Cat Problems, Lucky and Lucy

Although cats are known to be standoffish, they can be demanding--especially if you aren't doing just what they want. And with the four at my house that usually involves food, petting, and more food.

Lucky, doing what all cats do--get into bags.

Two of my cats, Lucky and Lucy, have needed a lot of attention in these areas recently. They are both elderly so when I noticed they were losing weight, I was upset, but not surprised. This had been a pattern in other older cats I had had before and the cause of their problems was failing kidneys. Cats have fragile kidneys which often fail as they get older. When the kidneys aren't filtering well, toxins build up and take away the cat's appetite. Thus, they eat less, and lose weight. You can treat the symptoms of kidney failure, but can't really stop the progression of the disease. Ward and I talked and agreed on how far we were willing to go with treatment before I took them to the vet. We were ready.

Part of our suspicions were confirmed when we found that they had both indeed lost weight. However, followup blood tests showed that both of their kidney functions were good as well as all of the other screening tests that were done. That was a relief, but something was still going on. What? This was uncharted territory for us. Follow up blood work showed that Lucky had hyperthyroidism, meaning his body was burning off more than he was eating. And many other followup tests showed that Lucy had pancreatitus--meaning her body was not digesting her food enough to absorb it.

Luckily, both of these conditions are treatable IF the cat decides to cooperate. Lucky's treatment is not too bad. It involves putting gel on the inside of his ear flap once a day. He tolerates this well except when he runs away or flattens his ear making it hard to get the medicine inside. However, he is responding to treatment and gaining weight.

Lucy demanding better food.

When howling doesn't work,
she tries the pleading eyes.

Lucy is another story. She has what on paper seems to be a simple treatment. Powder gets sprinkled on her food containing the enzymes she needs to help her digest it. However, Lucy wants nothing to do with this altered food. We have tried multiple foods, both wet and dry, commercial and home cooked. We have also tried feeding her with a little powder and no powder, separately and with the other cats, or just she gets the powder or all of the cats get the powder, We've also tried feeding frequently or not so often as well as giving her B vitamin shots and appetite stimulants. We've tried everything we can think of with very limited results. In the beginning she went for two days without eating anything because of the enzymes. (Not a good thing for an already emaciated cat.) Now, she will eat a few kibble with a very slight dusting of powder in the bowl--sometimes. The vet said that Lucy is acting very typical for a cat and to keep trying. She may give in and slowly adjust. I hope so because I'm getting tired. However, as the vet pointed out, we've only been at this for a week. My how time doesn't fly when you aren't having fun.

I hope Lucy adjusts and we get a lot more time with her. However, if this simple treatment doesn't work, we're in for some difficult decisions ahead. In the meantime, Lucy is begging for more food (she's been here howling three times since I stared writing this) because the last time I fed her, I put enzyme powder on her food. And in her eyes, that's just not acceptable.

A Second Look--July 22, 2015

While the flowers are very pretty this time of year, it's the critters that have been getting my attention this week--specifically the birds and the bees and the bugs.

A few weeks ago, I showed a picture of a wheel bug nymph. Adult wheel bugs are fearsome looking with their big size and gray and brown armored looking shell.  So I was surprised when I discovered, the slim, green insect I found was the nymph for it. While identifying the nymph, I found the wheel bug was also called the assassin bug because it pierces its prey and sucks out the insides to eat. The nymphs feed this way also. Well, this week I actually saw this happening. The nymph I found was a little older that the one I saw before and some of its green had to turned to gray, but it was definitely identifiable as an assassin bug.  The bug was clinging to the underside of a coneflower with a lifeless bumblebee clutched in its legs while its mouth pierced the abdomen of the bee. Just like I had read about. Amazing to see! Despite the fact this one was eating a bee, assassin bugs are considered beneficial garden predators eating things like Japanese beetles and caterpillars.

On more pleasant insect news, the swallowtail butterflies have returned this week. I haven't seen them in great numbers yet, but I hope more are to come. The skipper and cabbage butterflies are still flitting around everywhere.

The baby finches are continuing to grow and the mother is still very protective of them. I thought that maybe the baby bluebirds had already fledged, but when I saw the mother go into the box, I took a look. They are still there, but they are mostly feathered and you can see some of the blue on them. I would like to see them fledge, but not surprisingly, the mother tries to do that when there are no threats around and in her eyes that includes me.)

Here are a few things I saw this week 

during a Second Look. 

A few of the flowers that are in bloom right now.

Adult assassin bug from last August. Notice the wheel on its back that gives it its other name of wheel bug. Next notice the antennas on its skinny, long head. Bent under it's head, is its long, deadly mouth.

Assassin bug nymph from a couple of weeks ago. If you look carefully, you can see its orange mouth under the antennas. 

With some studying of this picture, I hope you can see what I saw recently. The assassin nymph is holding onto  the coneflower with its back legs. Its front legs are wrapped around the bumblebee.  Once again see the long, orange antenna. Under them is the orange mouth that is stuck into the bee. It's just under the bees wing. 

Tiger swallowtail butterfly

The wren's have grown a lot in the last week.

So have the bluebirds.

Thankful Sunday--July 19, 2015

I am thankful for:

Fresh berries 

Sweet corn on the cob

Grilled squash

Tender green beans

Crisp lettuce

Marinated cucumbers

and especially Tomatoes right off the vine.

In other words, I am thankful for summer harvest time.

A Second Look-Part 2, July 16, 2015

For yesterday's Second Look post, I showed you several pictures of baby wrens. Today I'm going to show you a few more pictures of things that have a bit more color to them. Because despite my focus on the birds, I did see a few other things around the yard besides wrens.

Here are a few more things I saw this week during a Second Look.

Day lily

Young milkweed beetle

Fritillary butterfly

Cone flower. This is a volunteer under the bird feeder. Finches especially like their seeds.

Silver-spotted skipper butterfly. The injured wing didn't seem to be affecting its movement.

Tiger lily. The other morning was the first time I noticed that the tiger lily leaves start out straight before they curl all the way back. These observations always make me wonder. After all the tiger lilies I've seen, why is it I've never noticed this before.  It also makes me happy that there is still so much to see even in the common, everyday things.

Bumblebee

A Second Look--July 15, 2015

Ask me what I did last Sunday. Well, I spent most of the day running back and forth to one of nest boxes watching some house wrens hatch. It was one of the most interesting things I've seen in a while and I'm going to share it with today's Second Look. There are great videos all over YouTube showing this kind of thing, but I did it the old fashioned way. I stood on a chair and peered into the top of the box and then did a point and shoot picture. As you'll see below, sometimes they turned out well and other times they didn't. The camera was very good at focusing on the nest and not as good on focusing on the birds.

During all of my peering, which lasted over several hours/days, the mother was very attentive--usually on a nearby branch giving a loud warning call when I got close to the box. However, when I got about 10 feet away from the box, she would stop. Luckily, she didn't dive bomb me, but I wore a hat anyway. I really don't like it when a bird swoops by my head close enough to give me the wind blown look.

Here's this week's Second Look.

When we last saw the nest, there were five eggs in it.

A few days later when I checked, there were 3 hatchlings one of which had not quite freed itself from its shell. I watched as it wiggled and shook its wing trying to get the shell off. It was quite active. What you are seeing: In the picture above, there are two intact eggs in the lower left part of the nest with one chick draped over them, and two parts of a recently split egg above them that the chick was trying to get out of. There are three chicks in the above picture, but one of them is in the lower part of the nest hiding under a feather.

The next time I looked, half of the recently split egg was missing. The mother usually eats the egg shells both for calcium and for protection. When not in a protected box, the newly hatched shells could fall to the ground and alert predators that there are some tasty baby birds around. What you're seeing: In this picture, it's a little easier to make out the three hatchlings and eggs. Note the half shell at the upper right of the nest.

A little later, the other half of the shell was gone, and things had been neatly rearranged in the nest. The two remaining eggs were off to the side and the chicks were neatly around the edge of the nest. The chicks move around a lot on their own, but this has the look of a mother's work.

This time as I approached the box, the mother flew out. When I looked inside, I saw what she had been doing--feeding. What you're seeing:  At the top of the nest is one of the chicks with a grub in its mouth. (To me, it actually looks like it choked to death). It slowly was able to work this grub into its gut.  Pretty amazing to watch because this grub was almost as big as its head.

The instinct to beg for food seems to be working well in these hatchlings.

The next peer into the box found four hatchlings and no partial shells. Maybe because the mother was a afraid of me, she was cleaning things up quickly.

I checked several more times on Sunday and the last egg had not hatched However, sometime during the night it hatched and I found all five chicks Monday morning. Note that the first two hatched chicks already have more "fur" on their head than the later three. Your job is to see if you can find all five chicks in the picture.  Hint: In the lower part of the nest, one of their heads is covered up by another and you can only see its bottom.

Now after you've gone blind trying to make out the wren pictures, here's one that a little bit easier to see. These are baby bluebirds from another nest. Besides starting out a lot larger than the wrens, they are about a week older. You can see that they are starting to get their pin feathers.