Sunday, December 14, 2008

Our Christmas cat...


As many of you are aware, our kids are our pets. Currently we have five cats, all Maine Coons and one dog, Ben, a Bernese Mountain Dog.

Last May we made an effort to reduce some household expenses. One of those items deleted from the budget was insurance for the cats. You see, our cats, being indoor felines, are not exposed to some of the nasty things lurking outside - including country wildlife, such as wolves, coyotes, black bears, foxes and the like. They are also unlikely to contract any weird diseases. They all see our vet, Dr. Jeff Simmons, once a year for a check up and shots. In all the years we have owned cats, we have not experienced any major health issues. So, we cancelled the cats' policies and doubled up the insurance on Ben.

Last week, our youngest cat, Zack began to exhibit odd behaviour. He became lethargic and stopped eating. He also puked a couple of times. Zack or as we refer to him, The Dude, has always had a voracious appetite and, in spite of being neutered, he never developed a hanging belly, so common in fixed felines. If anything, he was always on the slim side and was full of energy and mischief from the get go.

Not last week.

We took him in to see Dr. Jeff Simmons at the Peterborough Pet Hospital. Zack will be two years old in February, just like his "brother", Ben. These two are practically inseparable. The Dude thinks he's a dog; Ben believes he's a cat (a cat the size of a mountain lion!). Initially Jeff was a little concerned about The Dude's weight; seems although he had grown from his last visit, his weight had barely changed. Blood samples were taken and sent to Guelph for analysis. Seems these days just about everything can now be ascertained from these tests at one time. Jeff was looking for thyroid issues, pancreatitis, diabetes and cancer. OK, so he was not looking for them; he wanted to rule them out.

Meanwhile, The Dude returned home with us. We kept him segregated from our general population - much to Ben's dismay. He sat outside our bedroom door, waiting for his buddy to come out and play.

That did not occur.

Meanwhile Jeff had "given" us some special food which was quite dense and loaded with calories. We were to force feed him. Ever attempted to force feed a cat? In spite of his general malaise and weakness, we discovered that there was nothing wrong with The Dude's adrenal glands. We had to practically hog-tie him and wrap him in a blanket to attempt feeding. Limited success - but we both still had all our fingers.

Over the next 12 hours The Dude’s condition declined. He was still throwing up and he did not look good. We could see that he was fading before our eyes. The next morning, Jeff gave us 90% of the results. Everything was normal. We were still, however, waiting for the pancreas and thyroid results - they were expected the following morning.

The previous evening after many calls to our friend and Maine Coon breeder, Sharon, we had decided that even if all came back negative, we wanted The Dude to be x-rayed - hopefully to see if there was any blockage of any kind within.

TLATO drove back to the vet's with our friend, Val, who offered to assist since I was out of town that day.

Zack was hooked up to an IV and pumped with fluids and antibiotics then sedated for the first of a series of x-rays. At this point, the cat appeared to have gas and feces in his system that, for some reason, was not moving. Young Zack was given the first of several enemas to flush out his system. Naturally, this made him even weaker. After each "flush", a further x-ray was taken. Eventually, everyone was satisfied that all was clear and there had been no evidence of foreign bodies in the flushed waste. An exhausted cat was then made comfortable and continued to be hydrated as he rested overnight.

The following morning, Jeff called to report. The last two tests were clear. Zack was being fed and they would be taking additional pictures to ensure that the processed meal cleared his system. He would, all being well, be released at the end of the day.

That Friday evening we drove into town and spent some time talking with Jeff. At this point, Zack was doing very well. However, the diagnosis was a little shaky. Perhaps there had been an infection in his bowel that caused his system to slowly shut down as he poisoned himself? Regardless, he was responding to the three medications he was on and our skinny kitty came home.

The Dude's been home two days now and he is back to his old self. His personality has returned as has his appetite. We have to medicate him for the next week or so, liquid meds taken orally - syringes and cats with sharp teeth - we are becoming more adept with each treatment.

We plan on releasing The Dude to gen. pop. tomorrow. Ben misses his buddy, and the other cats, Merlin, Rocky, Elvis and Xena know that something is amiss. Rocky has attempted to break into the room too many times - we have taken make-shift security measures - bungee cords attached to two door handles, otherwise Rocky would be in with Zack as I write. Not that Rocky would do anything; we just want Zack to get his strength back before he resorts to his usual routine.

So, it would appear that The Dude is well on his way to perfect health.

At a cost.

Sheryl and I had decided weeks ago we were not going to exchange gifts this season since we're off to Florida in a week or so. Just as well. We'd be looking for refunds to pay The Dude's vet bill.

Wow! Hindsight being 20/20, we should never have cancelled the damn insurance.

Who knew?

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