Feeding Haiku

Last year, early in the year, Haiku started acting very strangely.  She would chase around and cry, sit in the closet and sit and cry, and act like she did not know where she was.  I took her to the vet. They did lab work, said she had kidney problems, gave me kidney care food (dry and canned) and antibiotics.  She took the pills for several days, but got worse and worse. I called the vet and we went back in, they could find nothing else.  After another day or so of worse and worse, I just stopped the antibiotics. I was convinced Haiku was having a reaction to the medication.  Shortly thereafter, Haiku started behaving better. More like her self. The vet said she had cat dementia.

Haiku was not really excited about the kidney care dry food, and totally uninterested in the canned food. The sad part was that Taki, who will eat just about anything, did not like the canned food, either. The cans were samples, so no loss.  Taki liked the kidney care food, and I think Haiku ate it because Taki did, and she did not want to be outdone. (There is some of that in their relationship.)

Haiku still has some days when she cries and races around, or hides in the crate in the closet, but she is much more interactive and attentive, and her racing and chasing is not so disorganized.

When I got back from vacation in early April, the cat sitter had left me a note that Haiku and Taki were not eating much of the canned food I had for them (that they ate for me), and she tried other flavors. They would not eat the other flavors for me and for the first 3 and half weeks or so after I returned, neither cat ate well.  I was not sure if that was to punish me, or a reaction to the stress I was feeling because it was so hard to get caught up at work during that time.  I think the latter, because once things calmed down for me at work, things were better at home with the cats.

When Haiku went in for her yearly exam earlier this month, she had lost 1.5 pounds.  She weighed 6.3 lbs. The vet was not too concerned. Older cats just lose weight.  But I was concerned.  And early this week, Haiku stopped eating.  Wednesday, I check with the vet, and they had other kinds of kidney care or kidney support food.  I picked up samples of dry and canned food.  Haiku ate the dry food, and sat waiting for more, and ate, then later in the evening, asked for more. I called the vet after she ate the dry food, and they had more in stock, so I arranged with the vet and my boss to go by the vet to get a bag of this food in the morning, and go into work late.

I am so pleased.  Haiku is eating well. She eats a little, then sits at the dish and waits, and eats more. She does not let Taki intimidate her into leaving her dish. She comes and asks for food.  She seems interested in eating again, instead of just sitting there, looking at the dish.  I do not know how long this will last, but she will get this food as long as she wants. I think I might occasionally give her the other food, to keep her interested and not bored with eating.















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