A Felix Update

Felix gets his own post because I tried adding it to my next post and it just got too long. If you don't do cats and their ailments, feel free to skip.

Ninja practice?

To recap the baby cat's December adventures:

December 3 or 4, Felix started vomiting blood. He went to the vet that week, who couldn't find anything on the x-rays to explain it other than he had a lot of gas in his intestines. He got an anti-nausea shot, a pepcid shot, dewormed, and fluids under the skin. He went back the next day for a repeat of the anti-nausea and pepcid shots and more fluids.

He was good until the next Sunday (December 11), when I took him to the emergency vet for vomiting a lot of blood about every hour. They did more of the same (no obstructions, just gas, more shots and a hefty bill), and on the way home the liquid diarrhea started. By this point, we had acquired a large dog crate from a neighbor friend and Felix was spending his time in there because it's hard to clean blood vomit and diarrhea out of the carpet. He went to the vet every day for the next 3 days for more fluids and shots, plus a few more x-rays. Work was a godsend that week- they let me work from home to properly medicate Felix who was on 3 different medicines that couldn't be given near each other and had to be given once a day, every 12 hours, and every 8 hours.

He doesn't hate it.

He was good for about a week and a half and we started letting him out of his crate unsupervised, and then the vomiting started again after he was free all Christmas weekend (we felt bad locking him up for 36 hours while we were gone). We noticed that he was eating his cat litter (World's Best Litter, corn based), before this vomiting blood episode. He went back to the vet, who took more x-rays (I swear, this cat is going to be radioactive), and found that his intestines all looked good, but his stomach wall had thickened to be about 4x thicker than it should be. They did what was now 'the usual', aka shots and things, and Felix came home with the order that if he throws up again, bring him back immediately for another x-ray to see if there is a moving blockage that keeps vanishing on the x-rays. They also recommended changing his food to something for sensitive stomachs. I decided at this point to give Felix a Pepcid pill (for the stomach), a vitamin (since he may have a mineral deficiency causing him to eat litter sporadically), and a probiotic (for his very sensitive gut), on a daily basis.

Around New Years, we got a cat fountain for all the cats because Sophie seemed to have a UTI, and all of the cats seem to enjoy drinking out of the tap (which is how this one flows). The TLDR version is that the cats' vet wasn't making it easy (or cheap) to get Sophie antibiotics, so I ended up getting them from Penn's vet after explaining everything my reasoning (don't forget that equine vets had small animal care too in their schooling!). We also started everyone on a dry food AM /wet food PM diet to help all of them (especially Sophie) get more fluids.

He's pretty good about not playing in it.

Felix started throwing up again on 1/2. By this point, Husband and I were very frustrated because we had been careful to not let him out of his crate unsupervised (so no eating funny things), and the vet never seemed to make any progress on the matter. We decided instead of taking him to the vet, since he's locked up and still looking frisky and hungry, we were going to keep throwing food at him in small doses, even if it comes back up. We were also going to try to keep food in front of him for as long as possible (so his stomach acid is always working on something and he doesn't bolt his food, and screw it if he gets too heavy). Throwing food at him seemed to work, the vomiting was done in one day.

Cue internet searching on the bus ride to work the next day. FYI, don't google chronic cat vomiting- it only pulls up IBD and lymphoma and is very negative. Cue being extremely upset in public, because both are only diagnosed by major surgery to take a full intestinal wall sample, and both are not easily treated since it takes powerful drugs to fix either of them and those can have disastrous side effects.

Luckily, still frisky.

I did some research on alternative treatments and found sensitive gut kitties seem to do well on a raw food diet (something I was not keen to take on because of the amount of work it takes to make it affordable). I decided to try RAD Raw Cat Food for Felix, available at a local but strange pet food store. Felix seemed to gobble it up no problem, so he's doing normal wet food in the AM, and raw food in the PM, with the goal of making the switch to all raw food. Apparently the meat sits longer in his stomach because it's more complex to break down than normal food (so his stomach acid is always working on something) and his poops should become less in volume, less in smell, and more pellet-like. Sure, let's give that a whirl.

I got two more containers of the Turkey for him on Saturday, and that's when I realized just how expensive it was. Felix should get 3-3.5oz twice a day of this food... I got 32oz of food in two 16oz containers to the tune of just under $22 from our local store (who I'm 99% sure has the best price even though I drive 40 min to get there- everywhere else charges about a $1 more with large surcharges for shipping frozen). It says that kittens may eat 3-4 times the normal adult amount (so let's just call it 4oz twice a day for Felix because he is positively ravenous these days and has been since this vomiting thing started), my $22 only buys food for 4 days. A month would cost me $165. Penn doesn't even get $165 worth of supplements monthly.

I feel like I should cook it and eat it myself for that price!

The store gave me a couple freeze dried samples of other brands they carry, one of which was Stella & Chewy's Freeze Dried Turkey Morsels. They're not raw per se, but they are the same 98% meat with zero grains and fillers (which is really what we need anyway). The package said I could feed them dry or wetted, so for shits and giggles, I fed them to him dry like a treat. Holy cow, he ripped them out of my fingers. I gave him a couple nuggets and gave the girls each a nugget. He gobbled his nuggets down, then stole each of the girl's since they were just playing with them. I fed him the rest of the sample bag (after which he went to the fountain and got a good long drink).

I ordered a bag of that ($30 for 18oz) and we'll see how far that goes in meals. It really bothers me that these bags will list the weight in ounces, and then tell you to serve cups, and won't tell you how many servings you get out of the bag or how many ounces a cup of their food weighs. Oh well, we're still experimenting in how to make this affordable. I'm wondering how easy a grocery purchased, homemade turkey raw diet would be? I want to stay away from beef and fish for sure (allergy reasons), and probably away from chicken, so that leaves not as common foods like goose, turkey, rabbit, venison, etc.

Or maybe I will try making raw food myself- this website makes it really easy, and gives a turkey substitute. I would just need a very expensive grinder... but I could freeze it immediately into ice cubes and then thaw them one meal at a time... Husband, start looking for that deep freezer!

Knock on wood, things seem to be going well for Felix. He's not crazy about his wet food, but he loves the raw food and licks the bowl clean every evening. He's a champ about taking his pepcid and vitamin every day (down the throat since he won't eat it in his food). Just want my little guy to feel better, and stay feeling better!

If it goes downhill again, I'm going to call a not-so-local holistic vet to get his opinion on what to do. Traditional couldn't fix the vomiting, and if he develops IBD (which can develop into lymphoma), we're going to be up a creek with a very young cat.

The "normal" cats.

Anybody ever do raw food for their cats (or dogs)? Did you make it yourself or buy premade?

Meet Felix!

I said last week that we have been casually looking for a third cat. We're happy with our two girls, but the house was nice an full before we lost Nickels. My husband said it had to be a male (to even out the genders in the house, bah! I wanted another calico girl to confuse with the other two, but I lost on that front). I wanted it to be another Manx mix. I love the wiggly tails!

Felix loves the big cat tree! Husband hand made it for Nickels when Nickels was a wee hell raising kitten.

I put out a feeler with the shelter group that we got Penny from- no hurry, but when you have a manx come through, let us know. Well they got back to me much faster than I anticipated. I thought we had a few months, but they got a brother and sister within weeks.

Side note: Please donate what you can to shelters. We met and adopted Penny through Petsmart- the Petsmarts in our area partner with local shelters to help adopt cats. Penny had been fostered and then sent to Petsmart for exposure to be adopted. This time around, the kittens had been fostered and then placed with the shelter to be adopted. This shelter needs all the help they can get- they have very limited space (that really isn't all that pretty) for both dogs and cats, and it looks like they could use things like organizational systems, more volunteers, and better building. Unfortunately, they're over an hour from me so I can't go volunteer, but I do donate to them through Amazon Smile (my parents do too!). I can't do anything about the shelter space, but I can send food and items like fans up- they are close enough to the barn that I could go on a Saturday to drop things off. Anyway, I went back to this group because they do good work in getting animals in foster homes before adopting them out- Penny was far better adjusted to house life and living with humans than Nickels was (and he came from a pretty ritzy shelter).

We went up the shelter and met the little boy kitten last Friday- he was a bit timid, but willing to be snuggled and purred up a storm. The shelter was loud (dogs barking) with no real quiet meeting area, so we thought he was probably just overwhelmed by going from house to loud shelter and having strangers take care of him, etc.

Arrangements were made for us to pick him up from a local Petsmart on Tuesday- Husband was going to cut it really close if he had to drive to the shelter before closing time. I couldn't make it to the shelter at all, so they opted to drop him off with some other kittens so we would have a little more flexibility with the timing.

We got a couple new things for him- his information card said that he liked kitty hammocks for sleeping, and don't you know it, right in front of his cage was a scratching post/hammock combo for $26 (which I then got another $2 off because of adoption coupons!). A new tag, a collar, and his own brand new catnip carrot toy (we have a very chewed banana and pepper- they're canvas toys filled with catnip that hold up well to excessive biting, scratching, and licking- seriously, the pepper is stained because Penny licked it to the point of soppyness).

We kitten proofed the spare bedroom and put a screen door in the place of the real door. We used this method to introduce Penny and Nickels- Nickels wanted to kill her and it let them sniff and exchange smells without any danger to Penny.

'Sploring!

Felix was super timid and scared when we finally let him out of the cat carrier. Husband and I had to sit very quietly on the twin beds in the room before he'd come out from behind the curtains or out from under the bed. He'd hide immediately if one of us moved or talked. The girls didn't help much either- Sophie wants to kill him and Penny just tags along.

Passive watcher behind, aggressive hunter up front.

Both girls came right up to the door- Sophie started her mountain lion growl and hissing. Penny was being super polite until that point. Though it was hilarious- Sophie is growling and hissing at Felix, and Penny turned and growled at hissed at Sophie!

Just before his leap onto the giant plush bear! I missed it! He landed in the bear and it just enveloped him, haha.

I pulled out a favorite feathery toy to help encourage him to be braver about the space, and he was all over it.

When the girls lost interest in him, he finally went over to the door to have a better look around.

Which he then climbed.

Husband hooked up an extra back up camera to our security system so we could keep an eye on Felix while we're at work. Originally it was going to look in the door so we could see any harassment that was happening, but it just didn't work out. Instead I had an excellent view of Felix sleeping in the cat tree all day Wednesday.

I'm hoping the wall doesn't back up!

I caught him snuggling the bear!

He's coming around and losing his shyness- he wanted some hugs Wednesday morning before we went to work. He's quite chatty too. If he wants anything, mew mew mew mew! He's excellent about keeping his claws to himself too. I've found that cats that spend extra time with mom are MUCH better about this kind of thing (they just don't learn it from human moms). Penny and Felix did, and they seem very respectful. I'm fairly sure Sophie did too because I picked her up off the street, so that was probably self weaning instead of human intervention. Nickels didn't go to a foster home and was without his mom by 9-10 weeks old. He clawed us up like hell.

Anyway, Felix is becoming a purring love bug! He's not afraid of me and Husband anymore, and is slowly gaining confidence. He explored the house Wednesday evening - without me locking up the girls. Sophie is still growling up a storm, but it seems to be an, "I'm in charge here" type thing that she reminds him of every five seconds, not an actual "I'm gonna eat you!" type. Penny just oversees it all and reminds everyone that while they may be a little princess and prince, she's the Queen!

Sharing space! 

So much cuteness!

Snow Storm Activities

I'm just going to bombard everyone with pictures from the last couple days.

I worked from home Friday. Migraine + Snow Storm = Work At Home. My coworkers for the day were great.

Nickels was extra active and perky.

Penny slept in a fish.

Sophie slept next to me on the couch.
She sleeps extra soundly and that means I can mess with her, hehe.

Then I went to the barn at the start of snow storm Jonas. When I left, I debated if that was a smart idea. My Mom went with me. 28 years old, and I'm still dragging my mom to the barn like a little kid.

About an hour into the snow fall, on my way to pick up Mom.

I had a good ride! It's the first time I'd ridden Penn in about two weeks since I've been sick and then it was just too cold to ride. His trot work was excellent, there wasn't too much to nit pick. His canter needs work though- it was particularly bad- not through, tense, not going to the outside rein, rushy. I'm going to have to work it quite a bit before the show next weekend. Hopefully it was just bad since he'd been off for 5 days! I'm sure the below didn't help:

I have no idea how he did this. He's sound and not swollen. It is quite tender though- he didn't like me wiping/dabbing it and then spraying it with Aluspray.

The only thing I can think of is that his blanket hind leg surcingles got tugged on or pulled by another horse and the metal buckle that determines the length of the strap dug into him. The fields are very clean and tidy, I can only assume it was his poor social skills at work.

I'm glad I bought a blue version for horse shows.

Mom and I headed home. The roads weren't too bad, but they weren't great. I dropped Mom off and got back to my house in one piece! Or the same number of pieces we started with, haha.

Waiting at a traffic light.

In front of my house.

I woke up to this face Saturday morning:

Penny Snugglepus!

Husband and I cleared the driveway, but first we took Sophie outside for her first snow walk!

Not a fan.

I say Husband and I... meaning I cleared enough to get my car out and went to the barn while he finished up with the plow!

Fiction and Penn digging for grass. Well they were when I got my phone out. Fiction was like, "Human! Food for me?"

I opted to take Penn for his first snow ride instead of doing real work inside. We still did work, but we did it in the outdoor with the snow. I kept it short because I still insisted he work over his back and I know slogging through the snow is hard work... which was the point- he has to lift his feet and he has to lift his back too- so absolutely no sitting the trot. I let the snow slow his tempo and I focused on keeping our balance because I didn't want him to accidentally biff it and then both of us eat snow. Walk-trot-canter each way. He found an awesome trot to the right- I saw his knees lifting out in front of his shoulders and he had a great feel. He had a hard time supporting the left lead canter and his balance in the snow- however that could have been because it was the last thing I tackled.

A great view!

Walking around the track we wore in the outdoor.

Trying to make him round up so I can get a nice pic of him working.

I ventured out to the grocery store after the barn (I know, you're supposed to go BEFORE the storm. I do things backwards). I decided to get some chocolate chips (in addition to other staples) because Husband really likes chocolate chip cookies, and since he finished my trailer, I figured I'd bake him some cookies.

She begged the whole time. Like a dog.

Husband and I are taking the trailer back to the barn Sunday. I've got a bunch of pictures, but I'm missing some shots of it in the dark. I'll have to get pics of it lite up like a Christmas tree next weekend when we park it in the dark after the next horse show! :-)

Christmas Weekend

I hope everyone had a good holiday! I enjoyed staying home (for once) and over indulging in tasty holiday food (a holiday requirement).

We have a ton of stockings, and none of them match. A couple weeks ago, Husband and I bought new stockings at Walmart, along with a way to label them all. Husband's sister has stockings with everyone's first letter (2 humans, 3 cats) and they looked so nice that we wanted to do something similar.

Here's what I opted to make: different color stockings with charms and bells and wood beads with the animal's name (the humans got big stockings with the first letter of our name)

Matching stockings!

And then I stuck them up on the fireplace with the other holiday decorations. We can't wait to redo our fireplace- change the painted white brick and hearth to stone and then since we don't have an actual mantle, put up a distressed wood mantle. And get a more modern/rustic looking screen that doesn't need Plexiglas behind it in order to keep the cats out.

Our mixed religion fireplace. Menorah and stockings!
I was a bad Jew- I totally missed the last night of Hanukkah lights so I opted to light the last set after we fully decorated for Christmas so that I would have an extra pretty picture.

Penn is settling well into his new herd. Fiction is his new BFF and security blanket (sorry Hawk!). Whenever I've come out during the day, they're usually next to or near each other.

Must sniff noses and stand next to each other.

My rides on Saturday and Sunday mostly revolved around me trying to fix my position (what we worked on in last lesson- tuck butt, pelvis tilts up, shoulders up and back). When I ride properly like that, Penn gets instantly lighter, frees up his shoulder, and his steps get big and suspended feeling in trot, and he's able to get more jump in the canter. I found that feeling last week and I asked for some trot lengthenings down the long sides and holy crap, the extended gaits are going to be big gaits to sit!

Hi Mom! I'm feeling better today!

Anyway, Saturday we rode outside and I decided to mess with haunches in a bit. Not my brightest idea. He's just not strong enough to work it more than a couple times, and I overdid it and made him nervous. I spent the rest of the ride working on finding quiet forward (he kept getting jumpy in the contact and irregular in rhythm). Once I found our happy place again, I stuck to things we can do: 15-20m circles.

In canter, a large factor in how good your canter ends up is based on how good the trot was before the canter. To the right, he was fairly good, not spectacular, so the right lead was quiet and flat. We were having bend right issues that day. To the left, I made the trot super and then asked for canter and I ended up with several very strong left lead canters. They were quiet and purposeful, on the hairy edge of flat so that's no good, but I liked quiet and purposeful. Penn has a tendency to go into turbo mode to the left, so I'll take quiet first and then add the jump back.

At the end of our canter work, I brought him back to trot and let him stretch. He's quite an impressive stretcher- he put his nose on the ground without pulling the reins out of my hand and without losing any contact. It was incredible! On the forehand a little, but I like the stretch anyway.

Displeased to have been put back outside in the rain on Sunday.

Sunday it was pouring down rain, so we rode in the indoor (indoor arenas, for the win!).

Penn finally didn't have diarrhea in the crossties when I was tacking him up to ride! So of course I panicked that he was going to colic. Nah, he's fine. Barn Owner had said the day before that the poop in his stall was looking pretty normal again. She also mentioned that he might be a good candidate for field board (based on how much he churns and stall walks). I have a feeling that he's never really been stabled- his breeder sent him for training then he lived in a field for 6 weeks after he came home. I bet he's always lived outside. Doesn't mean I want him living outside 24/7 though. It's an option at winter barn, but not at Trainer's. I know some horses do super well on it, but with how cold, wet, and windy our winters get and how the summer is hot and buggy, I don't want him out at night in the winter and during the day in the summer. I just don't. I know he'd be fine because I have all the clothes for him to be out in extreme weather. I'm not sold that he'd be happy outside in his small herd when every other horse on the farm goes in for stretches of the day. He wants to be where the other horses are.

Anyway, Fiction had already come in, and it was raining, so I think Penn was good with leaving the other horses in the field and his routine. Between how clingy he got with the other horses I rode with on Saturday and this chill day in the cross ties, I think he's just insecure about the world around him. When he came home in August, he didn't have as extreme reactions to things. He pooped a lot in crossties out of nerves, but I never had him in the barn alone or riding alone (I always made arrangements to ride with his turnout buddy or another person because I was afraid of getting dumped by my new green baby horse and being alone when it happened). I don't like that he's clingy now, but I'm willing to let him be clingy because he is a baby and he doesn't understand yet that everything is going to be OK. That and his clingy doesn't come with any really bad behavior (he just gets worried when he gets left behind).

The horses congregating at the shelter. You can kind of see Penn's white star.

Sunday we did more of the same work, but I started my trot work in posting trot with 2 trot poles to keep it interesting (I forced myself to post since I normally sit so I can better regulate our tempo). The trot poles are coming along, but he doesn't quite get how to adjust his stride before the poles so he doesn't hit a long spot. He tends to just keep trotting on the same stride without making an adjustment for the pole. He started to get better about that, so he just needs more practice!

The biggest improvement was the left lead canter- it felt very much like the right lead and I was able to pick at it a little bit for some more jump!

I also tried a simple change through trot. I've tried them before where I let him trot 5-6 steps in between and it all just goes to hell when I ask for the new lead. This time, I found my jumpy canter to the left, went across the diagonal, half halted and asked for trot, then swapped my leg (I need to work on swapping my seat!) and asked for the new lead after a step of trot (before he could fall on his face). At first, I felt him go to pick up the left lead again, but then he made a huge effort to change his mind when he realized what I wanted and he really came up with his shoulders and jumped into the right lead. He got lots of praise and was done for the day. I know it's not much, but it was complicated work for him! I was very pleased. I think the flying changes will come easier to him than they did to Mikey, and I think they're going to be nice and expressive!

*facepalm* Apparently even though Penn is fitting in well now, he's still not allowed under the shelter. At least he's got a hood and blanket on, and his head was under the overhang, and the way the wind was blowing the rain meant it was blowing against the back of the shelter.

I'll be going back out tonight to ride. Or maybe I'll teach him to long line. Trainer taught Mikey, then me, but after teaching demon mare (who was ready to flip over or break her neck instead of go forward or turn right) back in August to long line, I think I can teach Penn. He's very willing. I think he'll catch on quickly, but hopefully there's someone out there tonight so I can have a helper stand up by his head to get him moving forward and then I can take over. I want to make sure it's a quiet, positive experience.

I am terrified to long line him, but I really need to for myself. I have a complex about it since Mikey died while working on the lines. I know it was a freak thing, but I'm still uncomfortable. I long lined demon mare after Mikey's death, so it won't be the first time, but I'm terrified something bad will happen again, especially since Penn had a rearing problem and the lines can sometimes make green horses feel trapped and then they rear and flip over. Long lining is a useful skill that I really want Penn to learn so we can work on finding more jump in the canter and eventually do cavaletti exercises so he has to work his footwork out for himself without me in the way.

We will see what I do... I have my car packed with my long lining stuff (I never brought it back to the barn after taking it home to wash) and my riding stuff (tall boots) so I can do either.

A Non-Riding Week (Picture Dump Again!)

So this week is a non-riding week for me- I don't have vacation to use to this week to ride. So here's what I've been up to instead.

I went to get the mail and several packages (Amazon, SmartPak, MeowBox) Wednesday from the front porch and the tree lights were on and the cats were watching me through our big picture window.

I had to wave my hands around to make them look in the same direction,

I read an article a while ago about how if house cats were lion sized they'd probably eat us.

The face of destruction.

Let's zoom in on that face.

Yupp. If that face was lion sized, she'd eat me.

Anywho, the exciting bit is that my truck parts got here and so did Penn's Hanukkah/Christmas present- Smart Pak's Ultimate Turnout Lightweight Hood! Penn now has the complete line because Jan = Blanket Hoarder. But first:

Husband does the work. I am the tool gopher.
The truck is about 2" too tall to make it through the garage opening, but putting just the bed in is effective too.
Husband added a ton of lights to the garage so it's actually brighter down there than any other room in the house.

First was replacing the exhaust hanger while the spare tire was out of the way. Note the large break in the original one.

New solid rubber exhaust hanger!

Look! It's the gooseneck trailer ball that came with the truck! Except the mechanism that releases it so you can pull it up through the bed and turn it around is broken. It's stuck in this non-useful position until we get around to fixing it.

New spare tire hoist and hanger.

All done! I learned a ton about how to fix the two issues Husband fixed Wednesday night, and I think I could do it myself next time. Let's hope there isn't a next time though!

Wednesday night, Husband also helped me with another project made from leftover Aluminum blanks.

Blanket tags!!!!!

I saw a set advertised on Facebook a month or so ago that were round dog tags with the horse's name in the middle and the blanket weight wrapped around the bottom curve of the tag. I could NOT for the life of me find them again on ether Facebook or Etsy (I found others though that I didn't like as much).

There is another horse in the barn who has the same set of blankets as Penn, and all the blankets get hung in a communal blanket hanging area. Awkward! The other horse's owner wrote her horse's name in her blankets, but I'm afraid to do that and somehow void the 10 year warranty. Another thing, it's hard to tell which weight blanket Penn is wearing at a glance. They're all EXACTLY THE SAME. Come on Smartpak, why no color choices?!

Enter these blanket tags! Husband had the aluminum blanks for some past project, and he offered them to me since he didn't need them. He punched a hole in each one, and then used letter stamps that he got from his Pap (who was a tinsmith) to stamp Penn's name and the blanket weight. We got some key rings and voila! Cheap blanket tags instead of the $5 per tag plus shipping that I was finding online!

I'll put the turnout tags on the metal chest clips, and the hood rings on the whither clip (that's the only metal on the hood!).

I felt the need to label turnouts and hoods. I don't know why, haha.

We had some fun first with the different sized letters. Cam + Penn = Campin'

Matt's sister sent us a Meow Box for the cats for the holidays. They loved it.

It was addressed to Nickels, but the girls quickly took over.

Everyone found things they liked. Penny got the box, Sophie the paper, Nickels the Smelt toy and the cat treats.

Love this shot. Penny had one of the "Pet Candy" toys and Sophie wanted to see it.
The girls play rough in our house. Plus they were high as fuck on all that catnip.

This weekend, I'm hauling to our winter barn for a lesson with Trainer, then I'll ride Sunday and go back to the winter barn for their Christmas party. Next week I have a half day on Wednesday to ride, an early out Christmas Eve, then Christmas to ride, and all Christmas weekend. Then it's only 4 short days until Penn moves to his winter barn for 3 months and I can ride during the week again!