Oh, the horror! (re-post from my other blog)

What a hard week hubby and I have had! It all began when we noticed a lot of little "uncooked rice-like" non-moving "things" left on the blankets and comforters of every place our cat Leo had laid. I called up our vet and they told us to bring them a fecal sample from him to have analyzed at their out-sourced lab. In the meantime, I researched the issue via the pet vet sites (and people I know who also have cats) and everything pointed to tapeworms! How? I honestly do not know since all of our cats are completely and strictly indoor cats only!

A day later, the vet called us and said that he had isospora which is supposedly an intestinal parasite similar to giardia. Now, when I dropped off Leo's fecal, I also bagged up the samples of the "rice-like" dead tapeworms for them to look at as well. I asked them about it and they said he doesn't have tapeworm, just isospora and that they did not "know" what the rice-like things were. Well, turns out they may have been right about the isospora, but they were completely wrong about the tapeworms!

Because these parasites are so contagious, we have to treat all five cats for both issues. So, yesterday morning I called up the vet to let them know that hubby was going to pick up the cats meds and they said they will have them dosed and ready for us. Then when my husband showed up at the vets office to pick them up, he was told some BS about our one cat Midnight had not been seen in the last six months so they couldn't give us his portion. WHAT? How useless is that? Why would we treat only four of our cats and not all as seriously contagious as the problem is? They told us that since we already have an appointment set for this Monday night anyhow to have Midnight seen for three wart-like things on his tail, we should be able to pick up all the meds then ... (sigh)

 

(What the tapeworms actually look like. They break off in segments via the cats anus. Although they come out live, they do not live very long outside the host cat's body ~ that is when they dry up and die looking like uncooked rice.)

 

Last night, we left Leo out by himself in the cat's room to stretch his legs a bit as we have had to keep him in a cage and separated from the other cats until the problem is resolved. Two hours later, I went in the room to put him to bed and back in his cage and what did I see? EEKK!! A live, moving, disgusting tapeworm which had apparently just slithered out of his butt! That was it! I had had enough of the vet's BS and first thing this morning hubby and I drove over to the vet and demanded help! That is when they told us that he also had tapeworms as well as the isopora! Gimme a break, will ya? I was so upset and livid at that point that Dr. Heather had decided to take a break from a surgery she was working on to come out and straighten out their mess!

She maintained that she could lose her license if she dispensed meds to Midnight without the "six month check up." She also said that the tapeworms were more than likely from fleas ~ either ingested by one of the cats or caused by feces in the litter boxes. Now, our cats do not have fleas, but after further thought, hubby told me that he remembered seeing one on Fancy Pants (the idiot neighbor lady's Siamese cat) the last time we watched her for her owner. AH HA!!! Made logical sense at that point and, lesson learned! We will never take another stray cat in for any reason, temporarily or otherwise, that way ever again. I absolutely refuse to go through this nightmare again! Everything, including the water and food bowls, cats boxes, blankets, rugs, etc.) had to be completely washed and decontaminated as best we could.. On top of that, we had to treat all of the cats for fleas.

Dr. Heather must have felt sorry for us and had decided to dispense the isospora meds after all so long as we still agreed to bring Midnight to his scheduled appointment on Monday night. For some ridiculous reason unknown to us; however, she did not give us tapeworm meds, only the meds the cats were supposed to get before their office screwed up.

And so we had to stop off at our local PetSmart and pick up tapeworm meds to give to all of the cats as well as giving them their isospora dosage. It isn't exactly over yet as only time will tell if the treatments worked, and we are keeping our fingers triple-crossed! All of this because we tried to do the right thing thinking that we were helping to save a nice, sweet cat. As the saying goes, "No good deed goes unpunished" ... how true!

Our own little Cat Pharmacy ...

Two nights ago, we noticed a huge chuck of fur missing from the back of Tabitha's neck. We thought that it either fell out or was pulled out by one of our other cats while playing a bit too rough. We found her patch of fur on the bed with pieces of claw stuck in it. Her skin was bare, so hubby had rubbed a little fish oil on her neck in order to help her skin not get too dry. Unfortunately, this only served to make her lick at her bare spot even more and by the end of the night, her skin was red and irritated.

Worried that, among other things, her skin would develop an infection or worse, I called the vet the next morning and we took her to see Dr. Heather Westfall at Eagle's Peak Animal Clinic that evening. Dr. Heather examined the area where her fur was missing, and told us that this definitely was not due to a cat fight or rough play. Instead, she said that she believes it is the result of a type of skin disease which some cats tend to get sometimes, but she had to perform some further tests to know for sure. In the meantime, she clipped Tabitha's back claws so that she could not scratch at herself so much and she gave her an antibiotic injection called "convenia" which is a wonderful alternative to pills. The shot is effective for up to about two weeks' time.

 She also had us drop off a fecal sample to be analyzed. If her skin gets worse, she suggested steroids as the next step, or we could have a biopsy done as well. She said to see what happens after the convenia takes hold in her system and then we will go from there. We have been using our humidifier in the house as well in an attempt to help moisten the air which is so horribly dry this time of the year.

As for our other kitties, we decided that while we were at the vet, we would pick up something called "Dasuquin for Cats" for Mr. Midnight's arthritis. These are capsules made with all natural ingredients and formulated especially for a cat's biological make-up and metabolism.  The main ingredient is Glucosamine Hydrochloride which aids in cartilage production, while ASU also acts synergistically with glucosamine. The capsules come apart very easily and contain the powdered ingredients to be added and mixed in with your cats food. Mr. Midnight's is natural chicken and tuna flavored as well.

We also refilled Kiki's allergy medication, Hydroxyzine, which so far has been working rather well for her. 

                        (Mr. Midnight, hubby, Haley, & Kiki)

Feline for Thought Friday

This week's "Feline for Thought Friday" is brought to you all by Miss Tabitha ...

"Ah, come on ... seriously mom?"

I just couldn't resist posting a couple of quick pics of Kiki and Tabitha donning their new Witch's Hat ...

"Okay, that's enough, ma!"

"I said, ENOUGH already ..."

"Thank goodness that's over with! Now we can get some well-earned rest. After all, mom made us late for our late afternoon nap!"

*********************************************

Feline for Thought Friday

FROM ALL OF US COOL CATS HERE AT "WITCH CATS BLOG"  ...

HAVE A VERY BLESSED LUGHNASADH!!!

This week's "Feline for Thought Friday" is brought to you by
"Lady Tabitha" 

Surprise, Mom!!!

  
Who needs to pay for pest control when you have three four-legged female cats living with you in the house? Well, technically speaking, we also have our male cat, Mr. Midnight, but at his age he pretty much considers himself retired ... with the emphasis on the word "tired."...

Yesterday morning around 4:40-ish, I was awakened by a scurrying in the kitchen. I got up to see what was going on and saw none other than our huntress, Tabitha, batting something around on the floor with the other three cats just hovered over her watching intently. Was she playing with one of her toys? Nope, it was a poor little dead mouse which she had apparently (as cats are inbred to do regardless of whether or not they live indoor or outdoor) used it as her little play toy until the pitiful little thing most likely died of a heart-attack. 

None of the cats tried to eat it or anything, nor was there any type of mess on the floor anywhere ... just something that very much resembled their small cat mouse toy.

The last time we saw a mouse in our home, hubby managed to catch it and release it back outside before the cats could get to it. Not exactly the best way to wake up first thing in the morning but, unfortunately, it is feline instinct and a part of living with cats.  

Isn't that just like a cat?

Ever since my hubby and I welcomed our Norwegian Forest kitty, Tabitha, into our little cat family, she has continued to surprise me in her own way. Where she immediately bonded with my hubby at first, she had always seemed rather aloof in regards to me. Well, to be honest, she used to down right continuously run away from me!

Mind you, granted, I am our cats mommy guardian in every way i.e. "I" feed them twice a day, "I" clean their litter boxes, and "I" spend the most time spoiling them to the moon and back. As is so often seems to be the case with felines, gaining her trust was a slow process, but one that has (apparently) finally paid off!

For the past week or so, Tabitha has waited for me to come home from work. She patiently sits and watches from the living room window for me to get out of my car and then sweetly greets me at the back door. This particular maneuver reminds me so very much of my beloved Maine Coon, Sabrina, who used to routinely greet me at my apartment door the minute that I came home from work every day ...

Sabrina with my black & white Mini Lop, Barney circa 1994

 ... and with our male Tuxedo kitty, Mr. Bojangles

 

Yesterday, she actually tried to touch me with her paw from the other side of the window.  She has also made it a habit to follow me in the bedroom all of the time and then stares at me until I lie down and take a little nap with her on the bed while she snuggles up next to me purring.

Hmmm,  cats ... go figure, eh?

Ahh, this is the life, eh ...

While our slightly older two female cats, Haley and Kiki, are claiming half of the sofa and our bed, Midnight and Tabitha continue to "cat bond."

It is not so uncommon to see the two of them either playing together on the living room floor, grooming each other, or very contently snuggling up to one another at any given time ...

Perhaps it is because I am finding a new appreciation for the more "simpler" things in life as I get older, but to me,  this IS the life!

Some NEW cat books!

Yesterday at work on my lunch hour, I decided to go web surfing for a couple of books on Norwegian Forest Cats. Since we took in our Tabitha, we realized that we know next to nothing about her breed.


We had done a web search a couple of  months ago and only found two books ~ one was written way too much like a "children's" book and the other was written entirely in Ukrainian!!!! UH!!!

Then yesterday while broswing, I was finally able to find a few items of interest which looked really good! ...

 

"Norwegian Forest Cats: The Complete Owners Guide" by Alex Halton

 "Norwegian Forest Cat" by Jesse Russell & Ronald Cohn

Along with a couple cat magaines ...

There was one more book called, "Cats From The Scandinavian Woods: A Study of Norwegian Forests Cats," but it was a bit too pricey for me! Perhaps, another time.

I definately plan to write a book review post for each after I have read them.  :)

Mr. Gray Update ...

Well, this morning was Mr. Gray's front declaw surgery at the vets. At around 10:05 this morning, I received a phone call at work from Dr. Veltri informing us that Mr. Gray's surgery went well and that we could pick him up on Saturday morning to bring him home.

We set up his large dog cage from downstairs in the middle of the living room so that he can be surrounded by his loved ones while he recuperates for a couple of more days ...

Tabitha misses him very much as do we! He has been at the vets since Wednesday evening and we can't wait to get him back where he belongs!!

Tabitha: Portrait of a house cat

Well, since I have already written posts about all of our other family cats, I suppose it is only fair to devote one to our little Princess, Tabitha.

Tabby, as we often call her, came to us from the great outdoors ... well okay, not exactly the "great" outdoors, but at least outside of our house. Hubby spotted her back in the spring of this year and was determained to bond with her one way or the other. He fed her nightly, eventually even getting her to eat cat treats out of the palm of his hand thereby gaining her trust, and he gave her more attention than she could ever want. This went on for months until he was finally able to coux her into the front door of our house. After one failed attempt, we succeeded in trapping her the second time with a shoe string (she's very young and playful!).

She is just a lovely gal and hubby gave her a lovely name to go with her ~ Tabitha Sarina. Tabby is your typical Maine Coon cat. She is laid back, sweet and friendly, extremely smart and picks up on things very quickly. She so much reminds me sometimes of our other Maine Coon, Sabrina, who passed away a couple of years ago at the age of 17.  And, much like Sabrina, Tabby does not meow so much as cherp. Yes, that's right, I said cherp. It's rather adoreable and you just can't help but to love her. Her other nicknames include, "Missy Miss," "Short Stuff" (she is rather small even for a female Maine Coon), and "Tabba." 

She is so playful that even making the bed in the morning is a fun game to her and a real chore for me! In fact, ANYTHING that moves is pretty much fair game! She really enjoys lying underneath the Yule Tree and does so at her leisure every night...

 

Her best buddy is, of course, my Prince Charming little boy, Midnight and as you can plainly see the feeling is mutual ...

All in all, a pretty great kitty and I think a good candidate as a spoiled house cat!