Good morning all! I joined last week sometime, and just had a chance to set up a Photobucket account, since Flickr was not behaving.

I have 3 American Eskimos that I show in Obedience, Rally and Agiliy, 1 Shetland Sheepdog who is official couch potato and 12 kitties.

I am just getting started in pet photography. I am working on getting my little studio set up.

Here is my old lady, she is 16 years old and has both Chronic Kidney Failure and Hyperthyroidism. She is such a good old cat. I rescued her 16 years ago from an abandoned apartment building when she was only a couple of weeks old. I bottle fed her and everybody warned me that bottle fed cats turn out mean. She is the sweetest cat imaginable.






Pj

Welcome, fellow New Englander!! You should definitely take time to check out the Shop Talk Forum. There are lots of great threads that are business related there.

James

Hi PJ,

Welcome to the forum. The old lady still has her looks.

Do you have her on a kidney friendly diet (like Science Diet Prescription K/D)?

Thanks!

She is on Purina Kidney diet, DM? I think it is called. She hated the Science Diet one. We took her for more bloodwork last month, her BUN went from 4.6 down to 3.5! I was thrilled! The vet said as long as she is not getting dehydrated ( I have Sub Q fluids at home) and her BUN stays where it is, she should live for quite a while. She hated her thyroid meds though. We had to switch to a transdermal version of Tapazole. We did have to add a couple more litter boxes though.

Pj

We also have a cat with chronic renal problems. She is 17 (Cali) and has been getting sub cue fluids 6x/week for the last four years. If your little lady is not happy with the RX foods, you might want to talk to your veterinarian about what we have done. Generally, we looks for the lowest protein foods we can get from other companies - and try to keep it down to under 8.5%. We often mix foods too - such as Pet Guard's Venison and Rice Formula (6% protein), with a higher protein food (such as Wellness Herring and Fish). It is a bit unorthodox, but Cali's bloods have been consistent for the last 4 years. Prior to going this route, we tried pretty much the whole gambit. We did the Science Diet (Hills) food, which the cat hated...though I understand that they recently reformulated. We also did the Purina (the best of the lot), and the Waltham Packets (which amounted to them sucking up the gravy and leaving the food).

As to the thyroid meds - are you using the liquid that you put on their ear? LOL, we did that one with one of our older cats...she hated it and seemed to know immediately when we were about to put it on her.

James

I know it sounds simple, but many of my customers also swear by Distilled Water. It doesn't cost that much by the gallon at the grocery store and it doesn't have your government's additives in it. We are giving it a try. We are dealing with one Old Man (14) with high readings...and one young one (3) who is manufacturing struvite crystals.

Hi James!

We tried all the special diets, they stink! Miss Pooh keeps trying to bury the Science Diet one! The funny thing, I was on a couple of websites, and talked to my vet. He had mentioned that there is new studies and beliefs that a "high quality" protein, not a low protein diet, as is the common rule, along with a diet with no phosphorus in it. So we are working on that. I have to laugh about the transdermal meds! Miss Pooh hates pills so bad, that she has developed a new nickname. Piranha Pooh! She had a temper tantrum one morning and bit me so bad that by 9am when the doctor got into his office, my whole arm up to my shoulder was bright red and swollen. We switched that evening to the transdermal. She doesn't even notice when I give it to her.

We already have the cats on Distilled water, and they have a water fountain.

Pj

Thanks. The old man is likes the Science Diet K/D wet and dry, but the young one will not eat the wet C/D....so we are giving him the dry C/D plus a portion of canned pumpkin....the jury is still out.

Hi PJ
I'm new here, too. I photograph alot of dogs, but don't get as many requests for cats. Do you do cat portaits? or just photograph your own kitties? very pretty by the way...