Tuesday, November 30, 2010

My Spoiled Cat

Georgie
Georgie at the Vet's office trying to hide as far away from the exam table as possible


My cat, Georgie, had been sick for over a month when I finally broke down and took her to the vet a couple weeks ago. She was not happy with me since she doesn't like to even go near an open door, let alone actually be required to go outside. She'd been puking up everything she ate and was losing weight really fast. It was almost like she had WLS and didn't tell me!

Georgie is a girl but got her name from the little nursery rhyme about Georgie Porgie. They lyrics are spot on for Georgie's personality. She was weened from her mommy too soon, so she's got a really bad habit of licking you all the time. And she's afraid of company and runs to hide whenever anyone comes over.


Georgie Porgie, Puddin' and Pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry,
When the boys came out to play
Georgie Porgie ran away.


So.... the Vet took some blood work and did a check up on Georgie. $250 and two prescriptions later, we were headed home. Turns out there's such a thing called Feline Irritable Bowel Syndrome and just like with humans, IBS can cause problems with any portion of the digestive tract - from the stomach all the way to the colon. So Georgie was presumed to have IBS centered in her tummy with considerable inflammation which was causing the vomiting. Her liver enzymes were elevated, which was probably a result of the massive weight loss from not eating anything.

She refused any type of cat food. Not sure if the cat food itself was the root cause or if she started to associate being sick with the smell/taste of canned cat food. No matter which brand I tried, she refused it. So I tried canned people tuna. She like that alright and would finally eat! Then one day I was out of tuna and was at Big Lots for something else and figured I'd pick up a can for her dinner. Big Lots didn't regular old tuna. But canned mackerel was on sale for $1 a can! I'd never bought it before, but figured the cat could try it and it was cheap. (I've since realized that if I have to buy this stuff at the grocery store, it's NOT cheap!)

DSC_8927
Canned Mackerel is actually whole fish bodies floating in fish broth. Ewww!!!


OK seriously!? Have you ever seen this stuff before? I guess I was expecting it to be like canned tuna. But when I opened the can and found whole fish bodies I was pretty grossed out! I nearly threw the entire can in the trash. Except Georgie had gotten a whiff of the fish and she was going nuts at my feet. It was the first time in ages she'd actually begged for food.  So I threw the whole can of fishes into the food processor and whizzed it up. Suddenly it sort of resembled tuna.

DSC_8934
Whiz it up in the food process to mash it up for the kitty!



She loved it! And now she's addicted to the stuff. It's like Kitty Crack!

The medications she's taking (an antibiotic and Prednisone) seems to be working. She's no longer puking and she's finally gaining weight. And she's happy. And spoiled. Very very spoiled. Yeah... and this is the cat that I don't even like very much. Go figure.


DSC_8937
"Mom! Stop interrupting me, I'm eating here!"

1 comment:

  1. I'm so sorry to hear of your kitty's IBS diagnosis. I've lost two cats to IBD (not sure if that's very different from IBS) and it was a difficult road to travel. I'm sure you're probably already aware, but cats shouldn't eat tuna - or any food that isn't specifically designed for cats - very often because the lack of taurine will cause severe health problems. Though at least initially, any food is better than none. Cats that don't eat will develop fatty liver very quickly. Did you know that intravenous Valium (only to be administered by a vet, NOT at home or using pills) works great to stimulate appetite in cats? It can also be toxic, so care must be used by the vet. My most recent cat who had IBD was on prednisolone (a little different from prednisone) and leukeran - and sometimes reglan as an anti-emetic and cyproheptadine as an appetite stimulant (with a couple of doses of IV Valium in emergencies). If your vet hasn't already mentioned it, look into getting weekly shots of B12 as cyanocobalamin for your cat (good for energy and worked as somewhat of an appetite stimulant for my cat), and possibly subcutaneous fluids in the event of dehydration. This may be overkill and stuff you already know, but I thought I would share my experiences. Best of luck to you and your furbaby.

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