lethological_lassie: lethological_lassie: The Ice Queen: mousiebelle: Well, Cassie is at the vet. Her breathing didn't sound so great again this morning and I'd much rather have her see the regular vet than go see the e-vet over the weekend. They said they were going to do chest x-rays and let me know what they find. I'm worried... I'll let you know what happens.

Hope everything turns out ok.

George was like this Labor Day weekend. He had pneumonia but some antibiotics later, he was running around and farting like he usually does.

Yes, I said fart, He begs for you to pick him up and then he farts on you.

fart

That little stinker! :P

Apologies to akimbotoo for not scrolling down before replying and thinking I was funny. Glad it happened in Caturday instead o the politics thread so I'll likely be forgiven. :)


No apology needed! We're better than family here! We rarely argue!

My Daisy Mae, wondering what I'm doing now.

Tomorrow is going to be fun! Half-marathon. I'm not going for time, just going to finish. It'll be fun. Still have this little cold, but I've been working towards this event since April. I'll be fine.

I_fling_poo: [farm9.staticflickr.com image 374x500]
My Daisy Mae, wondering what I'm doing now.

Tomorrow is going to be fun! Half-marathon. I'm not going for time, just going to finish. It'll be fun. Still have this little cold, but I've been working towards this event since April. I'll be fine.

Good luck! I've done a couple of 5ks, but a half marathon is quite beyond me!

quantum_jellyroll: spinach gunk:
Cold turkey. It was the right time. I knew I really had to be ready for it, and had to WANT to do it, and I was. The night before, I'd had a bad panic attack, and I think it knocked something loose in my brain.

I had to have anterior spinal fusion of the 6th & 7th cervical vertebrae in 2002..
They actually go in through the front of the throat, shove everything aside, and work from the front.,
they then insert a thin slab of bone between the two vertebrae then screw a titanium "dog bone"
to the two vertebrae to hold stuff in place.

The bone fuses over time and becomes one big piece.
However, smoking prevents it from knitting together and it has to be re-done.
I quit two days before and never needed any other incentive other than not getting my
throat sliced open again. 

Hang in there Spinach, we're all pulling for you!

yep, i've got two of those, c3-c4 and c4-c5.you can barely see the scar anymore, doc did a great stitch job.

SG, just keep on keepin'on. Count every day, every hour, as a victory. I smoked 1-2 packs per day for over 20 years. Quit on Christmas day 1995 and never looked back. I'm proof that it can be done.

All you folks who are quitting/have quit smoking:
Me hat's off to yer.

From what I hear, it is one of the HARDEST things to which you can choose to say "No no no no, I don't do that no more".

Hang in there. Your body (and your family and friends) will thank you.

MajorGroove: Toshiro update: He has neither an infection nor an obstruction. He has Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, aka nonspecific irritation of his bladder. His prescription? A special urinary tract diet. . .including MUCH more wet food. Not surprisingly, he has no problem with this! Anyway, the upshot is that he should be fine. Still thinking good thoughts for all the other kitties!!!

Witness the "give me wet food" face:

farm6.staticflickr.com



Glad to hear some good news. I hope he's happy with his new diet.

MajorGroove: Toshiro update: He has neither an infection nor an obstruction. He has Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, aka nonspecific irritation of his bladder. His prescription? A special urinary tract diet. . .including MUCH more wet food. Not surprisingly, he has no problem with this! Anyway, the upshot is that he should be fine. Still thinking good thoughts for all the other kitties!!!

Witness the "give me wet food" face:

[farm6.staticflickr.com image 640x480]

MajorGroove: Toshiro update: He has neither an infection nor an obstruction. He has Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, aka nonspecific irritation of his bladder. His prescription? A special urinary tract diet. . .including MUCH more wet food. Not surprisingly, he has no problem with this! Anyway, the upshot is that he should be fine. Still thinking good thoughts for all the other kitties!!!

Witness the "give me wet food" face:

[farm6.staticflickr.com image 640x480]

My Cassie was diagnosed with a non-specific bladder inflammation. Rather than put her on a special diet, my vet recommended putting her on glucosamine. I use the GNC cat Glucosamine that I found at PetSmart - you (carefully) take the capsule apart and mix it into gooshies. I say carefully because I ended up with glucosamine powder all over heck and back the first few times :) They recommended 6 weeks of one capsule twice a day and then decreasing to one capsule once a day from then on. It's now been a year since we've had any problems at all!!! I do have them on Wellness Core dry food & Wellness grain-free wet food twice a day, so I suppose some might consider that a more special diet. I've found both cats do a lot better with grain-free food. However, I highly suggest adding the glucosamine into Toshiro's diet. I still can't completely believe how much of a difference it's made for Cassie. Before the vet here figured out what was really going on, we spent most of a year in and out of a different vet's office with Cassie on lots of antibiotics, sometimes multiple antibiotics at the same time and for long amounts of time. Like I said, this week we hit the one year mark since she had any urinary issues. Glucosamine is a very small price to pay compared to all the vet visits and cleaning and everything else that came along with her urinary issues!

Wow... I feel like that was really rambly. Sorry about that.

MajorGroove: Mousiebelle: thanks for the info, I will look into it! I have no idea why Toshiro's got his issues; the vet was saying stress often plays a role, but he lives a pretty damn stress-free life. We'll see how the diet goes. . .he LOVES his new gooshy noms, and I'm pretty damn sure he'll eat anything mixed in it. ;-) And mercifully, Toshiro would rather perish than pee outside his box. It's just that when you're in and out of the box 30+ times per day, you kick a LOT of litter out!

We have no clue what happened with Cassie, either. I had tried different kinds of food, but her tests always came back w/o crystals & normal pH & everything else they check for with urinary tract problems. X-rays of her abdomen also were normal. It wasn't until we moved & went to a new vet that we finally got the correct diagnosis. It was such a relief to just now what was going on! Our vet here is amazing :) Oh, just as an aside - the cats had been switched to the Wellness food for a little over 6 months before we were told about the glucosamine, so it wasn't the food that caused or fixed the problem.... pretty obviously the glucosamine was the cure. I hope Toshiro feels better quickly!!!

akimbotoo: lethological_lassie: lethological_lassie: The Ice Queen: mousiebelle: Well, Cassie is at the vet. Her breathing didn't sound so great again this morning and I'd much rather have her see the regular vet than go see the e-vet over the weekend. They said they were going to do chest x-rays and let me know what they find. I'm worried... I'll let you know what happens.

Hope everything turns out ok.

George was like this Labor Day weekend. He had pneumonia but some antibiotics later, he was running around and farting like he usually does.

Yes, I said fart, He begs for you to pick him up and then he farts on you.

fart

That little stinker! :P

Apologies to akimbotoo for not scrolling down before replying and thinking I was funny. Glad it happened in Caturday instead o the politics thread so I'll likely be forgiven. :)


No apology needed! We're better than family here! We rarely argue!

:) Thanks and skritches to your furry owners.

MajorGroove: Toshiro update: He has neither an infection nor an obstruction. He has Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, aka nonspecific irritation of his bladder. His prescription? A special urinary tract diet. . .including MUCH more wet food. Not surprisingly, he has no problem with this! Anyway, the upshot is that he should be fine. Still thinking good thoughts for all the other kitties!!!

Witness the "give me wet food" face:

That is good news, given the apparent manageability. It's nice when the treatment is something kitty can agree with! Thanks for updating us!

mousiebelle: We're home! Cassie seems to be feeling a lot better with the steroid injection. Hopefully between that and the antibiotic, this weekend will go smoothly. She was a very good girl & they didn't even have to sedate her to get the x-rays taken! She got treats for being soooo good! The specialist will get her x-rays tonight and will let me know Monday what he thinks. Really hoping it's just asthma.........

Aww, glad to hear she's feeling better. Hopefully it's only a temporary bug or something that will be easy to manage over the longer term if necessary. Good girl Cassie! *purr purr snuggle* Hope you'll be all better soon! :)

The Ice Queen: He does the Puss in Boots face and the "I'm so cute" poses. So I finally pick him up and start scritching his ears and chin. Then you hear this prolonged sound, like air escaping from a balloon squeal and I knew I had been played.

LMAO! :)

quantum_jellyroll: I had to have anterior spinal fusion of the 6th & 7th cervical vertebrae in 2002..
They actually go in through the front of the throat, shove everything aside, and work from the front.,
they then insert a thin slab of bone between the two vertebrae then screw a titanium "dog bone"
to the two vertebrae to hold stuff in place.

The bone fuses over time and becomes one big piece.
However, smoking prevents it from knitting together and it has to be re-done.
I quit two days before and never needed any other incentive other than not getting my
throat sliced open again. 

Hang in there Spinach, we're all pulling for you!

Jeezis farking Christ! :-0
Wow. That's an incentive to quit forever if I ever heard one.
Kudos to you, both for staying quit for 10 years, and for surviving that surgery!

And thank you for the encouragement. It helps.

Thank you EVERYONE for all your encouragement and kicking the habit stories!

Kudos to all who have been successful in their quitting efforts.



Whether you've quit or or trying to quit or still smoke or never smoked, I adore you all for being so supportive! :)

Cats and firefighters!





Sometimes the cat is the firefighter.

MajorGroove: Toshiro update: He has neither an infection nor an obstruction. He has Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, aka nonspecific irritation of his bladder. His prescription? A special urinary tract diet. . .including MUCH more wet food. Not surprisingly, he has no problem with this! Anyway, the upshot is that he should be fine

Yayy! Glad to hear he'll be OK. Nice to have a remedy that's easy to swallow (literally and figuratively!). Mmm, gooshyfood. :)

A PS I did of the handsome Toshiro as Longcat from a few years ago:

Linger: Nice run of classic lols! Very chuckle-worthy.

You may recognize this one....

laulaja: Can add nix to the smoking commentary. Did briefly, early in college (anyone else recall those pricey English Ovals? no filter, in white cardboard boxes?).
[i.imgur.com image 640x480]
maynerdkitty fetched this in the Ago, didn't save who cat was/may still be, unless by dumb luck it might be the original Maynerd she took her fark ID from.
It Rains now here, should be good sleeping wx. Front swooped down from O Canada, bringing much lower temps & rain behind it. See all y'all & more in the daylight.

That is my daughter and son-in=laws kittie, Opie. They adopted two black shelter kitties, the male was named Optimus Prime so they called him OP. They named the little girl Ivory. Opie is grew into a huge kitty and Ivory is a little delicate thing. He has the brown mottling in his coat that only shows up in bright sunlight. He grew so fast and so large that I suspect he may be part pixie bob.

I brought some cookies for breakfast, they are lovely with coffee or tea.

And a kitty. Tom telling me he wants to go out.

Cookies, you say? I do hope you share with the kittehs. Kittehs love cookies.