Purrs Needed - Banana has Pneumonia

"Arthur Shapiro" wrote in message
...

If anyone cares: http://members.cox.net/mybrainhurts/BananaStory.htm
will show
some pictures of her. I'd be grateful for some warm thoughts for
the girl.

Art

Purrs for poor Banana. Thanks for sharing her story and I love the
manx heart-shaped face. Even without ears she is an exotic beauty.
She is lucky to have you and I'm sure that the feeling is mutual.

"Arthur Shapiro" wrote
snip

A mild (at this point) case of pneumonia was diagnosed with xrays. They
kept
her all day, treating her with some sort of medications air-dispersed via
nebulizer, and sent her home with a different antibotic. Today through
Saturday she'll be given one nebulizer treatment and she's there right
now..
snip

Many purrs for poor Banana that this treatment helps clear up her problem.
She looks like such a sweet girl.

--
Marina, Frank and Nikki

Arthur Shapiro wrote:
My older Manx kitty Banana Simian has been having labored, constantly audible
breathing for a couple weeks, although she doesn't appear to be in pain.

snip


Purrs for the very beautiful Banana to feel better soon. There's
something special about those older cats.
Helen Wheels

Oh, Art, I do hope the pneumonia really is mild as the vet said and that
Banana will be feeling better in no time at all. Lots of purrs and best
wishes for her and calming hugs for you,
--
Polonca & Soncek

"Arthur Shapiro" wrote in message
...
My older Manx kitty Banana Simian has been having labored, constantly
audible
breathing for a couple weeks, although she doesn't appear to be in pain.
snip

In article , (LOL) wrote:

She is a beautiful girl - I would love to hear how she got her name.

Thanks for the good wishes, folks. You can still hear her 20 feet away, and
she had lost a good half pound (10 3/4) when we first took her in. I'm
getting quite concerned as the days stretch on.

Regarding her name, well, she was a victim of that name. In the mid-80's I
had a couple business trips to a client in New Orleans. Let's just say that
we had some problems comprehending the incredibly thick southern accents down
there. I could tell some stories about that you wouldn't believe. But this
company had an astounding number of pages over the PA system - people were
constantly being summoned. I remember that the one that got the most pages
seemed to be "No Avail", which seemed funny for a business; I was told that
was "Nora Bell", which is just within the realm of believeability.

Another time, I was astonished to hear, plain as day, a page for "Ring A Ding
Queer". I immediately thought that would be a great cat's name, but haven't
done it yet. My host swore up and down that it was a page for a French name
"Mary de Kwa" (or however it would be spelled in French) but there's no way
I'd confuse "Mary" with "Ring a Ding".

Then it happened. Over the intercom, perfectly clear, was a page for "Banana
Simian". The people with whom I was dealing didn't notice the page - guess it
wasn't for them - and consequently couldn't translate "Banana Simian" into
English for me. I never heard the name paged again. But this too seemed like
a perfect name for a cat. I kept it in the back of my mind as various cats
entered my life, and this time it just seemed appropriate for reasons I
couldn't really begin to tell you.

Art

Poor Banana. Here's purring that her pneumonia will be cleared up
quickly and she will be back to feeling good in no time flat.

Ginger-lyn

On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 20:42:31 GMT, (Arthur
Shapiro) wrote:

My older Manx kitty Banana Simian has been having labored, constantly audible
breathing for a couple weeks, although she doesn't appear to be in pain.

Last week I ran her into the vet, who determined that the rather eerie noises
were coming primarily from her throat. Major blood tests came back
reasonable, given the age - nothing more remarkable than slightly elevated
kidney readings. He put her on diluted nose drops for three days, and an
antibotic (Amoxy) which has continued to date. She really hadn't been getting
any better, so I took her in yesterday.

A mild (at this point) case of pneumonia was diagnosed with xrays. They kept
her all day, treating her with some sort of medications air-dispersed via
nebulizer, and sent her home with a different antibotic. Today through
Saturday she'll be given one nebulizer treatment and she's there right now..

Needless to say, I'm quite concerned that this unusual (to me) problem isn't
clearing up. She's had a pretty tough life, including losing her ears to skin
cancer and being extremely lame. She's a real sweetie and obviously I'm
hoping this latest round of treatment can bring her around.

If anyone cares: http://members.cox.net/mybrainhurts/BananaStory.htm will show
some pictures of her. I'd be grateful for some warm thoughts for the girl.

Art

Arthur Shapiro wrote:

My older Manx kitty Banana Simian has been having labored, constantly audible
breathing for a couple weeks, although she doesn't appear to be in pain.

Last week I ran her into the vet, who determined that the rather eerie noises
were coming primarily from her throat. Major blood tests came back
reasonable, given the age - nothing more remarkable than slightly elevated
kidney readings. He put her on diluted nose drops for three days, and an
antibotic (Amoxy) which has continued to date. She really hadn't been getting
any better, so I took her in yesterday.

A mild (at this point) case of pneumonia was diagnosed with xrays. They kept
her all day, treating her with some sort of medications air-dispersed via
nebulizer, and sent her home with a different antibotic. Today through
Saturday she'll be given one nebulizer treatment and she's there right now..

Needless to say, I'm quite concerned that this unusual (to me) problem isn't
clearing up. She's had a pretty tough life, including losing her ears to skin
cancer and being extremely lame. She's a real sweetie and obviously I'm
hoping this latest round of treatment can bring her around.

If anyone cares: http://members.cox.net/mybrainhurts/BananaStory.htm will show
some pictures of her. I'd be grateful for some warm thoughts for the girl.

Art

Purrs from Psycho and Mouse here in Dallas,Texas. Banana is beautiful.

Bob

In article , (Arthur Shapiro) wrote:
My older Manx kitty Banana Simian has been having labored, constantly audible
breathing for a couple weeks, although she doesn't appear to be in pain.

It's pretty grim around here.

The pneumonia was cleared up fairly easily, but the labored breathing
remained. It was fairly obvious that the antibotics and daily respiratory
theraputic treatments weren't helping.

Yesterday I spent five hours at a veterinary imaging center for a CAT scan.

Poor Banana has something, almost certainly cancer, thickening and
constricting her windpipe. Something else is growing in the nasal/sinus area,
although it isn't as urgent an issue. Biopsies will be back in a few days.

She hasn't eaten since coming home, and is really not breathing well at all.
I was resigned to putting her down today, but in consultation with the regular
vet we're going to try that old standby, short-acting steroid shots, in hopes
of alleviating things and buying a few days. I'm going to go over just before
closing.

Banana has had a pretty tough life, although the last 6 1/2 years with me have
been happy ones I think. She deserves a better fate than she's apparently
going to receive.

Art

Arthur Shapiro wrote:


It's pretty grim around here.




Purrs and healing thoughts for you and for Banana. Cancer is no fun,
however, it may not be as grim as it currently looks. Please take care
of yourself and Banana. Our hearts go out to you. Let us know how
you're going on, and keep us informed about Banana.

Pam, Rob, and the NC nine

in article 3Ir6b.17810$n94.13417@fed1read04, Arthur Shapiro at
wrote on 9/6/03 3:45 PM:

In article ,
(Arthur Shapiro) wrote:
My older Manx kitty Banana Simian has been having labored, constantly audible
breathing for a couple weeks, although she doesn't appear to be in pain.

It's pretty grim around here.

The pneumonia was cleared up fairly easily, but the labored breathing
remained. It was fairly obvious that the antibotics and daily respiratory
theraputic treatments weren't helping.

Yesterday I spent five hours at a veterinary imaging center for a CAT scan.

Poor Banana has something, almost certainly cancer, thickening and
constricting her windpipe. Something else is growing in the nasal/sinus area,
although it isn't as urgent an issue. Biopsies will be back in a few days.

She hasn't eaten since coming home, and is really not breathing well at all.
I was resigned to putting her down today, but in consultation with the regular
vet we're going to try that old standby, short-acting steroid shots, in hopes
of alleviating things and buying a few days. I'm going to go over just before
closing.

Banana has had a pretty tough life, although the last 6 1/2 years with me have
been happy ones I think. She deserves a better fate than she's apparently
going to receive.

Art

Oh Art, I'm so sorry to hear this. Poor Bananas has at least know 6 and half
years of happiness with you and a lot of cats can't say that. My thoughts
are with you and your family.

Karen