Ask your holistic vet about a referral for yourself to someone who does people
holistic medicine. You need a break. Re your mother----that is a mother
thing. Trust me. If they can't find something to worry about they find
something. I don't know who you have for a regular vet but Drs. Koehler and
Bishop at Middletown Animal Clinic are the most open, honest, knowledgeable
guys I know and, best of all, if they don't know they will tell you. Dixie
Louise has them as her regular vets even though it is a 2 1/2 hour drive one
way. I have known Dr. Koehler since (about) 1983, Dr. Bishop and he formed a
partnership not to much longer. They have been wonderful with all my critters
and I can't imagine life without them....or without your holistic vet or Dr.
Betty Boswell. If you are limited to regular vets because of Brumley's
situation, try them.
If you have men who will
exclude any of God's creatures
from the shelter of compassion
and pity, you will have men who
will deal likewise with their
fellow man.
St. Francis
----- Original Message -----
From: Kelley Saveika
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 3:35 PM
Subject: Re: OT: sick 6 mo kitten follow-up
Caroline,
I am not a vet but if it will make you feel any better I'll look at it.
On Jan 10, 2008 12:30 PM, Caroline Kaufmann < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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: [email protected]
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: [email protected]
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
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