dinner plate, and nose all aquiver” act, but now they just run right by it.

3) I need to give him antibiotic drops for a week twice a day which makes me very popular with the other cats coz they know that when they hear me shaking the drops, I’m going to be giving out treats, real soon.

4) I need to give him pills once a day for two weeks that will encourage him - medication-wise - to drink and pee so the crystals break up and flush (no pun intended) out of his system. I caught him drinking from a water dish on Wednesday night, the FIRST time I have actually seen him drink anything other than what I put in his food in MONTHS! So the pill must be working. Moomin’s such a trooper, giving me urine samples on demand, letting me put water on his dry food, letting me pry open his mouth (with minor resistance, no biting) and squirt drops into his mouth, and letting me toss a pill to the back of his throat (which he swallows right away).

5) I need to give him dry food that has MEAT in the first 4-5 ingredients. Not meat-meal, not meat by-products, not meat substitute, meat flavoring, or fish. But MEAT, an actual meat product, be it chicken, lamb, turkey, duck, or beef. I spent the evening (the scurrying around bit) looking at the ingredients of all the catfood products sold in three stores. Do you know how hard it is to find a cat food with a meat as the main ingredient? It’s like the proverbial needle. I could find meal and by-products out the kazoo, but meat? No way. I finally settled on a Purina One for UTI health, small bag. Moomin wasn’t really keen on it. He’s your typical autistic rigid picky eater. I thought we were doomed coz the vet said his current food is not good for him, too many grain products and trying to change a biologically engineered carnivore into a herbivore isn’t healthy. So I was worried to say the least. I finally was able to visit our local feed and farm store where they sell the food the vet recommended. I was able to snag a trial size bag of the Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul which has two meat ingredients in the first 5 AND meat sprinkled throughout the rest of the list! To my utter surprise, Moomin LOVES this food; he can’t wait for me to fill his shot glass and has his nose in the bag. RELIEF! I will be going back to get a larger bag once he finishes the trial, it could just be a honeymoon with this food right now. I’m hoping it will be a marriage that lasts.

6) I need to dial down the adrenaline junky’s need for high intensity cat games and play quieter, less zooey games. There’s nothing Moomin likes better than to get all reved up and zoom around the house chasing a feather on a string on a stick, but if stress is a result of getting too worked up, then he and I need to play calmer games that are fun and active and not an indoor version of Extreme Sports.

So far, he seems to be peeing, drinking, eating, playing, napping, chomping and wrestling the other cats, climbing his cat trees, window gazing, and love-festing. He even slept on my lap with the other cats last night, something he hasn’t done in quite some time (basically since summer landed on our head’s with a vengeance). He’s my good monkey-butt boy. I regret he had to wait so long to get treatment (rassin’ sassin’ frassin’ vet clinic).