Friday 24 October 2014

Snicker Doodles: October Update



How is Doodles?

First I'd like to apologize to anyone who has been wondering what's been going on with us. I haven't posted anything recently because we were facing some health issues with Doodles. Toward the end of September we noticed Doodles was trying to eat his litter, which is a serious health concern as the clumping components in litter can cause blockages in the intestine. If this happens cats can become very ill and if not treated it could even be fatal. We did have confirmation that he had a large blockage, after given an enema he was able to pass the stool and go the bathroom regularly. The vet also provided him with a hypo-allergenic food, as we had concerns the blockage may have stemmed from a food allergy or vitamin deficiency. It's been a few weeks since we've had him back home and his health has improved. He's coming off of his laxative so his stool should improve. We're trying both him and Gimli on a grain-free food, in case Doodles has a gluten allergy. We've noticed scabs on Doodles ears, even though we've never seen him scratch, this is usually indicative of skin irritation or an allergy. His skin has also been red and patchy.

Looking back at our timeline we realized that in early September we switched him to a newer version of his Royal Canin food, we wonder if he developed an allergic reaction to it. We will continue to test him on this new food and hope to see an improvement. We did find him attempting to eat his paper litter (a safer alternative to clumping litter) which means if he had access to clay he would definitely eat it. Fingers crossed things get better for us!! This has been a very frustrating and disheartening experience for us, all we want is to see little Doodles get better.