OMG! It's Been TOO Long!!!!!

Wow! I just looked back to the last post I did....February, wow, I can't believe it's been almost 6 months since I updated the world of Walter and my mishaps!

Well, to update everyone on Walter, he's doing just fine, same old kitty, perhaps just a bit more frustrating than usual. I had him to work a few months back, I can't even remember why, but he has started to become a pretty stressed out guy en route and staying at the clinic. He doesn't get aggressive or anything of the sort, he just gets anxious. With my research in behavioural medicine, I thought "why force him to be anxious, why not give him an anti-anxiety medication to make him more comfortable", great idea I thought (gave myself a little pat on the back). We tend to do this with a few of our patients to try to make the visit at the vet a more pleasant one; we decided to go with alprazolam, or Xanax, as many people know it as, which is the only oral anti-anxiety medication we have at the present time. We came up with a dose (went low end just to be on the safe side) and popped a pill.....what ensued in the next few hours, I would have never guessed!

As with any medications, there can always be potential side-effects. With anxiety meds, they can sedate you, calm you down, make you drowsy or even make you a bit....well.....off....crazy may be a better word! The alprazolam sure seemed to have calmed Walter down, however, it turned him from a high energy cat to an insane 17 pounds of never-ending trouble making. He is normally a vocal cat, but 15 minutes after giving him the pill.....he wouldn't stop talking. If you have ever had an abnormally vocal cat, you will know what I mean. He started digging to get out of his kennel in the hospital, so I had another great idea and put him in a dog run with a plethora of toys, thinking that will keep him busy. Boy was I wrong!

Yes, that is him crawling up the kennel door.

Thankfully, his dad was at home sick that day, so I just decided to take him home and let Mike deal with it (haha!). Well, the weird behaviour didn't settle down at home. He took to walking all over the coffee table, and obviously didn't understand where the table ended and fell flat on his noggan onto the foor (which being a mom I was very concerned, but when I knew he was ok I started laughing so hard I almost had to make a trip to the bathroom!). Being a cat who is never interested in our people food (thank God), he took to drinking out of everyones glass that day as well as jumping onto the countertop, then leaping onto the top of the fridge and then gracefully making it to the top of the cupboards.

Unfortunately, he has now made this is very annoying habit and although he can get up there so easily, he can't make it down. So one of us has to crawl up there to resuce him.
The effects of the Xanax lasted about 6 hours.....then he crashed and slept the rest of the evening! I do still recommend Xanax (alprazolam) as a very good anti-anxiety medications for pets, however, this will be the first AND last time Walter ever recieves it!

Now, because of this, we have to safeguard the countertops and fridge top with X-mats to detter him from jumping......

Bonitoooooo Flakes! YUM!

We adopted Walter about 9 months ago, and for 9 months, I have been searching to find treats that he LOVES.....and doesn't make him vomit. We found some a few months ago called "We Pity the Kitties", which he does love and has even opend up cupboard doors to get at. The only issue is, the box is $8 for 20 or so treats...not very cost effective when he steals the box and eats the entire contents. So I finally buckled down and bought a carton of bonito flakes. For those of you who don't know what Bonito flakes are, its like fine, feather-like fish flakes, smokey almost. Japanese use them alot for cooking....or so Alton Brown says...

I have been told by many cat people, that their cats go INSANE for them. Although, I woudln't go as far as saying Walter goes insane for them (as he is insane most of the time), he really likes them. He sits by his food dish yelling for the little flakes...and the best thing about it....no vomit (as of yet...)

Captain Underpants.....

I think we may have to be changing Walters name.

I have heard that many cats have some sort of fetish, wether it be chewing on hair, sucking on wool or blankets, or just some weird routine that they have developed. I wish I could say Walter had a fetish like chewing on my hair, he does from time to time, but it's not his thing. His thing is something that I don't like to tell alot of people, but it's becoming such a part of our lives, that I just can't hold back anymore. As gross as you may find this, Walter loves.....underwear. Not just anyone's underwear....my underwear. From now on, I have to become a bit more assertive about where I lay my clothes out.

Walter has this thing about finding my clean underwear and deciding to play with them. It usually happens either after a shower, when I lay my clothes out, or when I've washed my clothes and I have them in my laundry basket. He will hunt down my underwear and rub up against them, eventually putting his head through one of the leg holes and walking around the house. This is no lie I tell you. I have found my underwear scattered throughout the house; bathroom, living room and even in the middle of the kitchen floor. Obviously, this could make for a bit of an embarassing mishap. I'm not sure exactly what this is about, he doesn't do this to any of my other garmants or socks....just my underwear.

It is cute though, when he walks through the house with them on, it looks like he's wearing a cape.....

I love my Captain Underpants....

P.S. I promise I'll get a picture :o)

Sorry it's been forever....or should I say Furever....

Wow, it's been a very long time since Walter and I wrote our last post. Since the last update, he has had four treatments at the rehabilitation clinic, and boy, it has done a world of good. It seemed to have perked him up a bit right after the first laser treatment, but by the fourth, it's like I have a kitten running around my house again. Every time we go in there, the tech's always ask how he's doing,  and it's always been 'ok'. But now....we can really tell that it's working because the level of  troubleness is increasing! It seems every time I look at him, he's getting into trouble...jumping up on counters, playing with things he shouldn't, sporadically galloping around the house. Honestly, it's getting hard to keep up with him! As per doctor recommendations, we still need to keep him 'quiet' (yeah right), and try to ice him and stretch him twice daily....which is not the easiest task in the world, just trying to keep up with him is enough work.
For example,

Yesterday morning, I woke up and walked into the kitchen to find a bunch of my clothes strewn across the kitchen floor....nice. I guess that's a nice way of him telling me to put my clothes away. He has also taken to poucing on us in the middle of the night again, oh so wonderful to have him back to normal.....

First Day at Rehab..

My Schedule for the Day:
6:30am- Wake Up
6:35am- Feed Walter
6:40am- Slowly start to gather head for day
6:50am- Wash face and begin to look presentable for other people
7:00am- Brush teeth and get dressed
7:05am- 'Sedate' Walter with Bach's Rescue Remedy
7:10-7:25am- Try to locate Walter (hiding)
7:30am- 'Stuff' Walter in kennel
7:35am- Pack Walter in car and drive to rehab clinic
8:00am- Rehab appointment
8:45am- Home
8:47am- Feed Walter again (reward for being a good boy)
9:00am- Sleep before work

Yes, that was our morning, Walter's first rehab appointment. All in all it went very well, the Technician used the laser to help release and repair the trigger points throughout his back and front legs. He did well, at least I thought so, especially for being a cat, he just didn't like the idea of having to be forced to sit in one spot for more than 30 seconds.
It seems like he's had a pretty good night. He's eaten alot and has been running and jumping around like usual. During my morning nap, he even woke me up by pouncing on my stomach and rolling around for belly rubs. Tonight he hasn't been sleeping in the bedroom like he has been either, so maybe this whole Laser thing is working! We can only hope for the best!! Next appointment scheduled for Wednesday morning! Keep your fingers crossed!!

Long Road to Recovery..........

Well, I think we may have finally hit the nail on the head when it comes to Walter's 'illness'. Pancreatitis has been ruled out (recieved the blood results yesterday), and he still continues to not have any gastrointestinal symptoms. Like I mentioned in the last post, we think that it may actually be his back, as back pain can manifest as abdominal pain in many circumstances. He has continued to be on the metacam (anti-inflammatory) and we have since discontinued the buprenorphin (narcotic), and he has been doing extremely well; almost back to normal, but we can still tell that something is still not right with him.
He was at work with me this morning as we had one of the vets from the rehabilitation clinic (specializes in only rehabilitation and physiotherapy of animals) in to do a couple of exams on our patients, including Walter. This doctor has speicalized training in diagnosing and treating complex pain in animals. While doing her exam on Walter, she confirmed that he had quite a lot pain in the mid-back and hip area. She could actually palpate several 'pea-sized' knots in the muscles along his back as well as tense muscles in his front end, most likely due to him over-compromising weight distrubution from his sore back.
Looking through the x-rays, she couldn't confirm if he has a 'slipped disk', but there are a few areas that are questionable, or it may just be all soft tissue injury. We may send the films to one of the board-certified surgeons in the area to get his opinion as well, however at this point, the only 100% way to diagnose a disk problem in Walter would be to do a CT scan. I know it sounds crazy to  many people, but all I have to say...'again' is thank GOD for insurance!
So for now, he will continue on the anti-inflammatories, possibly add in a muscle relaxant (Robaxin) and start with laser therapy at the rehab clinic on monday.
So now I have a few things going through my head. I have been very reluctant to agree with my vets that Walter has Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) with pancreatitis flare-ups as we have not been able to accuratly diagnose any of these, nor has he had any of the clear cut symptoms, I'm wondering if this has been a problem all along.....

Healing Light: The Miracle of Cold Laser Therapy

High Anxiety Level.....

If I didn't have enough to worry about on my plate....

I wasn't really looking forward to Christmas this year, wasn't really feeling it. I was looking forward to my week off between Christmas and New Years though. However, this week has come and gone, full of anxiety, worry and multiple trips into work with Walter. It's sad when you think, just for a second, to take one of your dogs anti-anxiety pills!! (I didn't...don't worry).

We're not exactly sure what's up with him this time around. He's just off, he seems painful. At first I thought it was his stomach again, either pancreatitis or some sort of gastritis, however, he's not vomiting and he's begging for food (signs that don't go with gastrointestinal issues). He's been lethargic, with a few bursts of energy, sleeping alot in the bedroom and sitting on his cat tree hunched into a ball. We've done x-rays (we're up to so many now it should be considered radiation therapy), and bloodwork and haven't been able to find anything but a few spots along his back that seems painful and spasms after touching. As for the moment, we're just treating him for pain. Metacam (anti-inflammatory) and buprenorphine (a narcotic that they actually use now instead of Methadone for patients undergoing addiction problems!).

He's been a pretty drugged up little guy for the past few days. Today I decided to decrease the frequency of the buprenorphine, and it seems (don't want to jinx it though) as the buprenorphine is wearing off he's beginning to be a bit more of 'himself'. I know my mother says I get too worked up over this kind of stuff, but when you have the track record that we have had you can't help not to. Walter is my best friend, and when he's not his usual fun loving self, it's very hard to go about your every day life, especially when you can't put your finger on what's exactly going on.

Hopefully we're over the brunt of it. We have a veterinarian from a clinic that specializes in therapy and rehabilitation coming in on wednesday that is planning on taking a very thorough look at Walter and his x-rays, in case she can see something with her 'specially trained eyes'. We're also planning on getting him in with my co-workers wife, who's also a vet, to do acupuncture on him for pain relief.

Cross your fingers for us.....