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.