Friday, April 06, 2007 , evening

Carlo is improving

Carlo is doing a better than he was yesterday.  I reread my blog entry from last night, and realized that I really didn’t do a good job of expressing just how grave I thought Carlo’s condition was - I really thought he was close to dying.  When I got up this morning, he was extremely weak and exhausted, and barely opened his eyes—quite a change from the little guy who was always wiggling and doing the “hula” at feeding time.  However, even though he could barely move, he ate.  He ate a lot, much more than he’s been eating.  He also had a pretty decent poop (it was the right colour) for the first time in many days.  After eating he went back to sleep instantly, and when I fed him a few hours later, he seemed a bit stronger.  He’s eaten two very good meals today, and even though he’s still not a normal, perky kitten, I definitely feel that he’s improving rather than regressing.

I don’t know why Carlo’s appetite suddenly improved, but maybe he really does prefer canned KMR over powdered.  Or, maybe he did have an internal parasite problem that was helped by a deworming (his fecal test was negative, though).  Whatever happened, he came dangerously close to the point of no return, but I think he’s turned it around.  I’m giving him canned KMR, as well as doses of Rebound in a syringe.  He’s still really sleepy and isn’t doing much walking, but I’m glad he’s conserving his energy.

This incident reinforces for me how badly I want a “pet intensive care unit”, so in situations like these I’ll know that the kitten is warm enough and in an environment with proper humidity.  I do so much worrying about what I might be doing wrong, and taking the environmental issues off the table might give me some peace of mind.  A PICU is also a controlled, safe way to regulate exact temperatures, so orphaned kittens could only benefit from it.  It’s certainly not a necessity, and thousands of people around the world raise more kittens than I do, with fewer resources, but it might help my burden of worry.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/06 at 09:33 PM
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Worried about Carlo

Perhaps I don’t have the nerves for this foster parenting thing, because tonight I’m agitated and have a big weight in the pit of my stomach as I worry about Carlo’s health.  He’s just not growing the way he should, and today he lost .2 ounces from yesterday.  The vet found nothing wrong with him temperature-wise or in the fecal sample, and just told me to switch back to liquid KMR and to keep giving the Albon.  Oh, I forgot to mention that both Carlo and Bunny were dewormed today with Nemex, just as a precaution.

Carlo won’t suck on the bottle at all today, although he will drink and swallow if I let the formula drip into his mouth.  While we were out he seemed to be crazed with hunger, and was even chewing on my shirt and finger, but at home he just won’t eat.  I’ve tried three different bottle nipples with three different holes in them to see if he has a preference, yet I just can’t get him to eat with enthusiasm.  Even his sister isn’t a great eater, although at least she’s a normal weight.  I’ve never had kittens who didn’t just love formula, so I don’t understand why both of these guys are so ambivalent.  They’re not ambivalent about eating, they’re ambivalent about eating formula.

The vet sent us home with more Albon, and a container of Rebound.  I had no idea this stuff existed (I usually see references to Pedialyte being used when people foster young animals).  I gave Carlo one cc in a syringe today and he swallowed it all, but everything that goes in his mouth, comes out the other end.  He’s a constant, never-ending poop machine.  I honestly think part of his problem is that his body isn’t absorbing nutrients properly, but I don’t know how to remedy that.  He’s two weeks old, and he can walk and his eyes are open, so he’s developed normally—he just doesn’t grow.

I’m hoping that a good night’s sleep plus the worming today will leave him feeling energetic in the morning, and ready to eat.  I want to sleep with him in bed with me so I can keep an eye on him, but the dogs will smell him and act crazy.  I also worry that he will just wander off the bed in the middle of the night while I’m passed out.

Here’s a photo of the two siblings that I just took about an hour ago.  You can tell from the photo that Carlo is very small compared to Bunny:

bunny_and_carlo_day_14

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/06 at 02:16 AM
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Thursday, April 05, 2007 , lunch time

Dog biscuits recalled

Thanks to Helly for letting me know that some dog biscuits have just been recalled.  Here’s a link to the story on CNN.com.  The affected dog biscuits were made by Sunshine Mills of Red Bay, Alabama.  I went to their website and don’t see a recall announcement, and I’m not sure of the exact product name, but they do make a biscuit called ”Crunchin’ Bones”.  Actually, if you go to their product page, you’ll see lots of products you probably recognize from pet and grocery stores.  I’m sure a full list of products being recalled will be available soon, but in the meantime, check your labels.

(I just went back to make sure there was no press release on the site, and it’s crashed from too many users.) If you check out Itchmo, he’s got photos of all Sunshine’s products.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/05 at 12:43 PM
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Carlo and Bunny go the veterinarian

We’re going to take Carlo and Bunny to the vet in about three hours.  A couple of days after they came to live with us, they both developed bad diarrhea.  It was so bad that they each needed full baths before every meal, because they’d wake up with poop from head to toe.  The woman who cared for them for the first 36 hours of their lives fed them KMR canned food, but I switched them to KMR powder, and I’ve seen that cause digestive upset before.  I’ve tried to wait it out with no luck.  I’ve also tried feeding them more often, feeding them less often, thinning the formula, and thickening the formula, and nothing is changing.  I finally called the vet’s office to get approval to try some Albon, and while that seems to have helped Bunny a bit, all it’s done to Carlo is to turn his poop white and chunky.  In fact, his poop now looks like undigested food, and he’s very tiny for his age.  He weighs 5.6 oz. at 14 days, while his sister weighs 7.6 oz.  He also eats very poorly, and I’m lucky to get 6 or 7 ml of food into him at each feeding.

I’m worried the Albon may have killed off any good bacteria in Carlo’s system, so I hope the vet has some advice and insight.  It’s tough for me to take a fecal sample in because the poop just oozes out of him, and there’s really nothing to grab onto.  I’m wondering if he may need some sq fluids for some immediate energy.  He’s so incredibly cute.

If the problem persists despite veterinary intervention, my next steps will be to either return to canned formula, or to switch to a brand new tin of formula from a new production batch.  I’m feeling so suspicious about pet food these days, and maybe I’ve got a tin of KMR which is a bit off.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/05 at 11:45 AM
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Wednesday, April 04, 2007 , evening

Too much vitamin D3 in dry pet food?

A few days ago, I posted this blog entry about a Toronto lawyer’s allegations that dry dog and cat food (specifically, food manufactured by Royal Canin), contained excessive and deadly amounts of vitamin D.  I wasn’t sure if the lawyer was referring to an old vitamin D recall case from 2006, or if he meant the problem was still happening today, so I emailed him for clarification.  He hasn’t replied.  However, yesterday PETA issued a press release where they too demand that vitamin D levels in dry food be investigated, so this is obviously not an old story, but a new tangent to the Menu Foods recall.  In the process of gathering information on pet deaths, someone has obviously seen a pattern which relates to dry food.  This is alarming, given that so many pet owners seem to feel that dry food is unequivocably safe.  The vitamin D issue is getting very little mention in the mainstream press (and frankly, it’s not getting a lot of mention in the online pet community, either), but we need to be aware of it.  Maybe the allegations are totally wrong.  However, I’d rather be wrong now than sit on this information for a couple of months, and then find out it was correct.

Long story short, know what you’re feeding your pet.  Perhaps even keep a record of pet food lot numbers and UPC codes - it’s not that hard to jot the information on a calendar when you open a new bag of kibble.  Watch your pet, and know your pet—know if something “just ain’t right”, and seek veterinary attention immediately if you think your pet isn’t healthy.  Don’t worry about being paranoid or wasting anyone’s time, just do it.  It’s much better that you waste $50 on blood work for a pet who ends up being healthy, than waiting and waiting until your pet needs $2000 worth of emergency care and ends up dying anyway.  We’re all rushing around and always in a hurry (I know I’m guilty of it, too), but now’s the time to slow down the feeding ritual and to make it something you’re really aware of.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/04 at 09:20 PM
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Wheat gluten importer in Las Vegas

We’re so proud… the importer of the contaminated wheat gluten is right here in Las Vegas!  The company is called ChemNutra, and yesterday they issued a press release stating that the contaminated wheat gluten they imported from China was sent to three pet food manufacturers, and one distributor who supplies the pet food industry.  They didn’t name any of the companies the wheat gluten was sent to, instead telling consumers to check the FDA website for a list of all affected pet foods.

Y’know, this press release doesn’t make me feel that all the contaminated wheat gluten has been accounted for.  If we know that all recalled wet food products were manufactured by Menu Foods, then who are the other two manufacturers involved, and who does the pet food distributor sell to?  I guess one manufacturer would be whomever makes dry Science Diet m/d, but is that the only product they make which uses wheat gluten?  There must be so much more information that we’re not being told, and it’s scary.  It’s also scary that ChemNutra imports a number of other products from China, including taurine, so no matter what type of food we feed (even if we feed homemade), chances are, we’re putting imported and perhaps uninspected ingredients into it.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/04 at 01:55 AM
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Tuesday, April 03, 2007 , the wee hours

An Unlikely Cat Lady

The title of this entry once described me, but in this case, it’s the name of a book by Nina Malkin.  I thought I should review it now because it’s sitting on my desk, and I’m on a book review roll.

The author of An Unlikely Cat Lady is a cat owner in Brooklyn, NY.  She has two indoor cats, but suddenly notices that a colony of ferals has taken up residence in her neighbourhood.  The colony includes kittens, which she tries unsuccessfully to tame, so she learns about TNR.  Eventually, the author traps, neuters, and returns almost the entire colony at her own expense, and provides food and shelter for them.  While I really admire the author for what she did, some of her attitudes frustrated me.  For one thing, it’s awful to follow along as the cats in the colony wander off and vanish (and assumedly die).  I’m not sure what the author could have done about that, although my opinion was that she could have easily tamed the “feral” kittens if she’d just brought them indoors.  Their mother was stray-but-tame, so I’m sure the kittens (less than eight weeks old when first discovered), could have had a better future if not left outside.  This is probably something you learn with experience, but still, it was sad to keep reading as the window for taming the kittens closed, and they became true feral strays.  Most of the adults were perhaps beyond help (although I inferred that the kittens’ mother was also quite tame), but the kittens could have been given a normal life.  By the time the author decides that she loves one of the kittens so much that she wants it to live inside, the cat is far too old to adjust.

My biggest beef with the book was the author’s hatred of a neighbourhood stray male cat, who she names, ”Yeff Smeef”.  Yeff is unneutered, nasty, and probably unhealthy - all descriptions of him suggest that he’s ugly and covered in fight wounds.  While a cat like Yeff would be my pet project (no pun intended), Nina Malkin despises him, chasing him out of her yard, and trying to avoid feeding him.  When she accidentally traps Yeff while doing TNR, she releases him instead of getting him neutered.  This is horribly ironic, given that the point of trapping was to catch a female cat before she could be impregnated by Yeff (the local Lothario).  Yeff always seems frightened and alone when he’s mentioned, and I wanted to reach out and help him myself.  By the end of the book, he’s vanished too, and the author assumes he’s dead.  She actually made plans to trap and neuter Yeff shortly before his disappearance, but she admits that she’s doing it in hopes the neutering clinic will offer to put the cat to sleep instead.

If Nina Malkin had just left out the stuff about Yeff Smeef, I would have enjoyed the book more.  I love dark humour, and don’t even mind the occasional tasteless joke about animals, but I didn’t like reading about someone purposely neglecting an animal need, and enjoying it.  Maybe the author exaggerated her feelings about the cat to make a better story, but it didn’t make it better for me.  If anything, it makes me want to make a donation to a place like Alley Cat Allies, in Yeff Smeef’s memory.  Yeff, if you’d wandered into my yard, I would have tried to save you.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/03 at 02:09 AM
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Monday, April 02, 2007 , evening

Pet food cookbook reviews

I’ve finished reading five different cookbooks for dogs and cats, in my quest to find the perfect pet food recipes.  I’ll give you a quick run-down of the titles I read, and maybe one or two of them will interest you.

  • Whole Pet Diet: Eight Weeks to Great Health for Dogs And Cats by Andi Brown:  This book was my favourite, and I just ordered a copy to send to my mother.  It’s an entire “lifestyle makeover” book for both dogs and cats, and each chapter represents a week in which a pet owner can introduce a new phase of the “makeover”.  One chapter is devoted to making a special vitamin and mineral supplement, one chapter is devoted to dietary change, etc.  Entertaining stories about dogs and cats who were transformed by the recipes in the book are interspersed throughout.  I enjoyed this book because it offers material for both dogs and cats, and because if you want to ignore the eight-week program plan, each chapter still stands on its own and is useful.  In other words, you don’t need to complete the tasks in chapter four to be able to follow the plans in chapter five.  I was thrilled when I realized the book was authored by the inventor of “Spot’s Stew”, because that’s one of my favourite pet foods, and the book contains the simple recipe so I can make my own.  There are a number of other recipes for entrees and treats, but the main Spot’s Stew recipe can form the basis of any dog or cat diet.  All the recipes in the book are for cooked food - the author doesn’t feel the benefits of feeding raw outweigh the risks.  While I haven’t reached any conclusions about whether cooked or raw is better, I currently feel more comfortable preparing cooked food than preparing raw food. 


  • Whole Health for Happy Cats: A Guide to Keeping Your Cat Naturally Healthy, Happy, and Well-Fed by Sandy Arora:  As you can tell by the title, this is a book exclusively for cats, and the author advocates a raw diet.  It’s more than a cookbook though, and is really a “total care” book for cat owners.  There’s lots of thorough information about homeopathic health care, behavioural issues, grooming tips, etc.  I’d definitely recommend it for anyone looking for an all-purpose cat care manual, and it’s full of great photos, too.  There are two chapters about food, including some recipes, and while the author recommends a raw diet, she still gives suggestions on how to choose a good commercial diet, and how to modify the raw diet recipes if you prefer to cook them.  This book is good addition to any pet owner’s library, regardless of what you decide to feed.


  • Real Food for Cats: 50 Vet-Approved Recipes to Please the Feline Gastronome by Patti Delmonte and Anne Davis:  This is a very cute book, full of warm colours and incredible illustrations.  I’d say the illustrations are the star of the book, because they grace every page (here’s a link to the artist’s website).  The problem with the book is that the recipes are not meant to be a complete diet, and are only suggested as occasional treats.  I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t read the introduction to the book (written by a veterinarian), so please keep that in mind if you purchase this title.  You’ll find great recipes for entrees and treats, but since you can’t serve them every day, the book would have to be for someone who enjoys cooking as a hobby.  The section I enjoyed most was one which offered recipes for people, along with the same recipe modified for cats.  For example, you can make Chicken Cordon Bleu for both you and your cat, with the cat recipe containing just some slight modifications.  The book might make a nice gift for someone who enjoys cooking and likes to spoil their cat.  I could see a lot of cats refusing to eat some of these recipes, though - you’d have to give them to a cat who’s a good eater and not fussy about different tastes and textures.


  • Real Food for Dogs: 50 Vet-Approved Recipes to Please the Canine Gastronome by Arden Moore and Anne Davis:  This is the companion guide to the book of recipes for cats, above, and it also features wonderful colours and illustrations.  It’s pretty much the same as the cat recipe book - a variety of recipes, plus some recipes for people, but not something you’re likely to want to cook from on a daily basis.  The book requires so many different ingredients that I consider it more of a novelty item than a feeding guide.  Both the cat and dog book feature a section of recipes for pets with various ailments, like digestive problems, and those recipes might be the most valuable thing (besides the pretty pictures).


  • Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food by Ann Martin:  This last book isn’t a cookbook.  I just realized I’ve been saying that I read five “cookbooks”, when I really just read four, plus this title.  This book is a must-read for pet owners - a look into the pet industry and into bags/cans of pet food.  Some of the information is outdated, but the book has an “update” section in the 2003 edition, so you’ll be able to see how the industry has changed since the book was first published in 1997.  Lots of the information in the book is disturbing (for example, you’ll find out the origin of those old rumours about euthanized dogs and cats being made into food), but it’s important for pet owners to understand the source of what they feed.  I think this book has been credited for influencing positive change in the pet food industry, and as we obviously need change again, this might be a good time for all of us to read up on the subject.  The book does contain some recipes for cooked food diets, as the author is opposed to feeding raw.  I’ve seen criticisms of the recipes, though - someone on Amazon suggested the the calcium/phosphorus ratio in one recipe was incorrect.  So, read the book for the pet food industry information, and consider the recipes a starting point in your research.

The only topic not covered by any of the books above is raw diets for dogs.  For that, I’ve got Carina’s book, Raw Dog Food: Make It Easy for You and Your Dog, as well as Richard Pitcairn’s book, Dr. Pitcairn’s New Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats.  I find parts of Dr. Pitcairn’s book to be a bit “over the top”, but it’s still a valuable reference, and will help foster critical thinking about topics like vaccinations.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/02 at 08:15 PM
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Sunday, April 01, 2007 , early evening

Prevention of Animal Cruelty Month

April is Prevention of Animal Cruelty Month, sponsored by the ASPCA.  I think it’s horrible that we need a special month to remind people to not be cruel to animals, but thank you to the ASPCA for spreading the message.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/01 at 07:54 PM
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Toronto lawyer claims problem with excessive Vitamin D in pet food

My father sent me this story from the Toronto Sun:  Barking up the wrong tree in pet food recall?

In the story, Toronto lawyer David Himelfarb claims that he’s taken samples from hundreds of Royal Canin products in the Toronto area, and test results are consistently showing excessive amounts of vitamin D.  He doesn’t give exact numbers, but I assume the testing is being conducted because Himelfarb is the lawyer leading a $60-million class-action negligence suit against Royal Canin after a recall last year of a number of Royal Canin’s prescription diets.  All the foods recalled contained excessive amounts of vitamin D3 which had led to high calcium levels and renal failure in some pets.  Royal Canin claims that the problem has been remedied, and that the only affected products were seven specific prescription/vet-only diets.  If Himelfarb has actual data, test results, and lot numbers to prove that there are still problematic Royal Canin products on store shelves, I hope he’s planning to release them immediately, and I certainly hope Royal Canin is looking into this as well. 

The story is quite confusing, given that only the Toronto Sun has the specific version I linked above, while other news outlets like the CBC are sharing this story with an oddly-worded headline:  Suit claims pet food maker Royal Canin with deadly amount of Vitamin D.  That version of the story was released about eleven days ago, and makes no reference to Himelfarb’s current allegations.  I can’t figure out if Himelfarb really means that Royal Canin products on the shelves right now still contain excessive vitamin D, or if he means that some of the recent pet deaths could have been of pets who ate Royal Canin last year or early in 2007.  The problems caused by excessive vitamin D3 can take a while to manifest.

The Toronto Sun is a fairly obscure newspaper, at least in American circles, so I thought the first link was worth posting.  The Sun can also be “tabloid-ish”, and I wish the story they published had been more specific about David Himelfarb’s current statements.  I hope some other news agency will get on this story and clarify it as soon as possible.

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Edited on Monday to add:  I’ve emailed the attorney in this story, David Himelfarb, to ask him to clarify his comments.  So far I haven’t had a reply, but if I hear anything, I promise to post about it immediately.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/01 at 08:40 AM
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