Bailey - March 2013
Not to be overshadowed by Monty, it was Bailey’s turn at the vet today for his first senior checkup. Yup, our big kitty is now a card carrying member of the AARC at 12! He’s had on-again off-again digestive and GI issues over the years, so fortunately this trip was preventative in nature and not an emergency. Even so, with the sounds he was making during the 10 minute drive to and from the office the ride was excruciating. Dr Naugler ran a full gamut of tests including physical, blood profile, urinalysis, and fecal review, in addition to updating his rabies vaccination.

Many of you may know of the tummy troubles Bailey endures from time to time, be it the constipation, picky eating habits, or vomiting if you look at him funny. He’s always been that way and we’ve learned how to deal with it. We’ve tried good food, bad food, canned food, dry food, raw food, baby food, and even stranger things like boiled pumpkin without much luck in either getting him to eat anything other than certain Friskies and Fancy Feast varieties. He eats and seems happy, but I’ve never been overly excited about what I give him. He also has a bit of an OCD streak when it comes to cleaning himself and has several bald spots because of this. Past vets tried to treat this as a psychological issue with steroids, but this was probably the worst thing we ever did for him as he was MISERABLE and did not last very long. So the news today that the recommendation going forward would be to transition to a special hypoallergenic diet did not come as a complete surprise, but the reasoning for it caught me off guard for what I have been overlooking all this time. The OCD cleaning could be caused by abdominal irritation due to food or food allergy and probably has nothing to do with boredom or psychosis, so I’m either the worst pet parent ever or, well I couldn’t think of anything else because I felt like the worst pet parent ever.

So changes are afoot for Bailey’s diet, and this could get “fun”. First up to taste test are the deliciously named canned foods “Intestinal Low Residue Pate” and “Hypoallergenic Senior Feline”, so wish us luck!