Poor Scarlett

in article , Steve Touchstone at
wrote on 1/17/05 3:24AM:

On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 20:18:33 -0600, Cheryl
wrote:

Well, she is still not doing well. I had her to the vet yet *again*
yesterday, and we go back tomorrow. She just will not eat. I've even
resorted to the stinkiest food I can find to tempt her (fancy feast)
but all she can manage is to eat some turkey white meat that I had in
the freezer. Had to syringe feed her Friday night and yesterday until
I discovered the turkey. She has a lump on her side that the vet
aspirated, but it isn't an abscess; there was no pus. Just red cells,
white cells and fat. It is obviously painful to her. Vet gave her a
shot of anti-inflammatory steroid, but is hesitant to go another
round of antibiotics since she's had so many in her short life. She
just wants to sleep on my chest, or on the heated bed, and I rarely
see her eliminating. I feel I'm losing her.

Purrs on the way for her to bounce back and beat whatever is causing
her troubles

Purrs from here too Poor little Scarlett has had a tough time of it.

On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 20:18:33 -0600, Cheryl
wrote:

Well, she is still not doing well. I had her to the vet yet *again*

I'm so sorry to hear Scarlett is not yet well. We certainly hope
you're *not* "losing her" and that she'll respond to treatment ASAP!
Purrs still coming for her to bounce back and stay well.

Jeanne

On 2005-01-17, Cheryl penned:
Well, she is still not doing well. I had her to the vet yet *again*
yesterday, and we go back tomorrow. She just will not eat. I've even
resorted to the stinkiest food I can find to tempt her (fancy feast) but all
she can manage is to eat some turkey white meat that I had in the freezer.
Had to syringe feed her Friday night and yesterday until I discovered the
turkey. She has a lump on her side that the vet aspirated, but it isn't an
abscess; there was no pus. Just red cells, white cells and fat. It is
obviously painful to her. Vet gave her a shot of anti-inflammatory steroid,
but is hesitant to go another round of antibiotics since she's had so many
in her short life. She just wants to sleep on my chest, or on the heated
bed, and I rarely see her eliminating. I feel I'm losing her.

Purrs for Scarlett. Poor little kitty =/

--
monique, roommate of Oscar the (female) grouch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eros was adopted! Eros has a home now! *cheer!*

On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 20:18:33 -0600, Cheryl
yodeled:

Well, she is still not doing well. I had her to the vet yet *again*
yesterday, and we go back tomorrow. She just will not eat. I've even
resorted to the stinkiest food I can find to tempt her (fancy feast)
but all she can manage is to eat some turkey white meat that I had in
the freezer. Had to syringe feed her Friday night and yesterday until
I discovered the turkey. She has a lump on her side that the vet
aspirated, but it isn't an abscess; there was no pus. Just red cells,
white cells and fat. It is obviously painful to her. Vet gave her a
shot of anti-inflammatory steroid, but is hesitant to go another
round of antibiotics since she's had so many in her short life. She
just wants to sleep on my chest, or on the heated bed, and I rarely
see her eliminating. I feel I'm losing her.

Oh no! Increased purrs for the little one.


Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

in article , Cheryl at
wrote on 1/17/05 6:03 PM:

Thank you all for your support and purrs. My little girl is spending
the night at the vets office tonight and I feel just awful about it.
TED doesn't know what it is so she is going to open her up and take
some out for a biopsy, or path report, whatever it is they do to
figure out what it is. It has become larger than it was on
Saturday and she still has a fever.

Howard, thanks for the suggestion on the cyst. I think that was
brought up as a possibility, though TED thinks it is an inflammatory
response to something, but not sure to *what*. I hope the path report
will show something conclusive. The "inflammatory response"
suggestion reminds me of a few weeks ago when she was doing poorly
and had what seemed like a seizure, and her bloodwork (high WBC
counts) looked like an *inflammatory response* to Phil P in health
and behav. I wonder if all of this is related somehow?

Poor Scarlett and poor you. I just hope they can find the CAUSE. Please keep
us posted and my gang and I will send HUGE mega purrs.

Let's not talk about losing her yet.
Don't worry about her not eliminating, she won't as she isn't eating much.
I've done a lot of nursing of very ill elderly dogs. Okay, not cats, but
the principle is the same.
You need to get some food into them, some water and keep them very warm.
Easier said than done to feed them when they feel so bad. If Scarlett can
eat white turkey meat, get some more, also some chicken breast. Hang the
expense. Steaming the chicken breast until it's very soft and them
dismantling it for easy eating often works. A sick animal doesn't want all
the trouble of chomping on meat. They are too tired, and it's too much
trouble. It has to be in easy pieces.
Pilchards in tomato sauce sometimes appeals. Don't ask me why.

My vet has this stuff that comes in a tube like toothpaste. It's for
animals that can't eat, and you squeeze out some and push it up on to the
roof of their mouth. They have to lick it off then. It has all the
vitamins and minerals in that they need to keep them going until they can
eat again. I think it's called Nutrigel, but no doubt your vet will have a
USA equivalent.

I have a really strong feeling that Scarlett will be okay, after a period of
intensive nursing. Keep her body covered so she doesn't lose heat, even
though she's on a heated blanket.

Best of luck with the little girl

Tweed





"Cheryl" wrote in message
...
Well, she is still not doing well. I had her to the vet yet *again*
yesterday, and we go back tomorrow. She just will not eat. I've even
resorted to the stinkiest food I can find to tempt her (fancy feast)
but all she can manage is to eat some turkey white meat that I had in
the freezer. Had to syringe feed her Friday night and yesterday until
I discovered the turkey. She has a lump on her side that the vet
aspirated, but it isn't an abscess; there was no pus. Just red cells,
white cells and fat. It is obviously painful to her. Vet gave her a
shot of anti-inflammatory steroid, but is hesitant to go another
round of antibiotics since she's had so many in her short life. She
just wants to sleep on my chest, or on the heated bed, and I rarely
see her eliminating. I feel I'm losing her.


--
Cheryl

"Christina Websell" wrote in
message ...
Let's not talk about losing her yet.

Trying. She has always been so skinny and any amount of not eating
really shows.

You need to get some food into them, some water and keep them very
warm.
Easier said than done to feed them when they feel so bad. If
Scarlett can eat white turkey meat, get some more, also some chicken
breast. Hang the expense. Steaming the chicken breast until it's
very soft and them dismantling it for easy eating often works. A
sick animal doesn't want all the trouble of chomping on meat. They
are too tired, and it's too much trouble. It has to be in easy
pieces.

Over the weekend I kept giving her turkey every few hours. She ate it
willingly, but not much. I felt that any amount was better than
nothing. I tried to give her a pet multi-vitamin (the chewable kind)
but she would have no parts of it. So I crushed it, mixed it with
water and syringed it into her.

Pilchards in tomato sauce sometimes appeals. Don't ask me why.

I don't know what pilchards are? Fish?

My vet has this stuff that comes in a tube like toothpaste. It's
for animals that can't eat, and you squeeze out some and push it up
on to the roof of their mouth. They have to lick it off then. It
has all the vitamins and minerals in that they need to keep them
going until they can eat again. I think it's called Nutrigel, but
no doubt your vet will have a USA equivalent.

Yup, NutriCal in the US. I mixed some in the blended kitten food I
syringed her. She took all I gave her until it started oozing out of
her mouth at about 35 MLs. After that I gave her 20 MLs a few hours
apart (until the turkey). She wouldn't take the NutriCal on her own
though.

I have a really strong feeling that Scarlett will be okay, after a
period of intensive nursing. Keep her body covered so she doesn't
lose heat, even though she's on a heated blanket.

Thank you for the advice and hope. I've been keeping her warm, either
on me, or on the heated bed. At night I kept her with me, and she
slept under the covers. I didn't sleep much for fear of crushing her
when I rolled over. Tonight she is in a cage at TEDs. I'm agonizing
over that because I wish I could have just dropped her off in the
morning, but I just can't go in to work late right now. She has been
spending so much time sleeping lately that she probably calmed down
and fell asleep once everyone left. This vet office (like most here
that aren't 24 hour emergency facilities) doesn't have 24/7 staff.
That part makes me crazy to think about, but come tomorrow, she will
get whatever care she needs to get to the bottom of this. I'm going to
call the vets office tomorrow and relay my thoughts about whether this
could be related to her problems a few weeks ago. At this point she's
had so many problems that don't seem related but I wonder if they all
are?

"Cheryl" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...
Let's not talk about losing her yet.




I don't know what pilchards are? Fish?

Pilchards are like very big sardines, sild, I don't know what you call them
in America. We can get them here in tins. When I was trying to catch
Boyfriend, the Catwoman advised pilchard in tomato sauce was almost
irresistible to ferals.

My vet has this stuff that comes in a tube like toothpaste. It's for
animals that can't eat, and you squeeze out some and push it up on to the
roof of their mouth. They have to lick it off then. It has all the
vitamins and minerals in that they need to keep them going until they can
eat again. I think it's called Nutrigel, but no doubt your vet will have
a USA equivalent.

Yup, NutriCal in the US. I mixed some in the blended kitten food I
syringed her. She took all I gave her until it started oozing out of her
mouth at about 35 MLs. After that I gave her 20 MLs a few hours apart
(until the turkey). She wouldn't take the NutriCal on her own though.

Open her mouth and smear it on her top palate. She will *have* to lick it
off.

Thank you for the advice and hope.

You're welcome. I mightn't have a lot of experience with cats, but I nursed
some of my dogs until they were 20 years old. I don't think there's much
difference.

I've been keeping her warm, either
on me, or on the heated bed. At night I kept her with me, and she slept
under the covers. I didn't sleep much for fear of crushing her when I
rolled over. Tonight she is in a cage at TEDs. I'm agonizing over that
because I wish I could have just dropped her off in the morning, but I
just can't go in to work late right now. She has been spending so much
time sleeping lately that she probably calmed down and fell asleep once
everyone left. This vet office (like most here that aren't 24 hour
emergency facilities) doesn't have 24/7 staff. That part makes me crazy to
think about, but come tomorrow, she will get whatever care she needs to
get to the bottom of this. I'm going to call the vets office tomorrow and
relay my thoughts about whether this could be related to her problems a
few weeks ago. At this point she's had so many problems that don't seem
related but I wonder if they all are?


Dunno. I think Scarlett is going to get better after a difficult time
healthwise when you might feel she has no chance.
Keep hope. I really do think she'll make it, but before that she'll be
pretty ill.

Tweed

"Cheryl" wrote in message
...
Well, she is still not doing well. I had her to the vet yet *again*
yesterday, and we go back tomorrow. She just will not eat. I've even
resorted to the stinkiest food I can find to tempt her (fancy feast)
but all she can manage is to eat some turkey white meat that I had in
the freezer. Had to syringe feed her Friday night and yesterday until
I discovered the turkey. She has a lump on her side that the vet
aspirated, but it isn't an abscess; there was no pus. Just red cells,
white cells and fat. It is obviously painful to her. Vet gave her a
shot of anti-inflammatory steroid, but is hesitant to go another
round of antibiotics since she's had so many in her short life. She
just wants to sleep on my chest, or on the heated bed, and I rarely
see her eliminating. I feel I'm losing her.


--
Cheryl
Purrs for Scarlett to improve soon
Sam

In article , Cheryl
wrote:

Thank you all for your support and purrs. My little girl is spending
the night at the vets office tonight and I feel just awful about it.
TED doesn't know what it is so she is going to open her up and take
some out for a biopsy, or path report, whatever it is they do to
figure out what it is. It has become larger than it was on
Saturday and she still has a fever.

Howard, thanks for the suggestion on the cyst. I think that was
brought up as a possibility, though TED thinks it is an inflammatory
response to something, but not sure to *what*. I hope the path report
will show something conclusive. The "inflammatory response"
suggestion reminds me of a few weeks ago when she was doing poorly
and had what seemed like a seizure, and her bloodwork (high WBC
counts) looked like an *inflammatory response* to Phil P in health
and behav. I wonder if all of this is related somehow?

Assuming that a complete blood count was done, which includes the white
blood cell count, there's usually a "differential", which gives the
percentage of the different types of white cells. An elevation in the
percentage of eosinophils often suggests inflammation, either allergic,
or sometimes parasites.

The various kinds of white cells are listed in a standard order, which
you can picture as a horizontal line. We speak of "left shifts" and
"right shifts". Left shifts are characteristic of inflammation or
bacterial infection.

I agree that a pathological analysis of the lump is in order. The good
thing is that for several types of cysts, opening them to get the sample
also can decompress them and almost instantly relieve pain. I speak from
personal experience, with a kind of cyst cats probably don't get. In my
case, for technical reasons, there was no good way to use a local
anesthetic, and (hiss-spit) the physician didn't give me some morphine
first. Nevertheless, once he cut into me, without warning, the pain of
the cyst itself almost immediately went away.