Costco Monday

[susandennis]

I need Kleenex, steak slices and bacon. So Old People's hour at Costco this morning. Plus it will top off my treadmill walk with more steps.

Biggie's vet sent a note yesterday that the expert she sent the pix to saw no obstruction but does suspect possible diverticulitis. She noted that if that's what he has, then we treat symptoms so nothing to do but watch for those. But, then, like all doctor's she confuses me. If he experiences symptoms, we'll send him for a scan to confirm diverticulitis. ?? If all you do is treat symptoms, what good does confirmation do? What will that change? Whatever. Cross that bridge hopefully never.

Meanwhile, of course, whenever he's not in my site during a time of the day when he usually, is, I worry. This morning, he did not help me with my shower which he usually does. I didn't see him anywhere. His nearly empty tweet jar was on the counter so I pulled out the stash to fill it. This makes nearly zero noise but he can hear it from two towns over and out he came pronto! And happily scarfed up a couple of freebies that fell out while I was filling up.

At some point this week I'll likely need some kind of grocery run for produce. I'm trying now to decide if I want to get another whole Costco pizza this morning - for lunch and freezer. Probably.

I have a few minor house projects to do today but that and Costco are it. I'm looking at a nice quiet week. The Mariners are playing in Texas which means games early enough that I get to see the whole thing which is fun.

Time to get my shoes on and get to Costcoing!

Comments

[mairi-dubh.livejournal.com]

One of our cats has Chronic Kidney Disease, or renal failure (depending on which veterinarian is speaking.)

On a more or less regular schedule we have to administer subcutaneous fluids, an electrolyte solution intended to hydrate her, to help the cat feel better and be more enthusiastic about eating which she normally is if we prepare a fourth or a fifth of her daily food intake FRESH and present it to her "brand new." She can act kind of sniffy if food is "too old."
Evidently, however, the indignity of being stuck with a needle and restrained firmly enough to prevent squirming and attempts to escape while the SQ fluids are flowing through the needle and under her skin offends her, and instead of being more eager for food, she wants to be coaxed, and stroked, and made a huge fuss over. (Oh, yes; poor baby; Mean Mom, here, pulled up a "tent" of skin over your withers and held it there even after she slipped that needle into the "empty" space of the tent. And made you wait on Bad Dad's lap while that liquid, only room temperature which is a lot colder than your body, sort of bathes you from the inside. And you took it all like a champ, uncomplaining, and now you want extra lovin's.)
She wants the attention, but also wants us to work for the privilege of giving it to her, it seems.

I swear our cats can hear my eyelids creak when I open them first thing in the morning.

Does Biggie actually chew his treats? We used to give the big male and the female we had before the little tortoiseshell "Greenie" treats but after two visits to the vet's for each of them for jammed up colons---in one series of x-rays his looked like a log jam---we discontinued those. They weren't chewing the treats which were supposed to help with dental hygiene, and the unchewed treats might have been contributing to those episodes of total inability to pass stool so, we stopped.
At that time, the vet---and I wouldn't suggest you do this without the veterinarian giving you the go-ahead---suggested that we give them perhaps a measuring teaspoon of "Onesies" or 'Sitters" stage baby food, either squash or pumpkin with their wet food, to help bulk up the stool, keep it soft, and to help make it easier to pass. Cats get their wet food (no kibble, ever, for ours, because that canned wet food works best for them) morning and night, with a dose of organic pumpkin baby food mixed in, every day.
My note: If you do this, find organic squash or organic pumpkin. As vegetables go, those are two of the most heavily heavy-metal contaminated products out there, and while you or I might be able to deal with that identical quantity of contaminated squash or pumpkin, cats are much smaller than we are so the toxin-to-body-weight ratio is much higher.
We were also told that instead of the squash or pumpkin we could mix in some "metamucil" which is psyllium husks, but it oughtn't be sweetened and it must NOT be citrus-flavored because one of the ways to keep cats out of your garden beds or off your countertops is to leave citrus peels, especially orange peels, on them because cats detest the smell of citrus, particularly orange. We weren't told how much metamucil to give them, though, and haven't found any unsweetened and unflavored, so we've stuck with the pumpkin which provides a bit of extra nutrition, anyway.

[roasted-beets.livejournal.com]

I know almost nothing about keeping cats but canned organic pumpkin is about the best thing you can give dogs for diarrhea OR constipation and dogs LOVE it.

[mairi-dubh.livejournal.com]

I can well believe they love it! :^)

Many, many years ago, my then-vet told me that a dog could (and ought) be given two or maybe three fairly slim slices of peeled, cored apple for diarrhea; said the pectin helped to quiet the bowel.

We buy the baby food because we don 't do a lot of cooking or baking with canned pumpkin or with fresh pumpkin for that matter; we reckon we'll go through a jar of baby food pumpkin ( organic, of course) much sooner than we would a can of pumpkin. (And, once they're empty, stripped of their labels, and cleaned, we can re-use the little jars for littler storage, which we wouldn't attempt with empty canned food cans.)

[roasted-beets.livejournal.com]

The baby food pumpkin is a good idea. My dog loves apples, too. What I do with the opened can of pumpkin (if I'm not baking😇) is freeze it in an ice cube tray, then pop the cubes into a ziplock and it's always available.

[mairi-dubh.livejournal.com]

Those frozen cubes are a good idea, too ! :^)

But our cats are getting the organic pumpkin baby food with every meal (they get fed twice a day), and somehow, the little jars seem easier to deal with. That and the fact that finding organic canned pumpkin just isn't that easy around here.

[lenine2.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on the vet. I've had people say they have considered being tested for the BRCA gene. Because cancer runs in their family. Cancer runs in everyone's family. What good would that do? "I'd know to get mammograms and colonoscopies and change my diet and..." And why can't you do that anyway?

Actually, I agree with you on your personal medical-testing philosophy as well.

I mourn the lack of good produce since moving away from the Chicago burbs. That was one advantage of being so close to O'Hare.

[susandennis]

Cancer runs in everyone's family. OMG this. Yes.

I never thought about that but I'd guess that near O'Hare is probably the best produce in the world! Everything pretty much has to go there first!

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

Re the diverticulitis confirmation scan, my mother has diverticulosis (different, obvs, but related) and I think I know what your vet means. The symptoms of diverticulitis are more or less the same as the symptoms you get when pretty much anything in the digestive system goes wrong. (They're exactly the same symptoms as pancreatitis, for example.) So if he got those symptoms they'd want to make sure it was diverticulitis and not something else that was causing it. (FWIW, which isn't a lot, nothing you've ever said about Biggie would make me think he had diverticulitis.)

[rsc.livejournal.com]

The Mariners are playing in Texas which means games early enough that I get to see the whole thing which is fun.

And then the Red Sox follow them in Texas, which means games late enough that we might have to stay up past our normal bedtime.

[susandennis]

sucks living on the wrong coast — baseball wise speaking