The Story of my Unfortunate Pets....(sorry it's long)

Sorry, but I need to do a bit of venting with a bit of recent bad news.

As many of you know, I share my house not only with Walter, but with two rabbits, and what used to be three guinea pigs.

Here's the story of the guinea pigs and the bad luck that seems to follow my animals.

When I first moved out of my parents house, I wanted to get a suitable apartment pet. Mike and I went to a local pet store and looked around. We were thinking a hamster or some other small rodent, as I always thought they were too fun to watch!

Then we met Murph. A tiny little peruvian (long haired) guinea pig, all alone in a big cage, of course we had to take him home. We purchased a cage and every single guinea pig friendly toy we could find. I loved Murph (or Murphalurf as we called him), he was wonderful, and so fun to play with. I learned very quickly why they're called pigs. About a month or so after we adopted Murph, we though he needed a companion. We went out and found a little white and orange peruvian female and named her Lily. They lived in the same house together, though we found out quite quickly that they didn't get along too well.

One night, while at a different pet store, we spotted a white abbysinnian cross (long spikey hair) female, and of course, couldn't resist temptation and brought her home too....thought she may be a better companion for Murph that Lily. We named her Abigail Appleseed (Abby), and set her up in her own cage as we had a neuter scheduled in a few weeks for Murph.

In the weeks that followed, there was an accident with Lily, and unfortunately passed away following an injury to her foot. (#1)

One evening we had the two remaining pigs out to play, careful not to get Murph TOO close to Abby (didn't intend for babies), however, nature seems to take it's course and within seconds innocent little Abby was impregnated by Murph.

It was quite amazing following her through her pregnancy though, the gestation period for GP's is actually longer than that of dogs and cats. However a week before Abby was due, we came home and Murph had died unexpectedly, and I was heartbroken. (#2)

Abby had her babies, three in total at 5:00 in the morning; two little girls (Daisy and Calla) and one little boy (Max-my favorite). It was incredible (the pictures I posted are of the three babies on the day they were born), they were covered in hair, eyes and ear open and already eating solid food and vocalizing...absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, it was about 3 weeks after the babies were born, we woke up one morning and Abby was dead. (#3)

Let me remind you, this all happened in the span of about four months...it's very disheartening when you have three animals die unexpectedly in a four month span.

So, we tried again. We were out at another pet store (seems like this is all we ever do) on a very snowy night, looking at guinea pigs. There was an open pen in the small animal department with a young red mini rex rabbit. Mike bent down to look at a guinea pig and this rabbit just jumped right into his arms. She didn't struggle to get away, she just laid there, content. He looked at me and I said "No, there is no way we're getting a rabbit, they're dirty, and poo everywhere..." (this was before I knew that they could be litter trained, are as clean as cats, very trainable and social). He put her back into the pen and she immediately came over to me and hopped in my arms. Ok, she had me. It took only another 30 seconds of discussion and we signed the papers to take her home. The next day we learned that she had a very tough time eating her hay and pellets, so I checked in her mouth. It was the most awful sight I ever saw. Her incisor teeth were so overgrown (rabbits and guinea pigs, like horses, have continuously erupting teeth that are ground down and maintained with roughage, unless they have a predisposing condition or a hereditary trait) that they had curled out of her mouth. I took her into work with me the next day, and once monthly there after, to have her teeth trimmed. Her name was Roxy. I never had a pet like Roxy. She opened my eyes to the world of rabbits. And because of her, I can't see my life without a rabbit. She was so much fun, she cuddled all the time, was very well litter trained and I had even clicker trained her...she was a good friend, and I am glad that it was us who adopted her because she got the medical treatment she deserved, rather than just being ignored or euthanized.

One night, about 6 months after we adopted her, we walked into our bedroom (where her cage was) to a horrific sound of Roxy screaming. If you have never heard a rabbit scream, let me tell you it is a gut-wrenching sound. We immediately ran her into the emergency clinic to find out that she had a urinary tract infection and began to treat her with pain medication and antibiotics. Two days later she stopped eating. This is considered an emergency in rabbits. Fortunately I was able to bring her to work with me every day for treatment, unfortunately not ONE of the vets at work wanted to treat her. I had to phone specialists in different cities and provinces to get treatment plans for her....we did everything we could for her; force fed her, gave her IV fluids, pain medication, antacids, etc. Friday, she started to open mouth breath and we had to unfortunately euthanize her.
She was the first animal that I had to decide to euthanize. I was such a wreck, my mom and brother had to come and pick me up from work. (#4)

Thankfully, I don't work there anymore.

When it was the right time, Mike and I decided that we needed another rabbit, so we adopted Loki and shortly after that Lucy, and thankfully they are both still with us today.

Last Christmas, as you all know, we adopted Blitz. And unfortunately, he only shared 6 months of his wonderful life with us as he passed away at home from complications of a very strange inflammatory condition in which he endured two open heart surgeries and was happy, head bunting and purring the entire time. (#5)

Then came Walter.....sick all the time.....battling a bit of pancreatitis/gastritis again....but I don't want to get into it.

About a week and a half ago, we were cleaning and bathing the three remaining guinea pigs, when we noticed that Calla had dropped a ton of weight and was not wanting to move, she had blood coming out her back end and was having difficulty breathing. I treated her with everything that I could for that night and decided to bring her in the next day......however, the next day she had passed away in her cage with her brother and sister along side of her. We did a post-mortem and found that she had passed away from cancer, likely from her reproductive tract and had spread throughout her organs. (#6)

I had been noticing over the last week or so, that the two remaining guinea pigs had not been wanting to eat their pellets (still eating veggies and hay). I thought maybe it's because they're still in mourning...yes, many animals that are bonded to others will go through a mourning phase as one passes away. I picked up Daisy, who has always been the alpha female...and FAT may I add....had lost a ton of weight...very skinny along her pelvis. This got me worried. I picked up Max, and he had lost a bunch of weight over the last week too, though not as skinny as Daisy.

I brought both of them into work today for exams....couldn't find anything wrong with Max. However, we found a large mass in Daisy's abdomen. We aspirated it and collected clear fluid.
The diagnosis for now is a cystic ovary, however we will have to wait for the pathology report. As I read up on cystic ovaries in guinea pigs, I realize that there is a good chance that she could have concurrent cancer elsewhere in her reproductive tract as well. There isn't much we can do. We could spay here, however I have a good feeling that at this stage of the game she wouldn't survive the surgery as guinea pigs are not the best surgical candidates in the first place. At this point, we likely will just have to palliate her, until it's her time to cross the bridge, and this would make it #7 in three years.

I am beginning to think that I'm a bad pet owner, though I pride myself on continuously educating myself on many different topics of animal health. It just seems that we keep adopting these sick animals. I understand that it's better us adopt these animals as we are able to give them the best life and health care possible, however it is beginning to become emotionally draining on me. I look at many other pet owners and think "why can't I have a pet who just needs an annual check up once a year, why do mine either just spontaneously die, or develop a strange medical condition that cannot be cured, or are just continuously sick" WHY!!??

I'm sorry for this long rant, I'm not looking for sympathy from anyone, I'm just looking for some understanding.

I love animals, I would take every single one in that needed a home and some TLC, but I just can't do this anymore. I have a box of urns that sits on my bookshelf, and that box is full.

If I could have one thing this Christmas, it would be for the health and well being of my family, and this includes my furry family. I know that some of you are sitting there and saying "they're just animals, or it's just a guinea pig..." No....it's a life. A beautiful life that God put on this earth. And a guinea pig or a rabbit, is just as important as any other animal in my mind.

Like I said, a life is a life, and any life is worth saving.

A Friend in Deed

It's so wonderful as a pet owner to have your pet be your right-hand guy. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, Walter is there by my side always willing to hand a paw. Whether it's going to the bathroom, or cleaning the fish tank, you know Walter will be at your aid.
I was attempting to make the bed after doing laundry this afternoon when Walter decided he would help by putting on the sheets. He immediately stretched out on top the mattress while I was trying to put the fitted sheet on. I got two corners done, and of course while trying to get the third and fourth, there he is under the sheet swatting at the corners. I proceeded to finally get the rest of the sheet around the corners when he slinked out from under the sheet, and jumped right back on top of my clean sheet. I moved on to the duvet. Have I mentioned I hate trying to put a duvet cover on, I must be the only person on earth that takes a half an hour trying to do this. Anyways, While I'm trying to match the corners up of the duvet and cover, Walter decides he'll help by actually going in the duvet. What a ham...wanting to get this done as fast as possible...I climb in and extract him from within the cover and quickly zip it up.
Oh what a help is always is!!
It's so wonderful to get into a nice clean bed....covered in cat hair....

Walters Life In Technicolor

A little while ago, while scanning through various discussion topics on Blog Catalogue, Walter made me enter him in a contest. The contest was for animal owners to submit pictures of their pets to win an original pastel pet portrait from Suzanne Overton. Needless to say, after a bit of convincing, I entered a picture of Walter and myself to Suzanne.
To much of my surprise, I received an email this week, Walter had actually won! I am very grateful of Suzanne, as I have always wanted a professional portrait of one of my pets, though could never afford one.
Her work is absolutely beautiful, please visit her site for more information.
http://artisticpetportraits.blogspot.com/
Thanks Suzanne!! I look forward to seeing the finished product!

When you really need toilet paper....

Ever come home after a long days work, sitting in rush-hour traffic for an hour and really have to go #1? You're walking up the stairs to your apartment knock-kneed, jumbling the keys in the door, throw your bags and coat on the floor and just run into the bathroom. I'm sure we've all had moments like that, I just had one recently.
But thanks to Walter, when you really need toilet paper, well....it is there.. it's just everywhere. It seems like he somehow has a 6th sense of knowing when you have a bathroom 'emergency' and decides to have rolled all the paper off the roll (no matter if it's a new roll or not) and has strewn it from one end of the apartment to the next.
It's a really nice feeling when you know that you're going to feel the 'relief' when you get into the bathroom...and a nightmare when you have found out what he's done in his spare time and you need to go to the utility closet to get a new roll.
Thanks Walter.

Red Underwear...

Do you ever sit and look at your pet and think, "what would you be like if you were human?' I've thought about it many a time. Mike and I have a running joke about Walter's human wardrobe. Well, I don't know if you would call it an entire wardrobe when it only consists of one article of clothing, and that's.....red underwear.
Don't ask me where or how we ever came up with that, but we always just imagined Walter walking upright with a pair of fire engine red underwear with a hole in the back for his tail. They wouldn't be boxers or boxer-briefs, but tight, red men's bikini briefs. (The thought of that on a real man makes me shudder, but on a cat, that's just plain adorable...)

Mike and I were talking about the possibility of me writing a book one day and I said I should write one about Walter. I even came up with the name 'Wallywood" with a picture of him on the front cover wearing his red underwear, a feather boa and sunglasses while walking down the red carpet at a Hollywood event. Clever huh....well, I thought so anyways.
Here's to hoping one day.

Perks of the Job..

Well, I have to apologize in advance for the topic of this post, you'll find out if you read further.
When I tell people what I do for a living and that I work in a veterinary hospital, it is usually followed by "awww, that must be so nice working with puppies and kittens everyday" or something to that effect. Well, let me set you straight. Sure cuddling and socializing puppies and kittens is a very nice perk, there are many things that people don't realize that come with the job of working with animals.

Let me go back to when I first started working in an aquarium and the injuries that ensued.

My first injury or shall I say illness, came when I started working with a flock of african penguins. The habitat was old and not very well ventilated prior to getting it's new facelift. I spent alot of time in there everyday, cleaning and scrubbing poop, feeding, getting in the 3 degree water to clean glass, I'm sure you get the picture. I came down with a nasty cough and raspiness in my chest so I went to the doctor. After a thorough history, she said "I think you have a respiratory infection, cause by chlamydia", nice huh. Let me point out that this isn't the clap that many people first think about, birds shed chlamydia in there feces and therefore can be inhaled and lead to respiratory conditions. Antibiotics got rid of it, but it wasn't fun explaining to my mom that I contracted chlamydia from bird poo.

My second injury came from the penguins as well. It was the middle of January in cold Alberta. I was suited up in my shorts, fleece pullover and rubber boots, cleaning the poo from the habitat. I turned the wrong way and fell straight onto my thumb. Unfortunately, it swell up like a banana, and my co-workers took me to the hospital and called my mom to come and keep me company. We sat in the emergency room for hours, but we had most of it to ourselves as no one wanted to sit near me. I had no idea why, I know that I looked ridiculous in my shorts and sandals in January....and then then smell came. I could smell myself...fish and poop. I stood up to ask my mom if she could see anything on me, and she started laughing, I guess when I fell, I fell in a big pile of poop. I had penguin poo smeared all down my back and bottom. No wonder no one wanted to sit near me. Needless to say...the diagnosis this time was a broken thumb.

After that, I had a few more injuries working in the aquarium setting. I was bit by a snake (non-venomous thank God), bit by a shark, nearly bit by an alligator (he lunged and hissed, but missed thankfully), whipped by an 8 food iguana (felt like a baseball bat!), bit by a green sea turtle, bit by a flamingo, and yes the list goes on.

Now, working in a veterinary clinic has been relatively good for me. I've only been bit a few times by cats and only once has it put me on antibiotics (and that was from a kitten no less). Never bit by a dog, but of course now that I say that, I'll go to work tomorrow and get bit. And of course, bit by my very own rabbit (and those bites have to hurt the most! But I have been scratched to the point of no vitamin E or bio-oil will ever get rid of the scars. And this leads me to today.
I have an incredibly swollen finger, thanks to Walter scratching my cuticle, (yes it hurts to type, but I'm bored so I gotta do something) and nail, it's bright red and insanely hot to the touch. I have kept a band-aid on it with polysporin, but it hasn't helped. I was slightly excited to wake up this morning and find a nice little pus pocket and abscess on it, but I was very disappointed, maybe tomorrow.
So just to reiterate the fact, working with animals, though very fun and rewarding most of the time, comes with many consequences. I consider myself lucky to only have to go on antibiotics once (though if this finger thing continues, it will be twice), never on IV antibiotics as a few of my co-workers have, and never been seriously injured. To those of you who own animals and take them to the vet regularly, please try to socialize your animals as early as possible as many of these injuries are caused by fear. Take them to a veterinary clinic that highly praises your animal when they come in to try to make the experience as positive as possible. Even though we pride ourselves on doing this, accidents do happen. It's not your fault as an owner, I don't blame animals for biting most of the time as I wouldn't want to be held down to have blood taken either. But with owners taking time to socialize and veterinary staff taking the time to learn less stressful restraints and techniques we can hopefully decrease injuries to both owners and staff.

.....Now, to go soak my finger like my mom said.......

Feeling Better

Well, I can finally say that everything is back to normal, for now. Walter has been feeling much better for the past two days, and thus getting in much more trouble, as per usual. You can especially tell first thing in the morning when he feels compelled to wake you up prior to your alarm clock ringing by leaping off his cat tree and onto your belly signifying that it's BREAKFAST TIME! And boy, has his appetite come back with a vengeance. Because he hasn't been through enough lately, I'm starting him on a strict diet. Poor guy. Since we brought him home from the shelter, he has gained just under 5 pounds (in 7 months) and that number is steadily climbing, he's a grand total of 15 pounds. In all honestly, he doesn't look that big, but he sure has a belly pouch hanging off him, and it's especially noticeable since it's been shaved for the ultrasound, truthfully, it kind of looks like a bum in the front...

The vet at work suggested trying him on a homemade diet. There's a great website called http://www.balanceit.com/, where both pet owners and veterinary professionals can go to to order balanced homemade diets constructed by veterinary nutritionists for a variety of health problems. The only thing is, while I was searching for hypoallergenic diets, the two diets that came up were ostrich and venison based. Now venison is a bit easier to find here in Alberta, if you know someone who hunts elk or deer, but ostrich? Where the hell am I going to find ostrich meat? Don't get me wrong, I love Walter, I'd do anything for him, but honestly, I don't think going out and trying to find ostrich in the Canadian prairies is going to be the easiest or most cost effective thing I've ever done. Sorry Walter, but it's canned Iams for now...

...Sick....Again....

If it isn't one thing it's another.....
Well, Walter was back at the clinic on saturday, sunday, monday and today. Ugh...isn't it enough? Vomiting one week, asthma the next and now this.
He started to become picky again with his food last week, started hiding and was obviously painful in his little abdomen. Took x-rays again, normal. And we started treating him for pancreatitis. He was more painful on sunday so we upped his pain meds by giving him something called buprenorphine (a drug that they use with methadone treatment :o) which really seemed to help. By sunday night, his abdomen was big and hard as a rock...I panicked thinking his belly was full of fluid and he had something called FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) which comes with a wonderful 100% mortality rate. I woke up at 2am monday morning with flashbacks of my last cat Blitz. I couldn't bear losing my best friend in such a way.
I rushed him in again monday morning. Bloodwork normal, thank God, x-rays normal....thank God again. We continued to treat him monday and he had an ultrasound today.
Results were good, abdomen normal (not all cats with pancreatitis show inflammation in their pancreas, but he sure was painful when the put the probe on). Though, they did find a spot in his little heart where one of the ventricles is slightly enlarged....hopefully nothing, but something to watch for.
Tonight he's feeling much better, still dopey from the pain medication, but eating and playing with his toys, still hiding a bit though.

Unfortunately, this probably isn't the last of this pancreatitis saga. Cats with IBD and inflammation in their intestinal tract tend to have bouts of pancreatitis as well....but hopefully he'll be good for a while.

Though, as you have read through my previous posts, I can't stress enough about the importance of pet insurance. I, myself, don't have alot of extra cash for medical treatment for my animals, and we all know how expensive it can get. Fortunately, I have wonderful bosses that give me a great discount at work, and I generally pay cost for treatments and medication. Just for example, in the last month, I have spent about $700 on diagnostics, treatments and medicine for Walter. Which when you think about it, at cost, that's alot! Thankfully, with insurance, I only end up paying about $140, while only spending $25 a month on his premium.
I think that's a pretty good deal, don't you?

Anyways, I need some cuddle time with the little guy, he's not very happy with me for forcing him to come to work with me these past couple of days!
Hopefully he'll be back at his regular antics soon! Keep your fingers crossed and thanks to everyone with your support (both for Walter and me pulling out my own hair).!

Throwing in the towel.....

Well....I'm throwing in the towel on the holistic stuff..bring on the steroids!!!

This all comes with an 'episode' that happened last night. Needless to say, Walter scared me half to death and I was all ready to throw him in the car and head to the emergency hospital.

I had just sat down to a marvelous dinner of fettuccini and shrimp when I heard a God awful sound, a very strange coughing noise. I immediately knew it was Walter, I found him in the bathroom, crouched down with his neck extended and his belly trying to heave something out. It almost sounded like a reverse sneeze of a dog, a hacking cough, but deep...you could hear some fluid, but his mouth was closed and he wasn't bringing anything up. At first I thought he was trying to hack up a hairball, but that didn't seem right. Then I thought back to a cat we had in the clinic last week suffering from an asthma attack.....yep, that was it. I sat next to him, tried to calm myself down to try to calm him down. He coughed for about 2 or 3 minutes or so and it was done.

He looked up at me and started meowing, his voice was a bit hoarse, and he went to lay down in bed. 5 minutes later he was running around the house, hunting his toys like nothing happened. (Come to think about it, it's not the first time ithis happened, but the lightbulb has thankfully gone off in my head)

Ugh....into the clinic we go again this morning. Between the x-rays and the description I gave the vet, we decided to diagnose and treat for asthma. But just incase he had some funky parasite (knowing my cats, he probably would...from where he would get it, I have no idea, but that's the joy of adopting animals) we started treatment with a few dewormers.

So tonight, I started him on steroids (which if he as Inflamatory Bowel Disease, that will help as well...something I was trying to get away from in the beginning), gave him a topical dewormer, and then an oral one (which I think I wore most of it....can't blame him, it tastes awful, but now at least I know I'm dewormed too...thanks Walter) and picked up an Advair inhaler from the pharmacy.

**I must reiterate the importance of pet insurance as I just spent $200 on the inhaler!!! Most of which will be reimbursed, thank God**

Anyways...that's the World of Walter for now. Stay tuned as everyday seems to get more interesting and thus...more expensive.

*Note: Feline Asthma occurs in about 1% in the population of household cats......what are the chances that it's mine.....

www.felineasthma.org

Sleep is a good thing, when you have enough room....

I'm writing this post this evening with my eyes being pulled shut by lack of sleep...due to? Well wouldn't you guess it, Walter.

About a month ago, we got a second cat tree for the bedroom, a little place of his own between the bed and the window where he can chatter at birds or pounce on your belly in the middle of the night. Lately, he has either been sleeping on his cat tree, or pedestal as we call it, or a plushy cat bed under the TV stand in the bedroom.

I'm not sure what was with him last night, but he was determined to sleep on my side of the bed.

I went in the bedroom to get ready for bed where he was in the utmost relaxed cat position; completely sprawled out on his side, belly showing and eyes shut tight. I managed to squeeze myself between him and Mike, trying most importantly not to disturb the cat (Mike won't be pleased when he reads this!). Generally when I do this, I disrupt Walter enough that he at least moves over a bit, or just gets upset and goes to his own bed. Not last night, I don't even think he batted an eye.

As I tried not to disrupt either of my boys, I covered up Walter with the remaining square of my comforter. Again, did not move. As I got into the most comfortable position as I could (which was not comfortable in the least), he stretched out his arms and proceeded to cover his eyes with both his paws, adorable....

I'm sure many of you are saying "why didn't you just move him and kick him out of bed?", well I'm sorry, but if you saw that there is no way you possibly could.

For the next two hours of trying to slip away into a blissful sleep, I tried my hardest not to disturb him or Mike. Obviously I did a good job, Walter stayed in bed all night, but I only got 4 hours of sleep. I've never been good with physics, but how does a 13 pound cat take up half a queen sized bed??

Stupid cat.....but gotta love him.

Anatomy lesson #1

While I was out on one of my 'food hunting endeavours' at a local holistic pet food store for Walter, some treats were recommended to my by the store owner. I had told her that for a cat as obsessed with food as he is, I can't seem to find any treats that he actually enjoys. And yes, I can hear it now "he doesn't need any treats!", but isn't one of the ways we show love and affection to our pets is through feeding? Anyways, she recommended Solid Gold L.A. Treats, which are essentially lamb lung jerky.

Disgusting, I know, but animals don't seem to mind.

So, I was putting a few in his food dish this evening, but took a second to really look at them. It was honestly like looking at a very detailed anatomy book. You can see the blood vessels and the bronchioles, it really does look like a chopped up piece of lung.....spongy, but jerky like.

I mean I love being able to feed my animals treats, but when I can look at them and know exactly what they are, it's a bit much, even for me!

Personally, I don't like eating food that looks the same cooked and placed on my plate as when it did when it's alive (frogs legs for instance), but I guess I'll just have to get over it!

New Food.....Again...

Well, as we all read on my last post, Walter started vomiting again.

Because he gets into everything, I brought him into the clinic again, ran some bloodwork and a barium series of xrays to see if he ingested a foreign body (which would never surprise me). Everything normal, again.

We are waiting for one set of results to come back, measuring his vitamin B levels, which if too low, would suggest a chronic gastrointestinal disease such as IBD or Inflammatory Bowel Disease......which, would suck. Sorry to put it so rudely.

It just reminds me of the path we went down with my last cat Blitz, IBD is how it all started.

It's not a bad disease, though in some cats it may lead to lymphoscarcoma (lymphoma) of the intestine. Actually, lymphoma isn't even a horrible diagnosis in cats either, if caught early it can be treated quite easily and even put into remission with daily medication.



Anyways...back to what we're dealing with now.

After an email consult with a board-certified Feline Practitioner, she has suggested feeding some novel protein diets (by novel I mean.....different, odd, uncommon) and has had great success with holistic remedies. So again, going back to my original plan, we're still on the holistic food approach, just with novel proteins and holistic treatment in the future.

SO....going against almost everything I ever stood for, I broke down and bought RAW food for Walter.

It's actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be, just really nasty for my taste.

For now, it's rabbit (and I feel horrible because I have two in the house, so I call it Ribbit). I warm it up in the microwave and squash it with a fork and that's when the lovely aroma fills my house. Oh how wonderful warm, succulent rabbit meat smells....ewww.

He also gets canned rabbit, which is mixed with carrots, so it looks like sloppy, stinky vomit. Which I guess is ok because I've been dealing with vomit for so long it just seems homey now.



So far so good, I just hope that he doesn't think that substituting the packaged raw rabbit for live rabbit is going to happen.

How often do YOUR pets go to the Vet?

Really? How often do you really take your pets to the vet, and by pets I mean dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, guinea pigs etc. Once a year? Twice maybe...or just when they get sick?

Me?

Well Walter is a completely different story, he has a VIP pass to our clinic it seems, but I am a completely anal retentive owner as well (since the hooplah with my last cat Blitz). Yes, I work at a vet clinic, and it is slightly easier for me to bring my own pets in with me to work, however that being said, all pets, just like us need check-ups.


Even though Walter has an ongoing problem, that doesn't mean that he, and the rest of my menagerie of animals don't need yearly physical exams.

All animals, whether they be furred, feathered or scaled, should be seen by a vet at least once a year. It's amazing how often I hear Joe Blow call in because his cat hasn't eaten in a week but she MUST be healthy because I haven't had to take her into the vet in 15 years.
Well sorry Joe Blow, but your cat is dying of kidney failure, and she could have been treated years earlier to prolong her life. And then he turns around to fight about the price of diagnostic work up and says "that's more than I've spent on her in her entire life". Ugh.
It's heartbreaking to see health problems of pets either not being diagnosed or being put on the back burner and the owners end up euthanizing animals because the disease is too far progressed, but could have been treated many years earlier if only they had brought them in for annual physical exams and bloodwork.
Unfortunately, many times it seems like dogs are a much higher priority for many people than other animals including cats, birds, and small mammals. With cats, I know the stigma is that they can take care of themselves, and with small mammals and some birds it's usually because in the beginning the pet didn't cost very much to buy or adopt, many people say "it's only a $25 rabbit, so why would I spend $350 treating it when I can just get a new one".

Do these animals not get as much love, affection and care as a dog would?

Not in my books!

I have a cat (obviously), two rabbits and three guinea pigs. They all get the same 'preferential' treatment. I have always said, my $20 rabbits are loved as much as any dog I have ever met.
In my own opinion, if you would like to own a pet as a companion, then you must treat it as a companion. And if you can't afford the health care, then just don't have one.
I know I can't afford a child, and therefore, I am not going to be blessed with one anytime soon, it's just not fair to the kid or to me for that matter.

Fortunately, there are many options out there nowadays to help owners pay for the cost of veterinary bills. Insurance is at the top of my list. I even have insurance on Walter, and with the way that he's going, if it wasn't for insurance, there is no way I would be able to pay for his bills.
Pet insurance works very similar to car insurance (but way cheaper!). You pay a monthly fee, sometimes depending on options or package you choose, and submit a claim when you go to your vet. With some companies there is a premium that you first have to pay, and most insurance plans just cover a percentage of your bill, and usually just for accidents and illness, however some do pay for preventative health care (vaccines, dental cleanings etc.).
I chose Trupanion, I pay $25 a month and receive 80% coverage of all accident and illness related bills (minus the exam fee). http://www.trupanion.com/
Unfortunately, in Canada there is no insurance company that covers 'exotic' pets as of yet.

Anyways, to cut a long story short.....in general:
Dogs and cats should be seen yearly (bloodwork yearly if animals are on medication) until senior age, then have exams and bloodwork every 6 months.
Birds, small mammals and reptiles, should be seen at least yearly and your vet should thoroughly go over habitat maintenance, lighting and nutrition and these things can drastically shorten the lives of our exotic companion animals.

Always check and see if your vet has 'monthly specials' with can also help cutting down costs. Many clinics may do senior month and dental month specials.
I know that many of you love and cherish your furry, feathered and scaled family as much as I do and they have added many months and years of fun, happiness and companionship to your life, ensure that you can spend as much time together on this earth with them by keeping them healthy.

The vomitus has eruptedus.....again.....

Well, it's been over a month now that Walter has been on his 'holistic' diet. I have found that he really enjoys his Acana Grasslands dry (although it is insanely high in calories and thus has gained over a pound!) and he seems to have preferred the Snappy Tom and Almo Naturals cans (seafood only, no chicken). He was doing so well up until about a week ago and KAZAAM! The vomitus has eruptedus. Ugh.....just to be on the safe side, we treated him with an antibiotic for 5 days, to see it if was a bit of gastritis, but to no avail, the vomiting has ensued, though it seems to only be limited to the canned food, stupid allergies....
So, here we go again....onto plan A, version 2.0
Because I still don't want to have to medicate him with steroids (stubborn, I know), I have found a few cans of 'holistic' food that are duck and venison based that he likes (Natural Balance). So, I will try to keep him on this, as well as a bit of dry and see where this may take us in the next few weeks. If this STILL doesn't help (because cleaning up piles of undigested canned food vomit is on my favorite things to do list) Walter and I will be off to a colleagues clinic who practices both western and eastern medicine to see if possibly some Chinese herbs and acupuncture will help.
Until then, keep your fingers and paws crossed.

Cats are NOT the independant, aloof creatures YOU think they are...

Many cat owners either purchase or adopt a cat for some sort of companionship. Many people bring cats into their homes on a good premise, they truly want to give this animal a good life. But unfortunatly, for alot of cats, it stops there. Many people think that if they feed their cat on a regular basis, clean the litterbox from time to time and maybe play with a laser pointer every once in a while is giving a cat a good quality of life...think again. Throughout history cats have been given the stigma of being able to take care of themselves, they are aloof, independant, cold etc. Sure some cats do fit that persona, some are feral cats and do take care of themselves, but when they are a pet, they are your responsibility. This means, in order to have a healthy cat, it must be healthy both physically AND mentally.
Even though they may not show illness or even injury as outright as dogs, they still need routine physical exams and bloodwork to show any underlying disease. They also need daily grooming, mental and physical exercise, and not just with a laser pointer. Get up off the couch and play fetch. Cats are natural predatory animals, and usually hunt around 20 small meals a day, that essentially means playing 'fetch' at least 20 times. Catnip toys are great, for cats who respond to catnip, and no not all cats do (especially young ones). For those of you who don't necessarily want to get off the couch there are some great toys on the end of fishing poles for you to cast out and reel back in. Essentially, anything that can somewhat mimic a predatory instinct is a great toy for cats, but make sure that you routinely switch out toys so they don't get bored.
And because cats naturally eat several small meals per day, try to at least feed him twice daily, or more if you can...if you're not home, hide some kibble around the house for him to find later, or purchase a treat ball (as he rolls it around, kibble falls out). Several small meals and lots of exercise will help to prevent obesity and a multitude of associated problems.

We all love cats, that's why they are the world's most popular pet, they give so much to us, lets make sure that we can give them the best possible life that we can give.

Two and a half weeks and counting....I hope....

Just another update on Walter, it's been two and a half weeks since changing over to an 'all natural' diet and off all prescribed medication. So far it's been great, he's accepted most of the new food selections and hasn't had any trouble with them thus far. No vomiting, no itching, no redness etc. sounds like maybe some of these health nuts have a point. The essential fatty acids that I have started to give him has made his coat incredibly soft and shiny, and now I've even begun taking fish oils! (maybe my coat will get soft and shiny too!).
His energy level is way up as well, he constantly runs around and seems much more apt to playing too, which isn't always a good thing when it's time for bed.
I've also just bought some new cat treats and am determined to start clicker training him....I will update when the process begins...

I challenge you to a duel, Mr. Millan......

Everywhere I turn, it seems like someone is trying to lecture me about the glorious teachings of Cesar Millan. I have clients who tell me that when their dog growls they immediately place it in an 'alpha roll' or if it pulls on the leash they correct it by jerking back the leash or they ask about choke chains an pinch collars for their growing puppies. Has the world lost it's mind?!? Would you pin your child on the ground if it misbehaves? Or would you reinforce your child for making the right decisions and help guide them towards positive behaviours and reactions?

The ACVB (American College of Veterinary Behaviourists), AVSAB (American Veterinary Society of Animal Behaviour) and the SVBT (Society of Veterinary Behaviour Technicians-a society of which I am a member of) say it best in this letter to the Merial pharmeceutical company regarding their recent partnership with Millan:

http://www.petitiononline.com/AVSABCMX/petition.html

"The executive board of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior is deeply troubled to learn that Merial, a leader in the veterinary healthcare industry, is using Cesar Millan in a promotional campaign for Heartgard and Frontline. We are even more disturbed to find that Merial is cross-promoting Mr. Millan's behavior video as part of this campaign. Merial's executives may not be aware of the fact that the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists (ACVB), the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) and the Society of Veterinary Behavior Technicians (SVBT) have uniformly spoken out against the punishment-based techniques employed by Mr. Millan on his television show "The Dog Whisperer." At best, the show is entertaining but misleading to pet owners. At worst, Mr. Millan's techniques and misinformation have contributed to increased aggression and anxiety or resulted in physical injury to the pet and/or pet owner.

As practicing veterinarians, we all unfortunately have seen many cases of the latter. Merial claims to "enhance the health, well-being, and performance of animals." The use of Mr. Millan as part of an advertising campaign speaks otherwise. In these difficult economic times, it may be understandable that Merial would want to use a "celebrity" to advertise its products in a direct-to-consumer fashion. However, had Merial taken the time to investigate, it would have found that Mr. Millan's philosophy runs counter to the standard-of- care promoted by veterinary behaviorists and taught at veterinary schools. We are deeply saddened that Merial's executives are not more supportive of the veterinary behavior community and its efforts to promote knowledgeable, scientifically- based, humane training methods.

We remain concerned that your company's support of Mr. Millan's controversial training methods through the distribution of his video and financial support of his show will contribute to the number of difficult dogs and injured owners that we have to eventually console, counsel, and reeducate. Perhaps Merial would like to support our efforts to counteract the negative impact of this unfortunate marketing choice that may ultimately serve to alienate educated veterinarians, dog trainers, and owners alike."

In this day and age, we're looking into the future. The future of technology, the future of medicine etc. But why do we continue to fall back to the past when it is regarding our furry friends behaviour? Sure, when you continue to punish a dog, it will learn and it will learn fast, however that dog will continue to live in fear of it's next punishment.

Sure I agree with Cesar in the fact that you have to have 'positive energy' when training an animal, of course! You can be angry and portray that anger on the animal and expect it to willingly learn. But in my opinion, the whole 'alpha' dog this is completely misused in many of these training concepts. Dogs have been domesticated for centuries and haven't required a 'pack hierarchy' and therefore, apart from a few breeds, the alpha dog has died out.

Just to let everyone know, there is this training method, that isn't new, but for some reason many people just overlook it and jump on the 'pack leader' bandwagon, it's called positive reinforcement or reinforcement based training, other known as operant conditioning, meaning that the animal is the operator and it's own actions reward themselves. Interesting? It works on all animals (trust me, I've done it in a matter of minutes) including dolphins, birds, cats, dogs, guinea pigs, fish, rabbits and even sea turtles and alligators (again, trust me...no one said I could do it, but I did). Go ahead, just try it. Buy a clicker and some yummy treats for your four-legged loved one, check out http://www.clickertraining.com/, take 5 minutes out of your day and just try to make a liar out of me.....

You know you're a bit lazy when.....

The other day when I was at the local drug store, I bought a new 2-pack of yellow Labello lip stuff. Tuesday morning as I was headed off to work, I opened the package and pocketed one of the sticks and went on my merry little way. I left the half opened package on the kitchen counter. It was a busy day at work and when I went to bed that night, I just left the package on the counter deciding that I would deal with it in the morning.


When I woke up the next day, I followed my usual routine (wipe sleep out of eyes, fumble around for glasses, go to the bathroom etc.). I got to the bathroom and noticed that my half opened package of lip stuff was on the bathroom counter this time! I asked Mike if he had moved it for some reason (or if I did in the middle of the night and didn't know it), and of course, as usual he had no idea what I was talking about. I picked up the package to inspect it and discovered several small puncture holes, somewhat resembling tooth marks. After looking down at Walter and recieving the glare, I knew I was in the wrong and promptly put away the package, where it should have been in the first place.


Thanks Walter, for cleaning up after your Mom. I guess I shouldn't be so lazy sometimes......

How does one know these cat treats are good?

Let me tell you......

When the fishy smell is so pungent that you hide them in a kitchen cupboard (5 feet off the ground) and when you wake up in the morning to get ready for work, you discover the entire box on your bathroom floor, half eaten.

Yes, it happened.

How Personalized is YOUR Alarm Clock?

So it was a long weekend, thank God...I needed the sleep after being a bit under the weather.
I couldn't really sleep in Saturday, so Sunday I got my chance. It was 11 o'clock and I was stuck in the nice 'lucid dream' state, the one where you don't want to be woke up because you know that you'll never get back there...that's when I heard the noise.
I was woke up by the sound of something plastic being tossed around on the floor. My first reaction was "what did Walter get into now?". And how right is a mother's instinct? I sat straight out of bed and fumbled around for my glasses to see what was awry. Yes it was Walter, my own personal alarm clock, but what was he playing with? His measuring scoop for his dry food that was neatly tucked away on the counter top in a corner (in the kitchen may I add). How's that for a personalized alarm clock? Instead of buzzing incessantly it's 'FEED ME...FEED ME!!! MOM! MOM! HERE'S MY FOOD SCOOP, IT'S TIME TO FEEEED ME!".
Wonderful ain't it? Especially on the long weekend.

Later that night, Mike and I fell asleep lying on the couch. I forgot to give Walter his last meal of the evening (usually 10-11 o'clock), though it was in the back of my head to do that as I stumbled off the couch and into bed, but I didn't get that chance....yet again.
Once more, I was woke up, but this time, it was some sort of crumpling noise. Again, I sat straight up and followed the noise to the kitchen. There was Walter, trying to uncrumple his bag of dry food that he, once again, stole off the kitchen counter. It's nice to know that I will always have my personal reminder for the priorities in life....

I fed him, and we went off to bed.

Week 1 of the Holistic diet

Well, it's officially been a week and a day since Walter has consumed a 100% holistic (grain free/organic) diet. I am happy to report that there has been no vomiting, no diarrhea and he actually likes his new EFA (Essential Fatty Acid) supplement (Welactin).

Positive's:
-Beautiful, very soft coat
-No vomit to clean up
-Palatability seems very high as he hasn't picked at anything thus far
-Energy (I have never seen him this full of energy and getting into more trouble)

Negative's:
-Holy Crap is this stuff expensive....I think I have spent over 20 dollars on canned food THIS week
-He seems to be hungrier at meal times, though he's not on a restricted diet anymore (not sure exactly what this means yet as I am still trying to figure out caloric content etc. of these new foods)

All in all, it is going quite well at the moment, we're still not out of the woods yet and I won't hold my breath.

Blitz's Story....

...continued.....

We had a great long weekend with Blitz. He adapted very well to our house of 'prey animals' and actually took to cuddling with the rabbits. Mike begged me to adopt him as a permanent member of our furry family, but I put my foot down and said 'no', we have no room for a cat. And he went back with me to life at the clinic.

Christmas rolled around the corner and since the clinic was going to be closed for a few days, I offered to take him home with me again. We generally buy presents for the rest of our animals, and I didn't want to make Blitz feel bad so we went out shopping and bought him a few catnip toys and some treats so he wasn't left out over the holidays. Even my mom bought him a few presents.

Over the two weeks that he stayed with us, he sure found his niche. It didn't take him long to start sleeping in bed with us, and when I say in, I mean in. He would cuddle with us, but under the covers, and wake us up bright and early reminding us that it's time for breakfast and an insulin shot.

I found this time it was me begging Mike for us to keep him, although he initially said 'no', it didn't take much time for him to come around. And Blitz was officially part of our family.

It wasn't too long after that that there was a slight decline in his health. He started vomiting frequently and became painfully constipated, this is when he started coming to work with me on a daily basis. He had full work-up's done. Radiographs, barium series, full blood panels, enema's, new medications, new foods, and it just didn't let up, though his spirits were always high.

Through all of this, he continued to love each and every staff member and client as if it were his own family.

We couldn't really keep up with his symptoms and didn't have a diagnosis to treat. We decided after work we would to an exploratory laparotomy to take biopsies from multiple organs including stomach, liver, pancreas, spleen, and all parts of his small intestine. He came home with me and was as happy as pie on his pain medication.....Lord knows he loves hydromorphone.

About a week later the results from the biopsies came back and he was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and early changes in the small intestine that would likely lead to Lymphoscarcoma (also known as Lymphoma).

In cats in these early stages, we have had great success treating them into remission. He was started on prednisolone and an oral chemotheraphy agent called chlorambucil.

He started to get better for a bit, but a few weeks later the vomiting and constipation returned. We continued with treatment, both nursing care and medications and the symptoms seemed to wax and wane, as did our hearts.

Putting him through all of this took a bit of a toll on us, we just wanted him to feel his best and do everything we could for him. I think we took this much harder than he ever did, it seemed like nothing ever brought his spirits down and he continued to voluntarily walk into his kennel for the trip to work every morning for his posting as the 'Clinic Greeter'.

One Sunday night in late march, I went looking around this house trying to look for him in his usual resting spots and couldn't find him. I walked into the bathroom to see him lying on the linoleum floor uncomfortably. His breathing was fast. I grabbed my stethoscope and listened to his heart and lungs, his heart rate was incredibly high (200 bpm). I brought him into the clinic first thing in the morning.

I knew in my heart that this was something that I didn't want to face and walked into the clinic with a tear stained face. We took x-rays immediately which showed an abundance of fluid surrounding his lungs. The doctor quickly tapped his chest and removed as much of the fluid as possible, it was an incredible 250 ml. Blitz was instantaneously more comfortable and went right back to his post at the reception desk.

Later that afternoon, we had a doctor come in to do an ultrasound on Blitz. Again, it wasn't good news. He said there was fluid accumulation in his pericardial sac putting pressure on his heart. He asked me if I wanted him to drain the fluid and continued to inform me of the risks associated with this procedure.....death.....

I told him I trusted him and to do whatever he had to do. We sedated Blitz, and he prepared his tools; a 16ga 2 inch catheter attached to an IV extension and a syringe. I gasped when he poked this thing through Blitz's chest and into the pericardial sac, but he drained 100ml from the heart without any issues arising and Blitz was back to normal....for now....

We didn't have any immediate diagnosis and the doctors researched as best they could. Every other day or so, Blitz required both his chest and his pericardial sac to be drained, but didn't fuss through any procedure.

We spoke to an Oncologist and informed her of his history. After going through his records, she didn't think there was anything to suggest cancer causing his new symptoms and referred us to her colleague, a veterinary Cardiologist. Thanks to her phone calls, Blitz had an appointment the next day. I packed him up in the car and we drove 3 hours to a specialty hospital for a consultation. They did a thorough work-up with both the Cardiologist and Radiologist and 7 hours later, still couldn't find anything definitive other than a small 'growth' on his pericardial sac, and we returned home that same day.

The ultrasonographer that was doing his fluid draining, found the growth on the ultrasound and was able to aspirate so we could run a cytology on it. I called in a favour to a vet I previously worked with (a Pathologist) and she said she could look at the slide that afternoon. Her findings weren't good, but at least I could potentially put a name to this awful disease.....cancer. She said she couldn't be definitive, as aspirations of growths never are, but suggested that surgery to remove whatever this thing on his heart was, was the next step.

Once again, we packed up and traveled 3 hours to yet another speciality hospital for a surgical consultation and potential surgery, at least this time I was supported with one of my good friends coming along. We met with the surgeon who said that if we removed as much of the pericardial sac as possible, the fluid wouldn't come back and he would be as good as new. He explained the surgery to us, a thoracotomy with a partial pericardiectomy....essentially.....cutting through the sternum, splitting the ribcage and manually cutting the pericardium off the heart. I know that this sounds like an insane procedure to but an animal through, but this was Blitz and he needed this....I knew that he was in the best facility and had the best care in western Canada.

We said our tearful goodbyes and left him in the technicians arms.

I received a phone call later that afternoon from the surgeon, he said that things went great and he is recovering very nicely and said that I could visit him later that evening.

My friend and I went to visit him after dinner. There he was sitting in an oxygen tank (standard procedure) high as a kite on pain medicine. As soon as we approached him, he flopped onto his back for tummy rubs. We kissed him goodnight and said we'd be back in the morning.

Early the next morning, I received a call from the surgeon again and said he was doing great and we could take him home. The anesthesiologist then got on the phone and gave me directions as to how to give him is pain medication when we got home. We packed up, left the hotel and got the boy.

He looked a bit worse for wear. He had a belly bandage on and a very long catheter that came out of the incision on his chest that was for infusing bupivicaine directly into the thorax. Other than that, he was happy, comfortable and purring all the way home. He did very well at home that weekend, eating, drinking....it seemed like he was back to his normal self again.

He came back to the clinic with me the following Monday. As per the surgeon's instructions, we were to take more x-rays that week, just to see if there was anymore fluid accumulation.....and there was......and it came back with a vengeance. He now needed his chest tapped on a daily basis, and we were removing more fluid than we ever did before.

We continued to monitor him (he was being his usual self through all this), and the ultrasonographer came in to do another ultrasound on him, but this time it showed something definitive. The remaining pericardium around his heart was so inflammed that it is constricting the heart putting Blitz into heart failure. What can we do now? He hasn't given up on life yet, so we're not going to give up on him either.

We spoke to another surgeon at the specialty hospital and they suggested another surgery to remove the remaining pericardium and could get us in towards the end of the week. The only problem was, I had a huge family gathering that weekend, people flying in from all over the world for this, and I couldn't miss it. Thankfully, I had a co-worker that offered to drive the 3 hours and stay with him for the surgery. Words could not explain how thankful I am.

That Wednesday, he had his second thoracotomy in 3 weeks. I spoke with the surgeon after he was done the surgery and he said "although there is an awful lot of inflammation throughout the chest, I feel good that this surgery will save him". Words to my ears. He came home late the next day. He looked relatively good, he had another catheter along the incision of his chest for his pain medication, and a feeding tube so we could ensure he was eating through his recovery.

The next day, Friday, I had the day off to spend with family. I brought him into the clinic for observation while I'd be away. While I was there, he had an 'episode', he began to pant......he had more fluid in his chest, and we drained him and tried to keep him calm. Once again, he sat up at his post on the reception desk, tubes and all, greeting clients.

I picked him up later that afternoon and took him home, gave him his meds, lots of love and had to leave him again to be with family. He wasn't really alone, he had 'guy' time with Mike that evening. I got home a bit later than I wanted, but he was there waiting for me at the door. I gave him his meds again, fed him and we went to bed. He curled up at his usual place at the foot of the bed. I woke up about an hour later to check on Blitz. Still at the foot of our bed, sleeping peacefully. I reached down, and he rolled over on his back for tummy rubs and began to purr. We cuddled for a few minutes, I told him I loved him and I went back to sleep.....if I only knew it would be the last time.....

I woke up a few hours later....5:00 am.....to a horrible sound....it was gasping. Blitz was gone and the bed was wet. I followed the sounds and ran into the kitchen....there he was, lying on the kitchen floor. Pale blue and gasping.....I called for Mike, he brought my stethoscope...no heart beat. I screamed at Mike to give him mouth to mouth as I began CPR. We tried hard for 5 or 10 minutes, be he was already gone. We both held him and sobbed. I held him for a long time....I just couldn't let him go.

With wet eyes and sore hearts, we covered him up with blankets and made the necessary phone calls. I took him into the clinic one last time......

Mike and I had to put on a brave face that day, and went about the family party with smiles on our faces and forcing ourselves to try to have a good time, we didn't tell anyone aside from my parents. Both him and I had to leave a few times to go a brush a tear off our cheeks......

A few of my aunts came up to me, after my mom had told them what happened, and gave me big hug, I forced myself to hold back the tears.

Although we were mourning the loss of one of our family members took too soon, there was a weight lifted off our hearts, it was over, and he wasn't in pain anymore....he crossed the rainbow bridge.

He was the most loved cat in the four months that he was part of our family.

To this day, clients still ask about our little 'Clinic Greeter'

The beginning of my cat-loving life......

If you would have asked about my personal perspective regarding cats only a year ago....I would have told you that never in a million years I would own one. Sure, there's a few that I like, maybe only 1 in a 100 or so. Working in a veterinary practice, I generally see not so pleasant cats.....I can't blame them in that environment though, it smells different, they get restrained, get poked for blood and urine collections and can get quite upset fairly fast. I have only been bitten a few times, and in my opinion that's a few times too many. I have many scars on my hands, arms and even chest and have even had to require antibiotics and a tetanus vaccine due to some.

I really never grew up with cats, my parents were your typical 'dog people', but I did have the chance to get to know a few great cats growing up through family friends and neighbours.

My perspective on cats changed very dramatically one evening last fall. One of our clients brought her 12 year old cat in at the end of the day for a euthanasia. I didn't know the family, all I knew was that he was destroying their carpets and didn't want to use the litterbox. I remember going into our consult room (essentially a room specifically used for euthanasias) to go and talk to the owner about the process and ask if I could take her cat out of the room breifly to put an intravenous catheter in his leg for the procedure. She said 'no' and wanted to speak to the vet before proceeding with anything.

She talked with the vet about surrendering the cat over to the clinic to see if he could be adopted out to a different home as they truly didn't want to euthanize him, but couldn't put up with the house soiling anymore. That was that, Blitz (the cat) was now owned by the clinic until we could find him another home.

When he first started living at the clinic, for some reason I didn't want to have much to do with him....I didn't want to get attached to him if he was just going to go to another home or be euthanized because we couldn't find him one, but I quickly came around. As I would approach him, he would sit up with a little brrruuuppp and 'head butt' your face so hard it would hurt. He would groom your face and purr so loud you ears would hurt. When I read his file from his previous owners, I couldn't believe this was the same cat. They said that he had 'behavioural issues' and would hide in corners of the house shaking....obviously this was far from the truth.

We later learned that the family who brought him in had two other cats that were always beating Blitz up (and it showed in his file....he only ever came in for fight wounds and abscesses) and were guarding the litterbox, so he really didn't have any other place to go than the carpet.

He always used his box at the clinic, but we soon noticed how much water he was drinking and ran some bloodwork and a urinalysis on him and diagnosed him a diabetic and started him on insulin therapy.
He made a wonderful addition to our clinic, we called him the 'Wal-mart Greeter' as he would always sit up on the reception desk next to the front door and purr in contentment when clients would pet and snuggle him.

If you were ever having a bad day or just needed a friend, Blitz was there...he was always there for you, no matter who you were. Even if you needed just to talk to someone, he would always answer back in his scratchy little voice (he was a huge 15 pound cat). Needless to say, my eyes started to open and I began to see cats from a totally new perspective thanks to him.

Thanksgiving quickly came around the corner and the clinic would be closed for the long weekend. Someone had to take care of him as he required his twice daily insulin injections. It seemed like everyone else had an excuse not to take him but me. Having rabbits and guinea pigs in the house and as cats being a natural predator, I hesitated, but something told me everything would be fine.

I packaged up the insulin, grabbed some syringes and a cat kennel from the clinic and we headed home.......


......to be continued.....

The Case of the Missing Spectacles......SOLVED!

Thanks to all your generous tips via the W.O.W. Hotline, our detectives have been working overtime on the 'Case of the Missing Spectacles' and have now deemed the case SOLVED. Charges have yet to be laid.
The missing spectacles were found in the bedroom under a blanket owned by Walter. The owner of the spectacles can now rest at ease due to the publics help with this case.

Thank you to all who was involved.

The Search for 'Optimal Holistic Nutrition'.....

In my search for optimal holistic nutrition for Walter, I was referred to a book by Dr. Pitcarin (DVM) called "The Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats" by another veterinary technician studying alternative medicine. She did warn me that it wasn't the most 'scientific text' that she had read for animal health professionals, but she had said that it was well priced and was full of great information.

Now, I don't want to make derogatory comments towards another animal health professional, but I skimmed the book last night and proceeded to return it to the bookstore today. I am truly interested in learning about complementary and alternative medicine, specifically how it can be used in part with western medicine, but after reading, for example, that animals shouldn't be fed commercial diets because of 'by-products' (did you know that lamb is considered a by-product, which is widely used in raw diets) and that when you change an animals diet to a 'natural' one (raw) you shouldn't gradually transition them to avoid potential GI upset, but rather fast them for 5-7 days (liquids only) so that you can build an appetite.

I have seen cats knocking on death's door who haven't eaten in 2 days, let alone 5-7. He did mention that conventional veterinarians would be opposed to this due to a cats sensitivity to getting hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease leading to liver damage), but he says that if your cat is young and healthy it shouldn't be a problem and it's only overweight cats or cats who have an underlying problem who would get this adverse effect. So my question is, how would the average owner know if their cat was even the slightest bit overweight, or if there is an underlying health problem (that hasn't been diagnosed) unless a complete and thorough exam was done prior to changing diets....or should you just take this guy's word and change their diet anyway?

Needless to say, even with a very open mind, this book stressed me out to the point of wanting to burn it.

On a positive note....I purchased a sample bag of Acana Grassland's dry cat food and some more cans of grain free cat food, which Walter decided he was finally going to eat today. The dry food he went after like nobodies business, and the canned (Before Grain Quail.....smells horrible by the way) was half eaten. There's a start anyways.
21111111 (written by Walter as he walked across the keyboard).

Well, nighttime feeding is coming around, and someone is sitting at my feet asking for more grain free cat food (right....)

Holistic food 1 Veterinary diets 3

"Who wants to try holistic medicine?!"

Being raised in North America, when we're sick we go to our doctor who gives us a prescription for this or that, possibly combined with some old home remedy (that usually doesn't work).

So, as a well educated Animal Health Technologist our medical education is taught almost completely from a westernized point of view. Antibiotics for infection, anti-depressants for behavioural issues, diuretics for congestive heart failure, narcotics for pain management and so on and so forth. What about a simpler approach? Vitamins, supplements, diet change, herbs, acupuncture and so on....does this really help?

Honestly, I have no clue. I have been raised by western medicine and I treat animals with western medicine. Sure, I have seen a Chiropractor a time or two, and yeah it helped. I've also taken some vitamins (multivits, glucosamine etc.) and yeah it made me a bit perkier and less painful. I have always thought that alot of the stuff that we, as humans, put in our bodies that we think will help us does, however, I think that if you really think that something will help you, it will...the mind and positive thinking works in a very mysterious way.

But what about this approach for our animals? They really can't tell us what's wrong with them, it takes a very thorough history, full physical exam and diagnostics (blood work, radiographs, CT scans etc.) for us in the veterinary profession to even try to come to a conclusion.

Walter suffers from food allergies, more specifically to chicken. His symptoms are mild compared to others. He gets red, inflamed skin above his eyes and on his ears and becomes very itchy, he also vomits readily after eating chicken. We have been taught that when an animal is allergic to food it is generally a protein source; chicken, beef, soy are the top three, basically because they have been used so much in the past and in so many common commercial foods that animals have become allergic to them.
In western medicine, his treatment is:

a) Change his food to either a hydrolyzed protein diet (means the protein source is broken down so small the body cannot detect it, therefore cannot recognize it) OR a novel protein diet. (meaning a 'rare' protein source) such as duck, turkey, rabbit, venison, kangaroo etc.

b) Give low dose oral anti-histamines/steroids (such as prednisone) to decrease the inflammation in the GI tract and skin (will eventually try to wean off, but not necessarily)

c) Keep them on this specific diet for a minimum of 3 months, then try adding in ONE protein source at a time to see what the animal reacts to, OR just keep them on the restricted diet.

This kind of makes the nutritional component to the animals life a bit dull. They can only have special hypo-allergenic treats, which most but not all, animals don't like. Sometimes, all of a sudden, they quit eating that food, and it's a bit of a pickle trying to find them an alternative food that's comparable.

Personally, if it was me....I would get bored of only having one kind of food pretty quickly. But, animals are different and many don't have a problem eating the same thing day in and day out for years on end.

Walter's treatment was very similar. We changed him to a hydrolyzed protein diet, but he would only eat the dry and not the canned (as there is only ONE canned food on the marked that is made this way) and started him on daily steroid therapy. We changed his diet to a novel protein source (venison) and he hated it, both dry and canned. NOW....he is back to a hydrolyzed protein dry food (different company) which he enjoys and a novel protein (lamb) canned food, which he isn't crazy about. But he still continues to vomit, on an every other day basis.

I have been educating myself on alternative treatment for allergy prone animals, with the help of my veterinarian. The holistic clinics that I have talked to suggested switching his food to a grain free diet (because in eastern medicine it is different grains that one is allergic to and not proteins), add omega 3's and 6's to the diet (as they have a natural anti-inflammatory effect), other skin support supplements and possibly even add in Chinese herbs and acupuncture treatment if diet alone doesn't help.

So, over the past couple of weeks, I have started to introduce omega oils and a dry skin support supplement into his diet. The omega oil he's ok with, the dry powder stuff....not too crazy but will eat it eventually if he gets hungry enough. So today, I went out to one of the local "health food" pet stores (ugh...) and bought him some yummy, grain free canned food (I thought I should start with canned and eventually change his dry later on...don't need too many changes).

I bought only 4 cans today:

Merricks New England Boil, Lobster Feast and Seafood Medley

California Naturals Deep Water Fish Formula

And I have 2 cans of Before Grain from my previous cat; 1 can of Tuna and 1 can of Salmon

I have used the Merricks canned food with my last cat to entice him to eat. It looks really yummy....has a very nice broth, the food itself is like slop (which I think a cat would like rather than the fluffy pate/mousse stuff) and has whole shrimp, and fish pieces in it.

When 6 pm rolled around (dinner time for Wally), I was all excited to serve my very deserving little boy a wonderful dinner of 'Seafood Medley'...mmmmm. I popped the can lid and he came running. I put about a quarter of the can in his dish and warmed it up (skipped the supplements for today)...mmmmmmmmmm, I thought. As I was bending down to put this dish on his placemat he did his usual "give it to me...NOW" dance. He smelled it for a second, took a teeny tiny little lick....and....

.....walked away....ugh...

Guess he didn't like seafood medley too much. I felt bad and gave him half a can of his old food.....and guess what.....he ate that.

Well, for today....

Holistic food 0 Veterinary diets 1

Stay tuned for what happens in the next round of....."Who wants to try holistic medicine?!"

The Case of the Missing Spectacles.....

Again this morning, I was abruptly woken up at 5:52, an exact TEN minutes prior to my alarm clocks specified set time of going off. Not happy. I could hear Walters little feet investigating something on my nightstand. I opened my eyes to see a burred image of a cat (I am almost legally blind without the use of modern day eye wear) and I immediately picked him up off the nightstand and placed him on the floor. I tried falling back asleep, but then my alarm clocked stepped up to the job it was originially programmed to do and woke me up, again. I stretched out my right arm to blindly fumble around for my glasses that I placed on the stand the night before, but there were no glasses to be felt. I rolled over and squinted my eyes so I could somewhat see the outlines of the other clutter that takes up my nightstand, but still couldn't manage to see the glasses. Where could they be?!? Could I have knocked them off the stand during somesort of seizure like activity the night before? Perhaps I fell asleep with them still on and they gracefully crept off my face and landed somewhere between the pillows or on the floor.

Thank goodness for contact lenses, after putting them in, I searched throughout the linens and pillows, under the bed, around the nightstand, in the nightstand, in Walters bed and kennel....nothing...NOTHING!

This isn't the first time he's done something like this, and I should have known it was coming as I have caught him red-handed chewing on my glasses before. Two weeks ago he stole my boyfriends wallet off the kitchen table. Both of us even came home early to take a look around the house for it incase we had to run to the registry office to get him a new drivers liscense, but thankfully we found it, burried amongst the shoes at the front door.

I guess I'm just going to have to hide my valuables from my "Clepto Cat" Walter.

Have you hugged a Walter today?

I was woke up at 5:52am this morning (an exact TEN minutes before my alarm was due to go off) by a wonderful feeling of what felt like warm, wet sandpaper scraping across my left cheek and 15 pounds of cat lying on my chest. Apparently my alarm clock has now become an obsolete piece of bedroom furniture due to my cat's own innate ability to predict my wake-up calls do to his hunger. No, it's not like he's starving, he just thinks he is.

Unfortunately, in the four months since I have adopted him, he has gained 3 pounds. Sure 3 pounds doesn't sound like alot to you and I, but 3 pounds to a cat who is supposed to be 11 pounds is close to a 30% increase in body weight. That is similar to a person who is supposed to be 130 pounds gaining 40 pounds in four months. So in reality, he must go on a diet. Technically he has been on a diet for 3 months, obviously it hasn't worked, but according to him, he is being held against his will and starved and has wasted away to nothing but a bag of bones.

Some days he will try the suffocation approach (laying on my chest ensuring that I must fight for air) and if that doesn't work, he will jump to the floor, or on my nightstand and will rummage through anything that is guaranteed to make a noise or just generally annoy me until I get out of bed.

Yes he has trained me, trained me very well I might add. It is very difficult not to give in most days since he is a perpetual talker. Some cats talk, but him...you can carry on an entire conversation. He has his "I want attention" sounds, his "I'm bored" sounds, his "Why did you bother me" sounds, his "get out of bed" sounds, his "hey, how's it going?" sounds and of course his 'IT TIME TO FEED ME" sounds.

Although he can be quite the annoying little (I guess little isn't the word for him) thing, I still love him. It's truly amazing at how fast you can fall in love with an animal, and how they quickly become your best friend. You must cherish your friendship and love that you have for them every day, because you never know when it will be the last.....and hopefully, Walter's day won't come for a very long time.

Have you hugged a Walter today?

A Bit About Me...

Well, I guess I should say a bit about myself....

My name is Vanessa, currently, I am a registered animal health technologist in Alberta, Canada. Animal health technologists (or Veterinary Technicians in the U.S.) are similar to human nurses, but with a much wide variety of tasks. Of course, alot of our daily duty is generalized nursing, however, we also do all the lab work, all of the radiology duties and other diagnostic procedures, surgical assisting, anesthesia, some reception, nutrition, behaviour, grief counselling etc. My work days are never the same, always different.

I always had a passion for animals. At the age of 10 I started to help out with my neighbours dog grooming salon, sweeping up hair and discharging clients. I remember that was the first time I ever saw someone express a dogs anal glands, I almost fainted, to say the least. I couldn't comprehend what this offensive goopy, smelly substance this was comming from a dogs back end, and why anyone would want to put their hands in a dogs bottom to do this......I have since realized the necessity of this act, and now it's unfortunatly part of my daily job..ugh...

My first 'real' job with animals came in high school. I signed up for a high school work experience program called the Dolphin Academic Research Team at a local aquarium. I went to the orientation with about 300 other students from the area. The next week I had the daunting task of being the first interviewed for the 6 prestigous placements. The following week, I recieved a phone call from the head dolphin trainer letting me know that I would be starting my work experience the following weekend.
Every weekend for the school year I thawed fish, measured buckets, cleaned buckets, thawed fish some more, and pressure cleaned filters from a 200,000 gallon dolphin habitat, I remember picking scales off various parts of my body for days after that. It truly was a great experience, I learned not only what it takes to be part of a team that cares for captive marine species, but also about the natural setting of these wonderful animals, and how important it is to both them and us as the human race to preserve it.

Soon after my work experience was comming to an end, they hired me on staff. This was my dream job coming true. I had the experience to work with not only dolphins, but penguins, reptiles, sharks, sea turtles, many tropical fish and flamingoes. While I was there, one of the dolphins gave birth infront of thousands of people. The birth of a marine mammal was something I always wanted to see, and I saw it, first hand, but I also saw the act of death right in front of my very eyes. The calf was born, mom pushed it up to the top for its first breath of air, it swam around for 3 minutes, and the hand of God came down and took that life away. To see an infants life be taken away, either human or animal, is soul crushing. The mother was depressed, didn't eat for days, wouldn't swim other than to take a breath of air....we tried...we tried, as part of her family, to console her, to interact with her, but it wasn't the same from there on. She passed away almost a year to the day. The remaining dolphin was sent to another facility in the U.S. to be with another pod of dolphins.

I focused the rest of my work on the other animals. We developed a husbandry training program for 3 green sea turtles and 3 common caimen (similar to aligators) to decrease stress during medical procedures. I loved training animals, not for show and entertainment, but to show trust, understanding and to decrease any stress that they may have in their environments, but my mind was always on the health of these animals. I realized that with any animal, whether in a zoo, aquarium, refuge or in a domestic home, animals need healthcare first and formost. They need to be healthy to be truly happy, and thus I embarked on my journey to be an animal health technologist.

Before graduating from my program, I had to complete a 6 week hands-on animal health practicum. I moved out to the west coast of canada, rented my first apartment and started my practicum at the aquarium. I assisted in daily rounds with the animal health team, ultrasounding dolphins, training voluntary blood draws from whales, fish anesthesia and sea lion radiology. I even had the chance to work with the local marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation program specializing in harbour seal pups. After my wonderful experiences on the west coast, and realizing that my potential salary at a local clinic could not sustain life in such an expensive city, I returned home to the praries, where life was reasonable and ordinary...or so I thought.

Since graduating in 2006, I have worked in a mixed-animal practice (meaning both large/farm animals and small companion animals) and a small-animal/exotic practice. My first job was at a mixed-animal practice about 30 minutes outside the city, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. We would do everything from spays/neuters to bovine semen testing (gross, I know). We also were the Veterinary Health Team for the local zoo, and this made my days even more different from the rest. It was a rotating door of cats, dogs, lizards, snakes, ruminants, horses, camilids, parrots, primates and marsupials.

Currently, I am employed at a local small animal/exotic (small mammals) clinic, in a very affulent area of the city. I never thought that I would truly enjoy working in a small animal clinic (always wanted to go back to a zoo or aquarium), but my mind has since been changed. I love it here, life is never dull. I love my boss (how many people can really say that), co-workers, clients and of couse their animals (well most of them...not too fond of the ones that have required me to get a tetanus shot, or 10 days of antibiotics). We see mostly cats and dogs, with the occasional rabbit, guinea pig or other small rodent (and yes I know that rabbits aren't rodents, they're lagomorphs). Our clients range from the city's top paid NHL hockey players to tv hosts, and the regular you and me, and yes, they are all equally important, it's just exciting when we get a celebrity in!

So this pretty much brings me up to now. I finally moved out of my parents domicile a few years ago and in with my signifigant other. We have a growing family of 2 fighting fish, blueman and redman; 3 guinea pigs (triplets born in our bedroom), max, cala and daisy; 2 mini-lop rabbits, loki and lucy; and our recently adopted cat, Walter or Wally for short, all of us living humbly together in 700 sq feet.

Welcome to the life of an animal health tech!