Update on Rusty...

[Chris]

Amazingly, Rusty seems to doing better!!!!!    He had urinary tract blockage, kidney stones, crystals, an infection and likely some permanent damage to his kidneys.  Glucose level was bad but vet is hoping it might have been a temp situation due to the urinary tract problems.  He’s going to retest him.  I think he’s going to need some lifelong care/monitoring and may come back to all our you for more info for Alexis.   Just as an aside—the vet is calling Rusty his ‘miracle baby’.  Friday night he was dying.  Alexis spent the entire night with him sleeping on the floor in the surgical suite at the hospital.  Somehow, he made a turnouround that night and his temp starting going back up to normal!  They were able to remove his cath, IV, collar, etc. on Tuesday morning and he ate like there was no tomorrow!  Also urinated and moved his bowels w. no problems.  Guess he didn’t like all those things he was hooked up to!   Alexis is hoping to bring him home today.  She will keep him inside and is posting anywhere she can find to locate his owners in Biloxi.  They likely don’t even realize Rusty made it out of the floods alive!   Chris [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 10:33 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: Thank you: Emergency aid for vet bills...   Poor Rusty. Do they have him back on insulin now, or is that what the money is needed for? If he is laying around and sleeping all the time, and not eating, but drinking a lot, then he has high blood glucose, and needs to be injected with insulin. If he seems "spacey" or begins to have seizures or acts like he is having neurological impairment, then he may be hypoglycemic (meaning he got too much insulin for the amount of food he's eating), and would need to be put on a glucose drip IV. It's especially important for him to eat if he is getting his insulin injections, if he's NOT getting the injections, then his not eating may actually be helping him... the carbs in food turn into blood glucose, and that's bad for diabetics. If he's not getting his injections, then I highly recommend a very low carb cat food, one with NO grains is best, such as Innova Evo, OR even better, raw meat only. Meat has almost no carbs by itself. Normal grocery store cat foods are VERY VERY bad for diabetic cats (corn is horrible with it's high carbs), and I know that with the huge numbers down there, you guys are probably having to buy the cheapest stuff you can find. Try to get the cheapest ground beef or the chicken legs and thighs.. a pound will last a few feedings for one cat, and it isn't very much more expensive than cheap cat food. Phaewryn   PLEASE Adopt a cat from Little Cheetah Cat Rescue!!! http://ucat.us/adopt.html   DONATE: We could really use a power saw (for construction), a digital camera (for pictures) and HOMES for CATS!