Woo Hoo!!! Awesome news! Thanks for the update!
=^..^= Terri, Siggie the Tomato Vampire, Guinevere, Sammi, Travis, and 6
furangels: RuthieGirl, Samantha, Arielle, Gareth, Alec & Salome'
=^..^=
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 11:18
PM
Subject: Re: Update on Sophie
Sophie is a pretty girl. I am amazed
everytime I read about her. There was definitely perseverance and love
on your part to pursue her care and she is quite grateful.
Hugs,
Del
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 1:52
PM
Subject: Update on Sophie
Hi everyone,
I tried to send
this update yesterday but it failed, I guess because I embedded a picture in
it so this time I will send it without the picture. There is a link to
see her pictures on her website, if anyone is interested. Here is the
update I sent out:
Hi everyone,
I wanted to post an update on
Sophie. For those of you who are already familiar with Sophie, I would like
to let you know right off that she is doing just great. She has not needed
an enema in over 4 months. When she seems to be having trouble, it is not
long before she figures out how to take care of it herself. I think she has
regained enervation in her rear quarters. She is a happy, healthy, active,
loving little girl. She pads around the house chirping and singing and
talking and is interested in everything around her, it seems. She seems to
love me so much and I do her, too. She is mixing with the other cats pretty
well, too.
For those of you who are not familiar with Sophie's
story, here is a recap, if you are interested. Sophie was a sweet, peach and
grey tortie kitten when the caring person who was feeding her noticed her
tail looking broken. The vet determined that Sophie needed to have her tail
amputated as it appeared to be "dead". While amputating her tail, the vet
also destroyed Sophie's anus and surrounding tissue, in error.
Sophie did well at first but soon developed scar tissue over her
anal area which prevented her from passing stool well, or at all. The stool
would become impacted against her scar tissue and would make her rear end
bulge out with stool grotesquely. It was awful.
Sophie quickly
became obstructed to the point that I had to take her to the vet to have an
enema under anesthesia. The vet recommended that I put her down because she
would require frequent cleansing enemas under anesthesia and would be
miserable between enemas when the stool would begin to build up all over
again. I knew she would have to have so much anesthesia and worrying about
the effect of all that on her and the cost was more than I could afford as
they charged about $90 for each cleansing enema with anesthesia. I thought
her quality of life would be very poor because the vet hammered home that
idea.
I asked if possibly Michigan State University Small Animal
Clinic could do any kind of reconstructive surgery. The vet replied that he
did not know but doubted it. He did give me a referral, grudgingly, and
there a wonderful surgeon by the name of Bryden Stanley said she could
create an anus for Sophie by using a tendon from her leg. She was also going
to strengthen the rectum and do a spay, per my request.
Dr. Stanley
estimated the surgery to cost $2000. I had only $700 in credit from Care
Credit but the rest was raised from donations from incredibly caring and
generous people from the feline leukemia group and by Timothy Meeker of the
Feline Veterinary Emergency Assistance Program and his group and also
private donors. There were so many wonderful people who rooted for Sophie at
every stage and who sent prayers and positive thoughts, too.
Sophie
did very well following surgery and for two months was doing wonderfully.
She had did have some trouble again after two months with more bulging of
stool protruding from her rear, just like before surgery, but that was
mostly taken care of at home with home enemas. Gradually, these enemas were
needed further and further apart and Dr. Stanley believes that Sophie
regained enervation to her hind end over time, which is allowing her to
manage her own stool passing now.
I am going to try to embed a
recent photo of Sophie into this email but if that doesn't work, I did post
some new pictures on her webpage. Here is the address, if anyone would like
to see them. I hope to get better pictures soon. http://annlmla.tripod.com/id1html
Bye for now,
With much
gratitude and purrs and hugs,
Anne and Sophie
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