Showing posts with label Feline hyperesthesia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Feline hyperesthesia. Show all posts

Sunday, 8 December 2013

Charlie cat: Fat boy slim

Charlie at his new door.


Several weeks passed with Charlie wearing his wrist watch around his neck and little or no fits occurred. His lower back was still very sore and dry, impossible to touch as it would send him on a fit again. His chicken diet was rather costly but we think he is worth it. His weight however seemed to be gaining rather than dwindling, if only we could place a small camera around his neck to see how many houses he was taking food from. 

I spoke to a few of our neighbours to ask if they would not leave food out for him and I even placed a big note on his collar stating: ‘NO FOOD PLEASE, I’M ILL!’ which he managed to remove regularly. All this seemed to have no effect at all: his chicken portions were getting smaller yet his waist was getting bigger! There were times Charlie would have an episode that was hard to contain soon after returning home. He had probably eaten something outside that upset him. I tried giving him more chicken, hoping he would have his fill and not go scrounging….. alas, I found him struggling to waddle home full to bursting, he even stopped jumping over the fence; too much effort for the fat boy. Toffee cat next door stopped running away from him, he just meandered as Charlie was soooo slow at chasing him.

He had taken to sitting outside the cat flap waiting for us to open the door for him; surely he was not so fat he struggled to fit through? I felt mean reducing Charlie’s chicken portions to barley nothing but each time I consoled myself by saying, ‘it was only a prelude to his other meals outside.’

The final straw came when I observed Charlie push his head through the cat flap to come in then watched in horror and amusement as his front legs then turned backwards to push against the sides of the flap in order to force his bulging stomach to follow with a thud: Our cat was so obese he no longer fitted through the cat flap!

There was nothing else for it………… A gastric band was a bit drastic so Charlie cat would have to have a small DOG flap fitted if he was to come and go freely!

Saturday, 30 November 2013

Charlie cat's new wrist watch.



Removing the strap from Charlie’s new watch was quite easy, threading Charlie’s collar back through the watch then back across the other side was a little more fiddly but I managed. It was only at this point did it cross my mind that Charlie had never worn a collar! Maybe he would not tolerate it… 
With Mr. Bean ticking beside him I crept up and swiftly placed the collar around his neck, he sat still whilst I adjusted the size to allow the watch to sit close to his ear. Just one shake of his head then back to sleep for Charlie. It seems the collar did not bother him at all.


I removed Mr. Bean and waited…………. Half an hour passed with no grooming or scratching and he was still docile…..It worked.


Dear Charlie spent most of the next two weeks catching up on much needed sleep, just surfacing for food or the call of nature. During this time, Harry cat tentatively approached him with very little reaction, the house was calm and stress free for the first time since Charlies' arrival!


Now that he had his ‘Tick-Tock Collar’ on it did not take long for me to realise how different foods were sending him twitchy too: the tinned food he came with was not good so I tried some organic tinned food – still not good, fish was a huge mistake, he reacted to that immediately. Rice and chicken was good but he was soon throwing the rice back up, this left him with the exciting diet of…..Chicken and more chicken. 
Luckily Charlie will eat anything you put in front of him so he never complained. I added the vitamins and minerals he needed to bring him and especially his skin back to a good condition with a supplement powder in his chicken, but just a quarter of a tea spoon as anymore would send him twitching again.


Things were looking up for Charlie.