If it walks like a duck. . .

Since I spent all of my meeting time today discussing this, here:

How to Spot A Quack

More Ways to Spot A Quack

Hard to believe that educated people could be so dumb. Sigh. Today we wandered off onto the topic of vitamins, then started trading folk remedies. At least I was paid for listening to that crap. What is is about Californians that makes them so soft-headed?

Butsoanyway.

When I got up this morning, Squoosh's left eyelid was swollen. Not reddened, and the fur was still there, but swollen. I touched it gently; he closed completely his eye, and didn't seem to be hurt by my touch. And he was purring and eating, so I ran off to my meeting and phoned Dr Vet on the way; the tech said to bring him in, so I made an appointment for this afternoon, and slated Romeo to piggyback on the appointment to get more sub-cutaneous fluids. By the time I got back home, Squoosh's eye looked practically normal, but I took him just to be safe, and because Rome needed his fluids anyway; his kidney function isn't too bad (Creatinine of 2.8 initially in Oct/Nov and 2.6 in January; normal maximum is 2.0, and the decline is very promising--Dr Vet said this means it may be reversible, because permanent damage usually does nothing but go up--so I will keep doing what I am doing, and he'll be tested again in a month or so), but I like to be conservative and proactive and all that. So we occasionally give sub-q fluids, about four or five times since Christmas and a few before that, and I mix K/D and Senior Hairball for him. This is why I love Dr Vet; I would not have known to ask about blood profiles of Romeo without them telling me, and hopefully catching this early, close monitoring, and all the kidney-flushing will pay off. I hope.

Butsoanyway.

Dr Vet looked at Squoosh's eyes, nose, ears, mouth (mouth because some kind of tooth abscesses can cause bulging of the eyes and eyelids, which I did not know before today!), and throat, and said Squoosh is fine and probably smacked his eye on something running (diagonally!), but it wasn't serious and has cleared up. :-) Yay! So Squoosh is still fine, and Dr Vet took time to let Squoosh try to kill the light from the scope-y thing he used. It was pretty cute--when someone will play with Squoosh, he just perks right the hell up! It's true; everyone loves Squooshable. It must suck to be that damn cute. :-) He was SO enthralled by that light that I think I am going to have to get one (not a laser pointer; they're bad for cats' eyes, I was told a long time ago).

And I did get to talk to Dr Vet about food because (ready for this?) Dr Vet has declared Squooshable to be an adult, or close enough, and wants him off kitten food. I think I am going to start crying! My Babycat is an adult!!! Dr Vet asked what I am feeding him, again told me that Hill's, Eukanuba, Iams, and so on--any premium food--is fine. But Squoosh doesn't need all the extra kitten supplements anymore (and he is 9.8 lbs!), so tomorrow I will exchange all the kitten food I just bought from PetsMart for ::sniffle!:: adult food. And Squoosh can eat a little of Romeo's food, but only a little. Rome still cannot ever eat Squooshable's, however.

But I did get to ask what brand Dr Vet personally prefers, and he said he likes Iams, but repeated again that any premium food is essentially the same, and some people rotate premium brands to get the benefit of different formulas, but that can make Squoosh picky if I do that (eek...too late); so Meow Mix, SuperCat (or whatever), and stuff like that are out. So I think Mr Squoosh will have Iams mostly, if he takes to it okay; Dr Vet was happy with that. He also said that Purina for the parking lot cats is a good choice, and he wouldn't consider purchasing anything more premium for them, and that it's not cheaping out because Purina uses acceptable ingredients and if I *do* get them caught and adopted, odds are a new owner could be talked into buying a $10 bag of Purina for them regularly easier than a $15 bag of Iams, which is a good point, and both brands have food for different life stages and all, which is good. He said he sees a lot of cats who do great on Purina, he just personally prefers Iams (though he sells Hills...shhhh!). I guess Hill's gave him a better deal, though I would never ask. :-) He's entitled to make a profit, and from what he said it's not bad for cats, so I am classifying that under Who Knows, Who Cares.

I just cannot believe my Squooshbaby is all grown up!

Time to sing Squooshrise, Squooshset again!

Oh...and to get back to work. Pfft.

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