Groceries gone wild

[Jenise]

Last Friday I paid $5.03 for a bottle of Pedialyte (for a sick cat). Today, $7.19, same store. When I expressed dismay the cashier said there's some heat-and-eat frozen Tyson chicken product she has been paying $7.99 for as long as she can remember, sometimes less on sale. The price went up this weekend to $12.99.

Same by me. I have a funny feeling "intermittent fasting" is not going to be a lifestyle choice for many soon.

Does the vet have any recommendations for how to treat a serious gouging?

[Jenise]

Ha! No vet involved here, this is Dr. Jenise. Jailbait (aka 'Jelly' and 'BabyGURRRRL') is 19 yrs old. She had bloodwork done early in the Pandemic when in-office visits were already shelved in favor of a parking lot transaction where you handed your animal over to a technician. I begged them to let me come in with her, "This cat HATES being picked up, and you will have no luck dealing with her unless I'm there. I'm the only human on the planet she tolerates. And don't prescribe pills, we can't pill her." They shrugged me off, saying they had a lot of patients like that, they knew what they were doing, don't worry, yada yada.

When I went to pick her up hours later, she reeked of emergency scent (cats rarely deploy this, but like skunks they've got it) and the doctor was like "You weren't KIDDING! Worst cat ever!" So 1) I knew her BUN and creatinine numbers were poor and 2) taking her to the vet is too much trauma, a last resort only.

So three weeks ago she stopped eating. If I took her to a vet, they'd pump her full of sub-cutaneous fluids, suggest we follow up with same at home, and feed her Science Diet Kidney diet in a can, a food no cat on the planet likes. I've administered sub-cu fluids for kidney failure before myself, it's messy but doable at home but much as this cat loves and trusts me attempting this will result in violence.

Discussing that with Bob the other day and thinking about all these bottled waters like Smart Water advertising electrolytes, I wondered what if we gave her that for her water, would it help. I shopped online first to see who had the strongest and discovered none were likely very strong (the labels make no therapeutic claims and specifically say the electrolytes are only there to improve taste), but fishing around I learned that there's this additive electrolyte product for babies called Pedialyte. So Jelly's water bowl is now half this, half water. And she gets to eat baby food. For human babies.

The change has been miraculous. She's eating again and looking better. This will not extend her life, in fact the opposite as the food is too rich for her weak little kidneys, but she'll be a lot happier with the time she has left.

So that's why Pedialyte.

I like Dr. Jenise's prescriptions - large amounts of very good wine!

We are seeing elevating prices on gas and many foods locally. I fear that it might stay with us.

Jenise, I feel your pain. I had a few cats who lived well into their teens. They do require a lot of work at that age. The previous two required me to hold one by the scruff of the neck while my wife clipped her claws. It still resulted in some blood being drawn.

One of these two had a thyroid problem (as did my wife many years earlier). The vet suggested giving her a pill once a day for the rest of her life. You can picture the problems and danger with this. When my wife suggested radioactive iodine, the vet said " Well, that's the gold standard for treatment of this".

We sent Sasha off to [url]https://www.mspca.org/medical-centers/] Angell Memorial Hospital[/url] in Boston for her treatment and a couple of days later we got a call that she wasn't eating. We used to feed them cat food and whatever scraps we had left from dinner. I immediately cooked up some chicken, lamb, and steak and brought it in. We never got a call that she wasn't eating again.

It's tough when you have a loved one that is sick and doubly tough when you can't be with them.

BTW: When we went to pick up Sasha after her treatment and radioactive half life, we were waiting in the lobby when they brought her out to us. She must have seen us and let out a meow that could be heard for miles. She was so happy to see us.

[Jenise]

We're two of a kind on cat care, Dan. About eight years ago I actually rented a house and moved to the other side of the state to put our tux girl Tammy Faye through six weeks of daily radiation at the animal hospital in Pullman. It's wonderful what you did for Sasha.

We've actually been very lucky with our current two. Because they are indoor cats, we don't vaccinate beyond the important kitten stuff up thru their first year. So vet visits have only been as needed, and we have enough cat-parenting experience to solve some problems, as we're doing now, at home. For Jelly, vet help has only been needed three times in 19 years. Our other cat Marley is 20. He's had a few more issues than Jelly, but nothing big and he hasn't needed to see a vet in a long time though kidney failure is apparent (it happens to all older cats), just less advanced than Jelly's.

Iceberg lettuce currently $12 each!

The change has been miraculous. She's eating again and looking better. This will not extend her life, in fact the opposite as the food is too rich for her weak little kidneys, but she'll be a lot happier with the time she has left.

Thanks for the explanation. You are very compassionate towards Jailbait. And I agree that 'wide time' is a good tradeoff for her at her advanced age.

Iceberg lettuce currently $12 each!

My god, that's insane! Oh well, salads are overrated anyway....

I might buy a head of iceberg lettuce if they paid me $12.

-Paul W.

Iceberg lettuce currently $12 each!

That is ridiculous. Why so much? It is $2.29 here.