Needing advice for what to do with older kitty...

Jacci said:

Hi there, thank you so much for being a kind, loving person to this cat. We really need more people like you in this world. There is a cat sanctuary in CA called cat house on the kings. This woman has acres of land devoted to cats living out their days in love and safety. I support her charity on amazonsmile.
Maybe try calling her to see if they will care for him? They may not if he's sick. If no options, I would put him down in my arms with a full belly and lots of kisses. If he is going to die, better with love than alone in misery. Let his last sight be of your face. Then pray you will meet him again. I send you both love and prayers.

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Lynea, who owns and operates Cat House on the Kings, is an acquaintance of mine.

She is fabulous to say the very least, however cost to surrender a cat to her is $5,000.

I don't think it would be appropriate or even accepted btw, as she wants them to have a clean bill of health before going there.

I'm happy to hear you help support her place, it's amazing

I recently lost one of my bigger rescue cats, I call it bigger because of the extreme condition she came to me in, and turned her around, giving her 5 years of a great and very loved life with me.

She went from kidney disease, and she grew thinner and thinner, but kept fairly well, no suffering, etc.

I waited until she let me know the minute she was ready, and took her to be pts, with kisses and her head and face wet with my tears for her. She knew how I felt about her. Still new so I haven't brought her up.........

He might have another year of life, and what better way to live it out feeling safe and loved, and belonging.

I couldn't get him in today, but he has an appointment tomorrow at 10am.

He didn't wake me up today for breakfast either, which he has done more insistently day after day since the third day he's been here. And he's been just off all day. Vomited last night, after having a super appetite all week hasn't tried to eat anything real all day. Yesterday he acted ravenous over his meals as well, the only one he didn't finish was the last little snack I put in his bowl at 2am.. It was still there when I woke up.

He is still going after his temptations treats, but I'm hesitant to give them to him in case they were the cause of his lack of appetite - they are the only new change to his diet that hasn't been there at all the last three months. I also removed the dry food (meow mix) they free feed, he's had nothing but canned food the last 8 days he's been inside, but he's gotten two canned meals a day since July now so I wouldn't have thought going exclusively wet would cause an issue.

He seems to feel much better now but he was absolutely miserable this morning when I woke up. I've been syringe feeding him water all day, something like 3cc every 2-3 hours along with about a tbsp high cal gel total through the day.

So 10am exam tomorrow and bloodwork with fiv/felv tests as well.

I was so bummed after his vet visit I didn't post right away... but he is now felv positive. poor old guy. I put off testing for that because he was tested two years ago when he was dumped out there (negative fiv/felv) as well as vaccinated, so I was hoping the vaccine took. I guess it didn't.

I did get some appetite stimulant mirazapine, but I tried to dose it once, followed by lots of fighting and spitting up everywhere... he doesn't fight ANYTHING (Ive been pilling him and syringe feeding him SOMETHING almost daily for three months, this cat doesn't fight back - except for this). Tried one more time later and started reading up on it... between him fighting so strongly and the different reactions it seems to cause - Im not going to give it to him. He is now however eating much better (woke me up with his silly little bites again this morning, at 7AM, were getting earlier little brat!) 

My roommates haven't said anything... I think they're okay with it as long as he doesn't cause a fuss... unfortunately Im worried about that as the big dog has finally realized theres a cat in her house and will sit and guard the door to my room now and constantly sniff underneath it. She was trying to sneak in when we went in for a few days, but I can call her off the door pretty easily now. I just don't want her 'parents' to get bothered by that as our room is connected to the dining room - so they can see her do this. :/ She is a rather spoiled dog by the way, which you'll find if you keep up with my trying to keep an old sick kitty in a house of people that don't want him here. 

I also started to give him slippery elm bark (powder) which I have to pill, but I think its already helped immensely... Tee acts like he feels pretty darn good now, using his scratch pad, his litter box habits are back to normal and he's his purry self again. He gets doxycycline for the next three weeks.

His kidney values came back slightly elevated, but not too badly. I still need to test him for hyperthyroid, but I hit my spending max with this visit so it will have to wait two weeks ish. His HR was a little high, but the vet wasn't sure if that was probably from hyperthyroid or from whatever fun little infection hit him hard on Sunday night (she said his was 200, and she typically sees hyperthyroid cats around 220-240 range resting). The vet is really unsure of why his urine would be so dilute as to almost be mistaken for water - unless he is hyperthyroid and his kidney function is being hidden by that fact.

I don't have a lot of hope for finding somewhere else for him now, but Im still crossing my fingers. I don't know of any shelters who would consider taking an felv positive cat... and most cat people who would love an older kitty have cats already, and he can't be around anyone else who isn't felv positive already.

I really appreciate the responses, by the way. Ive been so upset and racking my brains to figure something out for this awesome cat that I didn't bother to say previously, but I do appreciate it so much.

As I mentioned via pm, I had a feeling he might come out positive, he reminded me too much of Baby.

It's not the end for him, I think it would have been if you hadn't been the kind soul that you are, taking him in, getting him vet care and lots of love and attention he so badly needed.

Kidney failure would have been equally as bad, if not worse even, as that has it's time limits where FELV can go through years of living a healthy life.

You ARE a hero, and have made an enormous impact to this one little boy;s life like no other.

In kittens who test positive for felv, I don't normally see a good outcome, they often will seem perfectly healthy and normal, but before they reach a year old, will suddenly take the plunge.

In adult cats infected as adults, this is not quite the same scenario. With care rather than fending out there on his own, he can live a good life for years. This is true!

You already know he wasn't infected 2 years ago, so it's fairly new, however he does leak urine, so it has affected him to a degree, but with regular good food, and warmth, and so on, he will blossom again, you will see.

Laura is an option as well, I still have not talked to her, I did leave a msg that I called. I get the feeling if you were able to keep him, you would. (?)

He's a very lucky boy for sure )

I would keep him if I could - but its so shaky with not knowing if next week, my roommates might say he has to go. I hate that feeling, it makes me really anxious for him.

I just want to know he has a solid chance somewhere, if not with me. I love him to little bits and pieces, but I want more than anything to know he CAN stay where ever it is he is at and who ever has him WILL take care of him. Thats my biggest worry. He's not for certain here with me... and its not my choice at all. Not my house, their dog was here long before he was. I have zero options on that one. And with our odd situation new in this state, I can't really just say "well, were going to move in somewhere else next month so I can keep Tee". My fiancé and I are sharing a car... the job he has currently while waiting for Corrections to finish the interviewing and background investigation process is a 10 min walk from this house. Our situation would be much more difficult if we moved somewhere else right now, where we both might need to drive our one car to work.

I guess I feel like because Ive seen him catch so many colds over and over and just seem perpetually sick all summer that that is just how he is going to be... always catching a new illness, always being treated for something. I know its possible he will get well and not be sick inside now for awhile, I just haven't really looked at it differently, which you're right, I should! 

Honestly, I think Im just a little more worried here because the unwanted pet problem seems so much bigger than where Im from... there are always new strays on our street, Craigslist is SO saturated with free kittens, multiple rescues (there really are so many rescues in this area, which is awesome, but they all seem to have so many cats!) here are so packed seeming. And not to mention the shelters, there are so many more shelters here than Im used to seeing and they're all so FULL!

I know you're still looking into Laura as a possibility and I really appreciate that... i was just having a despairing moment, I think.

I did get around to reading Baby's thread by the way, she looks very much like he did when I found him. And it seems you went through much of what I did as well, but with a bigger load of having all those kittens at the same time too.

I'm glad you read Baby's thread  

I also want to mention that, remember she was gravely ill for a very, very long time. There was plenty of times, especially early on that I thought I would seriously never get her well again, as I know that even without being felv positive, when a cat has been sick for suckh a long time, it takes what feels like forever to get that sickness out of their system, but you will be surprised.

Once his immune system is stronger, he will stop getting sick like that.

Think about my cat room, where, despite my strict disinfecting practices, all sorts of viruses go through that room, although I was extra cautious that nothing cross contaminated her, knowing she was in such fragile condition.

It didn't, in time she got well, fat, soft and loving like a baby

Thank you for the updates.   I understand the stress of thinking about your roommates, but that may be working against you.  Having a cat in your room isn't really causing them any trouble.  I can see how it wouldn't be their preference, but you have to bend when you decide to rent your house out to people.  Plus devil you know - they could have ended up with some nightmare crazy renters and then would be praying for someone who just wanted to keep an elderly cat in their room.  So think about how much worse things could be for them when you start feeling bad about them being upset.  And pet that dog a lot!  They need you (or at least your rent money) and that buys you a little leverage provided you're polite and gracious, which you clearly are from your posts.  And please, please don't rehome the kitty , he's just too happy where he is and needs someone like you to make decisions on his behalf for the rest of his life, however long that may be.

That's the issue.. When I moved in, it was very clear there would be no pets. They're doing this to be nice.

I knew them before I moved in, us living here is pretty much a favor to me... They knew it would be difficult for us to move across country like we did and they're giving us a helping hand.

THAT is why I worry, I have zero leverage in that one.

And wonderfully enough (sigh) the dog went nuts scratching at our door this morning and now there's a whole bunch of scratch marks on the outside of it. I woke up to my big luggage bag in front of the door to block her because she's terrified of it :/ I could tell he (roommate) was annoyed, but all he said was "sorry I had to slide that over, I think she smelled or saw the cat or something, she was tearing up the door".

I KNOW they're not going to like seeing something in front of our door from their dining room table

If I could find someone to care for him until I could take him, I would prefer that option greatly... But I wouldn't say no if someone was found who could provide a solid home for him before I could, that would be selfish.

He is doing wonderfully well on the doxy, still eating ravenously, seems to feel wonderful again! Bright sides, always!

OH gosh, that certainly makes the situation clearer, I see what you mean. 

Could you possibly give them a time line?  When will your BF find out about the job?  Good for you for cutting expenses by the way and doing so well at being creative about it. 

Anyway, I just PM'd you. 

I'm really happy to hear he's doing better. And I really hope you are able to keep him inside until you can move. I also better understand your situation now; hopefully, in time, the dog will become accustomed to the scent and lose interest in your door.

I also meant to add this tip for the door scratches.

Old English scratch cover for light wood works AMAZINGLY and they will disappear.

Might not be a bad idea to go pick some up. Home depot, etc has this, around $4.50-5 bucks.

Light wood door, the light, dark wood, the dark.

Im going to fix the door before we leave... puppy also scratches our door if no one else is home and she wants out to go potty. No point fixing it if we might be moving in 2-3 months and she might scratch it again in that time anyway.

I did in fact get the second job at Petsmart... and we are now in prime hiring season for most retail and restaurant jobs, so cross your fingers I can make a ton of money in the next couple months and maybe we can afford to move again before he hears for certain about this job.

But, I have a new issue... While Tee's been doing really well, he still has a random day that he pretty much looks like he feels terrible, pretty much does nothing by sleep. Sometimes his tummy gets bloated (sometimes it doesn't). He doesn't sneeze much anymore and he has stopped dripping urine -yay!
But his eyelids are still showing every now and then.

Like today, he's done -nothing- but sleep. He ate a small handful of his favorite treats (maybe 4 treats, which is HIGHLY unusual... he usually begs for more and more and today he acted like he didn't really even want the couple he had). He's been in what Ive gathered as 'meatloaf' position all day, til I made a warm spot in the bed and put him in my place, he curled up and was sleeping in a way that looked very relaxed for a little while. His legs feel like they may be holding fluids. I can move the skin and press it and it stays that shape for a little bit. But, the skin at the top of his back says he's NOT dehydrated, so Im fairly certain thats fluid, right? I haven't been giving him pedialyte because he's been drinking and eating so well.

So, questions:
I haven't been force feeding him today - his belly is bloated, I feel like thats quite the bad idea. I HAVE been giving him a maybe 1/2 tsp of water mixed with 1/2tsp high cal gel morning, midday and will again later so he gets SOME calories.I haven't seen him use his box today, but he did everything normally yesterday.

Should I go back to giving some pedialyte? I have ice cubes of it frozen in the freezer, I only have to thaw a few. Is there anything else I can do for fluid retention (I know potassium helps with that, which of course pedialyte has)

I've been wondering how things were going.

So his bottom line aside from being pos for felv, what illness does he seem to have? A uri? I remember he was leaking urine, but that's over with now, what do you see about him?

It's been 2 1/2 weeks now, what is he taking for meds if any? What does he eat?

A little side note, Baby's inner lids were close to half way across her eyes, not sure if you can see that in her before photos.

4 months later, they were much more retracted but never went all the way.

I read from Dr. Ron Hines, the ONLY vet I have ever heard mention of the inner lids, he said he sees this as a classic symptom of felv. When I mentioned it to Baby's vet, he said he had never heard that before.

I wouldn't be too concerned about this.

You had blood panel done on Tee correct? How did it look?

Just trying to get a feel of why he randomly has down days, and possibly fluid retention. 

His blood looked like:

RBC, HCT, HGB all mid-high range of low.
RDW low end of high range
WBC high end of high range
NEU high end of high range
PLT mid-high end of high range

LYM, EOS, BASO low end of normal range
MONO high end of normal range

GLU, BUN low-mid range of normal
CREA low range of normal
BUN/CREA 23
TP high end if normal range
ALB low end of normal range
GLOB low end of high range
ALT, ALKP low end of normal range
Na, K mid-high range of normal (slightly imbalanced, sodium a bit high)

He was given a 21 day script of doxycycline. He has another few days of that. EDIT TO ADD The vet suspects he has a bartonella infection he couldn't shake from before I found him in June and started treating him for fleas. His gums have a lot more color now than they did, so I do feel thats helping.

He eats wonderfully... Two big cans and usually another part of a smaller can too. And he's gaining weight nice and regularly.

He however hasn't eaten at all today, and I just figured out part of why. His lower right jaw is extremely sore... I've never heard him yowl in all of my moving/turning/pilling/nasty tasting doxy and I went to give him a bit more water-high cal gel blend a minute ago (on the left side) and he yowled so horribly it made my eyes tear. :/ and then I found his right jaw was swollen...

I haven't given him his doxycycline tonight yet because it literally hurts him so much to open his mouth a little bit. And it wasn't that way this morning, or yesterday for that matter. He dug into his last meal at 2am this morning just as excitedly as is normal for him

So like he has an abcessed tooth?

This is common for felv cats too. Baby had to have several removed while with me.

Thats what I was thinking... Poor old guy doesn't have very many left anyway, he's down to only the big canines in front and most of his back teeth (none of the little ones on top or bottom at the front of his mouth. But he also showed little if any gum disease before this.

Is there anything at all I can do for pain for him? Im worried on this too because I won't have a check until next Friday... 9 days. And if he DOES have an abscessed tooth, thats a long time to wait :/

I did mix in a bit of colloidal silver to the water Ive been giving him since finding his jaw so swollen - I have used it in the past for more than a few things, most commonly URI's in kittens with a ton of success. It should help kill any infection in his gums the way Im slowly pouring it over his gum line from what I can reach on the outside.

But no matter how delicate I try to be, I can't get his mouth open to look inside at all.

While I am not an expert on blood tests by no means, there are some things I can look at to determine specific things.

What I see is that there is little or no effect on bone marrow yet, which is responsible for supplying all blood cells.

This would be something positive

Here is a very easy to understand list of what each part of the test means.

http://www.tbeah.com/cbc_cat_tests.html

I can see the anemia, as well as some type of infection causing the wbc to be elevated.

All in all it doesn't look too bad to me, but as I said, I might not see something they would.

I would expect that the vet who has seem him recently would be willing to take pmts or a post dated check.

Usually vets do have at least some compassion for the fact that you have taken this kitty under your wing and spending money on him and caring for him, bet they will wait and at least check this out and maybe give pain meds at least.

Gosh I wish my vet was not sick, he is in Davis, not far from you and well worth the drive, he is so low cost it's rediculous.

How about a full mouth extraction for $80.00?.....or an eye removal or limb removed for under $100.00. He did Baby's re-spay, tumor removal, for about $50.00. He's our hero

But he is sick lately, I know he is battling some type of cancer for years now, and recently we had to cancel 2 weeks of s/n appts with him, so he must not be feeling so well.

Oh, that would have been a god send.I really hope he gets better and not worse (your vet). The world needs people who will still do that, not very many will anymore. Money is most of what it all comes down to now. I think I will call and ask her if there is anything I can do as far as payments, any special options. She did mention she already works with a rescue (but that they do not take felv/fiv cats and usually pts because they are like ticking time bombs... at some point, they will cause a ton of heartache and money loss, which most people aren't willing to deal with).

I understand most of the medical jargon... which blood types are "new" cells coming to replace the extremely low cells that are dying too fast, etc.... and he doesn't look too bad... Just some form of infection made worse by felv. His kidney values aren't too off either, just a smidge.

I haven't gotten to get his thyroid checked yet, which is still a big possibility. If he's hyperthyroid, I understand it may be causing any real kidney issues to hide and that they may surface if he is treated for hyperthyroid. I killed $250 before all was said and done at his last visit. Besides regular costs of course. I've been feeding him only wet food, Pride rabbit or lamb, which he actually loves. He's still getting 1000mg lysine (split into two feedings a day, mixed in his food). Except today of course

Would you still try to give him his doxycycline? It usually makes him salivate ALOT and do a lot of chewing trying to get the taste out of his mouth (its a syrup) even after Ive tried to rinse it down with water afterwards.

Taken Monday 11/17:

   
 


And I tried to get a pic of his teeth today (11/19), but that worked well... (my fiancé isn't very good with timing either, he had his mouth open for a split second). I wasn't chocking him by the way, I was rubbing his offside gums to get him to open a tad and he moved.

 
This is how he is sleeping :-/ He raised his head so I snapped a couple pics. Poor boy. I've been up all night finding every feline dentist in the area to call tomorrow. After I call the vet he's been seeing to see if theres anything I can work around with them. My fiancé is going to shoot me x-| Good thing he admitted this is one reason he's marrying me, right??

This is really the worst month for this to happen... I was late on three of my student loans (haven't been late in almost a year on any bill til now! Im hesitant to apply for care credit for that reason.. if they deny me, thats a few more points off my credit score, which is usually 680-700 ish) and I put off buying my own thyroid meds, among other little stuff.

If Im just being a spaz someone tell me, but I feel like this is big enough he really can't wait more than one day to get this taken care of. 

If he's curled up on his right side and he moves wrong, he yowls and wakes up because he put pressure on his face... its heart wrenching!

He looks like he definitely needs oral surgery I hope you can help him. My heart goes out to you, I'll pray it all turns out OK and is less expensive then you thought! Good luck and keep us posted. Please don't put off your own medicine, there has to be help out there somewhere, there are so many others receiving assistance for a lot less, surely you are deserving. Go to your school counselor, or a local humane society, maybe they can guide you as to where to go for help. Bless you and good luck!