Simple Solutions

Sometimes the answers to what we seek are simply ... simple. We simply complicate matters by searching too hard.

Let me tell you (once again) about our cat...

Our Junior Cat joined our family two and a half months ago. He has had chronic diarrhea for pretty much the entirety of that period.

His previous owner alerted us to the problem and included a weeks supply of a heavy duty antibiotic home with him as part of the purchase price.

That didn't work. I called back and was advised to mix Metamucil  in with soft cat food and that should do the trick. I did that religiously. Still no improvement.

Eventually I took him to our vet and she agreed with everything his previous owner had suggested and offered to run a wide array of tests for a 'small' cost. After the results of those tests were in, then we would start to treat the problem. We chose to go for a heavy duty worm treatment instead.

Weeks went by and nothing changed.

Eventually I consulted Dr. Google and was dismayed to find the number of cats with this same problem. I found a forum where many cat owners were discussing the topic. They had tried a wide variety of things and in most cases their cats did not readily improve.

The one common denominator that I found within that discussion was the suggestion that diet was the root cause and to try this, that and the other brand of cat food. Since I had just bought an economy sized bag of (expensive) cat food that had come at the recommendation of Junior Cat's previous owner I thought that I would return to my small, local pet supply dealer and ask if they had any suggestions.

I talked to the Pet Expert in the store and told her our saga. Right down to the fact that our cat is high strung and so jumpy that we call him 'Scaredy Cat'.

She listened intently to everything that I told her. When I was done she offered her advise. She said that absolutely every thing that we have done to 'cure' our cat irritates the intestinal lining and promotes diarrhea. In search for a cure, we harmed him just as much as we helped him.

We were armed with the knowledge that he had been medically treated for anything that could have been physically causing his distress. The Metamucil? That was simply bad advise. It would only make matters worse. Not to mention that we were mixing it in with soft cat food which (in our cat's case) should be avoided.

Her advise? Feed him only the hard cat food that he had been accustomed to eating before he moved in with us. Make sure he has lots to drink. And wait. The poor guy's stomach had been in such an upheaval for the two months that he had lived with us that he probably just needed for things to settle down.

That was over two weeks ago.

It didn't happen over night. He still isn't 100% 'cured'. But he is at least 75% better than he was. And what did we do that was right? Nothing.

Imagine that. 'Nothing' was better than 'too much'. Letting our poor guy's body heal thyself was exactly what he needed the most.

How often do we do that to ourselves? Over think a situation and create something more than it really is?

How often have my best answers come to me by simply sitting back and finding my own answers within the quietness?

What if the solution becomes part of the problem? Maybe we need to slip into a state of neutral to figure out exactly what is going on. I am speaking of matters of the heart in an emotional sense here. Not matters of the heart in a physical sense ... which is entirely a different matter.

Sometimes ... just sometimes ... perhaps the answer lies in keeping it simple.