I mentioned that I joined two Yahoo groups recently for problems with Trinity. A FLUTD group and a seizure group. I just learned if your cat is having UTI’s that are not clearing up to ask for urinalysis with aerobic & anaerobic culture. I’ve never heard of this. Apparently, it’s uncommon but that could be because it’s not tested for? I know of several female cats with more urinary issues than male cats but have always heard that not only are urinary issues in males more of a medical emergency that it was more common in males.
For Trinity’s we had to go back on c/d food at least for now but I’ve added chondroitin glucosamine and corn silk. As soon as that water fountain (review a few post back) comes out in something other than plastic we’ll get another one of those.
She’s been completely off phenobarb now for a week and praise the Lord we have not seen a seizure. Last one we saw was her third back the end of March. Now I just need to work on not being a helicopter mom.
Like I wrote in my book, The Friendly Floppy Ragdoll Cat, I thought since my cats liked drinking out of the bathroom faucet that adding a pet fountain would encourage more water consumption. This was our 3rd water fountain we’ve tried and the only one, one of my cats continued to be interested in drinking from.
August 2014 Trinity was diagnosed with struvite crystals. We needed to entice our cats to drink more water. Trinity also started having seizures so if I can stop the struvite crystals from forming that’s one less thing to have to worry about with her right now.
Pros:
Trinity was not scared of this one and drank from it
It’s not big and clunky
The water in an arch is a great design
The water sound is pleasant
I think the UV light attracts their attention because they can see the water movement
Cons:
It’s plastic- and that’s a big con for us. It’s BPA-free but it’s still plastic and when Trinity got chin acne within 2 weeks, I decided we’d wait until it’s made of a better material.
The motor sound got louder within a week of use.
I also think in all 3 fountains we tried that the motor also raises the water temp.
Since Trinity drank from the stream AND from beside the stream I wish it was about 1 1/2″ wider so she wasn’t getting an ear or the top of head wet to drink beside the flow.
It needs to easier to clean and put back together. The inside of mine looked nothing like the diagram. If you put it back together incorrectly, it will either pump water out on the floor or not pump water at all. It could use a little diagram for which way the pump goes in.
I can see how the water reservoir will become hard to clean like my house humidifier is because where the water comes out is not at a low point so the bottom of the inside gets yucky. I’m sure you can Clorox that but if it could hold a disposable water bottle instead, or be designed so you can actually clean it all without just trying to use Clorox, or stick your finger thru the hole and scrub the bottom- then make sure you rinse all the Clorox out that’d be better. I see it looking like our humidifier with the clear plastic that I can see how it’s not possible to clean what you can’t reach.
Just little things- It’d be nice to have a place to tuck the unused cord under it. I never put the one we had in the dishwasher, but really only the bottom part could be, and it will hold water in there -so I just hand washed it.
Conclusion: If this was made out of stainless steel or food grade ceramic we would still have it despite the little things I wish were done differently. I would’ve lived with the cleaning hassle, and the motor sound getting louder because it did what I bought it for which was getting at my cat with crystals to drink more water. I’m not sure how I feel about the copper or plastic used inside some of the other models out there because one, I don’t want plastic used and two I’m guessing copper affects the pH or the mineral content of the water and those are important.
I hope someone comes out with this in a better material soon and if it has all the other little changes that would be a plus.
Here’s a link to the one I bought http://amzn.to/2xHDqWu These are our thoughts on the product and how they worked in our home for us. Your results will vary as each cat and home is unique.
I liked the idea of the fountain more than my two cats did. I even tried adding ice cubes because Trinity likes those in her water. I tried using the red laser light to get them to notice the fountain part where the water flows over the 2nd level but to no avail.
I think the water in the fountain is a tad warmer than the water in their bowls, as even when it wasn’t running and moving the ice, ice dissolved faster in it than in their regular bowls. I guess that’s the motor heat? I didn’t have a thermometer that went below 80 to measure the temps.
I chose the Big Max by Pioneer Pet because of being stainless steel over plastic or ceramic that I wasn’t sure was human grade or not, and didn’t contain lead or anything harmful. I wish it was truly silent and it would’ve been nice to have an offering of one a little smaller. I guess the size is nice if you travel but we really don’t and I would’ve preferred something not quite so big. Trinity was diagnosed with struvite crystals and that prompted me to make the purchase. She’s shaved in the video from having the ultrasound performed, thankfully the ultrasound didn’t show stones. My two are scared of sounds and after a week had not
Trinity was diagnosed with struvite crystals and that prompted me to make the purchase. She’s shaved in the video from having the ultrasound performed, thankfully the ultrasound didn’t show stones.
My two are scared of sounds and after a week had not taken a drink from the running fountain. Good idea, but didn’t work for us. I’ll just keep out two water bowls and continue to give water from the bathroom faucet and add water to their wet food like I’ve been doing their whole life.
MY cats are scared of all sorts of sounds and have been their entire life. I’ve tried all sorts of things. They are almost 11 years old and still scared of the same sounds they have been since they were kittens. It’s just them. I love them and accept that is their personality.
I’m not saying your cats would have a problem with it. This is a review of how it worked for us. ~ That is all.
This is my personal opinions and test. Nothing scientific about them. I know we can’t all agree I just wanted to share what we are using. As they say… your results may vary.
I’ve received several emails from Perfect Litter including one that says to transition slowly to the new litter (which I had planned to do), but in the box it says to clean out all old litter, wash, dry and fill w. the new litter. One of the several emails that came before the litter also said they’d call- I’m thinking that should be an option. I know some would see it as great customer service but I’d rather not get a call. It did come with an unexpected travel size Litter-Lifter scoop. Good size because I just ordered the other two and really like them.
at 6min – The water fountain happened to be missing the one, 3 spout adapter. I only know because that’s the size I looked for and wanted to use. It shows it in the manual but I received two, four spouts. The snap-on clips don’t really snap on, but I guess as long as you don’t move it at all your pets can lift the cone up. If the fountain just scoots on the floor the clips fall away. I can see where that’d be a problem with dogs. It is much quieter than the Big Max but unfortunately, my cats still won’t drink from it even though they are not scared of this one.
Jenny of Floppycats.com and Hauspanther have raved about Litter-Lifter for quite some time. I decided to try their scoop and boy oh boy, it is so much better than the flat tines like the one I had!
I ordered both the Original and the Beamer. I like them both but prefer the Original. I like the length of the Beamer but found that the face shape on the Beamer holds a tad more litter than the Original. You really don’t have to shake clean litter off the clumps. What a time saver, and you can’t beat these for the price!
This weekend marked 2 months since we saw Trinity’s first seizure. It feels like I’ve been worried, researching and watching her like a hawk a LOT longer that that. I was so worried initially that she’d have a 2nd seizure (well episode at the time) that I wanted to watch for that. Then after she had the 2nd and 3rd 2 days apart, and they were deemed seizures and she was put on phenobarb I had to watch her as she adjusted to the medicine. When she went thru the drunken stage I was afraid she’d fall and I still needed to know if the medicine was stopping the seizures. Then I read and was told that if you don’t taper down slow enough that can actually trigger more seizures. I’m almost 2/3 of the way down the taper instructions and now I feel like I need to stare at her to make sure I know if they come back. I wish she could just talk or understand me. It’d be so nice if she just say, “hey last night while you were sleeping I had another seizure out of the netcams view” so I’d know we needed to start the medicine back. Or I could tell her that it’ll be okay because I know it has to be scary having one and not being able to be told why and what is happening. I added a few more netcams. Those things are wonderful for being a second pair of eyes when I have to run out for something and while I sleep. She no longer gobbles up the fish flavored phenobarb but knock on wood if I add freeze dried turkey she’s still eating it without me having to give it directly in her mouth. She has lost almost a pound ( a tenth of her weight) since the end of March, and that worries me on top of worrying about the crystals and seizures. Tomorrow we start the 3rd and final taper for a week. We haven’t seen a seizure since the end of March.
the right way to do it
On the liquid medicine… there’s a better way by golly. Here I was thinking how stupid it was to give someone glue consistency phenobarb in a tall narrow opening bottle with a blue top thingy that didn’t fit and a syringe too short to suck up the medicine. After it became impossible to get any more out I took it back to the compound pharmacy and he showed me I was doing it all wrong. He was nice enough to say since no one showed me if I ran out they’d give me enough to finish out the prescription free of charge. He refrained from calling me an idiot. Apparently you’re supposed to force the blue thing on the bottle, put the syringe in the blue thing, hold it upside down and tap it on the counter than draw it down into the syringe that way. It’s a lot easier when you do it like it was intended. I’m sharing that bit of info in hopes it will help someone else but hey go ahead and laugh at me. I did.
Trinity’s struvite crystals I think started to be a problem again. I am still looking into food and supplement options, but I had to go back to feeding her c/d again at least for now. Her extra itching, licking and chewing her feet are better than filling her bladder full of crystals. It’s not ideal and I’m really wishing a pet food company would just make a grain free no garbage food for acidifying urine. I know from Yahoo groups I’ve joined I’m not alone in not liking the choices out there.
waiting in line
Each of my cats wants whatever the other is eating. I mostly feed them in two different rooms but the other day Trinity left the sunroom (and her food she had to eat) to wait in line for whatever her brother left in his bowl. They are so jealous of each other it’s not even funny. I think Tyler would take a pill at least once just because Trinity got one. We both been concentrating on sharing attention equally on both cats when they’re alone and when they’re together so no one (or both) feel like they’re missing out. I need to get online and buy some chondroitin glucosamine and I want to read some more about cornsilk. I read in my Yahoo groups it helps with bladder inflammation. Still working on my food list if any of you want to benefit from my efforts. I am holding off giving additional methionine at this time and am just trying to entice more water drinking.
Everyone knows this past weekend was mother’s day right? I decided I wanted another photo of my loving furbabies and me together. As soon as the camera comes out and I want both them near my with makeup and without pajamas on they act like I’m kryptonite. Look at Tyler’s ears 🙂
I learned that Denny Dayton passed away in April and that he attended a TICA cat show in January, so he was active in the cat fancy almost to the end.
Denny and Laura Dayton answering my correspondence when I wrote The Friendly Floppy Ragdoll Cat, meant so much to me. I mean here is a couple that was so influential in getting the Ragdoll breed recognized and they had long since retired, but Denny took the time to call me, and Laura emailed me.
Hopefully, they are now reunited together with all the Ragdolls they loved. What a pioneering couple they both were in shaping the Ragdoll breed.
Covers, Cats & Clicks by KiM 