Boo Gets Better

This is Boo.

He came to us a week ago looking pretty sad. He had been found by some very caring kids who knew that he was very sick but didn't really know how to care for him. So they brought him to us. 

He was about one month old. He had so much snot in his nose that he almost couldn't breathe. He also had so much gunk in his eyes that they couldn't open. 

He had what most sick kittens do; an upper respiratory infection. When a kitten gets stuffed up they can't smell their food, and when they can't smell they do not eat.

He also had a very low body temperature. 

But the biggest challenge he was facing was fleas. He had so many fleas that he was anemic. The fleas can, and will literally suck the life out of a pet.  

The best way to treat a young puppy or kitten with fleas is to remove them with a flea comb. Comb the pet and with each pass of the comb rinse it in warm soapy water. When all of the fleas have been removed dry the pet gently with a towel or a blow dryer on low or cool heat. A wet pet will get cold, and an anemic undernourished pet is always tempting hypothermia. Keep them warm and dry and free of parasites.

Kitten care is about a few very basic things;

1. Keep them warm.
2. Keep fleas off.
3. Keep them eating.
4. If you see snot and goop, you have infection, so go to the vet IMMEDIATELY!

Here is Boo about three days later!

And five days later.

Boo is happy, playful, eating like gangbusters, and breathing easy.

He is so comfortable that he actively seeks attention. A very sick pet will just lay there. They do not interact, they do not play, and when they stop eating its time to get medical attention!

This is Boo and Beast. 

Beast came to us from the local Humane Society because there were too many cats an litters for them to be able to care for. They are both recovering from their upper respiratory infections but the companionship does miracles in itself. Kittens need someone to play with and snuggle with. They keep each other warm and are less likely to have behavioral issues down the road. I swear by the two pet principle. Two is better, easy, and more fun, than one.


This is Boo at two weeks. There is no sign of infection anymore.

Cats and kittens are miracles. They have an incredible ability to heal.

Never, ever, underestimate them. But give them a chance by seeking veterinary attention should you see signs of infection.

A special Thank-You to Dr. Hubbard of Jarrettsville Vet for being such a good foster mom to the kittens. It takes a special person to be willing to get up multiple times a night to feed and care for kittens. Those miracles had some helpers and those happy healthy kittens are lucky to have found such devoted feline fanciers!

If you have any questions on pet care you can find me at Pawbly.com. Questions are free to ask, and anyone and everyone is invited to ask or answer. It's all about helping pets.

Or you can find me on Twitter @FreePetAdvice.

Please consider adopting a cat or kitten at your local shelter, and please remember to spay and neuter.

Thanks!

Kiki and his Terrible Tussive Tickle

He arrived as they all do.

In a small carrier hidden from view in a dark enclosed plastic box.

Designed to be light weight, these carriers are like a little treasure chest to a veterinarian. You really never know what you are going to find inside. Sometimes the smell gives you a big hint, but I’ll get to that later.

Every vet has learned to take a tiny peek inside these boxes before opening the door, or even contemplate daring to stick your hand in. We have all learned the hard way that there are sometimes ferocious little lions hidden beneath a seemingly gentle puff of orange fluff.

Today's fortune cookie was Kiki.

Kiki is a part of the over 700 cats living in the Animal Rescue Farm just along the Pa-Md border, in a little town called New Freedom. They are the most devoted bunch of amazing, inspiring, compassionate people I have ever met.

To begin, Kiki is a boy, (I know it’s confusing. I can’t really explain why, but that’s a lot of cats they have to manage so some of those cats get some pretty funky, or down right mis-appropriated, names). We have learned to just accept them and go with it.

As I approached his carrier and peeked inside I noticed that he wasn't moving. Kiki just sat in his little plastic cat carrier box hidden quietly in the back. As I opened the door he didn't lift his head, he didn't move, he didn't care about me, or where he was, nor did his internal survival drive tell him to even care about pretty much anything anymore. I could see and hear his rattle and crackle of the all to common ailment of rescue cats “chronic upper respiratory disease”.

How many of these rescues cats do I see? A LOT! You put too many of anything together, and you know what you get? A lot of disease. Send your kids back to school with a whole cackle of other little kids, none of them washing their hands, and be prepared to grab the tissues, because you’ll need them soon.

Kiki had yellow-green snot just caking his nose. Some of it had dried leaving a crust, but more was right behind that cascading down the chute like a slow flow of yellow-green lava. He could barely breathe, and when you can barely breathe you barely move. I lifted his lifeless thin black body out of the carrier. He didn't fight, or protest, or struggle even a little.

I gingerly placed him on the scale. He weighed in at a paltry 5 pounds. That’s was least 2 pounds less then he should have based on his age. When you only weigh 5 pounds those 2 pounds really count.

We quickly made up a very basic treatment plan for him. The good ole basic stand-by treatment plan of fluids, food, and antibiotics. I instructed them to feed him any damned thing he wanted and to try to make it as smelly as possible. Because when you have a whole nasal cavity full of snot it takes a smelly-smelly morsel to convince you to open your mouth and eat.

 We also started him on the antibiotic I call “the big guns”. “The big guns” are those antibiotics that we reserve for the severe cases, the cases that have previously been treated to little or no avail, and they are also expensive. (Funny how life always works that way?) I was going to hit him hard with these drugs and keep him on them for at least a month. My hope was that the previous treatments  were either not the strong enough, or they weren't used long enough. I was covering my bases and stacking the deck.

We put Kiki in a hospital cage with my treatment plan in place and I moved onto the next little plastic chest of mysterious disease.

I told myself coyly that I didn't really need 12 years of college to treat this guy, and I moved onto the next carrier in the processional line.

 Over the next few weeks we cleaned more slung snot from the walls, the doors, and the ceiling than anyone could imagine a 5 pound creature could produce. Kiki sneezed, spit, and re-painted our walls. If any of you are ever thinking of working at a vets office, and need to start at the bottom, (aka kennel), be prepared to not only pick up poop, scoop litter, but also to scrape snot off of walls. After 4 weeks of “the big guns” he still looked puny and miserable.

I called the rescue director and confessed that my hopes had fallen far short for poor Kiki. I asked if I could put him under general anesthesia, look in his mouth, flush his nose, take head x-rays, and pretty much make any stab in the dark that was listed in my text book under ”chronic upper respiratory disease." I heard the pause in her voice, (that little jab of falling short of expectations, I get used to it), and a reluctant “OK”.

 The next day, I said "good morning" to Kiki with a little quiet prayer, crossed my fingers and put him under general anesthesia. We took some x-rays of his head. The x-rays showed the damage to the very fine bony turbinates, years of snot eating your nasal passages, but no tumor. Score 1 for Kiki.

We next flushed his nasal passages, until the snot ran from a thick ropy yellow string to a clear saline. Score 2. He can breathe clearly when he wakes up, at least for a little while, I thought.

We next took a peak behind his soft palate. This is the area where the hard bony roof of your mouth transitions to the soft part then heads down into your larynx.

And there it was an enormous irregular cluster of grape like tissue the size of your thumb!!! I was never so happy to see such a hideous structure. The veterinary treatment for a big wad of tissue growing in the back of your throat? grab, yank, and pull. (And, hope it doesn't grow back). Kiki and that hideously huge throat mass was the center stage curiosity of every staff member in the building. We were all so happy to finally have a clear culprit to assassinate for him and yanking that bugger out was one of the most rewarding moments of my opprobrious career.

 Kiki woke up without any complications and since then he has put on 4 pounds and become the most extroverted, playful, and rambunctious kitty you have ever seen. He decides when it is time to start playing, when you are done playing, and he will slap you if you walk away without his permission. He has become one of our resident cats. And he reminds me everyday why I do what I do.

If you would like more information on this topic; Nasopharyngeal polyps.

Kiki lived with us at Jarrettsville Vet for almost a year. He was then adopted by one of our veterinarians and moved in with his own family. A few months later he developed an inner ear infection that was treated by yet another surgery. He has been happy and well since. He will always be a unique kitty even with with his signature perma-wink and ear bow.

Best wishes Kiki!

If you have any questions about Kiki, polyps, respiratory infection, or anything else pet related please visit me, and the rest of the Pawbly people and ask us! We are here to help you and your pet!.

You can also find me on Twitter! 

D.C.

This is the most personal story that I could write and share. It took me three weeks to be able to send it out into the world. Whenever an owner tells me how much they are grieving over their pet I think if how much I miss my cat D.C. I still can’t think of her or talk about her without crying. There isn’t a day in my life where I don’t think about her, grieve for her, and miss her like crazy. I understand how loss can profoundly affect your life.

To my kitty D.C; I say I love you, and I am so grateful for always helping me through the really rough spots of my life.

Here is D.C.’s story

I was looking for a kitty when I finally got my first apartment. I know most people get dishes and a sofa. I wanted a cat. Actually I wanted two but I told my roommates that I was only going to get one.  So I headed to where any responsible new pet owner would go for a cat, the pound. I, at that point, still considered myself a very knowledgeable, wordly, solidly standing in the “nothing shocks me anymore” veterinary arena. Suffice to say, I was so wrong. And I wasn’t just a little wrong. I was you aren’t even in the same galaxy wrong. I walked into the Baltimore City Animal Shelter with a plan and an air of confidence. As I crossed the threshold into the facility I was met by a foul smelling, disorderly, waiting room. There were a lot of people, I thought this was a good thing, I thought there were a lot of people there to adopt. Unfortunately I learned they were there for drop off and not pick up. Oh I was wrong on so many levels. I waited quietly and patiently to go in through the adoption rooms to find my kitty.

After some time I was escorted to the cat rooms. There were 2 at that time. They were the size of a closet. Lined on one side with cages, with just enough room to walk single file down the row piled three high of cages. There were maybe 30 cats in those 2 rooms. “Great,  I thought, there aren’t a lot of cats here they must have a high turnover.” Wrong again, they have a 5 day hold for these cats then they were euthanized. So all of those cats had been there less than 5 days, if they weren’t adopted or claimed by their owner, (which I swear never ever happened) they were euthanized on day 6.  I found out later that they routinely euthanized 70 plus animals a day. I spent a long time looking in those cages. This was a big decision and I wanted to make the right one. I had my boyfriend there with me. He picked out the small long haired cute grey kitten. She was almost irresistible. She was the obvious choice. I kept looking. In one cage in the second room in the middle of the racks of cages, there was a small, skinny  calico cat screaming. She had green snot pouring out of her nose and her eyes were all crusted shut. She was the cat no one would pick. I wanted her. I wanted her because she would meow and meow and meow. She wanted attention and she wanted a home. And I like anything that is assertive and demanding (no Freudian jokes! please?).  I asked the attendant if I could adopt her. she said she was too sick to be adopted, but I could put her on “hold”. If she was better she could be adopted. I was told that she had an upper respiratory disease that had turned into a lower respiratory disease and pneumonia. I filled out all of the forms and we left with one small grey kitten.

I called the shelter the next day. She wasn’t any better. I called everyday for the next 5 days. She was worse and not better. Finally on the 7^th day I went back to the shelter. I asked to see the manager. I explained that she wasn’t going to get better if she stayed there and I wanted to try to help get her better. I told her I would pay her adoption fee and take responsibility for her medical care. The shelter manager looked at me and I knew she was weighing whether or not she should break the rules for me and a sick cat. I took her skinny sick bony body home.

I spent the next months trying a lot of different antibiotics and running a lot of tests. She did eventually get healthier. She was always a petite cat, but she gained muscle and her coat got shiny and full. (I always tell my clients that cats get a poor coat within 1 day of being sick, so monitor coat quality closely). Her ocular (eye) and nasal (nose) green discharge also subsided with time.  But the one thing that never changed was her demanding meows. She would call for me every time I came home. It didn’t matter where she was. If she heard my voice she would scream for me. I always said hello to her cries, and she always came running for me. If I ever was upset, especially if I was crying, should would stand in front of me and meow until I stopped. More truthfully, until I focused my attention on her, but either way it always worked. Whenever there was an argument in the house she would stand between us and scream until we stopped. She really was my guardian and my most faithful companion.

I was so profoundly moved and concerned about the conditions at the Baltimore City Animal Shelter that I became their first official volunteer. I went to the shelter four times a week for 3 to 4 hours at a time to just walk the dogs and pet the cats. I was concerned because it didn’t appear that the animals were getting any attention from the over taxed overworked staff. After about 8 months I realized that I was really struggling with what I was seeing everyday. It was routine for them to euthanize 70 animals a day. I cried everyday I got home. I couldn’t carry this sadness and I couldn’t stop the death. I couldn’t help but get attached to these cats and dogs. I couldn’t bear not to see them the next day I came in. it burned a scar inside of me so deep that I changed careers at age 30. I spent 12 years in college so I could become a veterinarian. I bought my own clinic so no one else would ever have to tell me which pet gets a second chance and which one doesn’t.

D.C. died at the age of 19 in my arms, in my bed. She had struggled with chronic renal failure (kidney disease) for many years, and in the end she was too weak to stand. But she lay with me for two days and meowed every time I looked at her. It was so hard to say goodbye to her. Her fragile little body had lasted far longer than I ever would have guessed when I adopted her so long ago.

I went back to the Baltimore City Shelter a few years ago. I went into the room where I had found her.  I told all of the kitties there that I hoped that they found a loving home and that someone loved them as much as I loved my cat D.C.

For more information on chronic kidney disease in the cat please see the link below;

http://tinyurl.com/3bwedjy

If you would like more information on upper respiratory disease please see the link below;

http://tinyurl.com/3zelewn

If you would like more information on pneumonia please see the link below;

http://tinyurl.com/44jbebu

A New Lease on Life, Kiki's Story. Nasopharyngeal Polyps in Felines.

He arrived as they all do; in a small cat carrier. He was hidden from view in a dark enclosed plastic box. Designed to be light weight, these carriers are like a little treasure chest to a veterinarian. You really never know what you are going to find inside. Sometimes the smell gives you a big hint, but I’ll get to that later.

Every vet has learned to peek inside the box before you open the door or even dare to stick your hand in. There are sometimes ferocious little lions hidden beneath a puff of orange fluff.

This is Kiki's story. Kiki is a part of the over 700 cats living in the Animal Rescue Farm just along the Pa-Md border, in a little town called New Freedom, Pa. They are the most devoted bunch of amazing, inspiring, compassionate people I have ever met.

To begin, Kiki is a boy. I know it’s confusing. I can’t really explain why, but that’s a lot of cats they have to manage so some of those cats get some pretty funky, or down right mis-appropriated, names. We have learned to just accept them and go with it. But he is whom he is, Kiki. He sat in his little plastic cat carrier box, hidden quietly in the back. I opened the door. He didn’t lift his head, he didn’t move, he didn’t care about me, or where he was, nor did his internal survival drive tell him to even care about pretty much anything anymore. I could see and hear his rattle and crackle of the all to common ailment of rescue cats “chronic upper respiratory disesase”. How many of these rescues cats do I see? A LOT! You put too many of anything together, and you know what you get? A lot of flu. Send your kids back to school and then grab the tissues, because you’ll need them soon. He had yellow-green snot just caking his nose. Some of it had dried leaving a crust but more was coming down the chute, like a slow flow of yellow-green lava. He could barely breathe, and when you can barely breathe you barely move. I lifted his lifeless thin black body out of the carrier. He didn’t fight, or protest, or struggle even a little. I weighed him. 5 pounds, (that’s at least 2 pounds less then he should have weighed). When you only weigh 5 pounds, those 2 pounds really count. That’s 40% of your weight, OMG almost half! We quickly made up a treatment a very basic treatment plan for him. The good ole basic stand-by treatment plan, fluids, food, and antibiotics. Feed him any damned thing he wanted, try to make it as smelly as possible. When you have a whole nasal cavity full of snot it takes a smelly-smelly morsel to convince you to open your mouth and eat.

We also started him on the antibiotic I call “the big guns”. “The big guns” are the expensive guns. Funny how life always works that way? I was going to hit him hard and keep him on them for at least a month. I was going to make sure that the previous attempts that the rescue had made were either not the strong enough meds, or they weren’t used long enough. I was covering my bases and stacking the deck. We put him in a cage with my treatment plan in place and I moved onto the next little plastic chest of mysterious disease. I didn’t really need 12 years of college for this guy, I thought to myself and I moved onto the next carrier in line.

Over the next few weeks we cleaned more slung snot from the walls, the doors, and the ceiling than anyone could imagine a 5 pound creature could produce. He sneezed, spit, and re-painted our walls. In case any of you are ever thinking of working at a vets office, and need to start at the bottom, (aka kennel), be prepared to not only pick up poop, scoop litter, but oh, yes, scrape snot off of walls is also in the job description. After 4 weeks of “the big guns” he still looked puny and miserable. So I called the rescue director and confessed that my hopes had fallen far short for poor Kiki. I asked if I could put him under general anesthesia, look in the mouth, flush the nose, take head x-rays, pretty much make any stab in the dark that was listed in the text book under ”chronic upper respiratory disease” from my old vet school days. I heard the pause in her voice, (that little jab of falling short of expectations, I get used to it, sigh), and a reluctant “ok”.

The next day, I said hello to Kiki, said a little quiet prayer, crossed my fingers and put him under general anesthesia. His head x-rays showed the damage to the very fine bony turbinates, years of snot eating your nasal passages, but no tumor, score 1 for Kiki. We flushed his nasal passages, until the snot ran a clear saline, and I thought “aahh, now maybe you will be able to breathe, well, at least for a little while”. And then we looked behind his soft palate. This is the area where the hard bony roof of your mouth transitions to the soft part then heads down into your larynx. And there it was an enormous irregular cluster of grape like tissue the size of your thumb. I was never so happy to see such a hideous structure. The veterinary treatment for a big wad of tissue growing in the back of your throat? grab, yank, and pull. And, oh yeah, hope it doesn’t grow back. It was the center stage curiosity of every staff member in the building. We were all happy to see the culprit.

Kiki woke up without any complications and since then he has put on 4 pounds and become the most extraverted, playful, and rambunctious kitty you have ever seen. He decides when you are done playing, when it is time to start playing, and he will slap you if you walk away without his permission. He has become one of our resident cats. And he reminds me everyday why I do what I do.

Here are a few video's of our JVC cats having their polyps removed; 

Here is more information on Nasopharyngeal Polyps. 

Kiki is one of the many reminders of why we work so hard on even the most difficult and chronic cases. Kiki was adopted by one of the vets of the clinic and has a family who sees him as the perfect soul he always was.

If you have a pet with this condition and would like to learn more about it (or any other pet related condition) please ask the amazing people at Pawbly.com. It is free for everyone to use. 

If you would like to learn more about us at Jarrettsville Vet Center please find us here at our website, or like our Facebook page.

I am also on YouTube and Twitter @FreePetAdvice.

If you would like more information on this topic; Nasopharyngeal polyps, then please follow the link below:

www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/respiratory/c_dg_nasal_polyps