Mr. Pierre up close

Back in the good old days I had a nice Canon DSLR camera for taking cat pictures. But sadly, in the summer of 2017 there was an unfortunate canoe mishap and the camera went for a swim in Lake Superior waters. It didn't fare so well. After the nice camera died, you may have noticed I posted less often on my blog. It's harder to get nice kitty photos using just a camera phone, but it's all I've had since then. And sometime after that I had some computer problems which made it even more challenging to to blog.

This summer I started kayaking around a little pond not far from the apartment. It's given me opportunity to watch a loon family from a distance - (awesome!!) When I was out kayaking last weekend, I wondered if it might be possible to resurrect my old Canon so I could use the telephoto and get some nice loon photos. That set me out on doing some reattach about how to take apart the lens and do thorough cleanings. Today, I did that deep cleaning and then did some testing. Some of the features of the camera don't seem to work anymore, but others still do. And it looks like the right features work that may allow it to come back to life! Yahoo!! There are some big spots on the telephoto lens that won't come off, but my guess is those will just add a little haze to the photos, hopefully not enough to be a problem for what I'm looking to do. I've got nothing to lose by taking it out in the kayak and seeing what happens!

So for testing the camera, I needed a test subject. Mr. Pierre showed up for that job. We never get to see him up close and the absence of telephoto lens meant not being able to get good up close photos of him.

I love his little sweet face!

As I started to look at the pictures I had taken, I noticed something.

He has a red spot in his right eye.

I left most of these photos in their original size, 

so you can biggify if you wish to take closer look.

So now I'm worried about Pierre! I've not noticed him having any eye problems since he's been indoor cat. Back when he was an outside cat he would sometimes hold one of his eyes closed and had some clear weepy eye. It usually passed and he would open it again after short time.

I've never seen this before in a cat. It looks like blood vessels in one spot being all red. You can see blood vessels along the edge of his left eye too. Anyway know anything about what this could be? I'm going to email my vet to see if we should bring him in. With him being semi-feral, bringing him to the vet is not an easy undertaking and will require sedation. Which also means treatment may be impossible, especially if it requires regular eye drops.

Pierre is our youngest cat, at about 7.5 years old. At his last annual vet visit this past winter (spring?) no problems were found. Hopefully this won't be a big deal - the last thing we need right now is another cat with health problems!

Marvin sound

Marvin was a unique cat. He had a very special sound, it was intense! Click on the arrow below to hear Marvin Sound!


When he was at my office he loved nothing more than to play fetch. He wouldn't stop! This little guy was filled with many surprises.

It was also only at my office where he loved having his belly rubbed. His working persona was quite different than his home one. Oh Marvin, I miss you.

never a dull moment

Every day Nahum seems more like his usual fluffy self. He's eating well and no longer has excessive thirst. However, his blood sugar numbers continue to be all over the place, so that's not good. I'm taking comfort in that he is more himself, as prior to when we started treating him he was quite lethargic and withdrawn. I'm grateful he's feeling better. 

We are still trying to figure out what is going on with him. Our vet did a special 8-hour test (Low-Dose Dexamethasone Suppression Test) on Monday to determine if he has Cushing's Disease. The results came back not Cushing's Disease, so that raises more questions than we have answers. Hopefully the internal medicine specialist at Tufts can shed light on what's going on. 

Greeter kitty is back on duty!!

Meanwhile, my Thursday didn't go as I planned. Thursday morning, I saw Theo go in and out of the litter box at least three times in about an hour. The last time was just when I was about to walk out the door to head to work, instead I watched him pee. He didn't seem to be straining, but he only had a tiny output. Fearing crystals, I scooped him up and rushed him to the vet, where he spent the day.

Vet didn't find any crystals or urinary blockage (thankfully) but she did find he has a very inflamed bladder and blood in his urine. He has Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD) or Feline Idiopathic Cystitis (FIC). I believe she is running some more tests, but meanwhile we have a bunch of meds to be giving him as well as a special diet. 

Since returning home, he's been in and out the litter box all night. I keep an eye on the output, apparently he's at higher risk for blockage with this condition - cue my stress and fear. Suddenly we have another cat with a significant health problem.

The information the vet provided about FIC says that emotionally sensitive cats are more prone to get these bladder problems. That's really interesting because Theo is certainly our most emotionally sensitive cat. He's a feeler. Apparently, stress can cause this condition to flare up, which makes me wonder if the signifcant stress he's felt from Nahum's condition did a number on his body.

Everyone at the vet LOVED Theo! Tonya, the front desk person (and our cat sitter), adores him and wants to abduct him. It's understandable because he's so lovable and personable. His large stature also adds a special dynamic to his presence.

mostly in the blanket fort

Marvin's Gotcha-day!

I'm remembering Marvin today on his gotcha-day. Such a small little guy, but I sure miss him.

I thought it would be fun to reflect back on his first gotcha day by revisiting the first post about him on my TNR blog (now defunct).

Travel back in time to 2015...

Marvin

Jul 25th, 2015 by thecatguy

I haven’t posted much in a while because I haven’t done much TNR in quite some time. After I TNR’ed Bert last year, I pretty much just spent time on him and teaching my monthly TNR class.

And then the other day I got an email requesting help with a skinny cat that had showed up outside someone’s place. I popped over with my trap.

They started feeding it but could tell it needed more help than they could provide, so they reached out for help. So, I stopped over, set a trap and about five minutes later, had my boy.

He’s friendly, a non-microchipped Siamese neutered boy, who’s scared and way to skinny. I’ve started feeding him and working on getting him to trust me more. Soon he’ll be getting looked over by the vet and vaccinated.

 I love his gorgeous brown color!

For now, I’m calling him Marvin! Let’s hope he’s virus free and doesn’t have any major health issues!

---

Marvin quickly wormed his way into my heart. It didn't take long before I had got him the needed medical care and then he moved into the house for recuperation and love. He was small in stature but he sure did have a set of lungs, that boy could make some noise! I have an audio recording of his sound that I want to figure out how to share sometime, I also have a movie of him playing fetch which is adorable. I'll get to work on figuring out how to share those here - stay tuned.

Some classic Marvin pictures to close with.

weekend roundup

Nahum did relatively well this weekend considering the week. Our vet graciously has been corresponding with us over the weekend about blood sugar levels and insulin, helping us figure out proper dosage. We still don't seem to have a steady pattern with the glucose and insulin. His numbers have ranged between 490 and 53. We've significantly cut back on the dose size of insulin. Saturday morning he was at 109, by dinner he was 338, so I have him a quarter of a unit of insulin after dinner. Sunday morning he was at 338, so I gave him half a unit and by dinner he was at 53. I get the feeling his dose will need to be quarter unit, which is a small dose, smaller than the syringe is intended for. A little insulin goes a long way with Nahum.

Nahum's not pounding down the water like he was, so that's good. He's still asking for food and it's torturous not to be able to slip him a treat when he so politely asks.

We scheduled an appointment at Tufts, but it's not until August 7th, which feels like a long ways away. I'm still nervous about leaving him unattended during the day when we are gone working. I spent some time this weekend setting up the kitty cams that I used back in our old house to keep an eye on Oliver. I can check those to keep eye on him but will probably try to pop home when I get the chance.

I've not gone far this weekend, wanting to be home to keep eye on the Nahum. I was planning to attend Loon Fest, to learn more about one of my favorite animals, but I didn't want Nahum to be unattended incase his numbers kept going down. Theo has loved the extra home-time, cuz home-time means Theo-time!

Goof!

Theo never was into tummy rubs, but years ago he kept watching Buddy get and enjoy tummy rubs. Then one day he decided to try it himself, he liked it!  He's not the tummy rub monster that Buddy was, but he does like a good tummy rub. Maybe when he gets to Buddy's age, he'll be a tummy rub monster!

There was time for Nahum loves too. He's been more affectionate again now that he's feeling better! He even slept with me on the bed all of Friday night.

He loves his box!

Weekend was hot! But Theo can't resist a blanket fort regardless of the temperature!

Thank you everyone for the purrs and prayers. It's so helpful to not be alone in this.

Nahum - update 2

I picked Nahum up from the emergency vet on Wednesday morning and brought him to our regular vet for him to spend the day there. They did some more diagnostics, including x-rays and discovered some areas of concern. We talked about getting an ultrasound and thankfully, the traveling ultrasound vet happened to have an open slot for Thursday morning.

I came home for lunch on Wednesday to this scene:

Poor Theo has been so anxious with Nahum gone and unwell. He counter surfed, made a big mess and tried to get into the double wrapped gluten free bread. Theo, like the humans in the family, are stress eaters. He loves bread and uses food for comfort - he fits right in here. His obsessive eating behaviors have actually tamed down over the years, but when he gets stressed, they resurface.

When I brought Nahum home Wednesday evening, Theo was so happy to see him! He was right there to greet him and welcome him home.

I kept a very close eye on Nahum all night. I woke many times in the night and got up to look him over to make sure he was ok. It's gonna take some time before I can leave him unattended and not be an anxious mess. The image of his comatose body laying on the floor is burned in my brain and I've been having flashbacks about that moment. When I described find him to the vet tech I broke down sobbing. I was grateful the tech was understanding and kind.

He spent Thursday at the vet again. They monitored his blood glucose and gave him insulin. He didn't drop dangerously low, but when we picked him up 8 hours later his blood glucose level was still dropping. They taught us how to use the meter, so we will be monitoring his blood glucose level at home now.

The preliminary ultrasound report indicates both adrenal glands are enlarged, nodule on the spleen, and signs of intentional disease. The working theory for the diabetic symptoms is Cushing's Disease due to a pituitary gland tumor. We will get back some other test results tomorrow that may narrow down the diagnosis. Meanwhile, the vet has referred us to an Internal Medicine Specialist and an MRI at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine.

Of course when I hear all of this information, I immediately think of Willow. She had a very fast acting brain and nasal tumor that caused all sorts of weird symptoms and ultimately it was faster at causing problems than we could orchestrate treatment. Nahum's symptoms are different, but he's still potentially got a tumor growing around his brain, and it feels like the symptoms came on quickly. I'm trying to not jump to conclusions, but it's really hard.

Tonight we took our first glucose reading and gave him a more conservative insulin dose, per the vet's instructions. I think I'll be getting up in the middle of the night to test his blood just to be sure. He'll be returning to the vet tomorrow so they can keep an eye on him and monitor his blood sugar. Somehow, I'm going to have to figure out how to trust leaving him home alone again. After him nearly dying on Wednesday after being left alone all day, I'm not sure how I'm going to mange that.

Thank you everyone for your purrs and prayers, and for the information - it's been really helpful! I've been taking in a lot of info from www.felinediabetes.com, it's all a bit overwhelming. And special thank you to Connie from www.kittyblog.net for the emotional support through these hard few days. She had perfect timing to text me, "how are things?" right when we arrived at the hospital and the emergency vet grabbed the unresponsive Nahum.

Continued prayers and purrs appreciated.

Nahum's diabetes update

We took Nahum to the vet on Saturday to get the urine test (lots of sugar in the urine) and to talk treatment. The vet's goal is getting the diabetes in remission - I like that goal. She instructed us on insulin dosage and administration technique as well as diet management. Taking in all of that information helped make the whole process feel less overwhelming.

We switched his food to DM over the weekend, blending it with his other food. Monday we switched completely to DM. Monday evening I gave the first insulin shot. That all went fairly well. I am pleased the insulin needles are so tiny and the dose small, so it goes quick and I don't think he even felt it.

Tuesday morning was a mess. The new food messed up his system and he had massive poopy butt which meant impromptu bath. Diarrhea + long furs = huge nasty mess. Realizing it would probably take his system more time to adjust, I ran him to the vet for a butt shave. He only ate half his breakfast, I figured because his tummy was still upset, so we halved his insulin dosage as we were instructed to do. He seemed uncomfortable, like he looked the prior evening after eating, which looked like tummy upset.

Now comes the heart wrenching part of this. We came home from work and found him completely unresponsive in a coma. In one swift motion, overwhelmed and terrified, we gathered him up ran him to the emergency vet as fast as we could. They took him back and started treatment giving him dextrose. Before we left him for the night, we visited with him and he was able to stand like a statute but wasn't moving nor acknowledging us - this was improvement from his initial condition.

The plan is for him to stay at the emergency vet overnight for stabilization and then transfer over to normal vet Wednesday morning to figure out next steps.

The evening update from the vet: he's a lot more responsive, eating, meowing, wanting attention. That sounds like really good news.  Thank God!

Theo, our very sensitive boy, has been anxious mess since we got home from the vet. He and Nahum are best pals. I imagine Theo seeing Nahum struggle and suffer as he slipped into coma must have been very upsetting. Theo's been very unsettled, tonight, wants to be glued to a human, and even peed on the bathroom floor. Poor guy, misses his best friend. Cuddling him close - loving on him like there is no tomorrow.

Seeing him completely unresponsive was so, so scary - it totally triggered the trauma of finding Willow in that condition 15 months ago. I'm still working on settling and breathing. I'm going to be terrified leaving him unattended again- not sure how I will navigate that just yet.

Prayers and purrs appreciated.