Hello
I have been a long time lurker on this forum and I recently made an account to help share some of my experiences. I have made a few posts already but would like to officially introduce myself.
I am an emergency licensed veterinary technician working overnights or swing-shifts. I have been in the field for a few years and before that I worked with everything from large animals to wildlife. I currently live with my husband and our 4 cats in an apartment. There is a lot of work that goes into it but we make it work.
Our first cat is Ember, a DSH dilute tortie. She was a bottle baby that I took from work, she came in covered in soot as a rescue from the fire department. Found under the porch, I am not sure if mom just couldn't get back to get the last one or if she was abandoned before the fire started. At 1 week she had to be tube fed for another few days as she wouldn't take a bottle. She beat the odds and recovered from burns and some smoke inhalation. She is currently 1.5 years old and a terror. Food is her life motivator and I have used that to channel her energy in the form of clicker training basic commands. We are starting to work on agility now.
Second there is Cordelia, a DSH black female. She is the same age as Ember minus a few days. She came into my clinic the day after Ember so I agreed to raise them together to avoid single bottle baby issues. She ended up staying with us. She is my princess and knows it. She is also my little lemon. In the 1 1/2 I have had her she has dealt with severe allergies, asthma, and a urinary blockage. She had an open sore on the back of her neck and lived in a cone from 4 months until a few months ago. We did food trials and medicine trials, even trying apoquel on her with no success. It turns out that she is severely allergic to rabbits, eating them causes diarrhea and being around them in the environment causes the sores and asthma outbreaks. After losing both of my pet rabbits to illness within a few months of each other her allergies cleared up and I have retested her with everything we thought she was allergic to. She has a flovent inhaler and aerokat that she uses to manage her mild asthma afterwards. She also ended up having a complete urinary blockage which is almost unheard of in female cats. We are suspicious that a stone small enough to move lodged itself in her urethra. After 3 days with a urinary catheter and a few tense weeks of recovering she is now better than ever. She is on Royal Canin SO dry and a mixture of high protein wet food. So far so good.
Balor is my little boy. He is a 4.5 months old siamese mix named after the WWE wrestler Finn Balor. Also a lemon, I have gotten him through a bout of pneumonia, three intestinal parasites, and a subsequent reaction to his first distemper vaccine where he showed signs of having calici (fever, ulcers, and kitten arthritis) If everything goes well he is set to be neutered in a few weeks. He is reminding me why I am completely done with kittens, or so I say.
Lastly, I have a recently rescued old lady 14yo named Adora. She was a relinquished pet from my clinic, her owners were not interested in treating her. She was one big fur mat that had to be shaved out in patches, and she is slightly hyperthyroid and has some of the worst teeth I have seen in a cat. So she will be getting all of those pulled as soon as I can get her to gain some weight for anesthesia. She will live however many years she has left with us.
So that's the gang. I hope to help share some of my knowledge, both from ownership and working in a clinic, with everyone as well as learning things from everyone on here.
I have been a long time lurker on this forum and I recently made an account to help share some of my experiences. I have made a few posts already but would like to officially introduce myself.
I am an emergency licensed veterinary technician working overnights or swing-shifts. I have been in the field for a few years and before that I worked with everything from large animals to wildlife. I currently live with my husband and our 4 cats in an apartment. There is a lot of work that goes into it but we make it work.
Our first cat is Ember, a DSH dilute tortie. She was a bottle baby that I took from work, she came in covered in soot as a rescue from the fire department. Found under the porch, I am not sure if mom just couldn't get back to get the last one or if she was abandoned before the fire started. At 1 week she had to be tube fed for another few days as she wouldn't take a bottle. She beat the odds and recovered from burns and some smoke inhalation. She is currently 1.5 years old and a terror. Food is her life motivator and I have used that to channel her energy in the form of clicker training basic commands. We are starting to work on agility now.
Second there is Cordelia, a DSH black female. She is the same age as Ember minus a few days. She came into my clinic the day after Ember so I agreed to raise them together to avoid single bottle baby issues. She ended up staying with us. She is my princess and knows it. She is also my little lemon. In the 1 1/2 I have had her she has dealt with severe allergies, asthma, and a urinary blockage. She had an open sore on the back of her neck and lived in a cone from 4 months until a few months ago. We did food trials and medicine trials, even trying apoquel on her with no success. It turns out that she is severely allergic to rabbits, eating them causes diarrhea and being around them in the environment causes the sores and asthma outbreaks. After losing both of my pet rabbits to illness within a few months of each other her allergies cleared up and I have retested her with everything we thought she was allergic to. She has a flovent inhaler and aerokat that she uses to manage her mild asthma afterwards. She also ended up having a complete urinary blockage which is almost unheard of in female cats. We are suspicious that a stone small enough to move lodged itself in her urethra. After 3 days with a urinary catheter and a few tense weeks of recovering she is now better than ever. She is on Royal Canin SO dry and a mixture of high protein wet food. So far so good.
Balor is my little boy. He is a 4.5 months old siamese mix named after the WWE wrestler Finn Balor. Also a lemon, I have gotten him through a bout of pneumonia, three intestinal parasites, and a subsequent reaction to his first distemper vaccine where he showed signs of having calici (fever, ulcers, and kitten arthritis) If everything goes well he is set to be neutered in a few weeks. He is reminding me why I am completely done with kittens, or so I say.
Lastly, I have a recently rescued old lady 14yo named Adora. She was a relinquished pet from my clinic, her owners were not interested in treating her. She was one big fur mat that had to be shaved out in patches, and she is slightly hyperthyroid and has some of the worst teeth I have seen in a cat. So she will be getting all of those pulled as soon as I can get her to gain some weight for anesthesia. She will live however many years she has left with us.
So that's the gang. I hope to help share some of my knowledge, both from ownership and working in a clinic, with everyone as well as learning things from everyone on here.
