Zombie Wednesday

And I will be its mascot.

He was doing so well. I think Andre even let me sleep past 6  Monday morning.

I had scaled back is homemade food-- 6oz/ Bravo and 4oz/ homemade and we added kefir back in on Friday. He was getting much better and letting me sleep later and later. I increased the homemade portion of his meals yesterday by one ounce. ONE OUNCE. Surely that's not the cause of him waking me up every 15-30 minutes starting at around 1:45, after a midnight potty break. Surely that's not it... Right? Ugh. He got play time yesterday. He was crated for a while, but this has never been an issue.

I can only see two ways that the food change might be the cause. One is that it's upsetting his stomach and it's making him antsy. That's not unheard of for him.

The other reason might be the fact that my homemade blend is basically very, very low carb. I add a spoon of pumpkin but that's it. Bravo has quite a bit of veggies. Perhaps he will need less of the homemade once he's totally transitioned. Too much energy from too much food? Is that crazy?

I'm gonna power through. Keep trying the homemade at 5 ounces. Maybe reduce the amount of Bravo so he's getting fewer calories overall.

Lord I'm tired. It's gonna be another loooong day.

Back to the grind

Last night I got back to the grinder.

I chopped up 30lbs of pork hearts (which usually just means splitting them in half) and skinned 5lbs of leg quarters with my new poultry shears from Oxo. I don't think I like the a s much as the Henckels, but if they last longer, then I really can't complain. 

Anyway, prep, grind, packing, labeling, and cleaning the grinder took around an hour and a half. I'm thrilled.

This was the first foray into bones for this machine. Here is the first leg quarter I sent down the chute. All I did was skin it and drop it in. It was glorious.

With my STX, I had to cut a quarter into 3-5 pieces. The only cutting I did on any of these quarters was a notch in between the back and bottom of the thigh on some of them, otherwise, the larger backs got stuck perpendicular at the mouth of the chute. 

So why, you ask, was my hand covering up the output? Let me tell you. When I watched videos of other people using these grinders, they all had their kitchens covered in plastic. I could not figure out what that was about. I've been grinding with my middle of the road grinder for years and I've never needed to plasticize the room.

Yesterday I learned. This thing has so much power, if the meat isn't sufficiently cold (read: almost frozen) or if it backs up and then catches up with itself, it shoots meat out in a most impressive arc. Can you see the splatter on the wall of my bucket?

Now see where River is standing? She's standing there because that's how far it sprayed. She was obviously more than happy to assist with clean-up.

Regardless, I am beyond happy with this thing. The real test will be when I finally do the 40lbs of thighs that are in the freezer.... As it is, I'm running out of containers.

Senior Day at the homestead

Today, since I am off work, I finally had time to take Chester in for some blood work. Before I make such a radical diet change, I wanted to be sure that he didn't have any chronic illness that might need to be dealt with delicately in terms of his diet-- things like kidney or liver disease, or diabetes. He is 10 or 11 years old, which isn't exactly geriatric for a cat, but it's certainly a point where it's a good idea to be aware of common chronic illness and to have a baseline against which to compare future tests. 

The vet did agree that he had some muscle loss in the back end, and he has lost weight, despite still looking huge. And as I mentioned a few days ago, his coat is greasy, coarse and thin. 

He was less than happy about the blood draw, but he hung in there. 

And everything looked perfect. We decided to hold off on a thyroid panel for now, and instead we will try increasing his protein--moisture rich protein, meaning an all canned, low-carb or carb-free, diet, or raw. This vet is newer at the clinic, but she didn't give me any grief about the diet change. 

I will still be monitoring his urine pH using the color-change litter as we move forward.

Now on the canine side of the family, River has been mopey lately. She's seemed uncomfortable, reluctant to come up the stairs or to jump on the bed; she's been clingy and needy. Her coat is a bit dry and dandruffy. She has some arthritis in a front leg, and she has some scar tissue from a puncture wound on her hip, so she already gets high dose glucosamine  and chondroitin, MSM, and salmon oil. 

For River, we discussed potential thyroid problems (she also has a hard time losing weight), and possible increased pain from the arthritis. We have decided to hold off on the thyroid panel for her, as well, and will opt to ramp up arthritis treatment with Adequan injections. Adequan is similar to glucosamine, as I understand it; it is another building block for joint health. You do a 2week, 4 injection loading dose, and follow with, usually, once monthly injections thereafter. 

When our old man, a lab mix Simon, took these treatments, it was miraculous. He would begin the day unable to stand in one place long enough to eat breakfast, and end it running to greet me at the door. He began by getting the shots every 6-8 weeks, but eventually took them every 2 weeks. I feel that they were the single most important piece of his treatment puzzle and helped him live happily to 16 years old. Tramadol (Ultram) was the second most important. Neither of those treatments have many side effects. Simon had some nausea with the Adequan and some constipation with the Tramadol, but those were short-lived and worth the benefits. Since Tramadol is, despite it's safety, still a synthetic narcotic, I'm starting with the nutraceutical before the pharmaceutical. 

So far, it looks like River is having some nausea, maybe, but she still enjoyed her outing with me this morning. So she gets to rest all afternoon. She's earned it. It's sort of strange for me, though. I still think of her as our young, Emo, drama queen pup. She's also 9 or 10, and her body is telling me that she's older than I want to believe she is. So here's hoping we're starting these interventions early enough. It's one regret I had with Simon-- that I waited too long to give him the quality of life he could have enjoyed sooner. You live and learn, though. And that's what we're doing.

When sleeping dogs won't lie...

Honestly.

This damn dog. Sleeping peacefully now...

Wasn't so serene at 2:20 this morning. Or 3. Or at 4:20.

He finally wore me down sometime after 4:30.

I don't know if it's the diet change, or the fact that we've been busier lately, or if he's just decided that snuggled up by himself on the couch with me is the place to be. I don't know. But who could say no to this face?

Actually, me. I can. It's the non-stop licking, mouthing and jumping on my face that I can't say no to.

All I know is I will need extra coffee, and it's going to be a long day.

Speaking of diet change, we made a pretty swift jump from Bravo to half turkey thighs, beef hearts, and beef kidneys. He's been getting about 2/3 homemade, and a few ounces of Bravo.

However, he's a wild child lately; he's taking FOREVER to decide to poop in the mornings or evenings. And he seems more interested in the other dogs' poop lately.

I'm hoping this is a combination of our busy schedule, less filler (so less voluminous and less frequent poop), and a slightly too swift transition. I'm going to back up and move a bit slower. Plus, I have 30lbs of pork hearts to contend with this weekend, 10lbs of pork liver, some beef liver... A whole lot.

On top of all this, we've put Luna on a chicken-less diet, as well, to see if her allergies ease up. She was on the lamb Taste of the Wild as a puppy, but has had chicken in her diet ever since. Here's hoping...

Woman Meets Machine

Oh yes. The Weston #22. I ordered it.

And it arrived. All 66lbs of it. It weighs more than Dre, who is modeling it for you here.

Today, I finally took it for an light first run.

I spent around 15-20 minutes quartering some beef hearts (15lbs), kidneys (6lbs), a tongue (2lbs) and a pork sirloin (2lbs).

Here's the hearts. I won't play the entire video, but you can see how quickly it works.

That amount of food took me less than 10 minutes. LESS THAN 10 MINUTES.

Then the cleanup. It was glorious. Roughly 15 minutes, and that will get quicker over time.

Hardly anything left on the auger, though a thin film of suet was evident.

I am totally in love. I'll run some bones through it soon. So quiet. So simple.

So glorious.

Kitty Konfession

This morning, I am curled up on the couch as I am every morning, drinking my coffee. And since it's the weekend-- the last weekend day before I go back to work after the holidays-- the black dogs have toy time... And Chester Pete is perched up here on the couch with me.

And here is where I make my confession. 

My cats eat crap. There. I said it. They eat crap. 

Years ago, I got them to eat good dry kibble. Grain free, high protein, and high calorie. But somewhere along the line, Big Pete here became overweight and developed osteoarthritis in one of his knees. And he's not that old. So we put everyone on scheduled feelings, which meant adding canned food to entice eating in one sitting. That took a long time. And the only canned food that they loved was Soulistics, which is basically Weruva rebranded for Petco. Unfortunately, it's high in fish. 

Back then, I didn't know anything about struvite crystals. In dogs, they are primarily a result of a urinary tract infection; in cats, it's much more tied to diet (tuna=bad) and other factors that increase the likelihood of having them. Like being overweight. 

One day, my chow hound Chester stopped eating. Just stopped. I don't know what made me think to do this, but I locked him in a room by himself with a litter box and food. I enticed him to drink some water (by adding broth) and after a while, I realized he wasn't peeing. He would sit in the box and nothing would happen.

So off to the vet we went. Where I found out that crystals in male cats are serious business. His urinary tract had completely blocked and he was backing up. They put in a catheter, flushed his bladder, dislodged the crystals and mucus, and sent him home with an open catheter and special food. 

Let me say that again. An open. catheter. 

He was dripping bloody pee for a full week, on a steady drip. He ate crystal dissolving food and then went onto a maintenance prescription food. I read a lot of info about raw and while I felt in my head it would be the best thing for him, my nervous temperament doesn't want to rock the boat on a life threatening condition. 

Then 2 of the other cats (females) developed crystals, so we switched them to the Rx food and added Fancy Feast classic food. It's surprisingly, basically, grain free, low carb, high protein, high calorie. We tried every single other good food with no luck. And then my picky allergy grazer Birdie went on strike. We'd kept her on high quality kibble since she did so much better on it, but she stopped wanting it. So she now gets Royal Canin sensitive stomach formula and Fancy Feast. Her coat isn't nice, but she's not throwing up.

Eventually, I became of the opinion that the stress of trying to force them to eat "good" food was worse for them than the bad food. And I'm still of that opinion. 

So that brings me back to today. Chester is sitting here with me, and I'm petting him. He's still overweight, though less than he used to be. Thing is, I feed him as little as I can. And he's fat, but I can feel his backbone. He had an arthritis flare up a while back. His coat is greasy and coarse at the same time. He's losing muscle mass, retaining fat, and not gettingt he right nutrition for his coat. I won't go into how crappy the ingredients of that dry food is, but 

I think it's time. He's only 11-- our oldest cat is 17or 18. Monitoring urine is more difficult with cats, but they make the special litter for that. I can isolate him with that litter periodically to check. 

Today, I order the good grinder. I'll go back to the catinfo.org website and revisit the needs for cats, as they are different and more restrictive. I won't push it if they get stressed. Or if I get too stressed. 

They're all eating and doing well, so I hate to screw that up. But it's time. 

New year, new foods

In looking back on 2013 and forward to 2014, one thing is clear. Andre has been very adventurous.

No, he didn't get any New Year's Day mimosas. Or cinnamon rolls. Or coffee.

But he did try a lot of new foods, some were good, some were bad. We've detailed most of the bad here. But we've had some successes lately.

He got to have a bite of duck on Christmas day.

The big guy handled turkey necks with drumstick meat very well. So we tried Texas Tripe's turkey/pork blend (ground drumsticks with pork hearts and liver), and after an initial disappointment, we tried transitioning very slowly, and adding veggies (but not too many) to better mimic what Bravo does.

And since that was a success, we tried a beef organ blend from Texas Tripe. Beef liver, spleen, kidney... maybe some other stuff? He has had an ounce of that with each meal for 4 days. All good.

This morning, we started plain ground beef. Grain-fed, but local and otherwise antibiotic/hormone free. So we are starting with 1-1.5 ounces per meal and we'll go for 3-4 days before increasing the amount. Here's hoping!

Apparently, at some point, he ate a plastic bag. It was my super surprise on New Year's Eve. Happy new year to me.

We also added better probiotics-- Jarrow's Pet Dopholus.

All in all, Andre has been with us a little over a year now. He's had 3 surgeries, been through countless foods and supplements. But we ultimately found things that work and he has gained a whopping 20 lbs. FINALLY. He's huge.

So let's do this, 2014. I have high hopes for variety in Andre's future.