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.  :)

]]> http://www.jennriffle.com/2011/07/13/sometimes-they-are-too-young/feed/ 1 http://www.jennriffle.com/2011/06/09/then-they-get-old/ http://www.jennriffle.com/2011/06/09/then-they-get-old/#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 02:00:18 +0000 jenn http://www.jennriffle.com/?p=418 Continue reading →]]> Oh Indy.

Indy is 16 years old now.  He has been through so much.  Pneumonia, a three month stint of anorexia complete with feeding tubes, and cholangeohepatitis.  That last one is recent, and there are former blog posts all about it.  He has also been through several moves, Matt moving in, cats moving in, fosters in and out and the loss of his first feline companion.  Through it all, he has been a rock.  He is a strong cat.  He is very vocal and he is the leader of the cat army.  Cat groups are not really determined by alpha, or top cat.  Some believe they form a hierarchy.  I don’t really think mine do. If they do, it’s Indy at the top and everyone else at the bottom.  He has taught all the others that they accept each other and be nice.  He breaks up fights.  When Blossom tries to test his authority, he literally takes her down – body slams her.  He never hurts her.  He just says that he won’t tolerate her foolishness.

But now?  Sigh.  He has to admit to being old.  Sometimes, Blossom gets away with that foolishness!  He won’t stop her.  When he was diagnosed with the cholangeohepatitis, he was also diagnosed with a small bit of arthritis.  I guess that happens to the best of us.  But in January, when we took him in to the vet for his usual 6-month senior comprehensive physical and blood work veterinary visit, as all senior pets should have ,we found out that he had developed hyperthyroidism – and that his liver enzymes were once again elevated.  UGH.

Well the good news in this is that hyperthyroidism is completely curable.  I’ve always said that if my cats have to have one of the big three cat diseases – kidney failure, hyperthyroid, diabetes – I would choose hyperthyroid, because there is a cure.  It is called radio-iodine treatment, and it is one shot, given subcutaneously, just like a vaccination.  There are downsides to the treatment which are a three day hospital stay (which can happen to your cat for any number of reasons anyway), and either having to save the fecal matter in a plastic bag for a few weeks before disposal or flushing (I chose the former).  There is also a slight risk of kidney damage, or that if the hyperthyroid is severe enough, the one treatment won’t be enough, and it would need replaced.   And it is an expensive upfront cost of $1,200.  But the upside trumps all of that – it IS a cure (even if you need the second round).

Left on its own, hyperthyroid eventually wears down the other organs, liver, kidneys and heart, and it wears them down faster than if they would on their own.  So you definitely want to treat it in some way.  Other treatments are surgery, although that is not done very often these days, and treatment with methimazole.  There are pros and cons to methimazole, and it can control and slow down, but not cure the condition.  One of the big downsides however, is the fact that the medication itslef can be harmful to the liver.  And as you just read, Indy was already compromised.

Eleven years ago, when our Joey was only ten years old and diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, we opted for the radio-iodine treatment, which back then was a brand new treatment.  His T4 levels were very high – 22 (normal .4 to 4)  - and it was expected that he would need to have it done twice – and he didn’t.  He never had a recurrence and never had any health issues until he was 16 years old old and developed kidney disease, which he had until he finally died at nearly 21 years old of heart disease.

Believing that getting the thyroid function back to normal and hoping that the thyroid was causing the liver values to be off, and having such a positive previous experience, we scheduled Indy for his radio-iodine treatment and waited.  We took him in two months later for his follow-up blood tests.  His thyroid was totally normal again, as expected.  It wasn’t that high, so we didn’t expect a different result.  His liver values did drop as well, although not back into the normal ranges quite yet and we were hopeful that they would continue to drop.  A few weeks after treatment, he started to give us difficulties with eating as well.  He just wouldn’t eat much – his treats always.  But a few times, he ignored those and he also refused bacon.  Bacon.  Uh-oh.  To the vet he went.  To our dismay, kidney values were elevated.  We force fed him a few meals, gave him fluids and in a few days he was feeling like his old self.  I continued him on fluids, and made an appointment to take him back to the vet in one month.  That appointment was this past Monday, June 6th.

The good news from that visit is that he pretty much maintained his weight.  But the results of his blood work are not very good.  His BUN value increased, although the creatinine, which is the more important factor, only went up to 2.8 from 2.6, so hopefully, the BUN was only a result of dehydration.  His liver values started rising again as well.  So now he is on the Joey regimen:  fluids 3x a week and bi-weekly acupuncture.  We will add liver meridians in, and are going to try calciferol, which is a vitamin D derivative which is showing promise in treating cats with kidney failure.  On his next visit, I’ll talk more with the vet about supporting the liver, but poor Indy is already on a daily vitamin that he takes once a day, another kidney support supplement, glucosamine treats and then the calciferol liquid coming soon (I’m getting it compounded and I hope I can get it made in bacon flavor – that is his favorite).

So this was a depressing post.  Go back and read the kitten post!  Or check out cute overload!  Or some LOL cats.  

I had intended to blog about the kittens during their stay.  And all of their milestones and antics.  But somehow, the six weeks flew by.  I was also given four sweet little boy kittens who were practically perfect and only needed to learn how to not pee on the carpeting, and that sitting on a human’s head and eating their hair was not a good hobby.  And to grow.  They needed to grow.   Last week, I took my boys to the shelter.  Three remain waiting for their forever homes, while Zach got a home the very next day.  The rest of this post will (mostly) speak for itself.

Here is OLIVER (he was my favorite):

He is the little black one – a day or so after I brought him home, still had his little blue eyes

When I discovered he was going to have green eyes, I squealed with delight.

So Tired!

He was the cuddliest one

Introducing Zach

This is Ray the day I brought him home.  He refused to pose for me.

And Henry pretending he is a pilot

Why is he still at the shelter?????

I just thought I would share the story of how Joey came to be a part of my life.

It was April, 1990, Easter weekend to be exact.  My sister and I were both visiting my mother over the Easter/Spring break.

My first cat, Sallie, had passed away a few months before and her companion (and my sister’s) cat, Puff, was lonely.  He was driving my mother crazy and sticking to her like Velcro.   I had suggested to my mother that she get Puff a companion, so that he could lavish attention on another feline instead of her.  I also recommended she get another male, cause back in those days, in the country,  it wasn’t common to neuter your pets.  Of course, my mom didn’t listen to me, and kept putting it off.

So this particular day, April 14th, to be exact, my mother had to work at her second job in a candy store at the mall.  So my sister and I went along with her to do what you do at a mall.   A few doors down from the candy store, which was located in the food court, there was a pet store.    This pet store often had kittens from cat owners who couldn’t find homes for their kittens (see above re: neutering).   This particular day, my sister and I went in, and saw two little kittens in a cage.  There was Joey, in all of his black and white fluff, and another.  We fell in LOVE with Joey.  So we went to the candy store to tell my mother all about him.  We told her that she NEEDED this kitten.  That Puff needed the kitten.   She refused to go look.  She was afraid of falling in love.

So my sister and I huffed out of the store (well, I huffed, I don’t know about her) and walked around and then decided that we would buy the kitten for her.  So we returned to the pet store, told the clerk that we wanted to buy the kitten, but that we had to wait until our mother was done working to get him.  He had no problem with us doing that.  So, we bought the cat, the clerk put a sign on his cage and we went back around the mall.

It was in JC Penney, walking through there, when my sister and I picked out his name.  Since it was Easter, we thought it should be after some character from the Bible.  We obviously didn’t want to go with Jesus or Pilate.  So we went with Joey, after Joseph and the coat of many colors.   We figured that if he had a name, Mom would be less mad at us.  Oh and she got mad … but it’s not what you think.

A bit later, my sister and I were having a soda and chose a table near my mother’s store.  She came out of the store, STOMPED over, and in her indignant mother voice said “Why didn’t you girls MAKE me go look at that kitten?  I went to see him and I love him and I would have bought him.  But because of YOU GIRLS, I lost him.”  We looked at each other, told her “Sorry, we really are, we did try to get you to go there.  Who’s minding the store?”  So she stomped back over and went back to work, while my sister and I cracked up.   As an aside, the thought of my mother stomping cracks me up.  In the last few years of her life, she had trouble walking, but 20 years ago, she could stomp.  How funny.  I barely remember her being 43.

So it was 9:15 and we had 15 minutes to get our cat, so we hurried to the GC Murphy’s bought an Easter basket to put him in, and we went to the pet store and asked for a box.  We placed Joey in the basket in the box and waited at a table for my mother to finish closing the store.

When she did, she saw the box and she asked “What is that?”  I said “Something we bought” and told her to look in.  She saw the kitten, and looked at me strangely, cause she knew I couldn’t have a kitten where I lived, and I said “Happy Easter Mom.  His name is Joey”.   She broke down and cried.

And I was right, Puff and Joey were instant friends and Puff didn’t bother my mother nearly as much.

I think about how things have changed.  Now, buying a pet at a pet store in NOT a good thing.  I also didn’t understand cat behavior and while unneutered male/female arrangements will cause kittens, un-neutered male/male will cause spraying.    Puff did start spraying.  :(

Three years later, my mother had to move, and “had to” (you never have to) give up the cats.  Well, there was no way I was giving up Joey!  I called around, checked with the no-kill shelter, who explained the waiting list, which was way longer than I had to wait.  Nowadays, that shelter has boarding.  How wonderful it would have been then … cause I knew I was moving too, but not for a couple of months, and I would be allowed to have the cats.

So I did what any sensible person does.   I broke my lease and took the cats.  Did I mention one sprayed?   I got them both neutered immediately, the spraying stopped, I moved to the house that would let me have cats and for the next 17 years, Joey was my most wonderful companion.

Later this week, I’ll finish the story for you.

Below is what happened in August, in no particular order:

We celebrated our nephew’s birthday:

We had record breaking temperatures:

Skyler discovered the dryer:

We discovered a dead mouse:

I celebrated my birthday with my cousins:

We were visited by fawns:

The geese started to gather for their southern migration:

I started a quilt:

The cats continued to be cute:

Despite getting a diagnosis of heart failure, Joey the Wondercat continues to keep on keepin’ on:

Oh, if only I could keep his face that clean now:

We went to Cedar Point:

We went to Ohio Pyle to see kayakers go over the falls (do not try this at home):

and attempted to see Cucumber Falls, but the summer was dry and it wasn’t much to look at:

and I had my zoo docent orientation:

All in all, a very good month.

That face belongs to Hope, my adorable and sweet little 7.5 year old Snowshoe cat.   Besides wanting to squeeze the juice out of her, I want to protect her always.  Wouldn’t you?  (If you are a cat lover that is).  And I’ve done a pretty good of that so far!

Last Friday, my husband and I moved into our new house.  We were very excited about this.  We really upgraded in our space, size, location.  We can’t get over how beautiful this house is and how fortunate we are to now own it.  Sure, its more to clean and more to heat in the winter, and yes, we have a driveway to shovel in the winter as well.  We thought the cats would LOVE it here … so much more space for them to run around in and stay away from each other when they want.  The wooded backyard … that is a cat’s dream!

However, there is the big foyer with the beautiful stairs:

Gorgeous aren’t they?  Yes, one of our favorite features.

Until …

You look down.  If you are scared of heights, its creepy.  If not, its cool.  Unless you are a small pet owner.

If you hadn’t noticed, the steps don’t have backs.  And cats often like to lay on carpeted things.  And squirm.

And sometimes, they squirm … right off the steps to the bottom of the spiral.

This happened to Hope.  She was squirming.  I saw this and tried to get to her, but I was too late.  The next thing I knew she was at the bottom, and landed on her side on the ceramic tile.   She wasn’t moving.  When I stood her up (I don’t recommend you do that, I am a trained professional) she fell right back over, so off to the emergency vet we went.

We knew she was alive, but she was very dazed and not moving, so all kinds of worst case scenarios went through our heads.  Spinal damage, neurological damage, a rib puncturing a lung.  We called the emergency vet while driving there and they were ready and took her back immediately.  After waiting an interminable amount of time, we found out that she is relatively okay.  She has a dislocated hip.  The x-ray showed that plain as day, but when when the orthopedic doctor looked at her, it was already in place.  We opted for an ultrasound to make sure that there was no internal bleeding and left her for 24 hours for observation.

We took her home the very next day, obtained a referral for a possible surgery, in which they would shave down the femur so that the hip could stay in place, and with orders to keep her on cage rest for 14 days.  If her hip stays in place, she will not need surgery.  But how can one know if she is caged all the time?

Anyway, she will not tolerate the cage.  All she does is cry, cry, cry and it breaks our hearts. Look at how sad she looks:

I finally let her out … she is walking fine, she runs around for a few minutes, then finds a place to sleep.  She is hardly an active cat anyway.

We’ll keep our eyes on her and get the steps corrected for safety.

I would just feel better if she would sleep somewhere other than the spiral steps.

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What?  Getting ex back?  What post talked about that?  LOL.

Anyway, some updates from my life.

Indy continues to improve.  The last ALT value was 131.  He just had another test yesterday, and we are hoping for that magic number of 100 or less.  I predict it will be 100 teens.

Joey turned 20 years old a few weeks ago.  I can’t believe that I have a cat that is 20.  He has been not wanting to eat and I noticed one day that he was having trouble chewing.  It went beyond just being picky.  I had also noticed a few weeks back that his breath really stunk.  Really badly, like nothing I’ve ever smelled before.  It was not the expected uremic smell from the kidney disease.  So I plop him on the counter by the good light, and open his mouth.  He fought me, but I saw what I thought was bleeding.  I called in my husband to help hold him down and I see a mass.  Pretty large, bulbulous and red.  Not bleeding though.  I also noticed excessive tartar on the teeth.

Not sure what to do, I took him to the vet earlier this week.  The vet was very concerned, but since he is so very old with compromised kidneys, we cannot put him under for a thorough evaluation.  The mass could be something really scary or it could be inflammation/infection from the bacteria on the teeth.  He managed to scrape some tartar off the molars and started Joey on antibiotics.  We’ll see if it looks any better when we go back for his acupuncture next week.

Me?  Well, I have only two more sessions of physical therapy left.  It has helped me build up some muscle.  Not sure though if it helped the pain go away or if it was a result of my stopping most intense exercise.  Was it the rest or the strengthening?  Or both?  I guess we’ll never know, but I am feeling a lot better. I still have pain when out in the cold that is probably a result of the arthritis.  I’ve been cleared to do my own lower body routines and cardio … except for running or jumping still.  I started taking a supplement for joint pain.  It’s not glucosamine/condroitin because I am not sure of their efficacy in humans, and they are made of shellfish, so they are not even vegetarian!  The supplement I’m taking is Zyflamend and I really think its helping.

See, I honestly believed that I had cats for pets.  They are small, they are furry, they have whiskers and they purr.  They also eat cat food, watch birds and squirrels, and love to kill some furry fake mice.  But … they really act like pigs!  Seriously.  We meal feed around here, so everyone except Joey and Indy, who get more due to their age, eats two times per day.  But ten minutes after a meal, if one of us goes into the kitchen, we are followed by cats who meow and think they need more.  After Joey finishes one of his mid-afternoon or midnight feedings, a bunch of them will rush the bathroom door where he eats so that they can fight over who gets to finish the food.  I love when Joey finishes it all, they are all like “What?  Where’s all the food?”

The constant begging … I mean, they get enough food, but they always want more.  Maybe vulture is a better word than pigs.  But it just cracks me up the way they go nuts for any food.  If Matt and I are eating, they watch us.  Fuzzy loves to run into the kitchen and leap on the counter under the cabinet where the treats are.  Then he meows and looks cute.  Sorry, Fuzzy, you are a bit overweight, I’m not giving you any.  And its really hard to resist him!  He’s so cute.

But then, I guess I have no room to talk, as I pigged out on a vegan cheese pizza for lunch.  I should have cooked half of it, then I wouldn’t have eaten it all.  I should have only eaten half of it, and wrapped the rest up.  But I was so thrilled that there was vegan cheese that actually tastes good.

Yes, that is what I said.  I found vegan cheese that tastes good! And…. its not soy based.

I bought it at Vegan Essentials.com and its called Daiya cheese.   I bought both a small bag of shredded cheese and a pizza using it by the company Rossini.  When I received the shipment, I opened the bag of shredded and tasted it.  I did a happy dance.  I finally ate the pizza today and OMG … you can’t even tell its vegan.

So for all you dairy-avoiders, I highly recommend Daiya.  It’s expensive.  Check their website for where to buy it.  You won’t be sorry.

The 21-day Vegan Kickstart Challenge officially ended on the 21st of January, and they took the content down.  I thought they’d leave it up.  I didn’t start on the first day because of travel and illness.  But I was wrong.  The first time this year.  I have a few more credits, so its okay.

Where does that leave me?  Well… the same place.  Trying to maintain as high of a level of vegan as possible, and trying to eat more whole foods and cook more.  I have a ton of cookbooks and assorted recipes, so I can still try making tasty new things.   I can ignore the complicated ones.  The challenge starts again March 1, so maybe I’ll do it again, and this time eat the food as “assigned” every day, except for the days there are foods I don’t like.

Yesterday, I have to admit.  I had cheese.  At first, it wasn’t intentional.  We had had plans to go to a friends house to watch a movie, and we knew that we would be getting pizza.  I had 100% intention of having either half a pizza or a small one ordered without cheese for me.  Last time I had pizza, I removed the cheese, and had three toppings and extra sauce and it was yummy!  However, during the day, my delightful husband offered to make macaroni and cheese for lunch and I said that that sounded good … totally forgetting that I was eating vegan!   So, I figured … what the hey and ordered regulation pizza.  It was white pizza too, which I haven’t had in a long time.

My stomach didn’t feel too bad, even with the extra infusion of heart shaped Smiley cookies.  Or two.  Or three.  Actually, I was fine, stomach wise, but my nose clogged up big time.  I didn’t actually feel bloated until this afternoon.   So now I know … if I must, only one serving of dairy per day.

In other GOOD news, I had a very nice physical therapy session today.  My therapist says I am doing really, really well and gettting stronger every day.  She said that there was no reason I couldn’t participate in a racing event in October (location to be determined).   I can do a smaller race running, if I want.  Or walk a half.  Or run half of a half and walk the other half of the half.  That makes me happy.  Long distances are out for good, or at least a long while, she reminded me.  I can handle this.  It’s not like I could run a half marathon anyway. 

And I FORGOT to mention that I did try one other recipe from the challenge.  It was a Sunday morning, and I received the day’s menu, which called for Sweet Potato Pudding for breakfast.  That sounded really good.  It has oatmeal in it which I figured would make it nice and filling.  I had to cook and then cool the sweet potatoes (yay for the microwave at times), then I mixed it in the blender.  I put it in a bowl, sat down, ready to savor it.  And it was delicious!  However, it wasn’t cutting it as a breakfast for me.  It was truly a pudding, so therefore it became designated as a dessert.  Yay for dessert!  Using pumpkin would be equally delicious.  Adding the oatmeal is great … added fiber and even protein.  Not everyone is aware of how much protein is actually in oatmeal.  I ended up with a bagel with Better Than Cream Cheese.

I think for breakfast, it would have worked for me had I made oatmeal the traditional way and then mixed in the cooked sweet potato into the cereal.

I have been reading Wesley the Owl.  I highly recommend it.  It’s a very cute story and written well.  A fast, fun read.  Look for it on my sister blog later this week at jennreviewsthings.com.

Tomorrow, my Fuzzy goes for a teeth cleaning.  Wish us all luck.

He was referred to a veterinary internal medicine specialist, where he received an ultrasound, which was also inconclusive, and a fine needle aspirate of the liver was sent out for cytology.  At this point, we were looking either at cholangiohepatitis or cancer.   And the cytology didn’t help.  The first order of business was to treat for the cholangiohepatitis, which is a long course of antibiotics.  If the liver enzymes stabilize, then its likely the hepatitis and NOT cancer.

Thursday, I received a call from the veterinary center and guess what?  His ALT was down to 160!  Yay!  The antibiotics are helping.  Not that I needed bloodwork to tell me that, as he has returned totally to his kitten like antics and his very very large appetite. 

Now for the Vegan Challenge.

Saturday was my weigh in day and I was down 2.2 pounds.  Yay.

Friday food was good.

*Breakfast was oatmeal with maple syrup and pecans

*Lunch was leftover couscous confetti salad

*Dinner was out and I had bbq seitan pita with fries and a salad

Saturday, well, I did remain vegan except for some accidental mayo, but healthy wasn’t as strong.

*Breakfast was hash browns and an English Muffin

*Lunch was at Burger King … a BK veggie and small onion ring

*Dinner was Domino’s pizza … no cheese, extra sauce and black olives, onion and spinach

But that is not overcomerable (is that a word?) … I will do better this week for sure, and I hope to make a return to doing cardio.

Yay!  I’ve figured out how to insert pictures!