I went to a local nursery today and spoke with the manager, who was very helpful, they had a variety of citrus trees there which he told me had been there for quite some time, and should be safe for my gst cats to eat. So i purchased an Improved Meyer Lemon tree, it has lots of new growth on it, and I remember reading that GSTs like the leaves of this tree, i think. Anyway, the manager at the nursery told me that the only required insecticide or pesticide by the state of louisiana for citrus trees, is sprayed onto the leaves, and that it is not a systemic type, so that was good to know, Missherry had mentioned that was probably the case seeing as how a systemic could contaminate fruit of citrus. I have already ran out of new growth on my second navel tree, I thought it would last me until these cats pupate, but did not happen, so now I have some more host leaves for the remaining cats, I am just going to make sure I rinse the leaves thoroughly before I give to the cats, to make sure there is nothing left on them that could harm them. THe cat with the damaged mouthparts was able to eat a little today, he seems to be able to eat the stems better than the leaves, I cut little slits along the tender stems, and pinch them to where pieces are still attached but easier for him to pull off, I am hoping this will get him through, he has not given up, and seems to be fine, just hungry, poor guy. There are only two left from his group that have not purged and started hung sling, so I am hoping that he is getting enough nourishment in order to pupate, he doesn't pass hardly any frass, maybe once per day, but he hasn't lost as much weight as I would have figured since he is eating so little, so maybe his body is hanging on to all it can and that is why he isn't passing much frass or waste. He also doesn't move much at all unless he is trying to eat, so he isn't wasting his energy, I am hoping that he will make it, surely he cannot starve to death if he is getting some nourishment everyday. And maybe he will adjust better in order to eat more with each day. I have driven myself crazy trying to figure out what happened to him, because I cannot think of how in the world he ended up with part of his face missing. Unless maybe it was deformed to begin with and I did not notice, and just deteriorated with time, because up until a few days age, he was able to eat just like the rest, so it doesn't make sense. His cage is not real deep and I have papertowels at the bottom, so he could not have fallen and injured himself, there are no other cats in there with him, and he isn't one of my free spirit cats that try to escape frequently, I don't think I have ever found him on the tulle that encloses his little habitat, and had to move him back inside, he has been one of the easy ones that stay put, so I just don't know what in the world could have happened to him, and i wonder if he is in pain, because it looks like he is missing part of his face or mouth, could he have injured himself while eating?? and if so, how? I wish I could find info about this, but haven't been able to, just wondering if it could be a disease, or even a parasite that would cause this type of deformity. SInce i do not know what is wrong with him, I am keeping him a good distance from the others, just in case. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on how to make it easier for this guy to eat, please let me know, I will try anything. cutting slits into the sides of the stem seemed to help him out a bit. I watched him trying to eat the middle stem of the leaf earlier, and noticed he had eaten about an inch of it, but then he moved his had back and all of it came out of his mouth, so apparently he was able to get it into his mouth but was unable to sever it and could not swallow it. I have tried cutting slits into the sides of his leaves, not sure if that has helped out though, and i also tried cutting a leaf up into tiny pieces like the size they sever off when they eat, but apparently, he only knows to "tear" pieces off and either physically cannot, or hasn't figured out how to eat little pieces that are already torn off. Like I said, if anyone can think of something that might help, I will try it, so let me know!! And thanks

Originally I hated the idea of plastic bottles too...but the dog loves them....they do not crack and my dog has learned she can only have bottles we give her so she does not steal from the recyclables. I tried other toys for her...she has the kongs...but she destroys everything else. Stuffed animals go down in less than 30 seconds. Dogs need new toys to stay stimulated. Plastic bottles are cheap and plentiful and when shes through with them they go right back into recycles. You can put treats in there or water and freeze. Try it..Your dog will love you for it.

This is what happened with my dog. Tuesday morning got up and he was throwing up, and throwing up, went outside and he ate a lot of grass, then threw up some more and he just couldn't get into a comfortable position so I went straight to the vet where they did X-Rays and saw a round foreing object 'sitting' in his lower intestine. They put him on fluids the rest of the day and redid X-rays, hoping the thing could move to the larger intestine but it stayed there so he got surgery the next day. He was at the vet hospital from Tuesday till Saturday afternoon. He's home, doing not too bad. Checking often to see if the incision is o.k. He's on special food 'gastro' for a little while and pills...He has not thrown up and his stools are fine. He had his last pain med last night but I have some more and will see if he needs it. He sleeps a lot and when he wakes up, I go outside for a little walk with him. I arranged for a temporary ramp for him (outdoor backsteps). He needs the e-collar, it must be sore and itchy and I can just imagine how uncomfortable and somewhat still painful and I was thinking how strong there are compared to us. How faster than us they recuperate. We only have a paper cut and it hurts and burns...imagine being opened so long. Here he is with his best friend who missed him quite a lot while he was at the animal hospital:

Well we bought a different and cheaper brand that is a bit easier to put on and remove. Wife even took it off and then put it back on to take him out. As far as treats go he doesn't like anything that I can find except licorice whips and can't give him too much of that because it is a laxative and makes his droppings smeary and hard to clean up. I thought he liked Meow mix but only when he wants it not when offered as a treat.Ocassionaly he will eat a dog biscuit broken up but only intermittantly. He is a funny picky eater. He seems to like to go through a burying ritual with his nose and sometimes hides his food but if coaxed long enough he will finally eat it. He growls and snarls at times when we go to remove the food and then generally will eat it. When I put a bowel of fried steak cubed up for him he will dally around for some time before he dives in to eat it. If I feed it to him bite by bite generally he will eat it all then. We are going to place him in a kennel over Thanksgiving holidays for socialization. Our daughter left her Sheltie there for a few days recently and our son picked the dog up. He said there was a world of difference from when the dog went in and when it left and all for the good. Maybe being around other dogs and handlers who know dogs will help him out. Although, we took the motorhome about 125 miles north to do some chores and he acted just beutifully. Not one negative aspect the whole day. He rode up in my son's lap in the passenger seat and looked out the window the whole way practically except for when my son got tired and put him in the back to eat and drink and then he was back and crawled across sons lap to see out the window. Today he was just a perfect dog. Maybe we are doing something right. We won't leave the harness on him over night though. Junebug1961, Pipsy was the love of my life. I have never seen a dog like her in my life. One thing I found endearing was many times during the 9 some years we had her she would be cuddled in my lap with me petting her and then turn and just look deep into my eyes (she had big brown eyes and it was difficult to even see her pupil except in certain light)she wouldn't budge but just look into my eyes. It was almost spiritual. The day she passed away she did that and held my gaze for must have been a full minute like she knew she was leaving and was trying to communicate with me. It was strange but very loving. She never caused one second of trouble. She had some age problems though and we had to diaper her the last weeks of her life. We put a pad in the bed and she slept between us. She slept with us from the second day we had her. She lost all the beautiful hair from her tail. The vet said her teeth were part of the problem but she hadn't been a good candidate for tooth cleaning..and we didn't want to take the chance of putting her out to have the cleaning done. She took heart medicine at the last year of her life. With all the care given her she lived to nearly 17 years which I think was pretty good for her breed. She was never overweight and she loved steak, pork and beef. She ate quite a lot of things. She loved her little harness too and never attempted to get it off and always seemed anxious to get it back on, like after a bath. Boy what a dog. She has spoiled me for life on what the perfect dog should be. First thing she did when I first held her was to stick her pink little tongue into my ear. She loved doing that and I did too. Ha! While rolling down the highway in the motorhome, she would jump up on the couch after getting a drink or food and crawl up behind my seat where I was driving and then slip her tongue into my ear talk about something startling you. Wife would make her come down and ride shotgun which she loved too. She took a trip in the motorhome from Washington clear back to Nebraska and back with a short three day stop in Bountiful, Utah where I was hospitalized for breathing problems. We left there and made it to Ontario, Oregon where wife was sick with the flu and the next day I got it so we stayed at the motel 6 for several days with one of us being well enough to take Pipsy out periodically. When we left there we drove all day and up into the night to get home and only then was Pipsy starting to get cantankerous and wanting to go home. You never saw such a happy dog trotting into our own yard. She almost kissed the ground. We also took a trip down to Arizona to the Mexican border with her. We stopped by the Grand Canyon and she just looked and looked down into that great chasm. There is a pix of her standing beside the Grand Canyon..notice how tightly I was holding her leash. Also I was called Junebug by my family clear up to my late teens.Huh. Happy memories. Hoping HoneyBear will wind up like that but I know he will be his own guy and I do love him for who he is. Paul