Okay, I just had to do it. I had to include a picture of Cabbages.
The cat lady messaged me with a picture, and I’ve cropped out anything remotely identifying.
Just look at that face!!! Those eyes!!
Apparently, she is very chatty. She’s never been particularly vocal, but with so many other cats around, she probably had no reason to be.
She was like this, when the cat lady took her. Losing weight. Increasingly lethargic. Needing to be fed with a syringe. We had no idea how close to death she was. Thanks to the cat lady, Cabbages is still with us, doing SO much better, and has a forever home waiting for her.
What an amazing woman.
If you would like to read more about Cabbages and our fundraiser to surprise-reimburse her vet expenses, click here. Or, you can go straight to the fundraiser page here.
I just wanted to make a quick update post, before writing the post I intended to. :-D
I have been in contact with the cat lady. I let her know that Butterscotch and Nosencrantz are snagged for their trip to the vet tomorrow. I had gone to spend some time with them, just before I contected her. They were both loafed on the swing bench and, to my surprise, Butterscotch was all over me, purring her heart out, wanting pets and skritches. So much so, she was bowling right over Nosencrantz, who was looking pretty stunned. :-D
I was able to give Nosencrantz some attention. This is the first time we’ve been able to do more than just pet her and occasionally pick her up, outside. I was noticing her behaviour while skritching her ears and gave them a closer look.
She has ear mites.
*sigh*
It’s not a surprise, but with all the yard cats we’ve brought inside, we’ve never seen ear mites before. We have been very fortunate, that way. I called the vet clinic to let them know, and it turns out treatment for ear mites is on the list, along with deworming and vaccinations. All of that, plus getting them fixed, for only $75 a cat!! Oh, how I appreciate connecting with this organization. After all this is done, I plan to continue donating to them, as we are able.
We’ve got these two booked for tomorrow, then Beep Beep and Fenrir on Feb. 7. Talking with the cat lady, we confirmed Feb. 23 for two more inside cats for adoption; we will need to decide which ones go first.
She also passed on the e-transfer information, which is to the organization that is covering the rest of the vet bill. Since my husband’s disability payment came in early, I was able to make a payment in advance. I can make payments as I am able, as long as it’s paid off by the end of the year. She has a budget from this organization, and I know any payments made allows her to have more budget to help more cats, so I was happy to make a payment now. That, and I don’t like unresolved line items in my budget.
The payment for my PAL is driving me nuts. I have no idea when my license will be processed and the payment will come out. All I know it that is should be within 4 months, and I’ve got about 3 more months to go.
Anyhow.
She also updated me a little about Cabbages. She is eating roast beef!
She sent pictures, which I am not asking permission to use right now, but the difference in her is amazing! She has quite clearly regained some weight. In one of the pictures, she was eating shredded pieces of beef. The last pictures we saw, she was eating meat mush. So that is another encouraging sign!
Cabbages and Turmeric
The photo above was taken just after New Year’s. According to the vet, she would have been already starting to get sick, but we saw no signs of that at the time. She’s isn’t back to how she looked then, but being such a little cat to begin with, even this little weight gain makes for a very dramatic difference.
She is set to visit the vet again, soon. I really look forward to hearing what he has to say!!
If you would like to read more about Cabbages and our fundraiser to surprise-reimburse her for vet expenses, click here. Or, you can go straight to the fundraiser page here.
I am so very happy and encouraged by how she is doing. What a fighter!
Well, we’ve been doing as much as we can in the sun room for now. It’s as ready as we’ll be able to get it, for Butterscotch and Nosencrantz’s recovery period.
We were able to tape up the wire on the old heated water bowl, so it can now be safely used again. The wire itself is not damaged; just the outside was cracked, right at the bowl. Thankfully, we’ve got a tape that can handle that tight of an area. If it hadn’t worked, we have a silicon sealant we would have used.
The main concern we have is with Butterscotch. We’ve used the sun room as a maternity ward before, for Butterscotch and Beep Beep to give birth in. Beep Beep handled it well, but Butterscotch tore her way through the old door’s screen to escape, no matter how many times we patched it up. She was more than content to leave Beep Beep to take care of both litters and probably wouldn’t have come back, if she hadn’t needed to nurse. She is not going to be happy in here. I do hope that, at least for the first day or two after surgery, she will be too drugged up to go too wild. It’s certainly going to make it interesting to go through here to get kibble and seed. Most likely, we’ll put a carrier in with her, and close her up until I’m done going in and out.
As we expect Butterscotch to basically tear the place apart while in there, my daughter and I bagged up the sunflowers heads, and they are now stored in the old kitchen. We’ve packed the top shelves against the window with as much gardening supplies as we could jam in, then made beds on the two bottom shelves. Then we tried to make the rest of the shelves and surfaces as impervious to destruction as we could.
I picked up a new litter pan for the sun room, since we’re using it for yard cat recovery so often. It’s set up under the swing bench. The heat bulb is ready to go, with scrap pieces of rigid insulation as walls, because there will be a cold draft from those windows, and more on the floor so they can eat and drink with their little toe beans kept off the cold concrete.
The plan is for Butterscotch and Nosencrantz to be brought in tomorrow, after we do the morning rounds. They have even been staying together when I put the kibble out, so they will be easy to catch at that time. They will have their own food and water until evening, at which point they will be put on a fast until after their surgery.
While organizing the space as best we could, one of the concerns is that, in her displeasure of being trapped in the sun room, Butterscotch might start attacking Nosencrantz. Since Butterscotch is not ever going to be an indoor cat and is not up for adoption, she has to stay in the sun room during recovery.
There is no such requirement for Nosencrantz. She will be adopted out. After they are fixed, vaccinated and de-wormed, and the non-adoptable indoor cats are done, we will start getting the adoptable indoor cats done near the end of February. We will bring them in to the vet in the morning, then the cat lady will pick them up in the evening and take them to the fosters for recovery before going to their forever homes. Then we will start working on getting the outside cats caught and done. They, too, will be taken to the vet in the morning, then the cat lady will pick them up in the evening.
It just doesn’t make sense to send Nosencrantz back outdoors after recovery, if we’re going to have to catch her again for the cat lady to take. Plus, if we bring her inside right after the surgery, there is no chance of Butterscotch going after her. This will also give us a chance to socialise her more, before the cat lady is ready to pick her up.
The next few months are going to be pretty cat crazy!
Speaking of the cat lady, I am incredibly thankful that there are already some fundraiser donations!! You can read about the fundraiser here or, if you wish, go directly to the donation page here. It just blows me away that she has been so willing to take on the expenses for Cabbages vet care, and going above and beyond in treating her. She even sent pictures (which I won’t ask permission to share right now; this fundraiser is a surprise, and I don’t want her to know about this blog, yet. :-D ), and Cabbages was eating out of a bowl and looking so much more alert.
I have not heard any news today, yet, which tells me that the recovery continues. It’s still “no news is good news” right now. Cabbages is being lavished with care and attention, and I have full confidence and trust in the cat lady, to do what’s right by her, however things go.
I am so thankful that we were connected with her when we did. The timing was downright providential!
We had not heard from the cat lady about Cabbages for a little while, which was a “no news is good news” situation. Today I had to run errands with my mother, so I sent a quick text to let her know that, if she needed to call us, to please call the land line.
I didn’t even get a chance to tell the rest of the household to keep a handset near them, when I got a call.
So here we have a very encouraging, do we dare say hopeful? update.
Cabbages is still a very sick kitty, but she is not in the hospital anymore. She is back at home with the cat lady and her family.
Cabbages has been eating, though only while being actively fed. If the food is just left with her, she doesn’t eat. She didn’t like the baby food they tried, but she will eat roasted drumsticks that have been chopped fine for her.
She is being given an antibiotic in pill form, once every three hours.
Yes, you read that right. Every three hours. They have alarms set to go off every three hours. The vet even texted her at 2:30 am to make sure Cabbages got her pill!
Her entire family is in on this one. Even her 5 yr old son is spending hours with Cabbages. *melt* This sort of thing is old hat for their oldest, who is right in there with helping with the treatments and feeding. They’ve done this a few times, it seems!
Cabbages is fighting off the pills, which is understandable to begin with, but these are apparently huge pills that have to be shoved down her throat, and they can’t be broken up (they become too bitter).
I was told Cabbages was “still” doing the head pressing thing against their hands; something which is a warning symptom. This surprised me, because Cabbages had never done that at all, when she was still with us.
She is on valerian as a preventative for seizures. She has never had a seizure, but as she became sicker, it was something she became more at-risk for.
A panel of vets got together to talk about her. She is quite the unicorn, and they are all flummoxed by her condition. The notion that she was born with some sort of congenital defect has now been rejected. Other vets thought that she absolutely had to have come in contact with, or ingested, anti-flea substances, but we have never, ever, had anything like that in our household. We don’t do the collars. Fleas aren’t a problem here.
The other vets also brought up the possibility of Cabbages ingesting some sort of narcotic but, again, that’s just not possible. We don’t have the kinds of drugs they were talking about in the household, and even with the prescription drugs, great care is taken to make sure none get dropped, etc. Standard stuff, really.
The other vets actually recommended euthanizing Cabbages, but the vet that’s caring for her said he would work with the client some more. The cat lady is willing to keep trying, as Cabbages is showing signs of improvement.
Cabbages is moving around more, and her balance is getting better. Her vision is also improving. She has even had a bowel movement in the litter box; the first since they’ve had her. With all the medications she’s on, it was a real mess, but it shows her system is still working.
The conclusion remains that this is toxoplasmosis and a related bacterial infection that has crossed into her brain, however they haven’t ruled out that she might have a brain tumor. Her blood tests show no signs of cancer, but with all the meds she’s on, it’s possible that affected the test results. The only way to know 100% is with an MRI. There is only one MRI in the city available for cats, and it costs $3000 to use it, so that’s not going to happen. Especially when that is far less likely to be the cause of her illness.
So they will continue to treat her with these rare antibiotics (now in pill form, rather than IV) that can cross the blood/brain barrier, valerian, etc., and keep hoping. Even as we were talking on the phone, the cat lady mentioned she had drumsticks in the oven to spoon feed Cabbages.
She also mentioned in passing that all this has now cost them $1200 in vet bills. If Cabbages pulls through, she is still looking at months of treatments before she is in the clear. The organization that the cat lady is connected with covers the vet and food bills for cats that are with fosters, all funded by donations, but the vet services they provide is typically for things like vaccinations, deworming, and discounted spay and neutering. They balked at taking in such a severely sick cat and adding more to their vet bills – but they did offer to help cover some of the cost of euthanasia. :-/ I understand why they would have to draw the line, but sheesh!!
So the cat lady continues to pay for all this out of pocket.
She is not at all asking for money; in fact, she regaled me with stories of how she has a terrible kitchen because the money intended for renovating it went to treating their own two cats that had gotten so sick, she actually sent them in to be euthanized, but with the help of this vet, they found a way to treat them. There is a reason he gets called “Jesus”! The kitchen renovation money got all used up, but the cats are now recovered and thriving, and her family feels it was worth every bit of it.
As I was thinking about it today, I decided to start a fundraiser for her, as a thank you surprise. With that in mind, I have started a fundraising goal on our ko-fi account for Cdn$1500. It is set to accept as little as Cdn$1.
The final vet bill will probably be more than that goal, but it’s above what she has already spent, and there’s no way to know right now how much it will be.
We will be paying her for getting the other cats fixed, of course, but that is through her, to the organization. This would be completely separate from that. She’s paying out of her and her family’s own personal income, and she is the one that will be the recipient of the fundraiser, not the organization.
With that in mind, if you would like to contribute towards Cabbages’ vet bills the cat lady is paying for out of pocket, you can click on the donation link at the top, right of this post, or click here.
Oh, my goodness. The stuff going on with Cabbages leaves me feeling like I’ve got mental and emotional whiplash!
When we got the call this morning, we were fully prepared to be told that Cabbages had either passed during the night, or was euthanized.
Neither happened!
She is not out of the woods yet, by any means, but she is apparently a real fighter!
One of the things they were trying with her was a new and rare antibiotic that can cross the blood/brain barrier. There is only one, it’s administered through IV, and it seems to be helping. Cabbages’ vision is starting to come back, and she is eating from a spoon. She is also wanting to eat which, to me, is the major sign of progress. This vet is not one to make animals suffer for extended periods just to do different things, so he would not have decided to keep trying to help her if he didn’t think she had a chance to make it. At this point, she will be staying at the hospital for two more days, with the staff spoon feeding her.
Also, they have figured out what’s wrong with her.
It’s toxoplasmosis. Which basically all cats have, but rarely get sick from. The way the vet apparently put it, it’s like a unicorn in a sea of zebras. She was likely already weak, and somehow, it made its way from her gut to her bloodstream, her spine and finally her brain, causing the neurological problems they were seeing. It was compared to meningitis in humans.
If our angel cat lady hadn’t taken Cabbages to the vet the very day she got her, where Cabbages got that initial dose of antibiotics, she probably would have died by the weekend. If the cat lady hadn’t taken Cabbages back to the vet so quickly on Monday morning, where they started her on this rare antibiotic, she would have probably died that day. Had Cabbages not been in the city for care, she would not have gotten that rare antibiotic, because the local vet – or any rural vets, really – simply don’t have it.
As it is, it is so rare for cats to get sick from this, the rest of our cats are just fine. It’s actually more of a danger to us. We were advised to completely empty the litter boxes, wash and bleach them, once a week, along with the scoops. And, of course, wash our hands after changing the litter. We regularly clean the litter boxes, but we don’t bleach them. With so many litter boxes, that’s going to have to take some organization, and probably doing it on a rotation. It’s not like we can have all the litter boxed out of commission for washing and bleaching at the same time.
I’m going to have to buy more bleach.
It’s too bad we have to keep the two basements blocked off. The old basement is where taps are, and it would be much easier to clean the litter boxes, there. We made the wire mesh “door” between the basements in such a way that it could be slid to one side to get through, but the cats were so determined to get through, we’ve had to rig things on both sides of door to stop them from pushing through. The old basement is where we are storing the more breakable stuff, but it’s also where the sump pump reservoir is. Yes, there is a cover (of sorts) over it, but we still don’t want to risk a cat getting into there, not to mention the other things they could get into.
We’ll figure it out.
Anyhow.
So that’s the news we got, this morning! Cabbages is still fighting!
She will be staying the night with the vet, as they try another antibiotic on her. The vet is saying he’s treating her as if she were his own cat.
They still don’t know what’s wrong with her. A full blood workup is actually showing her blood is really good. There is something neurological going on, and she can no longer see. Unless something dramatically changes overnight, she will be put down at noon.
With the blood work they’ve done, we at least know that this is nothing that the other cats may have “caught”. The vet thinks she probably started to fail at least a month ago – since before Christmas, for sure. We saw no sign of this in her, that far back.
He also thinks it is most likely a a neurological defect she was probably born with. What we were doing to try and help her – force feeding her and keeping her hydrated – was basically the only thing anyone could do for her. Though they are trying medications, they really aren’t able to do much more than that, either.
Poor little thing.
It now makes me wonder how she would have fared, if we had never managed to snag her and bring her indoors. She likely would have had a couple of litters by now or, more likely, would have been another one of those outdoor cats that just disappeared, and we’d never know what happened.
At least she had those couple of years of a pampered life indoors.
I had been so encouraged after the last communication we had with the woman who took in Cabbages for us.
Last night, things changed for the worse.
She found Cabbages barely able to lift her head, and rushed her to the vet, where she remains now.
They can’t find what’s wrong with her!
The vet even asked if it was possible Cabbages had ingested something – which is something I’ve been wracking my brains about, too. When she told me she had replied by saying she didn’t think we were the sort of household to have that around, I realized the vet meant more illicit substances. Which, no, we don’t. I did mention my husband’s medications, but most of them are in bubble packs. It’s a rare thing for us to drop pills, and when it does happen, we don’t stop searching until we find and dispose of them. She asked about plants and started listing some off. I mentioned the Jade trees, but she didn’t know about them being a problem. The cats have been leaving the Jade trees alone now, anyhow, other than trying to claw through the cage around the one, to get at the dirt.
The vet also said that it could be she was born with some sort of congenital defect, and it’s just showing up as a problem now. Which is more of a possibility that anything else I can think of.
At one point, she mentioned that she’s already spent $800 on Cabbages, though she quickly added that this was not a concern, before continuing. I had not realized she was paying out of pocket. I know this organization covers all costs of cats for fosters, but I guess she’s not a foster!
She is heading from the city to the town our vet is in today, to pick up some frozen cats. Cabbages remains with the vet as they try to figure out what is wrong with her. It’s hard to treat an illness when you don’t know what the illness is! She assured me that this is the best vet in the province. He’s been nicknamed “Jesus” for all the animals he’s been able to bring back to life. Still, there is only so much he can do, and they will not go beyond the reasonable and cause her more suffering.
If she does pull through, there is already someone lined up to adopt her. Someone who works for the city humane society.
As much as I hope she makes it, a got a sense that this is very unlikely.
Damn. She really did seem to be improving for a while, there. :-(
Aside from this, we confirmed a few other things. We still have Butterscotch and Nosencrantz slated to be fixed at the end of the month. On Feb. 7, we have Beep Beep and Fenrir now booked. After that, she wants to focus on the adoptable indoor cats, two at a time. We would drop them off for the surgery, and she would bring them back with her at the end of the day to go to the waiting fosters, where they will recover before being adopted out. I asked about when, and she said she hoped to start on Feb. 21. I told her we will work with her schedule, whatever it happens to be.
*sigh*
What a rough way to start the day.
I am so incredibly grateful that she has been willing to take Cabbages on and able to get her into a vet so quickly. We’d still be feeding her with a syringe right now, of course. And we’d have no idea what was wrong with her, and no resources to get her to the local vet ourselves. The fact that the city vet also has no idea what’s wrong with her actually helps, if that makes sense. They really want to figure it out, because if it turns out to be something contagious, we need to know when it comes to the other cats. None of whom are showing any signs of it. Cabbages did have that brief period where she was throwing up more, before she stopped eating and drinking. Another reason I wonder if she ate something that did this to her.
Since I no longer had to keep my door close, to make sure a sick Cabbages didn’t take off somewhere, I actually got a lot more sleep. I didn’t have cats constantly clawing at the bottom of my door, to get in or out!
This morning, I was awakened by this cuddle pile.
They actually started out on the other side of my head, where there was just a few inches of space, clambered over me and settled in to this aggressive grooming session.
Which I can’t complain about. We had to keep Turmeric in my room with me for about a week, because she kept turning into a snarling beast at the other cats for some reason. Particularly when a tuxedo came by. Beep Beep would also go after other cats, but she would stop as quickly as she started, and just always does that. It took days for Turmeric to calm down, and now she’s back to grooming and snuggling with cats she had been snarling and growling at. !!
I could feel another cat at my legs, so I used my phone to find out which one it was.
Only to discover it was two cats! I wasn’t twisted around enough to see Tissue. :-D Which is funny, because the cat I felt was not the cat I could see!
Tissue really, really loves jamming herself against the back of my legs, or my lower back.
The cats are all very happy my door is open again. They missed having access to my bed. :-D
I just got off the phone with the lady that took Cabbages. The early news is good!
The initial bloodwork has been done, and she does NOT have feline aids or leukemia.
Honestly, we didn’t think she did, but it’s good to confirm.
The vet checked for a few other things, such as symptoms of FIP; Feline Infectious Peritonitis. I’d never heard of it before, but she said it was a coronavirus, which is something I did know is a large and common class of viruses. The vet wanted to know if she had been outside recently (she hasn’t been outdoors since we brought her in as a kitten), or if she had symptoms like diarrhea (no), blood in stools (no) and vomiting (no) – even if we had a dog in the household (no).
She is so very tiny, but the vet did think she was just a small cat, so we talked a bit out how she didn’t have a lot of weight to lose in the first place, so once she got sick and started losing weight, she quickly became skin and bones.
So far, they hydrated her and have her a 14 day slow release antibiotic. They even put some high fructose stuff on her gums, just to put some calories in her. Then she went home with the woman we are working with, where she will stay for the next while. They will be feeding her a high calorie version of food goo, and trying to get her to eat some salmon. Cabbages is not a happy kitty right now, though, not just from getting so many injections, but with having so many people handling her. She has never been that keen on humans. The poor thing must be pretty stressed out right now!
On Tuesday, she will be back at the vet for a follow up, and will continue to stay with this family until she is healthy. There is already a foster set up to take her; an older woman who fosters cats for longer periods, to work on socializing them. I told her that Cabbages doesn’t like to be held or cuddled, though she does get along fine with other cats! I think that, without so many other cats around, she will start taking to people at least a bit more. Then, she will move on to her forever home.
I can’t say I’m happy about her having to go through two other homes before finally being adopted out. She’s not going to be a happy kitty for a while. However, at the same time, I’m happy that she’ll be getting the vet care this organization provides.
Well. It’s done.
As for the other adoptable cats, she is hoping to have them picked up, little by little, and placed with fosters by the end of April. Which means that we will not be getting the indoor adoptable cats fixed, ourselves. The adoptable cats will be going to fosters, and all their care and feeding is provided by this organization. Which means, for the indoor cats, we only have to get Beep Beep done, because the males are already done.
As for the outdoor cats, aside from Butterscotch and Nosencrantz, then the boys we can catch, that will wait until things are warmer, and it’s safe to trap them.
For now, I’m just thankful to have an update on how Cabbages is doing. :-)
As I write this, Cabbages should still be on the road to the city.
Last night, we tried her on some of the cat milk we picked up. She wouldn’t do it while I was close by, but once I stepped away, she did drink from the little bowl. Which was adorable, with her snout completely hidden, but no chance of a photo!
We also fed her food goo, thinned with the cat milk, using the syringe. She definitely liked it better than thinned with plain water.
So did Turmeric. While the girls were feeding Cabbages, Turmeric tried to eat the food goo right out of her mouth!!
Once she had a full belly, she got to enjoy some cuddles and grooming.
I think Beep Beep is going to miss Cabbages!
Here she is, getting some post-breakfast cuddles from “grandma”. :-)
I got texts this morning from the woman that is helping us with the cats. She was going from town to town, so we arranged to be her last stop before returning to the city, to reduce the amount of time Cabbages would be in a vehicle. She had a kennel for Cabbages, and was also picking up six (!!!) other cats along the way.
Then I got a text saying they had an unexpected extra cat, and were using the kennel intended for Cabbages. She was wondering if we had one they could borrow, though she might be able to borrow one from the vet clinic. We have three carriers in total, but won’t need all three until they start taking more cats in, so we’re okay with lending one of them. We’ll still have enough to bring Butterscotch and Nutmeg in to get fixed, at the end of the month, and can get it back then. Plus, it meant not having to transfer Cabbages from one carrier to another, while in a parking lot! I’m good with that.
I had an awesome surprise when I headed out early to meet them with Cabbages, and an even bigger one when I got back, but I’ll share about those in my next post.
I left early with Cabbages, because I expected to have snow issues. I didn’t, but I didn’t mind being early. They got to the place we arranged to meet early, too. We got two big bags of donated dry cat food and a case of wet cat food they couldn’t use (the wet cat food had no labels on the cans!).
She let us know that Cabbages would first be tested for Feline Leukemia – she made an appointment for her at the vet this afternoon, and it’s a quick test, so she will be able to let us know by this evening. If she does test positive for that, all the cats will need to be tested. !!!
She was happy to hear that Cabbages has been doing better and starting to eat and drink on her own. She hasn’t been throwing up anymore, and there has been no blood in her stools, which are other positive signs. Hopefully, the blood tests they will be doing will answer some questions.
So there we are. One cat, already gone. She is hoping, over the next few weeks, to be able to take 3 cats at a time. Including Cabbages, we have a total of 8 cats to be adopted out, so that should work out to 3 trips.
The house is going to feel pretty empty with “just” eight cats left in the house!
The main thing is that Cabbages is now going to get the vet care she needs, and that makes us happy.
