Rough time

Has been a rough week or so in the household. I came down with a nasty cold and of course shared it with Paul (he says he's going to kill me). We seemed to be getting better and then the next day were worse again. Haven't done too much during this time since neither one of us were too motivated.

I did some research on the Internet and ordered a liquid milk thistle (silybin) product for Chessie. We were giving Chessie 3 pills a day because we had to cut the Marin in half in order to get it into her. That did not make life pleasant for any of us. Boy, this liquid stuff makes life so much easier, I just hope it's as good as the Marin. There is no taste or smell to it so we are able to put it on her dry food and she eats it up. Now she gets her prescription drug, Denamiran, first thing in the morning, the milk thistle at cocktail hour and again at bedtime. In any case, Chessie seems to be back to her normal "War Kitten" status. We just wonder how long it will last.

It's Not Fair

What a tease the last several days have been. First we started out with a day or two of temperatures above freezing, then we had a day in the 40's, and then the 50's and today we actually made it all the way up to 61 degrees. Oh, it was glorious out today. The snow is just in patches and piles now and we can actually see the earth. Of course, there's water, puddles and mud everywhere but it was so nice today. The weather forecast is for more freezing weather but we sure enjoyed the last few days.
Not much going on this week. Just the normal schedule of going to Scranton for shots and groceries. Did some research on the internet for other animal drugs that contain milk thistle and printed off some product information for Dr. Kipps to review. We are having such a hard time getting that Marin pill down Chessie and she's getting resistive to being picked up. I ordered a bottle of milk thistle drops today.

Pushing snow again

Seems like every morning Paul has to push snow off the deck and driveway. Looks like we had another 2 inches last evening. And of course it's been snowing off and on all afternoon but it's not going to amount to anything. Sure has been a snowy winter.

Drove over to the vet's today to buy the next 30 days of Denamarin pills for Chessie. Still trying to figure out how to easily give Chessie the Marin pill. Chessie is definitely more like her old self being the "war kitten" and terrorizing Lizzie.

Stopped at the deli, down the hill, to talk to the owner about ordering a bag of corn meal. Paul had talked to her the other day about where she bought her corn meal in bulk. She's going to order a 50 pound bag for me this week. At $15 for 50 lbs versus nearly $2 for 24 ozs it'll bring the cost of our peanut butter bird food down quite a bit.

Busy Week

My goodness we've been busy this week. Tuesday was vet day for Chessie and Wednesday was oral surgeon day for Paul. It was about the worst day on Wednesday to be out driving (snow, sleet, rain, ice) but we knew it'd take forever to get another appointment with the oral surgeon. This was the visit when the oral surgeon cut open the gum where he had extracted the tooth earlier and drilled into the jaw bone to insert a metal post. Trouble is they drilled just a little too far and drilled through the bone and into his sinus cavity. Now he's on extra strong antibiotics (Augmentin), nose spray, and antihistamines so he doesn't get any type of infection. He also got a prescription for Vicodin for pain but hasn't used it. He seems to be doing okay although the stitches are irritating to him.

We got a call from Dr. Kipps while we were out on Wednesday. She was pleased with Chessie's blood test results. Her liver counts had come up significantly but still were not within the normal range. So we need to keep up the good work. I think we finally arrived at the easiest way to give Chessie the Marin pill. I crush it, take off the bulb end of the eyedropper, pour in the crushed pill, add a little less than 1 ml. of water and shake. Then put the bulb back on and squirt it in her mouth...over and done. I'm assuming from Chessie's reaction to it that it must taste bad, although it's supposed to be tuna flavor. So, of course, we have to give her "treats" after the dose.

Yesterday, Thursday, was my turn at the doctor's. You know you're getting old when you have to get skin tags removed. I thought the doctor would freeze them off but she said, "If you can take it we'll just cut them off." Aaargh! Naturally, I had to show how tough I was. She just took hold the skin with tweezers and cut. Yeeouch! But really most of them weren't too bad just one made me say ouch. I was surprised at how little they bled and only one is sore this morning. The doctor also gave me the results from my blood tests. Everything was good and I think she was happier than I was about how good my cholesterol was...total in the 150's which I guess it good.

We're all on the mend.

Poor Chessie

Took Chessie to see Dr. Kipps today for her followup blood tests. My goodness the poor little girl looks like she was mugged. Dr. Kipps gave her a sedative because she has to draw 4 vials and we had also asked her to clip Chessie's toenails. Her weight and temperature were good but I guess the sedative dropped her blood pressure so the doctor had hard time drawing blood. Three weeks ago they shaved a spot on the side of her neck and today they shaved continued that area to the other side of her neck. What strange look that is. She has some ugly red areas on her neck now from the injection site. And I guess because they had such a hard time getting blood from Chessie's neck that they shaved a spot on the inside of her rear leg to draw blood. That area now has an ugly spot too. Poor Chessie was not a happy camper this afternoon. We waited while the doctor worked on her so we didn't have to leave her. Now we have to wait to see what the results are for her liver. We still need to continue her on the Denamarin and Marin. Tonight will probably be the last of her antibiotics.

Lizzie had a fun day sitting in the sunny front window watching the birds outside. We had put some sunflowers seeds on the outside window sill. Those little chickadees are so brave. They are so fast that they can fly up to the window sill, grab a sunflower seed and fly away before Lizzie can jump at them (lots of little noseprints on the window). We were amazed at one point this morning when both girls were sitting in the window together with no fighting.

The mourning dove we rescued yesterday was dead this morning. I didn't think he'd make it. The hawk was back this noon and he spent about an hour or more sitting in a pine tree in the sun. He must've already eaten because when the doves finally came back to the feeder he didn't go after any of them.

Crystal Morning

It was so pretty outside this morning. It was 1 degree and everything was covered with a very heavy frost. With the morning sun everything was sparkly and crystal looking. Tried to take several photos but the pictures just can't do justice as to how pretty is was. Clicking on the above photo will make it bigger and easier to see.

Chessie is a real pip this morning. She was up bright and early at 5:30 a.m. and ready to go. She has been chasing her mouse from one end of the house to other wearing out both Paul and myself. It's great to see her feeling so well, I just hope it'll last. We are back to crushing her Marin pill, mixing a tiny bit of water with it and a tiny bit of baby food. The eyedropper isn't big enough or strong enough to suck up all the stuff in one dose so I now have a disposable syringe cylinder (without the needle). We still have a hard time getting it down her without a mess but she's getting most of it.

Chessie

Chessie not feeling quite as perky as she was feeling and she is sneezing occasionally. She seems to be a bit at odds today, like she's bored or something. She's wandering around crying but doesn't really want to play that much. She'll run after her mouse but then that's all. We got disgusted today trying to figure out how to give Chessie that second pill without having to cram it down her throat. It says it's tuna flavor and chewable so cats can either eat it or have it crushed on their food. Yeah, right, these researchers don't know crap. We've crushed that Marin pill and put it in so many different things and different ways and none of it works. So today we crammed it down her throat! Don't know how just one of us will ever be able to give her two pills every day if the other one ever goes away.

Chessie

It's so good to see Chessie almost back to normal. I doubt she'll ever be the true "War Kitten" she once was but she's running through the house again and seeming to enjoy life as this new version of War Kitten. It's a sunny day so both she and Lizzy are enjoying watching the birds and laying in the sunny livingroom.

We need to try a different carrier for the crushed Marin. It doesn't dissolve in the milk so we're afraid she's not getting enough of the dosage. Tomorrow when we give her the Denamarin pill I'll crush the Marin and put it in milk to see if it'll be dissolved by the time we need to give it to her.

Chessie

Poor Lizzy, I don't think she's all that happy about Chessie feeling better. This morning I had the pitter-patter-thud of little feet as they were running through the house. Then I heard "hisssssss" which undoubtedly was Lizzy. She liked it better when Chessie didn't feel like playing and Lizzy was the dominant one. This morning we crushed Chessie's Marin pill and I mixed it with an eyedropper full of milk. That seemed to work pretty good. Now let's hope she's not lactose intolerant.

Chessie's Diary

This a picture of Chessie, our 10 month old kitten, sitting on Paul's lap with her pathetic sickly look. I'm starting her diary today because I want to keep a diary of how my little kitten is doing on new medications. She has been such a sick kitty since around December 7, 2008. First we think she had a urinary tract infection and then got pneumonia. After a few weeks on antibiotics and with only the sneezing being gone we had x-rays and blood work done. Yesterday we received the news that Chessie has been exposed to Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) and has liver damage. Not good news for us or her. Of course with her being exposed to FIP means that her sister, Lizzy has been now too. The veterinarian has recommended two drugs that she has used successfully for dogs with liver damage but never a cat. So we will see how Chessie does on it. The vet says we should see some improvement within about 2 weeks. This morning we gave Chessie her first doses. If this works it will be for the rest of her life, however long that may be if the FIP virus becomes full blown. This will be a lifestyle change for everyone involved. She gets two different kinds of pills (which are always such a joy to give to a cat). The first pill must be given on an empty stomach one hour before feeding (preferably in the A.M.). So that means no breakfast for anybody. Wow! Two hungry cats in the morning who aren't getting fed for another hour. That's fun. And then the other pill an hour after being fed. Neither one of them are happy with us in the morning now.

Our vet has described these medications as being homeopathic. The first one is Denamarin. The description is: contains SAMe which markedly increases liver glutathione levels, a potent antioxidant. SAMe also helps protect liver cells from cell death and may help cell repair and regeneration. Denamarin also has Silybin, is the most active part of an extract from milk thistle. The second medication is Marin for cats. The description is: Marin for Cats is a combination of silybin and vitamin E. It is available as a single strength. Silybin is the most biologically active component of an extract known as silymarin. Silymarin/silypin has been shown to have beneficial effects on liver function. Vitamin E, a membrane-associated antioxidant, helps protect the liver against oxidant injury.

A good website to read about liver disease/failure in dogs and cats is:
http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/avhc/Medicine/Liver-disease-and-treatment-in-dogs-and-cats-Proce/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/568333

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a viral disease of cats caused by certain strains of a virus called the feline coronavirus. Most strains of feline coronavirus are avirulent, which means that they do not cause disease. Cats infected with a feline coronavirus generally do not show any symptoms during the initial viral infection, and an immune response occurs with the development of antiviral antibodies. In a small percent of infected cats (5 to 10 percent), either by a mutation of the virus or by an aberration of the immune response, the infection progresses into clinical FIP. The virus is then referred to as feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV). Once a cat develops clinical FIP involving one or many systems of the cat’s body, the disease is progressive and is almost always fatal. Any cat that carries any coronavirus is potentially at risk for developing FIP. However, cats with weak immune systems are most likely to develop the disease, including kittens, cats already infected with feline leukemia virus (FeLV), and geriatric cats. Most cats that develop FIP are under two years of age, but cats of any age may develop the disease. Read more about FIP at: http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/fip.html