Just when they thought they could relax a little...

Chang Chang:

They say I had been very 倒蛋 because just when Xin Xin's condition had stabilised, I had to present them with another set of problem.

For the whole of last week, I had been rejecting their offer of wet food mixed with crushed dry kibbles. So they had no choice but to just feed me wet food every meal. Hahaha......

Then I got pickier and rejected my usual Natural Balance Ducky wet food and they had no choice but to feed me Fancy Feast Tender Liver. But I deliberately ate less than 2 small cans a day until I started losing weight. And because I had not been seen drinking, I got a little dehydrated.

On top of that, I slept more often though I am still racing around the house every 2 nights.

They became worried as I had just been given my 2nd steroid injection late Jul for my itchy skin, constant licking and a sore on my lips. The 1st injection in late May managed to reduce the sore and reduced my itchiness but it wore off after 1.5 months before the sore erupted again.

Suspecting that there was something wrong with me after the bad experience with Xin Xin, they packed me up and sent me to the vet last night. My 4th visit in 3 months!

The vet stuck something up my butt, looked at my mouth, pressed my tummy, checked my heartbeat but could not find anything wrong. Then he drew some blood from me and ran tests for thyroid, diabetes and renal failure. He told them that at my young age of 4 1/2 years, the chances of contracting these diseases should be low. And he was right. There was nothing wrong with my blood tests at all. Daddy was happy with the test results but the vet was disappointed though. He kept using the phrase "unfortunately, we do not find abnormalies in the test results so we can't be sure what he has contracted and therefore cannot administer the right treatment."

And then he said he wanted my 大便 and 小便. I don't know what he sprayed near my rear region but my 小弟弟 went numb. OMG! Really scared me! And he tried to push something into my bladder to try extracting 小便 but of course I put up a good fight and he gave up after 5 min. Now Daddy and Mummy would have to collect those at home. :)

Before we left, they even injected some fluid under my skin to reduce my dehydration. I had seen them doing it to Xin Xin before but I never expected that I would be on the receiving end one day.

I was a good boy at home and immediately gave Mummy my 大便 sample. The fecal float test was negative. There was no parasite in me. Now it seems that only the 小便 test can confirm if there is anything medically wrong with me.

I have had this itchy skin condition since I was 1 year old. The condition only got worse in the last 3 months. Over the past 3 years, Daddy and Mummy had tested me for fleas and mites, changed my regular food to low allergen formulas, changed my shampoo to a mild hypoallergenic one, washed all my beddings weekly, experimented with different types of litter, experimented with various household detergents thinking those could be the culprit but none worked. The only thing which briefly worked for 6 months or so was the wheatgerm/evening primrose oil they fed me daily. It sped up my fur molding period but after some time, it stopped working again.

Do you have any suggestions how I can actually heal so that I won't cause them anymore worries? They suspect that my skin condition is the main cause of all my problems and if they can find out that main cause, I will never be itchy again. And when I am not itchy, I will have more appetite and therefore gain weight.

I only got itchy after the ginger furball Yuan Yuan joined the gang in Mar/Apr 05. Maybe it's her? Maybe I am allergic to her. Is that even possible?

Our Little Boy is Recovering

Our little boy is recovering.

The growth on the side of his lips has grown smaller this morning. I would presume that the ulcers/sores in his mouth are also recovering. The injection works very well for him. And he is enjoying his breakfast and dinner now since he is getting his favorite wet food twice a day (and laced with a capsule of anti-biotics).

Chang Chang is sore and I am very pissed

Chang Chang has had a sore near his lips for the past 3 weeks. For the first 2 weeks, it seemed manageable. It just looked as if he had a bald patch at his lips. His appetite was never affected and he continued to bully the gang as always. But by week 3, it started to spread. We decided to bring him to the vet today even though he seemed fine on the outside.

The prognosis was not good. He had a few ulcers/sores in his mouth and his teeth do not look that good. The vet suspected feline aids as he was a stray before (I believe only for a few hours). Fur near his throat was shaven and blood was drawn for feline aids test. Luckily for us, the test is negative.

The vet thought that perhaps it could be stress related, which could also coincide with his incessant licking. We were not too sure of that since he has been the top cat since he was 2 years old but given that his licking problem started the time we shifted house, we also did not discount the possibility.

An anti-inflammatory injection and antibiotics were given and he would be seeing the vet again this Sat for a follow-up. He would also be going for teeth scaling later on.

For his stress "problem", the vet suggested Feliway. San had bought the diffuser and refill at Pet Lovers ("PLC") and I thought I would give it a try. The Centrepoint outlet did not have it and pointed us to the Holland V outlet. It was not really a problem for us though it was a little out of the way. Chang Chang's health is worth it.

But my shopping experience at the Holland V outlet made my blood boil. If you do not already know, the Pet Lovers Centre membership card entitles the cardholder to a 5% discount if purchases are above $15 and if the item is not on offer. These are stated clearly on the discount card.

So to my surprise, no discount was given for the Feliway diffuser + one refill which cost approximately $61. The illogical reason given was that their computer system did not pick up the discount. I pointed out the fact that this item qualifies for the discount as it was priced above $15 and neither was it promotional item. They refused to honour the discount even though it was clearly a human error which led to to the mistake. The store supervisor, though in the outlet itself, refused to speak to me in person and just spoke to me over the phone. He mentioned that perhaps it was because the profit margin was low and therefore a discount did not apply. I nearly laughed at his face if I had not been so pissed. I told him straight I do not care if the markup is insufficient because they could have easily sold it at a higher price. This kind of frail reasoning is simply crap.

Now, I do not really care for the $3 discount but what really irks me are the attitude of the store staff and their inflexibility to do a manual adjustment for an error which was clearly caused by them. So simply put, they will never earn my money from this point on unless absolutely necessary.

Firstly, their prices are really not competitive. I managed to get my regular pet store to bring in the same product and at a more competitive pricing. So San, if you are reading this post and will require Feliway refill in the near future, drop me a note and I will pass you their contact. Besides the Feliway, the brands of litter and cat food I use for the gang are costlier in PLC (even after the pathetic 5% discount) than at my regular pet shop.

Secondly, I did not enjoy my shopping experience with them. The Feliway episode just simply show how inflexible they can be over their own shop error. Mrs kxbc says that the way they had operated seems to be more like a cheat. I agree to that. I believe there would be customers who would forgo the discount even though they are entitled to it simply because they had no other choice or if they do not know of other shops which sell the same product. However, I would rather not let them earn my money because I know if I search hard enough, I will find it sold at another outlet.

Chang Chang will have to do without the Feliway for today. My regular pet store told me I could pick it up tomorrow after work. Now that is what I call service even though I did not expect them to be able to get hold of a set so quickly. I was more than willing to wait for a week. I know Chang Chang will understand.

What the hell, I am still brown!!!! Angry angry...

Chang Chang:


You know, I was really trying to change my coat colour but Daddy and Mummy had somehow put a stop to it.

For some reason, ever since I was on the new bag of Science Diet z/d, I have had soft stools and they are really stinky. Yucks!

Out of desperation, Mummy bought this ducky formula from Natural Balance and cautiously tried it on me.

Luckily for them but not me, I stopped itching and plucking out my fur. Together with the oil supplement, my fur is growing back and therefore I am starting to look brown again. Arghh.....I want to be a black/white cat!!! I don't wanna be a brown cat!!!

I want a new coat colour

Chang Chang:

I think for the year of the Rat, I want a new coat colour. I don't want to be a brown cat anymore. I think either white or black will suit me better.

That's why since 3 weeks ago, I have been meticulously plucking out fur from my right flank everyday. Now it's almost botak. And now my new coat can now grow full and plush.

But I think Daddy and Mummy are not too happy with my decision to change my coat colour. They still think brown suits me best. They also keep lamenting that their 3 months of effort feeding me "fur growth" oil has gone down the drain.

How? Should I continue to change my coat colour?

No more world record :(

Chang Chang:

Every morning and night, Daddy has been pouring some engine lubricant into my ears and now, my hardworking wax machine does not work very well anymore. How? What can I do? What if another cat take over "The waxiest ears in the world" title from me? How? How?

I am very sad...........

Yay! World record!

Chang Chang:

The V.E.T said I have the waxiest ears in the world! Yay! The waxiest ears in the world! Can you believe it? I may be entered in the Guiness World of Records for having the waxiest ears in the world. So waxy the V.E.T cannot even see my eardrums since my ear wax covered everything up. And that was after my ears were cleaned just 1 day ago. Man, I have a hardworking waxing machine in my ear!

The waxiest ears in the world! Can you believe it? I'm so excited I don't think I can sleep tonight.

We are all inter-connected

This food recall incident showed how interconnected we all are, didn't it?

Rice grown in China (presumably) and further processed by removing the starch, gives rice protein. Somehow, this was tainted with melamine, either intentionally or otherwise, and sold to US pet food contract manufacturers. And the US factories used these ingredients to make the cat food and sold them via agents all over the world. And of course some packs landed on the shores of Singapore and caused more than a little panic to me and other pet owners.

Thus far, at least I understand from NB via e-mail that the latest pack of NB Venison & Green Pea (expiry date Nov 07) I had fed the kxbc gang is probably not tainted as it was probably produced way before the tainted rice protein made its way into the manufacturing process. NB has been responding to my mails even though I am sure they must have their hands full right now. It's good they recalled their products so quickly (they received calls from concerned pet owners on 12 Apr and started recalling on 16 Apr based on their reply to me) even though it was a big gamble for their reputation.

On the other hand, as of now, our AVA still has not responded to my 2 e-mails to 2 different AVA e-mail addresses (ava_email@ava.gov.sg and ava_importexport_animals@ava.gov.sg) I had sent on 18 and 19 Apr regarding this incident. And to think that I have even left my HP number in my mail so that they can clarify with me if necessary. And neither have they issued any press statement (just checked their website) about this in either their website or The Straits Times. No wonder my vet was so puzzled why I had brought XX and CC for the blood test on Thur evening. Totally hopeless organisation. I wonder if they read their mails at all. If they don't, perhaps they should not list their e-mail addresses in their contact list. To make a note for myself in the future: Do not work for govt service. I don't want to end up like them.

Back to the topic:
RC has also begun to recall some of their products but luckily, Indoor 27 is not on the list. KK, XX and YY are now solely on RC after the NB scare.

SD has also issued a statement that all their SD dry cat food and z/d prescription diet are also not affected. Rice protein is used in the manufacturing of z/d but it is not sourced from China. BB is eating SD Hairball Control and itchy CC is trying out z/d on a 2-month trial period.

NB has also in their 2nd mail to me, mentioned that besides lamb and venison which are to be sourced from New Zealand, all other ingredients were supposed to be sourced from the US. But their supplier sourced the tainted China ingredient instead. I reproduce below NB's reply to me (edited somewhat to remove boring press releases and my name :) ).

[quote]Dear kxbc,

Yes this is worldwide [recall of affected NB products].

Please find the following update regarding this recall. Further, please know that NO other Natural Balance products are affected. [April 17, 2007 press release here]

All of our ingredients are intended to be from the US except the Lamb and Venison (New Zealand). We purchase our raw ingredients from US suppliers who are contracted and paid to provide us with domestic products. We are investigating to find out how this chinese rice protein concentrate made its way into our supply, as our suppliers know we only want US domestic ingredients. We are also looking into changes in our purchasing methods to safeguard against any future errant shipments. We were let down by our supplier, which in turn caused us to let down our customers.

As to the testing procedures, our products are tested at various points from ingredients to completed diets. Because melamine has not in the past been a concern in the US ingredients, it has not been a regular part of the testing procedure. Due to this recall, and the fact that one of our suppliers has let us down, melamine testing is being incorporated into the regular testing.

Once we began looking into the illness reported last week, all of our foods were sent off for additional testing. This testing was performed at UC Davis. All of our products, recalled products aside, have been proven safe and with no contaminants.

Again, thank you for your email. I hope this eases your mind somewhat. This has been a horrible event for pet owners, the pet industry, and for us at Natural Balance.

SIncerely,Cherie Meyers

> >Subject: RE: Natural Balance Venison & Green Pea Dry Cat Food recall
> >Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:49:21 +0800
> >Thread-Topic: Natural Balance Venison & Green Pea Dry Cat Food recall
> >Priority: Urgent
> >From: "kxbc" kxbc@kxbc.com
> >To: info@naturalbalanceinc.com

Hi

I would like to understand if your food recall for the contaminated food affects only the US or is it a worldwide recall?

My local agent in Singapore mentioned that the Natural Balance Venison & Green Pea dry food formula sold in Singapore is not affected but I am not sure of his statement. I assume all Natural Balance to be either produced in the US using the same contaminated ingredient or in different factories around the world but still using the same contaminated ingredient due to bulk sourcing arrangements by Natural Balance HQ.

Appreciate if you can kindly clarify via e-mail or a press release urgently. Thank you.

Regards, kxbc
Singapore [unquote]

They bothered to reply to my mail even though they are swarmed with work and PR disaster recovery. And what did we get from our AVA? Nothing. Zilch. Zero. Gon-not. I wonder why they got a pay increase lately.

Journey to the vet

Office to home: Hardly any conversation as both of us were lost in our own thoughts. I just wanted to get home quick to scoop the both of them to the vet asap. I had butterflies in my stomach, similar to times when I had to send them in for surgery. I think Mrs kxbc had similar feelings.

Home to vet: Reached home, got them into the carriers and off we go. And silence on the way there again. CC and XX were a little anxious, especially XX as she was just at the vet on Sunday for her annual vaccination and checkup.
At the vet: The Dr was not aware of any food contamination issue as there was no word from AVA. I explained the whole thing all over to him again. Blood drawn from the both of them to test for acute renal kidney failure. A negative test result will be good but that does not mean they do not have chronic kidney failure. Only a test on their urine sample can confirm if they do have chronic kidney failure.

Waited around 20 min for the test results at the waiting room. No conversation as well. Both of us were just too anxious for the results, especially that of CC. He is the most likely to contract kidney failure, if at all, as he has been wholly on NB since Dec 06.

A cute "jia you jian gou", aka the bull terrier (I think), was at the vet too. Nosy little thing which was sniffing out all corners of the clinic.

The vet came out bearing CC's results.

NEGATIVE.

Both of us heaved a sigh of relief. We were noticeably feeling better now as we smiled to each other again. We started talking. We were quite sure that if CC is negative, XX should be too.

Another 10 min and the vet was out with XX's result.

NEGATIVE too.

We felt much better now. We will monitor them for chronic kidney failure symptons eg drinking excessively, loss of weight and appetite etc. I will need to read up on this topic this weekend.

The bill came. $241!! Wah piang eh! But it was money well spent. It lifted a heavy load off our minds. I asked Mrs kxbc what would we have done if we know that we could not afford the bill. "We'll have to wait and save cash and at the same time monitor their health. But if we know we can't afford it, we probably would not have the 5 of them. Too many for finances already." I'm glad we still do not have problem supporting the 5 of them today.

Back home: The other 3 welcomed them back home. After their dinner, it was as if nothing had ever happened in the last 2 hours. It's good to have them safe and sound at home.

Update on NB Contamination

The Wife is frantic about CC who eats NB Venison & Green Pea solely, as he has had diarrhoea/soft stools for the past few days and diarrhoea is one of the symptons of kidney failure. XX has had soft stools too but her latest "release" this morning seems normal and she is still active. But whatever the case, we are bringing them in to the vet for a blood test this evening. I am worried too but I need to keep a clear head to deal with this incident.

Although the other 3 also consumes NB Venison & Green Pea as part of their diet which also includes RC and SD, they are behaving normally and are active. Depending on the diagnosis of CC and XX, we will decide whether there is a need to test KK, BB and YY as well.

Through speaking with the pet shop (and the agent indirectly) and our regular vet, it seems that no one knows of this food contamination issue as AVA has not released any press statement. I have dropped AVA a mail earlier and hopefully we will have some news soon.

Just to let you understand that the NB incident is a contamination of rice protein concentrate and is not related to last month's Menu Foods food recall which was a contamination of wheat gluten used to thicken the gravy in wet food. So if your pet shop tells you that AVA has already issued a statement saying that the food imported into Singapore is okay, tell them it relates to the Menu Foods recall. There is no word from the AVA yet on the NB incident. And from NB's website, NB uses only 2 contract manufacturers for the manufacturing of their food and so the chance that contaminated food are shipped to Singapore are high.

The contaminant for both incidents is similar: melamine. And melamine is used in fertilizers in Asia. I am not sure which food product to trust now. We know how the world is becoming more globalised and with strong competition, every company needs to source for cheaper sources of ingredients to stay competitive. And cheaper ingredients are probably found in Asia where labour costs are generally lower. If you had not realised already, most things are made in China nowadays. Like the US armed forces beret issue which happened a couple of years back. And also the souveniers you had purchased while holidaying in Europe. Turn the souvenier and you would probably see a "Made in China" label. I am not saying all food produce in China is no good but we do have news about Chinese manufacturers taking short cuts in their manufacturing processes eg milk powder incident.

Please tell your friends who have pets to stop feeding the contaminated NB products now before it's too late.

I am keeping my fingers crossed about today's vet visit.

Press Release from Natural Balance

This is the latest press release from Natural Balance (www.naturalbalanceinc.com/press_release.html). To cut a long story short, don't feed NB Venison & Green Pea dry food formula, regardless of production date, for the time being.

I have just called Aquapet if I can get a refund since I had just purchased it last week and opened it only yesterday. I had thrown away the packaging though. $50+ can buy a lot of cat food and SD z/d is so expensive ($40 for 1.8kg) as a replacement.

Do you know what the NB agent told Aquapet? That the contaminated food only affects US market and does not affect the food sold in Singapore. I am not sure if the agent is stupid or if he is just stupid. If all the food are produced in the same plant using the same contaminated ingredients, which I am sure is since the bag specifically states "Made in USA", does it matter where the food are finally shipped to and consumed?

Alert! Alert!

If you are feeding your babies Natural Balance Venison & Green Peas dry kibbles, please take note that Natural Balance had issued a statement that they had received complaints about their Venison & Green Peas dry kibbles for cats, causing vomitting and kidney problems and they are advising all pet owners to discontinue feeding.

I do not know when this statement was issued and am not sure whether it ties in to the last scare about pet food just a couple of weeks earlier.

And I had just opened a new pack just this morning!!!

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/

An itch I cannot get rid of

Chang Chang did not itch further after the extreme experiment. So maybe I can conclude that he is not allergic to chicken but some other ingredient used in the manufacturing of kibbles.

Moglee suggested yeast and true enough, Royal Canin lists yeast as an ingredient but not NB Venison & Peas. Chang Chang is however still licking though we feed him NB exclusively. We suspect that he may have eaten a few kibbles of RC here and there while we are not looking. We will however still persevere with NB and see if there is going to be any improvement in the next couple of months.

The idea to give him Nutro Supplement has also been thrown out as yeast is also listed as an ingredient. In the meantime, we are still searching pet shops for a good and easy to apply supplement.

I think somehow, we have to live with the fact that he is going to itch and be hairless for some time. Poor boy.

Extreme Experiment

Another update on Chang Chang and his itchy skin.

We put him on 50% NB and 50% SD last week after it was confirmed that RC did not work for him. It was no good either. He was still itchy and tore off some fur on his back. So SD is out too and he was back on 100% NB, which he will not willingly eat unless he is really hungry. Actually none of them likes NB at all and is the last resort when they are really famished. Can you imagine it? They rejected the most expensive food. Is it really so yucky to eat?

As the main ingredient for both RC and SD is chicken, we did an extreme experiment on him last night. WE FED HIM 100% BOILED CHICKEN BREAST MEAT!!! He gobbled everything up and licked his mouth. Now we will monitor him for the next few days to see if he will lick excessively again.

The good news is that there was no clumps of fur on the floor this morning when we woke. So, if he is not allergic to chicken, then it must be some other ingredient in SD and RC which is making him itch. But finding that ingredient will not be an easy task.

Update on Chang Chang's skin problem

This is an update on Chang Chang's skin problem which was also blogged earlier.

The jab which Dr Su gave him lasted around a month or so before he began to get itchy again. But just a little which was rather tolerable for us. He had been on Natural Balance Venison and Green Pea since the vet vist as we needed a single protein source food which should hopefully narrow down the kind of things he is allergic too.

All the kitties took some time to get used to NB and started taking them when they get too hungry but little Yuan Yuan snubbed it completely, preferring her regular Royal Canin. The arrangement did well for all except that both Chang Chang and Xin Xin did not tolerate the food well and had soft stools daily.

Seeing a slight improvement in his skin condition, we added Royal Canin back to their diet last week. And lo and behold, no more soft stool from both CC and XX. So it was NB Venison which was causing their soft watery stool.

However, CC has started itching and is licking excessively again. We have no idea which ingredient in RC is causing him the itch. So from yesterday, CC will no longer have RC in his diet but to counter watery stools, we are trying SD to see if he will continue to itch on a 50% SD 50% NB diet.

If he still continues to itch, I am thinking of feeding him Nupro supplement to see if it can help improve his immune system and digestive tract so that he will not itch anymore. It's like TCM, heal the inside to benefit the outside.

Fingers crossed for now.

Help please - Skin problem

Update on 15 Dec 06:
We took the little boy to ARC Balestier for an appointment with Dr Sulnyi and waited and waited for more than 1 1/2 hours even though we had an appointment. Very bad impression already as the longest we had ever waited at our regular vet (with appointment) was less than 30 minutes and that was because the dog which was treated before us collapsed just outside the building due to some terminal illness. The owner was sobbing uncontrollably as she carried her dog in. It was a very sad scene, something I wish will not happen to us. I wish that if the kxbc gang needs to go, they go peacefully and gently in their sleep.

Anyway, Dr Sulnyi was quite good, listing out all the food and environmental allergens possible, things which our regular vet had also highlighted. It was a confirmation that both vets are correct and knowledgeable in their field of expertise. Little boy Chang Chang is confirmed to have no ear mites or any flea infestation.

As Chang Chang had licked himself sore in one area, he had an injection which will reduce itchiness for a week or so. The injection kicked in a few hours later and hopefully this will break the licking cycle for a while.

So in the meantime, we are taking the Feline Pine out of his litter and staying with Cat's Pride. Dr Sulyni suggested using paper pellets but it simply will not do in a multicat household. We have moved his bedding from the room with the litter box to the living room so that pine sawdust in the air, if any, will not cling on to his body. We have also switched him to a single protein dry food (Natural Balance Venison and it is super expensive for such a small pack; the gang can easily finished one pack in slightly over 1 week) but he does not really like it. So we are hand feeding him at least twice a day, hoping that he will grow to like the smell of the new food. We will also reduce the amount of floor detergent we use and wipe again with clean water even though we do not think that is the problem since we had been using that detergent even before he was borned.

And now, we sit back and try to reduce our stress level, which may pass on to our sensitive boy (so boss, less work lah ok?) and see if these measures will have any effect on his licking problem. Hopefully his fur will start growing back before CNY. Fingers crossed.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Update on 13 Dec 06:
Bought the Oscar C cream as recommended by Moglee last week and applied on him. I think it did quite well except that he licks even more vigorously after application to get rid of the cream.

Haizzz, no choice already. I had made an appointment with Dr Sulyni of ARC today. I understand she is quite experienced in felines. Hopefully she (I think Dr Soo is a she) has a solution to Chang Chang's skin problem.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Update on 5 Dec 06:
It got worse last night while we were asleep. He pulled out chunks of his fur and now his flanks are very very patchy. We thought the bath on Mon night had soothed his skin a little bit but we were wrong. We will be paying Pet Lovers tonight to get the recommended creams, shampoo and cleaner. E-collar probably would not work as he gets very agitated easily and will be snapping like a crazy cat and will be terrorising the other 4 non-stop to vent his anger.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Chang Chang has been having skin problems for almost a year. He is licking excessively around his tail, inner hind leg region and his stomach until they are now totally devoid of fur.

The vet suspected flea/mite infestation and prescribed Frontline and weekly flea bath. We did it consistenly for 2 months and it did not get any better. He was still licking himself. And we did not think that it was flea/mite infestation as the other 4 were not affected at all. Lately, he had become allergic to flea shampoo and Frontline as he would scratch himself excessively whenever we bath him or apply Frontline on him

Suspecting food allergy, we switched from Royal Canin Indoor 27 (major ingredient: poultry) to Science Diet H/B Control (major ingredient: chicken) and now to IAMS Lamb & Rice (read somewhere that lamb will probably not cause food allergy). But still he is not getting better.

It cannot be an environmental allergy as well as we have not switched any household cleaning products or beauty products which he might have come into contact with. His bedding is now cleaned even more often.

Stress is ruled out as the dynamics of the kxbc gang have not changed and he is still the No. 2 cat, if not the Top Cat.

It has been getting worse these week as he has been tearing his fur out in frustration. Clumps of fur on the floor will greet us whenever we come home from work. And he is so itchy and agitated he has lost his appetite, and growing thinner.

I am bringing him to the vet again tomorrow to see what the vet will say but I suspect he will ask me to monitor again. But I don't have the patience already. It pains us to see him licking himself every waking moment.

Have any cat owners/fosters/feeders encountered such a problem with your cats before? If so, what have you done to help your cat recover? Any products you have used which may help? Thank you in advance for your help.

From the very desperate Daddy of the kxbc gang