Abelard Update

"Christina Websell" wrote

| It was at that stage you are at now, when KFC refused to let me syringe
feed
| her or give her her oral antibiotics a few weeks ago that I had her
admitted
| to hospital.
| She would not eat because her nose was blocked with mucus and she could
not
| smell her food. You have the double whammy of the ear thing going on
which
| can cause nausea. Kitty had the double whammy of her CRF. She is frail
| anyway and was losing weight at an alarming rate.
| The vet told me afterwards that if I had not done so she would have died.
| Today she was sunbatheing in the flower bed.
| I'm afraid if you cannot get Abelard eating very soon, or get him as an
| inpatient at the vet so he can get his nutrition via a drip for a few days
| you will have to seriously consider his future. Which you know, of
course.
| Either he has to get some nutrition into him (which I could not do for KFC
| and you now can't do for Abelard) or you'll have to have him put to sleep.
| You cannot let him starve.
| I know it sounds harsh. I'd like to say your remedies will cure him, but
I
| doubt they will at this stage. My heart goes out to you in this
situation.

Thanks, Christina. The good news is, I did in fact get him to eat just a
short while after making the OP. Probably posted the updated update whilst
you were typing your reply. Aby's cold isn't that bad and seems to be
improving, it was worse yesterday. He never did get to the "green mucus"
stage, he only had a bit of watery discharge.

It just kills me to see him suffer, but I'm far from ready to give up on him
and I know now that he does want to live, but he longs for a bit of the free
life he had for almost 5 years before we had to move to town. I'm determined
he will have that.

Dan, I love you dearly, but please don't ask anyone here to ignore the
torture Pat is making Abelard endure. Hopitus is rightfully angry at
Pat's dramatic posts describing Abelard's decline - it is excruciating
to witness this even second hand. Yes we can killfile Pat, but does
that help Abelard - do we just ignore his suffering? I know Pat is your
friend, and as her friend maybe you should advise her on ending
Abelard's suffering rather than defending her actions and chastising
someone for caring about Abelard.

The thing is, I am NOT convinced that Abelard is dieing! Everybody is
hopping on the bandwagon to criticize her, when he was eating a little bit
yesterday or late the day before, and now her recent post tells us that he
ate a little more today.

I have no doubt that if Abelard stopped eating entirely Pat would take him
to see the vet. Sure, he's stopped eating for a day at a time. That
happens sometimes. Yes, he's losing weight that he would be better not
losing. Does that mean he's at risk of hepatic lipidosis? I don't know -
I'm not there to look at him. But Pat's vet has, and Pat is either taking
Abelard to the vet or talking to the vet describing his progress.

I am not convinced that Abelard is beyond help, nor is he at the point
that Pat should be thinking about having him PTS. I think that she's
taking every step she can to get him to eat and drink short of applying
inappropriate violence. Would you rather see a kitty who could yet recover
and live a happy life in a loving home put to sleep prematurely, or see
his caring human join him in fighting this illness? To me, that's what Pat
is doing.

If I start to believe that she's prolonging pointless agony, then I'll
recommend the final trip to the vet. But he isn't there yet, and everybody
needs to TAKE A DEEP BREATH, reread what she's posted about what she has
done and is doing, and realize that she loves Abelard and is doing her
absolute best for him.

He has been to two vets. The most recent vet visit was earlier this week.
She has spoken to the vet over the phone. Abelard is getting water via
syringe. He had been getting forcefed, and recently ate some salmon on
his own after "hunting" it. Does that sound like a kitty that's beyond
help? It doesn't to me. I'm not chastising people for caring about
Abelard, I'm chastising them for being too eager to leap to nasty
conclusions and not affording Pat the same courtesy that gets extended to
others in this group.

I don't doubt that if Aby turns the corner, stops eating at all and gets
no fluid, Pat will make the proper but painful decision. But I also don't
doubt that until it becomes obvious there's no hope she's going to do
everything she can to help him recover. I am absolutely not convinced that
he's beyond hope. It's all up to him now. If he wants to live, he will. I
want to keep hearing reports of how Abelard is progressing. If you don't,
add Pat to your killfile. I think here treatment so far is reasonable. If
you don't, again I'll suggest the killfile. I just really don't want to
have to listen to people fighting in here again.

Over the last few weeks it has become difficult to come into RPCA. I love
this group, and I depend on this and the other cat group, but it has
become very hard to read the messages here strictly because of the
bickering, name-calling, and fighting. Sure, it's still a lot more
civilized than the kind of stuff you see in r.p.c.h+b, but this is RPCA.
We all love cats, we all do our absolute best to care for the cats in our
lives, and none of us want to see our furred friends suffer. Why can't we
all extend common courtesy and decency to each other? The few really
nasty-tempered people who come here sometimes are in my KF so I never see
them. I don't want to have to KF any of the regulars here, because they
all feel like family to me. Do you like watching people that you love
fight with each other? Neither do I - it hurts. All I'm asking is for
people to treat this newsgroup like a family unit. Please. If you must
fight, PLEASE, go outside to do so.

Dan

Thanks, Christina. The good news is, I did in fact get him to eat just a
short while after making the OP. Probably posted the updated update whilst
you were typing your reply. Aby's cold isn't that bad and seems to be
improving, it was worse yesterday. He never did get to the "green mucus"
stage, he only had a bit of watery discharge.

It just kills me to see him suffer, but I'm far from ready to give up on him
and I know now that he does want to live, but he longs for a bit of the free
life he had for almost 5 years before we had to move to town. I'm determined
he will have that.

Pat, I know that others have expressed extreme displeasure for the
concept, but I would like to strongly suggest that you consider using a
small-animal electric fence.

Before everybody over-reacts - small-animal chargers put out a high-enough
voltage to get an animal's attention but at such a low current that it
won't do any harm. Yes, if you use a 100-acre cattle fencer you'd be
endangering your kitties - those things can cause serious burns and could
conceivably kill a cat or small dog that got tangled in it. But a fence
charge that is DESIGNED to corral cats and small dogs does not present
that hazard. And I know for a fact what the shocks feel like because I
have touched the fence myself, more than once (sometimes on purpose,
sometimes by accident).

When we lived in Highland we faced a dilemma - we had a back yard that was
just the right size for kitties to play in. We also had the occasional
large dog running loose, so we couldn't take a chance on letting the cats
out into the yard without constant supervision. When Sammy and Tabitha
figured out how to get to the top of the fence in under 2 seconds even
when we were supervising them, the only logical action we could see was to
never let them outside again. But when I was at Petsmart the next time, I
saw a small-animal fencer. I had either never seen one before, or seen
them but never noticed them. I looked over the specs carefully, and did
some on-line research, and decided it didn't look too dangerous.

I installed the charged wire about 6 inches below the top of our
chain-link fence. Sammy and Tabitha each tried exactly twice to climb out
of the fence. When they got to the electric wire they jerked back their
paws and stopped climbing. It took just two touches for them to learn that
the silver wire bites when you touch it. I left the charger plugged in for
another week, then unplugged it. No more kitty escapes from the back yard,
and everybody was able to enjoy the fresh air (well, the smoggy and dusty
air) to their heart's content.

When we added Ranger and Harri to the family we plugged the charger back
in again. After two weeks we again unplugged it. Still no kitty escapes.

So, after personal experience and a good deal of research, I can recommend
the use of a small-animal charger as effective, humane, and much better
than condemning cats who love open space to always living indoors. My
furkids love their outside time, and I believe any cat is smart enough to
learn after one or two touches not to go past the charged wire.

Dan

Daniel Mahoney wrote:

For some reason, a lot of folks seem to get enraged about Pat. I don't get
it. I know some people have had personal conflicts with her, but please,
don't drag them up here. We've got enough nasty crap going on without
personal attacks taking place on RPCA. PLEASE! Everybody just take a deep
breath and chill. I'm sorry if I **** some people off, but I depend on
RPCA and it's a major part of my life, and I get ****ed off myself when
people get nasty here. This is the internet, folks - take a deep breath
and chill. And if you really don't like to read what Pat writes, or what I
write, then use your kill file. Don't bombard the rest of us.

Thank you, Dan!!

--
Joyce

To email me, remove the triple-X from my user name. ^..^

Pat wrote:
It's still touch-and-go with the Aby cat.

He's getting around much better, but he seems to have a "head cold" and it's
become all but impossible to get anything into his stomach. I've never seen
anything like the behavior he's exhibiting. There's no way to get a pill
into him now. Just absolutely no way. You can't even get close to his mouth
with one, he thrashes so violently and snaps, bites anything in the
vicinity, and foams profusely at the mouth when nothing at all has been
given. My hands are a total mess.

And of course he still won't eat or drink - at least, I haven't seen him do
so, and I don't think he's sneaking food, because he continues growing
thinner. Being that it's so very difficult to administer anything, I've
started injecting 50cc of 0.45% saline solution under the skin once a day,
and he's starting to get impatient with that. I might be able to get away
with it one or two more times before it becomes as difficult as giving water
by mouth with a syringe.

I guess it's up to him, now, to either get well or die, because he won't let
me do much of anything aimed at keeping him alive.

I haven't been following this topic, but I assume you've taken him to
the vet. What was the diagnosis/prognosis?

Pat wrote:

It's still touch-and-go with the Aby cat.

He's getting around much better, but he seems to have a "head cold" and it's
become all but impossible to get anything into his stomach. I've never seen
anything like the behavior he's exhibiting. There's no way to get a pill
into him now. Just absolutely no way. You can't even get close to his mouth
with one, he thrashes so violently and snaps, bites anything in the
vicinity, and foams profusely at the mouth when nothing at all has been
given. My hands are a total mess.

[snip]

It sounds to me like he might need to be in the vet hospital right now.
Seems like it's more than you, an individual and not a professional, can
manage.

I know money is a major issue. We really need to have an RPCA vet fund
again. Any suggestions on how we could do that? I would be willing to set
up an account to hold funds. We did this once before, and unfortunately
it ended up disasterously, but in this case, nobody else has access to
my bank account.

Also, I have a Paypal account, which I have used to pay others with.
It's not set up to *receive* money, but I could find out how to do that.
I imagine that's not hard.

Would folks be interested in creating such a fund again? I have tried
to contact Victor, but he's not responding. Maybe he's out of town.

We shouldn't allow a wonderful cat like Abelard to die because his human
can't afford the level of care he apparently needs. There are others in
the same position. I'd like to help, and so would several others, but at
the moment there doesn't seem to be any organization. Could those of you
who are interested in this please respond, either here or by private
email? (Remove the XXX's if you email me.)

Thanks,
Joyce

To email me, remove the triple-X from my user name. ^..^

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote

| I haven't been following this topic, but I assume you've taken him to
| the vet. What was the diagnosis/prognosis?

Originally, we suspected poison (that was a short-lived idea) but apparently
it's just a serious ear infection, for which he is supposed to be taking
cephalexin. I say "supposed to be" since he's a very hard cat to pill. I
managed reasonably well for the first 12 days but now he's getting more
stubborn about being pilled, to the point where I doubt my ability to
continue giving the meds. But I will keep trying. This morning I had to
dissolve the contents of a capsule in some milk and give it via syringe, and
he spit at least half of it out.

Originally, we suspected poison (that was a short-lived idea) but apparently
it's just a serious ear infection, for which he is supposed to be taking
cephalexin. I say "supposed to be" since he's a very hard cat to pill. I
managed reasonably well for the first 12 days but now he's getting more
stubborn about being pilled, to the point where I doubt my ability to
continue giving the meds. But I will keep trying. This morning I had to
dissolve the contents of a capsule in some milk and give it via syringe, and
he spit at least half of it out.

Pat, could you call the vet again? As I've mentioned before, I know that
some veterinary meds can be compounded in transdermal form so they just
have to be rubbed into the inside of the ear. Alternatively, many drugs
can be compounded into flavors more palatable to cats.

The pharmacy nearest my work offers these compounding services. Please
take a look at
http://www.medicap.com/FranchiseeLoc...aspx?scccode=2
(my pharmacy is in zip code 50208).

If the vet could tell you whether cephalexin is one of the drugs available
for transdermal compounding, or if it can be compounded into something
that would taste better to Abelard and the vet might be willing to call
the prescription into my pharmacy, I'd be glad to pay for getting a
batch compounded and overnighted to you.

Dan

Would folks be interested in creating such a fund again? I have tried
to contact Victor, but he's not responding. Maybe he's out of town.

I'm in. I'd offer the use of my PayPal account, but my bank can be very
flaky about transferring funds out of PayPal and I hesitate to trust them
for something as important as this.

I'd be glad to set aside a percentage of every paycheck to go to the vet
fund. Just tell me where to send it.

Dan

"Daniel Mahoney" wrote

| Pat, could you call the vet again?

This is her day off. Can the pharmacy tell you if this drug is one that can
be flavored or made for the ears?

| If the vet could tell you whether cephalexin is one of the drugs available
| for transdermal compounding, or if it can be compounded into something
| that would taste better to Abelard and the vet might be willing to call
| the prescription into my pharmacy, I'd be glad to pay for getting a
| batch compounded and overnighted to you.

If you can find out before 5 and let me know, I may be able to get another
vet to make the call today. Otherwise it will have to wait until tomorrow
(if it can be done).

Thanks for the offer.