Pet Food Recall - another update

This recall has really been big news for pet owners over the last few weeks. While the "official" number of deaths caused by the contaminated pet food remains low, the unofficial numbers coming from various sources are much higher. In addition, the list of recalled pet foods seems to grow longer each week.

These are some of the resources I have been using to get good information on the pet food recall situation.

ASPCA Pet Food Recall FAQ's

FDA Pet Food recall site

Menu Food's Recall site

I'm keeping a close eye on Meow, but thankfully I haven't fed him any of the recalled food except maybe one Neutro pouch. From what I have been reading, this is something that takes a little time, and one serving would not be enough to do any harm.

Personal rant...This whole situation has me pretty angry. I understand that companies turn to China to keep their costs down, but I don't see how Menu Foods is coming out ahead of the game financially as a result of this contamination from China. How is this going to benefit the company, the shareholders - anyone? What is the point? Seems to me that greed is firmly holding the top spot on Menu Foods priority list.

If they really cared, they would have done something to ENSURE that the ingredients used to make the food for our beloved pets was SAFE. They didn't. I'm sure the market, and the pet owners will see that Menu Foods has cut corners and in doing so cut their market share permanently.

Cat Litter

House cats have a few essential needs, water, food, love, and a place to poo! Some cats are picky about where they will do their business, but not Meow. He's been willing to soil any type of litter we put down for him to use, which makes life for his human servants (me and my wife) a little easier!

So, the key is...what do the humans prefer to use? Well, I have a few things that I look for when selecting cat litter, and here is the list I threw together off the top in no particular order.

• Is it absorbent, or will my cat track his dirty little feet all over the place because his "business" is not absorbed somehow.
• Does it have a pleasant scent, and how long does it remain pleasant? I don't necessarily expect it to smell like a flower-bed for a week, but the litter should have a neutral scent that generally absorbs or masks the poopy smell a bit.
• Is it scoopable and/or flushable? When possible, I like to get in there right away and scoop out those offending packages and flush them away. I do not like clogging my sewage lines, so it is important that it will not do so.
• Will my cat track it all over the house because the litter is too fine or light weight to stay in the litterbox?
• Is it environmentally friendly? To me, that's a plus.
• Will Meow use it? So far, he's used everything. What a guy!
• Is it reasonably priced? I'll not pay $50 for a pound of litter - no matter how good it is!

So, generally those are some of the things we look for.

Yesterday's News is what we currently use (hey, that rhymed!) Generally, it is pretty good in all of our points above except it doesn't absorb as quickly as we would like, and it isn't flushable. Sometimes, when Meow has a big, looooooooooong pee, he'll go and cover it like a good cat, except it's still a puddle at that point and hasn't absorbed. So, we end up washing his feet right there so they don't stink like pee! Its strange because the bag claims "3X more moisture absorbing than clay" - I think that it is, just not right away, and that's my main problem with this product and the reason we're looking to try something else.

Yesterday's News is also "low tracking" because it has pellets instead of little sand-like particles, so it doesn't stick to his little feeties when he's done. As I mentioned, this stuff can't be flushed so you just have to sift the pellets from the poops when you clean the box, and you should be OK. When wet, the newsprint pellets kind of puff up and slowly mutate into a messy, grey, semi-stinky pulp type stuff, and it does not clump. We change the box twice per week with this product, but we scoop the solids as they are left for us. Such suckers!

We have also tried something called Feline Pine which seems like a nice, natural product, but it really didn't work for us. Its made of pine, which for the most part is a nice-smelling substance that should absorb orders. It does, but we found that it was quickly overwhelmed by Meow's massive and odoriferous droppings. In addition, as soon as it got wet, it turned into this highly-trackable sawdust type stuff that got all over the place. More of a mess than we hoped, and you actually need a special scoop with this product. I don't think we even finished the bag because it turned into such a mess. Hey, we tried.

So, that's where we're at for the moment. I'm going to poke around and see what the "masses" say about litter, and try something else that absorbs a little more quickly than the otherwise excellent Yesterday's News and post about it here.

Lactulose needed!

I know this is getting old, but in Meow's life, its BIG news!

The whole effort to relieve Meow's constipation situation was not really helped with the fiber and wet food additions to his diet. Oh well. Time for professional cat health assistance!

We took Meow the cat to our beloved vet and explained to her our situation. Meow the cat was pooping, but it was obviously uncomfortable for him, and it looked like it would become even more uncomfortable if we didn't act soon!

The Doctor gave Meow the standard once-over - eye check, ear check, listen to his heart, look at teeth, squeeze belly, check weight....Meow did fine in all areas of general health, except he's a "little chubby" now according to the Vet. Another problem and another post! Poor Meow!

The Doctor listened to us and then decided to check Meow for stuck poop I guess, because she took a thermometer and well, inserted it. Needless to say, Meow the cat did not like this intrusion but he endured like the good cat that he is (I hope he doesn't mind me posting this about him!) and let her "probe".

Somehow by examining with this thermometer, our Vet indicated that his poops were too hard and she would like him to get something called "Lactulose" that would have to be administered twice per day. This lactulose stuff is a liquid, and would have to be administered to our cat orally. THAT should be fun!

Another post for another day!