Don't Trust Me With Scissors

Boo Radley, for those of you who don't know him, is not a normal cat. I'm pretty sure he is intellectually disabled (which, of course, does not make me love him any less) and he doesn't act much like a cat at all. He spent his kittenhood half in/half out of Scout's mouth, constantly covered in dog slobber and looking for any crumbs of food that might have fallen to the ground. He doesn't groom himself regularly and often smells vaguely like the litter box. Boo's most un-cat-like attribute is that you can do absolutely anything to him and get no reaction, except for maybe a loud purr.

So when he jumped up on the kitchen counter to finish D's leftovers, right next to me and a pair of scissors that someone had neglected to put away, the first thing I saw was opportunity. There was my fat cat with dreads around the base of his tail completely distracted by food - time for an impromptu hair cut.

There I was just chop, chop, chopping away, and most of the little mats were gone, but then I got ambitious. Boo may have short hair, but it's super thick and since he was ignoring me completely (very focused on finishing every last speck of food), I decided it was a great idea to just cut off as much fur as possible. All of it even, if he'd sit there long enough. It's certainly hot enough now for him to run around without any fur on.

Even as I made that decision, it happened. Overconfident and under cautious, whipping those scissors around like I thought I was Edward Scissorhands beautifying all the neighborhood pets or something, I got too close and I cut him. Yep, I cut him, with scissors, and.... nothing. No reaction at all. No noise. Didn't even stop eating.

I knew, logically, that he must be fine. If he wasn't fine, he would have reacted in some way. I mean, dang, you step on a cat's tail and they make a noise like their world is shattering around them and Boo hadn't even flinched. I, on the other hand, was trying to swallow a big ol' ball of panic and make myself asses the damage I had caused. I've never accidentally (or on purpose for that matter) cut a cat before. 

After looking at it, and seeing that it really wasn't that bad (not large, not bleeding, just a little pink looking), I ran for my bottle of Magic Spray (also known as Vetericyn Wound Spray*) and gave him a spritz. Then I ran off to my husband and had a little panic attack about it. (Husband: "But he's alright? It's not even bleeding? Calm down then, he's fine." Me: "But no! You don't understand! I CUT OUR CAT WITH SCISSORS!)

Needless to say, I gave up on the haircut that day, and now Boo has an asymmetrical, rather large, and unfortunate looking mess of a bald spot going on. Good thing he's not one of those vain cats.

A few days later, I was off hanging out at the Polo Villa with Tucker and Nicole. Tucker has a couple of beautiful boys of his own so it's not unusual for us to slip into cat talk (started this time by me having another round of freaking out because I'd cut Boo with scissors.) The talk eventually rolled around to the FURminator, which I mistakenly thought was something like this (and, although I've never used one, I think is pretty ridiculous looking and probably ineffective).  What the FURminator actually is, however, is amazing**.

http://emansole.info/furminator-cat-deshedding-tool-large-short-hair.htm

Tucker gave me a little demonstration on Dimitri and then let me borrow it. I was eager to try it out on Mona, whose long, fine, and sticky hair is notorious for mats, but when I got home with the brush and ran it through her fur I was unimpressed. It had seemed to work so well on Dimitri's short fur, but on Mona's it was no better than a regular brush. Then I tried it on Boo.

That brush removed so much hair, it was like we had a small orange mountain next to us. Not only that, but the couple little dreads I had missed on disastrous scissor-cutting-day came right out without hardly a pull. Since I like to learn things, I got on the internet and read about the different kind of brushes FURminator has to offer for different coat types and decided I need to get my fingers on the long haired version to try out on Mona and Damien. For Bob, my little old man with mouth ulcers who has problems grooming himself, this brush is the best thing ever, he looks much more handsome after just a couple run-throughs.

And just in case you're worried, Boo is fine, and in the forever long amount of time it took me to write this post his cut has healed up. And the FURminator? Both the long and short hair versions are going at the top of my Christmas list.

*Get some for your pet first aid kit, it's incredible! There is an "over-the-counter" version and a stronger version you can ask your vet for. http://vetericyn.com/
** The folks at FURminator gave me nothing for the praise of their product, although it'd be great if they wanted to! (Same thing for Vetericyn!)

How Grain Free Food Changed Our Lives

The best thing that ever happened to my cat family was when my lovely, little Lola started losing all her fur. I know that sounds bizarre, but bear with me, I'll explain.

We had just moved to Chicago, I hadn't found a vet I really liked (still haven't found one I adore for that matter, any recommendations?) and on top of that we were broke. Husband was still looking for a job and I was imagining a vet with dollar signs in their eyes, wanting to do expensive blood work and tests. Since it wasn't an emergency sort of situation, I curled up on my couch and started doing some internet research.

So many diseases can make your cat's hair fall out! So many nasty parasites! Nothing sounded right though, outside of losing her hair, Lola didn't have the symptoms of Eosinophilic Granuloma or Feline Endocrine Alopecia or any other obscure cat disease I read about. One thing was for sure though, she was itching like crazy and balding rapidly.

When I found the answer it wasn't by reading anything about cats. Instead I learned that in dogs, food allergies can cause hair loss. Well, guess what y'all, the same is true for cats.

We learn as little kids that cats are carnivores. Why is it then that pet foods are routinely made using grains as a primary ingredient? Corn, corn gluten meal, oats, barley, brewers rice, not to mention a dozen other unnecessary things, some of which are truly awful. Felines do not require grain in their diets. Grains are nothing but filler, just something to keep the price low for the pet food companies. They cause allergy problems and obesity, leading to even more health problems. 

The number one ingredient in Lola's daily fare? Corn. This is how I became obsessed with pet food.

Within the same week of my revelation, I met a girl named Anna at a neighbor's grill out. Anna works at Soggy Paws*, a local pet store that sells grain free pet foods amongst other things. She was more than happy to have a passionate discussion with me about what I had recently learned and was super excited to come over and meet my cat family. The next day I went to Soggy Paws, where they hooked me up with samples and talked my ear off. 

So there I was, armed with new knowledge and a bag full of cat food, excited to see if all these supposed benefits were going to pan out. Being the giant nerd that I am, I set up a spreadsheet. In it, I listed each cat, any current or reoccurring issues said cat had, their current weight, and what food they were being fed. (When switching a cats food, most people say to do so gradually, over the course of a few weeks. I've heard different opinions, and don't really think it matters a whole lot, but I followed the gradual rule when I switched them on this. Expect some softer poop, or even diarrhea, any way you do it.) Then I followed up weekly, then biweekly, for nine weeks, reweighing and observing.

HAIRBALLS

I opened up that spreadsheet for the first time in a long time to write this post. The first thing that jumped out at me from the "issues" category was our excessive hairball problems. Daily hairballs, sometimes multiple ones a day! Sly was by far the worst. He had a terrible hack, like a little kitty smoker's cough, that produced a hairball about every third time. The vet had given me a hairball paste and told me if there wasn't improvement we might have to x-ray for blockages. The hairball paste wasn't making an impact at all. By week two of switching to grain free, Sly wasn't hacking anymore and overall hairballs for the household were down to a once or twice a week thing. It was amazing. 

WEIGHT ISSUES 

A few of my cats were fatties. Sly comes to mind, he likes to fetch, but had gotten so heavy that he'd be breathing hard by the second toss. During the switch, most of my cats gained a bit of weight at first. This was due to the simple fact that I was feeding them too much. Once I got their portions under control (and an appropriate portion for a cat is much smaller than what most people think), the lack of pointless grain fillers in their food helped my chunky cats to lose weight (with the exception of Boo, my rotund little pumpkin cat, in which there was no change.) In my slender cats, weight change was minimal. WARNING! If your cat qualifies as obese, then you need to be extremely careful while helping your cat lose weight. Losing weight too quickly can further strain their internal organs causing horrible things to happen or even killing them. Please don't try to help your obese cat lose weight without help. In the future, I'm going to write more about this. You can email me if you want to talk about you fat cat sooner (jenyqueenofcats@gmail.com). I know I should recommend that you talk to your vet, so go talk to your vet, but they are probably going to suggest a low calorie cat food laden with grains, and obviously, I'm against that.




Here's one of those charts to help you assess your cat's weight.
Chart via http://www.drsfostersmith.com/

 
COATS/SHEDDING

An unexpected benefit was that every one's fur got sooooooo much softer. Within the first week I noticed it in Harry's fur. After two weeks half my cat population was noticeably softer. The softness came with a small price - shedding. I've never seen so much shedding! Then, as they continued to get softer and softer, the shedding slowed, and now they shed less than ever. After about two months eating grain free food, Lola's fur was looking particularly nice. It was growing back in, softer than ever, and she was no longer licking and chewing constantly.

Grain free foods my cats really like include (canned/wet) Wellness, Dave's, and BFF (although BFF is primarily fish based, so don't use it as your cats main protein source) and (dry) Taste of the Wild. Honestly, the only reason I feed dry food at all is because it's economical. Wet food is really the way to go. It adds to all the benefits of feeding grain free and even better, it's a great way for your cat to get enough water. Raw feeding is another option, but that's for another day. I feed my cats dry food in the morning and wet food in the evening.

Overall, after switching to grain free, the cats have had fewer hairballs, the overweight problem came more under control, they got softer and prettier, started shedding less, have smaller and less frequent poops, and we haven't had any UTI's (Lola and Harry have both had serious problems with that when on dry and grain filled diets). One of my very favorite things about switching to grain free is that when I bring Lola her evening meal she trills an adorable little song while gobbling it down. It's so precious.  

Look at the label on your bag of cat food. Unless you are already intentionally buying grain free food, chances are it's full of a bunch of crap that your cat doesn't need. Websites for grain free foods usually have some sort of "where to buy" button. Click on it, go get some, your cat will be so happy.

*Soggy Paws did not compensate me in any way for the name drop or praise. Let me tell you though, they are an A+ store, and after working in retail for ten years, I have some pretty high standards for retail establishments. If you live in Chicago (or in Omaha, NE, they just opened a store there!), check them out. (Maybe even tell them you read about them here!) http://www.soggypaws.com/