How Many "Special Needs" Cats Do You Have?

Well, as Chynna has aged she's become "special needs". She's now 16 years old and nearly deaf. She can still hear low pitched sounds, but she mostly responds to vibrations on the floor from walking or doors opening and closing. Plus she is almost toothless now. She has all of her tiny front ones, one incisor and a few small back ones, but that's it.

I have two.
Coco walks hunbacked because her arthritis and her front paws are bent from it. She Also has Asthma and needs a inhaler. She is Alergic to everything and has Ibs and the Bladder problems. She has also shrunk from the arthritis. Cocos ears are bad inside also and we think its a Allergic reaction.
Oreo as fcks and has deformed bones because of it. You can no really tell anymore but she almost died from it before I got her.
I would not comsider Meeko speacial needs but she gets very runny eyes ever since she was sick as a kitten.

Technically three of four ...

Zoey has allergic gingivitis and active herpes

PJ and Punky have herpes and some other small issues

2 out of 2 dogs .. big one is epileptic and little one has cushings

Stumpy has an auto-immune disease that causes his body to attack his teeth. They've all been removed but he's on medication for the rest of his life.

Muddy has idiopathic cystitis and we've been battling urinary problems for a while and we will fight them the rest of his life. He's also on meds for the rest of his life. He also has chronic herpes and is bordering on renal problems.

Scarlett was very malnourished when she was orphaned at 3 weeks old and she walks rather strangely. She's hurt herself doing simple things like jumping off of tables so we have to constantly monitor her so that she doesn't hurt herself. Xrays have never proven anything.

Spike (dog) was diagnosed with hip dsyplasia before he was a year old. We fight regular battles with cysts that look identical to malignant cancer.

Our feral Indie has had chronic allergies all of her life.

That's all right now. I'm sitting with 4 senior cats and holding my breath.

Both of my kitties are special needs girls. Callie, my 12 yo, has the beginning stages of CRF. Hannah, my 3 yo tabby, has feline herpes. I've had Callie for 10 years. She didn't start off as a special needs kitty, except that she needed special lovin'. That cat has my heart!

All of mine are special needs but not as bad as some.

Kuce (15 yrs+) has a trick knee with arthritis affecting her joints as well. She also has asthma, borderline CRF, recurring FLUTI's and Feline Herpes (just diagnosed). She also needs (demands) extra love.

Luvbug (8 yrs) has asthma and anal gland issues as well as a bad ankle joint and hip joint (Both on the same leg).

Lil' Jag (4 yrs) has had anal gland issues and may need surgery for it.

Sphinx - My RB cat had several issues including a heart murmur.

Well, Tigger is almost 19, but seems to be in pretty good health, besides being too thin. And Clyde is deaf, but you almost wouldn't know it - he's as active and aware as any of the others.

Thankfully, the kitties are not horribly high maintenance....

Celia, of course, with her skin issues and asthma. The recent emergency clinic visit, ACTH stim test, bloodwork and skin biopsies have been interesting.

Juliet had trouble with IBD when younger, along with some chronic urinary infections.

Puck is difficult for others to handle--she honestly acts nearly feral, even though she's lived with me since kittenhood and is indoors only--but as long as I make sure *I'm* the only one who does anything to her, she's okay.

Liz has had the occassional weight problem (she gets light) and we run bloodwork which is always normal and I get instructions to feed her especially tasty canned food.

Isabel the manx is overweight. Hopefully the move to canned food exclusively will help with that.

Now, if we're talkin dog issues (One at the vet yesterday for reoccuring colitis, one at the vet tomorrow for a tumor check) or horse issues (lame for weeks and weeks, hours of radiographs, bone scan, ultrasound guided c spine injections, gabapentin, it just keeps going) I have more to complain about. Sigh.

I also had Cfr Cats that I lost and a Manx that had spinal problems with seizures. She would drag her back legs because they didnt work by the time she was 8.

Twitch is deaf & toothless.
Lily has mild luxating patellas.
Ophelia is deaf, & semi-feral
Dorian is a snot bag, he has herpes & basically chronic URI
Molly has very nasty herpes
Eden has balance issues due to abuse/poor nutrition

My Rainbow Bridge Damita Mae was blind...she also fought with digestive issues.

Bea, the foster kitty I adopted out tonight after 9 months, was mean...cat/dog aggressive, plus in the early stages of renal failure.

I'm not interested in adopting the "normal" cats. Not many will give some "special needs" cats a chance - so I figure I'm one of their few chances.

i wouldn't call mine special needs, but they are 15 and 18, and they both have arthritis, the 15yo is worse, I only noticed with the 18yo once she started pinching arthritis meds and she had more energy - she apparently has a heart murmur too, but it can't be too bad as it didn't affect her dental!! I do seem to have a lot of leg issues with my oldies though, and have had CRF cats, cats with digestive issues, 3 legged, toothless, cancer, liver probs - the joys of oldies!!

Zero, thankfully.

Matilda has her tiny issues. She has very stubborn feline acne on her chin and overactive oil glands. She also has a chronic runny eye, but that's not really a big deal. She has a chipped tooth too...

Chloe is healthy. Sometimes I think she is too small for her age (she's 7 lbs and 1 year old) but I know that's not true. It just feels true because she is so much smaller than Matilda, who weighs 10 lbs.

Only one of my crew would be consider special needs - Peter - because of his HCM (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), a gradual thickening of the heart muscle. He's on daily meds and needs an annual ultrasound, but is doing great for now.

I suppose it depends on how you define 'special needs.'
Technically, both of my two are, but in truth, they really don't need much more care than normal cats.

Freya needs her bad eye cleaned regularly, and we have to remind people that she can't see you on that side.

Cotton was severely depressed when we got him, but he's worked through that. He has missing several teeth and most of the rest are bad, so he needs regular dental care.

All in all, I consider myself lucky - most of what they needed extra care for cleared up over the first year we had them.

I guess you could say all of them since they are FeLV positive, but really they don't need anything special, until they get sick

Neither one of mine are considered special needs, not very intelligent but not special needs.

I've currently got a 3-legged cat, Misty, but honestly it doesn't slow her down much. About the only thing it affects is that she can't jump as high (with only the one back leg to push off with), although she still tries, often catching the top with her front paws and then scrambling up the rest of the way.

Carter's skin allergies have been a nightmare to deal with. His sister Chantel had them too, but I don't think she pulled at them the way he does. I know it was part of the reason she was at the shelter until she died

With luck, it turns out to be a food allergy and Carter will finally stop itching and ripping off hair. But he just broke out in a rash last week which of course he has to make worse and now he's taking cortisone pills every day to try and get it under control because he's shrugging off Depo shots. But it's very frustrating to see him like this because I keep getting scared that people think I'm not taking care of my cats at all.