N=13

A sense of proportion and balance would have to admit of a mixed sample -- cats and dogs. Display that with your calculated sample.

One of my dogs is terrified. The other one is shrieking. She may be trying to talk back to the booms.

I'll be glad when it stops.

We once had a purebred German Shepherd who had the great misfortune to have been ripped from her mother and puppy family and driven back to Omaha with the tornado sirens shrieking, lightning flashing not far away, and general nervous atmosphere in the car (there were funnels in the sky). That affected her whole life. She would try to crawl under whatever she could find when there were thunder or firecrackers. She would howl in fear. Not a good way to begin a new life.

There are five cats in the house, and the neighbors are putting on their annual illegal-fireworks show in the cul-de-sac behind my house (and they've really raised the bar this year, they seem to have some pro stuff going on). The feline reactions range from blase to terrified, with 3 out of the five well in the "terrified" end of the spectrum. Elderly calico cat, however, is beyond blase and appears completely bored.

Yep, add my two doggies. One is under my legs under the covers and the other big one all-wide eyed and skeered next to the bed. It's just getting dark and the boom booms are just beginning. I just hope they don't start a fire in the dry grass or on the roof. I do not like this part of the holiday. It's really hard on the animals and the fire department.

Trouble has vanished as all the big BOOMS! go off. Megs is always vanished, though, as she is the Greta Garbo of Kittehs.

Oddly, I have yet to hear the show at the park go off, but it's been a bit windy today, so mayhaps they called it off.

Molly-Polly: The Bravest of Them All!



Never a nervous moment. She'd have been watching from the windows if'n we wasn't surrounded by treemobiles. Loves thunderstorms.

God's Bossiest Cat. "Open the door NOW, I'm going outside!"

She'll be 15 in October. Healthiest cat I've ever had. Hasn't seen a vet once since we moved here 10 years ago.

Her message to all the Fraidy Cats: (OK, I better not ... )

Ellie dog had a very rough night last night, as did the Pops/Fireworks concert folks. Somewhere around 9:30 a storm cell moved it with lightning and the police evacuated the Esplanade to a nearby highway tunnel. Lightening hit a couple in a park a mile or two away. The 1812 Overture was cancelled and the fireworks were delayed by at least half an hour. They ran the footage from the "rehearsal" concert the night before, so when I turned the TV on to see when when should take Ellie out, we saw the footage and got confused.

So out they went for a p-break, W2 and terrified doggie. The neighborhood was under machine-gun fire attack (OK, strings of Chinese fireworks), the sky was lit up, and all hell started breaking loose 10 minutes later. None of it was showing on the TV. Doggie never ran so fast to get home in her life. She ran straight into the crate in the sound-proofed room and didn't emerge until a few minutes ago. She's shaking a bit as I get ready to go out for our morning constitutional.

An old Okie friend a decade ago wold always leave town, heading for the deep woods with his Sheltie during this time of year. Sad.

I think I'm going to start some desensitizing/counterconditioning for next year, actually. You can buy (or download, I guess) audio of the scary sounds and then start them very very softly while giving treats, etc. It's a slow process if you want them to be truly bombproof. So I'm going to order the CD today.

Simon the terrified is very food-motivated. I think this will work for him. He'll be fatter.

Either that or you'll ruin chow for them forever...

Well I finally took elderly Kaiju to the vet today and I'm kicking myself for not taking care of it sooner. Over the last two days she has really gone downhill, hardly able to walk at all and a green discharge coming out of her nose. After Mr. K and I explained all her symptoms to the vet, she thinks that Kaiju is diabetic, and is experiencing neuropathy in her limbs. This would also explain the ravenous appetite while still losing weight. She gave us some antibiotics for the upper respiratory infection, gave her subcutaneous fluids because she appeared dehydrated, and took blood to run a blood panel. We'll get the results tomorrow (I love the fact that my vet is open 24/7 by the way) and if it's diabetes , treating it may or may not improve the neuropathy. The doc did say she doesn't appear to be in pain, just weak. It breaks my heart to see her just flopping around, so I'm hoping the diabetes treatment will help her a lot. We're not ready to talk about euthanasia unless she's really in pain or no longer aware and alert (and she's certainly aware, alert and pissed off).

We have a new studio puppy that goes to the vet first thing next week for her shots and general check-up. They might even be able to tell us what brand of mutt she is. She is the most loveable, affectionate dog I have ever met! She showed up at the house last week and wouldn't go away. Nobody knows where she came from or who she belongs to, but our 5 cats were NOT as welcoming to her as we were, so off she went to live at the studio. More room to run and only 1 cat to deal with. They made fast friends with each other so it's all good.

I named her Stella just so I could go out on the deck and call her name real loud.

One of my boys is diabetic. His back legs were very weak by the time I caught it. He needed help getting up on the couch. After a year on insulin and changing his diet he has no problem getting up any where.

P.K., if the diagnosis for Kaiju is diabetes, I suggest that you do some research on feline diabetes, hopefully with the help of your vet. With my vet's help and her continuing education at Tufts, we dealt with Sammy's diabetes by reducing carbohydrates in his diet. He and his bunkmate are now almost completely carnivorous, with a bit of pumpkin every now and then and a sprinkle of Metamucil on their canned or frozen food. (Frozen seafood for cats, slightly warmed, is a great treat for them at $1.50 a unit.)

You will be using insulin for a while, but be aware that it is highly likely that the insulin dose will have to be reduced as your cat's body adjusts to the near-absence of carbohydrates in the diet. Keep some liquid glucose around for insulin shock (available with diabetes supplies). Rubbing it on the gums worked for me, but a vet will inject a bolus of glucose.

As I have posted many times, the well-known statement that cats are obligate carnivores means exactly that according to research on feline diabetes: they must eat only meat. Missing vitamins can be supplied by capsules. They used to get those vitamins when they ate their 10 whole mice every day.

When this began with Sammy, I took him to an emergency clinic, where he almost died even while being given insulin. My former vet advised me that cats hate insulin injections and that I would be doing best to put him to sleep. I no longer speak to that vet. Sammy learned that the insulin made him feel better and often licked my hand after I had given him the injection. It was not hard on me, and it was not hard on Sammy. Born in 1995, Sammy moves a bit slowly but is bright-eyed and alert. He has been off insulin for years.

My feeling, shared with my vet, is that cats should not eat any grains. You can get dry and canned cat food that is free of grains or nearly so.

Sorry for saying the same things over again.

I know people who have given kittehs insulin injections for years. I have never known a kitteh that hated insulin injections more than dying. It is definitely a chore, though.

It is definitely a chore, partly because you cannot do it at your convenience. Sammy got two injections a day, which had to be properly spaced. The amount has to be exact or devastating results can occur. While he was on insulin, I simply could not travel. When I visited my grandkids, Sammy and his diabetes supplies went with me.

But your friends might be able to wean their cats off of insulin by drastically changing the kittehs' diet on their vets' instructions. If they do that, they need to be aware that one day the prescribed amount of insulin, even though it is being slowly reduced, might be just too much. That is why they also need a bottle of glucose handy. Really handy.

I do not know whether years of being on insulin injections might have now made the change of diet impossible. My vet tried to get Sammy off insulin as soon as possible. P. K. might be well-positioned to try this if the vet approves.

Hill's® Prescription Diet® a/d® was key to Sammy's recovery. It does have corn flour. The vet might prescribe Hill's® Prescription Diet® m/d®, which is for weight loss and diabetes control. Excess weight contributes to the onset of diabetes just as it does in humans. m/d also contains corn products, but like a/d it is mostly meat and fat (for weight loss!). Sammy did not need to lose weight as much as he needed to be able to recover.

These are among the very few cat foods that contain pork.

Well, the vet called this morning with the test results, and she's not diabetic. She is quite anemic, so now she gets vitamin drops with iron. The vet is going to have the lab run another test to see if the anemia is parasite related or possibly cancer. A parasite problem can be treated, but if it's cancer we will just have to keep her comfortable for whatever time she has left.

I feed all my cats Natural Balance Limited Ingredient kibble and canned food. Kaiju has had tummy problems for years and this is one of the best foods for her. I must say, when we got our two "foster" (now permanent resident) cats, it took a while to get them to accept the Natural Balance when they were used to cheap Purina. I got a lot of stinkeye from both of them when I finally took their Purina away. Now they seem to like the NB food, especially the canned food.

Super!!! You may have prevented feline diabetes by feeding a grain-free diet. Hope the anemia turns out to be due to parasites. Did the vet check for blood in the stool? A bleed in the gut can also produce anemia, as I know from personal experience.

My gods and cats both eat Taste of the Wild grain free kibble. The dogs get the bison and venison one, the cats have salmon. I find they eat less, maybe because it satisfies their hunger better? My old RottenLab, 15, lost all kinds if weight after I put him on a diet. He doesn't act starving like he did the last time I tried it, with Pedigree.

'Dog, I didn't notice zacly when you changed the thread title, but I am not amused.

I yam!

Agreed. Trust a no-good varmint of a dawg to do a thing like that.