HIDING IN THE DARK

Jimmy has been hiding at all the dark corners of the house ever since he came back from the vet. At times, he would face the corner of the wall as if I forced him to wear a “dunce” hat just because he has been sick. I don’t like all his recent acquired behaviors. It got me in a more panicky state. His “angel” twin, Joey, behaved exactly the same way and she was gone 3 days later. I sure won’t let Jimmy be taken by the same fame as his sister. I have been closely monitoring his moves for the last 36 hours. Luckily, he was practically sleeping all the time doing nothing except getting stained with his acriflavine yellow colored urine.



My worst dilemma now is to get him to consume something on his own. Since his liver problem issue, he has not been eating anything at all. Upon getting the vet’s green light, I managed to force feed him with some fresh milk last night. This morning, I managed to blend in some ocean fish in jelly with fresh milk and syringe fed him without much hassles. The problem came when I tried to feed him with his medications and vitamins. He spitted all out! I even tried grinding those pills into powder form and secretly mixed into his food and syringe fed him. He vomited all out! How could he recover if I could not get much medication into him? The vet advised me to try again later tonight. If I still could not handle his reluctance to have his medications, he would have to be admitted first thing in the morning and put on drips. That would be my last alternative since I have no way to get him back to health. I love Jimmy a lot but his wild ways when facing something he disliked into his mouth (even when wrapped in a warm towel as advised by some friends) is something I just could not handle well. I guessed I should not hold back some cost on this urgent medical need anymore.

I DO NOT LIKE THE COLORS OF THINGS HERE

The weather has been very humid with sudden downpours almost daily. The sick bug is definitely in the air. Mama Jessica has been down with viral infection for a few days now. She has been resting on my working table for the last 3 days without stepping out of the house much. Another load of her vomit was there again this morning. At least, she’s still fine. What worries me most was Jimmy. After being treated for FLUTD 3 weeks ago, he too was having almost the same symptoms now… sleeping whole day, barely ate, tiredness all day long. Luckily, he did consume water against dehydration. This is how sick he looks now.

Another few minutes, I have to bring him back to the vet. I don’t like the color of his urine… Deep Orange???? That’s not supposed to happen, especially when he has been put on a strict Hill’s c/d prescription diet. Let’s see what would be the vet’s diagnosis this time. I pray that it won’t be anything major as I’m still having that acute piercing pain on my back. It’s rather stressful here~ :(

UPDATED AFTER VET'S VISIT:

This is something I do not want to hear… Jimmy is having a very bad liver problem that may lead to jaundice, another scary illness that might caused death if left unmonitored. His urine test was really bad with his bilirubin level rocket high! Now, I’m super stressed out as he’s refusing to take his medications and food. I have to find ways to force feed him or he would be forced to be hospitalized within the next 2-3 days.

IS JIMMY FEELING BETTER NOW?

Finally, I managed to settle most of my backlogs after being sick for awhile. Shoo Mr. Flu Bug! Don’t ever come back again! Everybody thought that being a food writer is an easy job. Well, no. Other than the invited reviews, there would be the hours of photo editing, stretching your brain juice to the maximum and trying not to be over critic in writing a post. The worst moment would be when you are sick and your brain would just go blank.

Anyway, Jimmy has put on quite a lot of weight after being discharged for more than a week ago. A few days after his discharge, I did get some surprising “rewards” on my floor. Lines and lines of earthly colored artwork were all over my floor tiles. He had diarrhea! He was again at the vet. Luckily, it was the side effect of having a totally changed diet of wet fish basket and c/d prescription diet. More medications were given to him. Poor guy! Just two days ago, I noticed that he has been licking his genital part even more than ever. He has been giving me some weird cries nightly too. I was wondering if that inserted catheter had caused him to become a sex maniac. It sounded almost like a mating call. Let’s hope it’s not. He has been eating healthily and behaved as actively as a 4 year old kit would be but what were those constant rollovers for? Love making signals? Gosh! I have been monitoring his actions since then. Peeing was consistent and at ease but in a very small amount. I called up the vet to inquire on his behavior yesterday. You know what was her response? “Please monitor Jimmy for another day or two. There could be a recurrence. Once a cat gets FLUTD, there’s a tendency for them to get it again. If you want to make sure that it’s clear, bring him to the vet on Saturday” What? He was discharged for barely 10 days and it might have it again? Now this news is scaring me again. I would pray that this won’t become a reality. I would let the vet check on his bladder this weekend.



I must admit that I’m at fault at times for the J Family Kitties’ health. When I thought I could just give Mama Jessica some treats for being such a great mama. I landed her at the vet too. That can of wet fish basket with a variety of ocean fish plus some chopped vegetables which I had given to Jimmy landed her with a diarrhea too! Damn! Now she’s on medications with a cream to rub on the blisters on her anus due to too much of purging. I better don’t try to act too smart next time and try to stick to their regular food.



Surprisingly, Jayson had no side effect at all. That asthmatic boy of mine had a long history of bad medical health and could not put on much weight. Although he has the appetite of two cats, he’s just as thin as ever. I was glad that I managed to put him back to better health after he almost died of a viral infection causing dehydration in late January 2012.



Janice on the other hand was a fussy fat lady. She refused to touch any unidentified food other than her faithful bowl of daily cat food. But I did catch her stealing Jimmy’s c/d prescription diet occasionally. What a brat! Her hobbies remained the same – Eat, Sleep, Poo, Pee and Play! LOL! She’s always the one that made me laugh with all her weird sleeping positions. :P

JIMMY CAME HOME BUT WEIRD THINGS HAPPENED

Jimmy was discharged! I’m glad he can be home to be with the rest of his siblings but it was not the same as before. Mama Jessica, Janice and Jayson thought they had seen a ghost cat! Everyone was avoiding getting too near to him after his 6 days of disappearance from the house. Jimmy a ghost? LOL! I guessed it could be due to the strong smell from the vet and the J family Kitties all had some bad experiences at the vet before. Unfortunately, I was advised not to bathe him for another week or so to avoid being brutally scratched as he could still be having some abdominal and stomach pain due to the plugged catheter earlier. Anyway, some antibiotics and pain killer pills were to be given to him for the next few days. Those medications might be the cause of him sleeping most of the time.

Jimmy is doing fine now. He has been recuperating quietly ever since he came back. The only problem I have now is on how to slow down his “tap”. LOL! Well, it was great to see him peeing at ease now but the frequencies were once too many times. I think he would need to take time to adjust to his normal peeing schedules. As for appetite, he has been gobbling down his food as if there would not be another tomorrow. Luckily, I did stock up lots of the wet food he took at the vet and also the Hill’s prescription diet pack. If not, he would not eat anything at all, not even his regular food. That would have given me a hard time mixing in his medication in the food. The other issue I have to settle now would be on the rest of the kitties. Was it the scent of the special food given to Jimmy having such a great influence that they refused to eat their own now or was it the stress of seeing a “ghostly” Jimmy? All of them are not consuming as much food as they should. Even the vet could not give me an answer to this issue. I’ll have to wait a few more days to monitor their appetite.

One very obvious habit that Jimmy had acquired during his stay at the vet’s was his sleeping habit. He won’t sleep next to my working table or fight over my sofa now. Surprisingly, he would rather sleep in a cage? Huh? What a weird behavior change compared to his previous fear for being caged. Anyway, I did not lock the door and would surely not stop him from roaming around the house freely.

It has been a long week of running around. I’m totally worn out. It’s time for a long rest to recuperate my own tired body. I truly need all the strength to support the pet community here. Thanks again for everything that you have done for the J Family Kitties.

Lastly, I would like to seek your help on something that would be beneficial for the pet community here. It would only take a minute or two of your time to help the Australian couple residing in Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia to make their dreams come true. They are currently running the foundation with little to no outside assistance. They will only need your ONE VOTE to support them in winning the AUD$5,000 grant contest to set up LASSie (Langkawi Animal Shelter & Sanctuary Foundation). Deadline is less than 24 hours! That would be a whole load of money to help out those abandoned animal on the island. I’m not doing this for myself but for the animals that deserved the best in life.

Please vote at http://sunsuperdreams.com.au/dream/view/help-care-for-abandoned-dogs-and-cats-in-langkawi and do check your email to confirm the vote or it won’t be counted as a vote. I appreciate your help on this matter. Thanks~ :)

UNPLUGGED BUT STRANDED

Finally, Jimmy has the catheter unplugged but he was not allowed to go home yet. He has to go through another one or two days of close monitoring before he could be released with a clean bill of health. After two hours from the unplugging, he was still not peeing as he should. That got me worried. By right he should have urinate naturally but there was no sign of any urine at all. I hope he would do that fast as I would love to bring him back and give him a thorough bath. He smelled badly of antiseptic lotion.

As for appetite, I'm going to be slapped with a huge bill for extra cat food. Even the vet and her assistants were surprised with the amount of intake for this 3.8kg boy of mine. Jimmy has been gobbling down a whole big can of wet food 4-5 times a day and he was still asking for more. I can even hear the Ka-ching Ka-ching sound from the cash register right now. LOL! Anyway, I'm so happy that things are looking at a brighter side now. My only hope is to see him pee naturally so that I can bring him home. I missed that curly ball sleeping next to me nightly. Thank God for giving him another chance to live on...