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.