Sometimes, they are too young ….

When Cole first came to us, he was broken:

No, not like that.  More like this:

See the little shaved leg?  Yeah, it was was broken.   I met Cole at the shelter, the day he was brought back from the specialist and having his pins put in.  I saw him and said “Gimme! ” and sat him on my lap while I entered medical records into the computer.  Little dude just sat there and purred and didn’t move.  I was being suckered.  Just like his mentor, Indy, had done to me 16 years ago.  So when I saw Beth, the foster coordinator at the time, I said “I’m fostering him until he is better”.

Like that face couldn’t sucker you in!  :)

And boy did he get better.  As he got better, he got badder!

Skyler is telling him this is not a good idea!

I love how she says “I told you to stop!”

Then we get some foster kittens from a hoarding situation, and Cole teaches them all about how to be a kitten:

I apologize to the owners.

Eventually, Cole does settle down and become a very wonderful and loving cat, with just a tad a mischeviousness in him.

And he is actually the smartest cat I’ve ever owned.

So why this post?  Well last Sunday morning, at 3:30ish actually, I heard a strange noise.  It sounded very strange – I want to call it a scratching incident.  I was able to wake Matt easily and say “Hey, do you hear that?” and we went downstairs to investigate.  I was convinced it was wildlife outside.  But no.  Here is the conversation:

Matt:  ”It’s Cole”

Me:  ”Is he having a seizure”

Matt”  ”I think so”.

Me:  ”Oh no”  but not in a panicky way.

I get into the living room for the last twitch and lift his face (don’t try that at home) and he is all glassy eyed and foaming.  He is done twitching and we just wait it out and eventually he is able to get up and walk around, although he still confused.  He hisses at us, but not the other cats.  He walks around in the Halloween Cat position – back arched, tail straight out with fur all sticking out.  I didn’t know they could walk around like that.  I found it odd that he was hissy with us but not the cats.  None of the other cats were freaked by him except Blossom, who just tends not to like him in general, so we locked her in the bathroom.  We didn’t need her special kind of evil right then.

Eventually, he came out of it and acted normally, and let us pet and hold him and purred.  Had open mouth breathing.  When he started playing with his toys, I knew that he was totally 100% back to normal, and that we could go to bed (as if we could sleep – but surprisingly we did – and in my case – very well!).

A seizure is not a rush to the emergency vet type of emergency unless they last a very long time or continue to occur.  But of course, this was the Independence Day holiday, so we had to wait until Tuesday to see the vet.  I already had to be there early to take Willie for a dental, so I took Cole with me hoping for a morning appointment and I was lucky to get a cancellation.  Whew.

Nothing showed up on exam and so we took bloodwork.  The next day, the blood results were in and the only thing on the blood work was CPK, which is a marker for muscle inflammation.  It could be skeletal muscle, meaning that a seizure could have happened and made the inflammation/CPK high.  But my vet said that he doesn’t usually see that and that CPK is usually a heart function.  Sigh.  So we took the next step and had a chest x-ray done the next day (Thursday).

Cole has a slight – very slight – heart enlargement.  It is slight enough that in the absence of the seizure or other episode, which could have been syncope (three syllables), it would probably not register as a concern.  So right now, we are treating the heart with a glandular supplement, which fortunately Cole likes as a treat and we are going to retest the CPK in 6 weeks.  If it still elevated, then we will go for an ultrasound.

Cole is only 5 years old.  He is not supposed to be the one with health problems!  Not yet!  It’s not fair!

But you know what he has to say about all of this?

Told you he was smart.  :)