Caroline -- I wish I could offer some advice or insight, but I can't. Just hopes that you can get a handle on what's going on with Brumley and that he feels better soon. Is there a way you can ask your mother to step back and stop repeating stuff you've already talked about? ;-) Sorry the situation is causing you such stress and anger and frustration. You are Brumley's angel, and have given him comfort and peace in his chaotic little life. Diane R.
________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Caroline Kaufmann Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 12:31 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: RE: OT: sick 6 mo kitten follow-up The saga continues with my sick cat Brumley. I don't know what to do any more. The conventional vet that saw him on Dec. 24 got the results back from the Toxoplasmosis test and is was neg. (I can't remember if I reported this info this site or not). So when the Toxo test came back neg, the vet totally reversed gears from the day before (when he said he didn't think it was FIP b/c Brumley only test pos. for high globulin and high protein, but not a corona virus, antibody, etc.). So he completely went back on that and said, basically, he thinks it's FIP b/c he has nothing else to go on and b/c Brumley is showing 2 of the 3 indicators of it (but still no "wet" indicators like the swollen belly). I think it's the eye that is really throwing him off and I can't for the love of god, get any vet to explain/diagnose/tell me what to with that eye. I have asked if I should be putting anything in it and both the conventional vet and my holistic vet just say "no." So, I had a phone consult about Brumley with my holistic vet and she reviewed the blood work and said she doesn't think it's FIP- that a severely dehydrated cat will have high globulin and high protein in the blood panel. And the fact that is his neg. for corona- she just doesn't think it's FIP. She has of course treated FIP cats/kittens and had some herself and she told me she has NEVER seen the "dry" form of FIP in a kitten (Brum's 7 mths)-- only in older, adult cats does the dry form come out. She said she always sees it in kittens in the clear wet form with the swollen belly and other signs of fluid retention and then they die quickly. And Brum's been lingering on like this for a while now So, I just went about feeding him and making him comfy- moving him into the room with the other other guys (he'd already been exposed to them before I had him); stopped the subcu fluids b/c I didn't think he needs them. I guess it's been two weeks since then and he just kind of hangs out-- eats- he always eats good- no matter what. But about last week he seemed to lose some personality and he laid around a lot and stopped batting around toys. By this past Sun., my mom and I were discussing that he had gone down, down and we were worried. I don't have a thermometer for cats, but I could tell he had a fever and just felt crappy (altho he still eats and drinks water when feeling bad!). I gave him a fluid treatment- I thought his pink looked really white and thought it couldn't hurt. The fluid bump hung around forever tho? I got him in to see the holistic vet on Monday evening and my mom took him. The Dr. kind of laughed off my mom's concerns that Brumley was going to die and that his eye looked horrible. She told my mom she thinks he has something else going on besides the eye-- like some kind of infection somewhere else in the body, but she doesn't know where. So she wanted me to stop his Clavamox and try some other immune boosting things. Again, my mom asked about the eye and should we be putting anything in it to treat it, and the Dr. was just like no. So of course, Brum was better just the next day (Tues.) and I could tell the fever broke. He was batting around a toy the very next morning. Still eating great. But then by Wed. night, he was just sleeping the whole time in a cubby hole, seemed to have a fever again and not playing (still eating tho). So I thought, well maybe his holistic vet is right, he is working on fighting off some infection and when it gets too hard for his body to fight it, he succumbs a little bit and the fever comes back, etc. So, this morning, it's the same. Lots of sleeping and fever still around. Even worse, his eye looks worse. I swear, it looks like the cavity or something is filled with blood b.c the eye appears to be a diff't color than the other and you can see that it looks like blood behind the eye. So now, it looks "bloodier" and as if the blood has settled down to the bottom of the eye more- like it pooled there. And now, there are even more cloudy/greyish white spots on the surface of the eyeball. Ugh. I'm worried. But my mom is worse-- she's a worry-wart prone to histrionics and having these two sick/down cats (Brum and Possum) with her around, literally sucks my will to live. She just wants to keep running Brumley to vets b/c she thinks he needs something put into the eyeball and then she asks me "how long can this go on" (meaning how long do we give Brumley a chance to fight this off- which I now recall is the same GD thing my stupid sister said to me about Monkee after the blood transfusion...sigh). And it's just killing me- the stress. She totally makes it worse, so keeping her at bay is a draining task too. Plus, it's like, this isn't even my cat! He technically belongs to the no-kill group I vol for, yet I am the only one dealing with the stress of his care and illness!!!! It's only the other run-of-the-mill vols that call me and ask about him. But his original foster, and the lady who is I guess "in charge" and the bane of my existence and she's also on the board (sigh)- she doesn't even ask about him anymore! She had a teleph. convo with my holistic vet before I first talked to the vet about Brum where she actually told the vet, "well you know, we're going to lose some of them" and now my vet won't deal with her due to that comment (and rightfully so), b/c it's like, you pulled these kittens out of Metro AC in June and they have struggled ever since and Brumley's in the condition he's in, in part because of lack of care and attention by this group and so now, we're just going to "play the numbers" and let him linger on until death instead of getting the necessary vet care for a cat that we agreed to take on the minute he was pulled from Metro?!? I could scream. I'm so frustrated. I think I can take a picture of Brumley's eye tonight with my webcam and email it, so if anyone is willing to take a look at it, let me know so I can email it directly b/c this site won't take it if I try to send to all. I would really just like to hear someone say "yeah, I've seen that before!" when it comes to his eye- instead of these two vets who act like they have never seen it before and don't address the eye care directly... caroline ________________________________ Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2008 08:39:55 -0800 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: OT: sick 6 mo kitten follow-up To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Caroline, Bless you for taking care of these babies. You are truly going above and beyond and it sounds like you've found your calling. I hope you got conclusive yet good news for the sick kitten on Friday. :) Wendy "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world - indeed it is the only thing that ever has!" ~~~ Margaret Meade ~~~ ----- Original Message ---- From: Caroline Kaufmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 8:39:08 PM Subject: OT: sick 6 mo kitten follow-up Okay, the results are not all in, but I finally talked to the Vet about the blood tests from the sick kitten I took in- which he suspect FIP in. The cat was NEGATIVE for Felv (so that's the second time he's tested neg.- first at approx. 2 mths old, now at 6 mths). He NEGATIVE for FIV (which he had not yet been tested for ever). The vet also says that so far, it looks like it's not FIP and he talked about how there is no conclusive test, etc., so for now, he has to go by the presence of antibodies- which he says are usually higher if the cat has "dry" FIP and then even higher if it's "wet" FIP. He says the antibodies are just not high enough to for it to be FIP- either the dry or wet form. So he remains concerned tho that it's a an infectious (i.e., contagious) disease. What he is waiting on now is the toxoplasmosis test b/c now he is suspecting that. He said the results of that test will be in tomorrow. He also said the blood is showing high globulin levels and high white blood cells- both of which indicate some kind of an infection, but he just doesn't know what kind yet. I do have a phone consultation appointment tomorrow at 5:00 with the holistic vet (Marylyn-- Dr. Maier) who treated Monkee at the end of his life and whom Monkee loved- at a time when he was utterly miserable and fed up with vets! We are consulting on this kitten and then also to discuss general care of fosters and things I can do holistically to help them rehab faster. I may end up taking Yoda to her anyway b/c of the diarrhea that I can't get traditional vets to address. Hopefully, I will have the blood tests results on my sick kitten emailed to me before then, so I can forward them to her for her review and "second" opinion. I feel better because I am finally getting some freaking vets lined up so that I can finally take care of these fosters without always feeling like I'm supposed to do so without ever having veterinary access unless a cat is pretty much dying in my arms. Monkee died in my arms despite all the things we did to save him and there is NO WAY I'm going to allow another cat to die in my arms- especially these fosters who seem to have totally treatable (possibly preventable) things going on with them! Urg. So we continue to forge ahead. Poor kitty feels so much better and I'm worried about continuing to give him fluids. Dr. Maier said in an email that if he is doing that much better and has had 3 treatments of subcu fluids, it's probably not necessary to do them today. But when I talked to the conventional vet that saw the cat on Monday, he said to continue them b/c "extra fluids are extra fluids," "it can't really hurt him" (I beg to differ- it's very traumatic b/c it's just me and him in a contest of wills and strength and it's pretty horrible- he gets that huge needle out everytime and I have to re-stick him-- which is hell for me and him), and "without really seeing the cat, he can't tell me to discontinue fluids." Well, my mom and I have discussed it and I'm doing them tonight. It's too much on him and me. He's feeling too "good" now so that he really fights the fluid giving. I always recall that Dr. Maier- in all her holistic wisdom- said (when I first took Monkee to her), that "you don't want the treatment to be worse than the disease." I think that solves my dilemma for now. Caroline The best games are on Xbox 360. Click here for a special offer on an Xbox 360 Console. Get it now! <http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/wheretobuy/> ________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51438/*http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs> ________________________________ Put your friends on the big screen with Windows Vista(r) + Windows Live(tm). Start now! <http://www.microsoft.com/windows/shop/specialoffers.mspx?ocid=TXT_TAGLM _CPC_MediaCtr_bigscreen_012008> This electronic mail transmission and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. They should be read or retained only by the intended recipient. 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