inside cats

Cabbages update – and fundraiser announcement.

/ Re-Farmer / 9 Comments

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.

Thank you!

The Re-Farmer

Cabbages update: there is still hope!

/ Re-Farmer / 25 Comments

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!

What a brave little champ.

The Re-Farmer

Another Cabbages update

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

I just got a call about how Cabbages is doing.

It is still not good.

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.

The Re-Farmer

Cabbages update; it’s not looking good

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

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.

Poor little thing.

The Re-Farmer

What I woke up to this morning

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

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

Silly kitties!

The Re-Farmer

We have news! (Cabbages update)

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

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. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Saying goodbye; a Cabbages update

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Well, it’s done.

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.

The Re-Farmer

She ate kibble!

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

We are so thrilled!

Last night, I actually saw Cabbages eating some kibble! It was just a few pieces, but this is the first time I’ve seen her eating in days.

I’m pretty sure she would have eaten earlier, but when I saw her by the food and water bowls, I topped them up, and every other cat in the room came running. I made sure there was some kibble right in front of her, but any Turmeric kept trying to groom her, and she finally left. :-D

We’re still feeding her food goo with the syringe, of course. Which is why she’s looking so dishevelled in the above photo. :-D I had just finished feeding her, and she was most displeased with me!

She still looks like crap, does not seem to be regaining weight yet (still not enough calories getting into her. :-( ), but she is drinking more often, is more active, and has even been trying to get out of my office/bedroom. If we didn’t have to worry about her hiding in some crevice where we can’t find her or reach her, we wouldn’t be keeping her in.

We’re also still steaming her when we shower, if there’s even the slightest hint of wheezing when she breathes. She seems to like it. The fact that the house is so dry and chilly, and she’s so skinny, she’s probably quite enjoying her saunas.

We like it when we have happy, steamed Cabbages. ;-)

The Re-Farmer

Little Cabbages

/ Re-Farmer / 10 Comments

A bit of an update on how Cabbages is doing this morning.

I don’t know that I can say that she’s getting better, but I can say that she’s not getting worse.

We had some issues with feeding her the food goo last night. Not issues with her, really. Since we’re using a syringe, I’ve been basically making baby food for her, from canned cat food. Since we’re doing such tiny amounts, I’ve been using a mortar and pestle to make it into as smooth a past as I can. Still, the syringe would get blocked while trying to fill it. Then the tip of the plunger would come off, and I’d have to find something thin enough to go through the tip, so I could push it back and get it out.

Well, it turns out the problem was not with the food. It was the syringe. The rubber? laytex? tip of the plunger was simply getting stuck from too much friction. I used a bit of vegetable oil, and it worked beautifully.

This morning, I was even able to feed her a syringe and a half of food goo, without a second person holding her. She’s never liked being held, and once she started to get some strength back, she started fighting the girls off more, leaving them quite scratched up. Today, however, I let her just stay on the warming mat she was enjoying, and feed her. She didn’t like it, but it went so much easier with the lubricated syringe, I was done in no time, even with refilling the syringe.

As much as she doesn’t like the feedings, she’s not throwing up or anything, even after I fed her extra. I’ll still be making the food supper mushy, and watering it down, both to make it easier to get into the syringe, and for extra hydration. We need to pick up more syringes, though. They’re awfully handy things to have around. This one was actually my daughter’s, that she originally used for some of her ink pens. It was really handy to add water to the test tubes when we were doing soil tests. Yes, it gets properly cleaned. But we really ought to have more on hand.

Anyhow. I think I’ll go make some more food goo, to be ready for her next feeding. :-)

The Re-Farmer

A Cabbages update

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

After a brief and sunny respite, it looks like the storm has finally hit us for real. Temperatures have dropped to -21C/-6F, with a wind chill of -35C/-31F – and this time, we don’t look at all sheltered from it, from what I’m seeing on the live feed of the garage cam! It’s supposed to end overnight, and then tomorrow, we’re supposed to reach a high of -24C/-13F with a wind chill of -36C/-33F. It’s supposed to be about the same for one more day, before warming up to -8C/18F!

Which means we’re going to be digging ourselves out for a couple of very cold days.

Meanwhile, we are warm and safe indoors, and I thought it was a good time for a Cabbages update.

Beep Beep keeps coming over to groom her, then Turmeric comes over and tries to force her way in between them! Jealous of the attention her adopted sister is getting, it seems. :-D

Cabbages is slowly getting better. I see her drinking water on her own more often, so we’re not as concerned about using the syringe to get her hydrated. She has little interest in eating, though. It looks like she can’t smell food right now! Her breathing is fine, so she’s not stuffed up. She’s also more active, and fights us off more when we try to feed her. She stomach seems stable enough that we’re using the syringe to feed her a little more often, and we’ll keep increasing the feedings as much as we are able.

I get to do the feeding part while my daughters have been taking turns, holding her. Both of them have bloody scratches to show for it! She may be almost skin and bones right now, but she’s still remarkably strong.

She still spends most of the day sitting like a little bony loaf in different spots in my office/bedroom all day. As I write this, she is back on the warming mat. :-) The main thing, though, is that she is improving!

The Re-Farmer