The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men......

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry... (Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck, John) that is the story of my life.  That is especially the story of my weekend. A few weeks ago I noticed that my baby puma (we have a 22 pound, but not overweight just a very large and long cat) seemed not to be eating his food. He was still very active and loving. I figured that he was being finicky, after all the finicky nature of cats is legendary. A cat food launched an empire based on the discriminating nature of felines. 

So after a week of his not eating I decided to see if it was in fact the food. He had lost some weight (down nearly 8 pounds when I weighed him), so I visited my favorite local pet store PetSaver and picked up the uber expensive brand of food that my cats had been eating. I bought 2 small bags of 2 flavors of this food. Now keep in mind that we feed our cats well. I avoid grains in their foods and when possible I try to keep the food to high quality. The food they were eating was Acana brand cat foods which they loved. The food sky rocketed to $60ish a big bag. With my being unemployed I selected an acceptable brand that was around $30 for the same size bag.  

At first the expensive favorite brand of food did the trick. For 3 days he was eating, but then he stopped eating and then there was rapid weight loss. I changed the flavor and he was still disinterested. He was down 5 pounds in a week. The hubs was very concerned because he was starting to look very thin and not acting his usual self (tired, lethargic, etc.) so he asked me to make a vet appointment.

Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. I headed over to the Rochester Community Animal Clinic. The staff, vet techs and vet were all very compassionate. They got Twiz in quickly.  Based on the Vet's examination she suspected a lung issue. She was able to do a lung tap and fiv test.  The lung tap and the fiv test came up negative. The recommendation was to head over to Irondequoit Animal Hospital for x-rays.  The x-rays confirmed no fluid in his lungs. The staff at Irondequoit gave Twiz some O2 and prednisone. The recommendation was for some blood work a CBC (complete blood count) and another test as well as a primary diagnosis of Asthma.  We were sent home with the hopes of results on Monday (a holiday).

Friday evening did not go great, but Saturday was even worse.  Twiz did eat small amounts, but he had several seizures with loss of bladder control. Each of the seizures was preceded by rapid breathing. What really helped was that the vet herself called us Saturday afternoon to check on Twiz and deliver the first of the test results. Nothing in those to help us. 

We spent a very long Saturday with Twiz worrying and watching.  I woke up this morning somewhat concerned (I was fully expecting that Twiz did not make it through the night).  Instead I found him standing eating his food. He spent almost all of Saturday sitting on his blanket in the chair and only eating small amounts (1 tsp) while laying in the chair. When I explored the litter box (the other two cats were upstairs all night long) I found evidence of pee. This means, despite our bringing one litter box to the floor he was staying on, he went all the way down to the basement, peed and returned to his chair. Saturday he did make the trek to the litter box in the basement, but after a very long and difficult pee he was unable to make it back up the stairs. 

He flopped over on the floor in front of the steps and let out a miserable meow. I carried him back up stairs to his chair where he had a seizure.  Today he is eating well. We may be looking at a lifetime (his) of medication, but he is looking good today. 

However, I have to give in and admit that I am sick. I have been sneezing more than the usual for the past few weeks, but I woke up this morning with a non-stop running nose, chills and still tired. I am sure the stress of Twiz's ordeal could have pushed me over the edge, but today is a day for me to sit and relax. 

Please know that I have never received any compensation from Arcana, Rochester Community Animal Clinic and/or Irondequoit Animal Hospital. I am sharing my experiences because I believe they gave me great customer service.