About that Cat Saga
As promised, the cat saga from last year. Spoiler alert, everything turns out fine. Also, always do your own research when it comes to the lives of those who depend on you, human or furry.
So, I did post back in 2014 about how I lost my cat, Skid, to chronic heart disease, and later that summer, I adopted a lovely 5-year-old cat whom I named Dean after Dean Winchester. The reason for the name was partially because I was on a Supernatural kick at the time (still love the series) and partially because Dean is an eating machine like his namesake. He's always hungry and gobbles his food with only slight chances of breathing.
Around January 2015, Dean started having issues with vomiting. Like most cat owners, I didn't worry about it too much, thinking it was related to hairballs, eating too fast, or something else minor. Well, by April, it became 2-3 times a week, which definitely wasn't normal. I took him to the vet and discovered that my starved cat who was eating 10 ounces of cat food a day (mostly wet food) had LOST weight from 8lbs to 7lbs. We did blood work that showed a LOT wrong, the biggest issues being the white blood cell count (19,000) and signs of B12 deficiency. So, the vet decided to do an ultrasound scan of his GI track, which led to another issue--he was full of shit. And not constipation. He would go almost every single day and it'd be a pile of pudding-consistency shit, like a half cup from a poor 8-7lbs cat. My vet didn't believe me until she saw a pile for herself.
Anyway, this led to the diagnosis that it was either Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) or Lymphoma, aka a GI track issue or cancer. And the only way to be certain was a biopsy. Now, I loved the vet who treated Skid, but she retired and moved to Washington, so this was a new vet whom I didn't trust. So I got a second opinion at CSU Animal Hospital (supposedly #2 in the country). By the time we had that visit in June, Dean was down to 6lbs. They came to the same conclusion as my vet, but given the weight loss, they were fairly certain it was lymphoma, but they couldn't treat it without the the biopsy. So, $2,000 biopsy it was.
Now, aside from all of this, there were several cat food recalls and questions about Blue Buffalo that had unsatisfactory answers/resolution. I saw information about a raw food diet for cats, and with the prognosis that Dean likely only had 3 months left to live, I decided he should go out eating great food. And frankly, the prescription food my vet told me to feed Dean smelled funny, like spoiled funny, and Dean-the-eating-machine didn't want to eat it. So, I started to make him food with raw chicken per a highly referenced site, www.catinfo.org. Dean fucking LOVED it and that's all that mattered to me initially.
A week after surgery, I learned it wasn't cancer!!!! Which pretty much blew everyone's mind.
It took another 2 weeks to discover that it wasn't IBD either....Yeah, that led to me asking "Those were your two ideas. Now what?" from CSU and my vet, and getting a lot of "we don't really know" answers.
Given their non-answers, I decided to test my own theory. My mother and I discovered a few years ago that we have sensitivities to gluten. In my case, if I have too much gluten, I can have severe stomach pains and usually end up throwing up. Sound familiar? I told my vet that I wanted to continue doing the raw food diet, starting with chicken to see if his vomiting and diarrhea could be controlled, and slowly add the recommended supplements in stages. She really disagreed, didn't understand why I couldn't do the same with prescription food (hello, it already has everything in there!), and then said, "Well, he's your cat." Indeed, Dean is my boy and I took that path.
It took only a few weeks to discover that Dean can't tolerate the B-complex vitamin, which is likely in every commercial cat food product out there.
By September, I took Dean in for a follow-up and my vet was very surprised that he had gained weight to 10lbs, that he was acting very lively, and simply looked so much better. She actually admitted she was wrong, and while the discovery of the B-complex vitamin issue confused her, she did a 180 and decided that as long as he got Taurine in his diet (without Taurine, cats can develop heart disease), she didn't care about whatever else he got.
Post-surgery
4-5 months later
By December, Dean was 12lbs (yeah, I overdid it and have since cut back on his food) and he was as playful as a kitten despite his nearly 7-years. We did blood work and EVERYTHING was normal. And when I say everything, I mean there was a lot wrong and now everything is fine. An odd one? He had protein in his urine over the summer and I was warned that his kidneys might be shutting down (another "it's got to be cancer" sign). Despite switching to a fully protein diet, there is no more protein in his urine. My vet could only shake her head and mutter that she may have to consider this as an option for other patients.
And then the vet said something that I know she meant as a compliment, but WOW, it still makes me angry. She said that if it weren't for me, Dean would have been dead. First, many people wouldn't have had the money for the biopsy, and with the weight loss, they would have put him to sleep with the assumption it had been cancer. Even with the biopsy, Dean would have continued to lose weight and eventually suffered from organ failure (remember, the kidneys were already struggling). So, Dean lived not because of my vet, not because of CSU, and not because of the thousands I spent on him, but because I have personal experience with food allergies and because I decided to take the action that made the most sense to me and against the opinion of my vet. Another thorn in my side? I ASKED her and CSU if everything could possibly by food allergy related, and they both said it wasn't likely, not compared to lymphoma or IBD.
It's now June 2016 and Dean is doing just fine. He's a lovebug, he still demands for play like a kitten, and I love him so damn much. I hate that I put him through surgery and recovery, but I'm glad he's a survivor and enjoys my "cooking" for him. :)
And such is my cat saga. Per my mother, she can only hope to be reincarnated as one of my cats in the future. Between this and everything I did for Skid (he lived 4 bonus years after a cardiomyopathy diagnosis), she can't imagine having a better life. *laugh* I can't say if that's true or not, but with all of this behind us, I'm now debating to adopt a kitten so that Dean has a playmate. This guy is killing me with his energy, and what a lovely problem to have. :)
So, I did post back in 2014 about how I lost my cat, Skid, to chronic heart disease, and later that summer, I adopted a lovely 5-year-old cat whom I named Dean after Dean Winchester. The reason for the name was partially because I was on a Supernatural kick at the time (still love the series) and partially because Dean is an eating machine like his namesake. He's always hungry and gobbles his food with only slight chances of breathing.
Around January 2015, Dean started having issues with vomiting. Like most cat owners, I didn't worry about it too much, thinking it was related to hairballs, eating too fast, or something else minor. Well, by April, it became 2-3 times a week, which definitely wasn't normal. I took him to the vet and discovered that my starved cat who was eating 10 ounces of cat food a day (mostly wet food) had LOST weight from 8lbs to 7lbs. We did blood work that showed a LOT wrong, the biggest issues being the white blood cell count (19,000) and signs of B12 deficiency. So, the vet decided to do an ultrasound scan of his GI track, which led to another issue--he was full of shit. And not constipation. He would go almost every single day and it'd be a pile of pudding-consistency shit, like a half cup from a poor 8-7lbs cat. My vet didn't believe me until she saw a pile for herself.
Anyway, this led to the diagnosis that it was either Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) or Lymphoma, aka a GI track issue or cancer. And the only way to be certain was a biopsy. Now, I loved the vet who treated Skid, but she retired and moved to Washington, so this was a new vet whom I didn't trust. So I got a second opinion at CSU Animal Hospital (supposedly #2 in the country). By the time we had that visit in June, Dean was down to 6lbs. They came to the same conclusion as my vet, but given the weight loss, they were fairly certain it was lymphoma, but they couldn't treat it without the the biopsy. So, $2,000 biopsy it was.
Now, aside from all of this, there were several cat food recalls and questions about Blue Buffalo that had unsatisfactory answers/resolution. I saw information about a raw food diet for cats, and with the prognosis that Dean likely only had 3 months left to live, I decided he should go out eating great food. And frankly, the prescription food my vet told me to feed Dean smelled funny, like spoiled funny, and Dean-the-eating-machine didn't want to eat it. So, I started to make him food with raw chicken per a highly referenced site, www.catinfo.org. Dean fucking LOVED it and that's all that mattered to me initially.
A week after surgery, I learned it wasn't cancer!!!! Which pretty much blew everyone's mind.
It took another 2 weeks to discover that it wasn't IBD either....Yeah, that led to me asking "Those were your two ideas. Now what?" from CSU and my vet, and getting a lot of "we don't really know" answers.
Given their non-answers, I decided to test my own theory. My mother and I discovered a few years ago that we have sensitivities to gluten. In my case, if I have too much gluten, I can have severe stomach pains and usually end up throwing up. Sound familiar? I told my vet that I wanted to continue doing the raw food diet, starting with chicken to see if his vomiting and diarrhea could be controlled, and slowly add the recommended supplements in stages. She really disagreed, didn't understand why I couldn't do the same with prescription food (hello, it already has everything in there!), and then said, "Well, he's your cat." Indeed, Dean is my boy and I took that path.
It took only a few weeks to discover that Dean can't tolerate the B-complex vitamin, which is likely in every commercial cat food product out there.
By September, I took Dean in for a follow-up and my vet was very surprised that he had gained weight to 10lbs, that he was acting very lively, and simply looked so much better. She actually admitted she was wrong, and while the discovery of the B-complex vitamin issue confused her, she did a 180 and decided that as long as he got Taurine in his diet (without Taurine, cats can develop heart disease), she didn't care about whatever else he got.
Post-surgery
4-5 months later
By December, Dean was 12lbs (yeah, I overdid it and have since cut back on his food) and he was as playful as a kitten despite his nearly 7-years. We did blood work and EVERYTHING was normal. And when I say everything, I mean there was a lot wrong and now everything is fine. An odd one? He had protein in his urine over the summer and I was warned that his kidneys might be shutting down (another "it's got to be cancer" sign). Despite switching to a fully protein diet, there is no more protein in his urine. My vet could only shake her head and mutter that she may have to consider this as an option for other patients.
And then the vet said something that I know she meant as a compliment, but WOW, it still makes me angry. She said that if it weren't for me, Dean would have been dead. First, many people wouldn't have had the money for the biopsy, and with the weight loss, they would have put him to sleep with the assumption it had been cancer. Even with the biopsy, Dean would have continued to lose weight and eventually suffered from organ failure (remember, the kidneys were already struggling). So, Dean lived not because of my vet, not because of CSU, and not because of the thousands I spent on him, but because I have personal experience with food allergies and because I decided to take the action that made the most sense to me and against the opinion of my vet. Another thorn in my side? I ASKED her and CSU if everything could possibly by food allergy related, and they both said it wasn't likely, not compared to lymphoma or IBD.
It's now June 2016 and Dean is doing just fine. He's a lovebug, he still demands for play like a kitten, and I love him so damn much. I hate that I put him through surgery and recovery, but I'm glad he's a survivor and enjoys my "cooking" for him. :)
And such is my cat saga. Per my mother, she can only hope to be reincarnated as one of my cats in the future. Between this and everything I did for Skid (he lived 4 bonus years after a cardiomyopathy diagnosis), she can't imagine having a better life. *laugh* I can't say if that's true or not, but with all of this behind us, I'm now debating to adopt a kitten so that Dean has a playmate. This guy is killing me with his energy, and what a lovely problem to have. :)