Checking in with Fleurp

For regular followers of this blog, you might be wondering how Fleurp is doing. Fleurp is my little mystery in that every spring she becomes very anemic. She drops a ton of weight and her gums get very pale and she starts licking very inappropriate things (cement, mirrors, and she'll eat dirt if she can get to it)

She has seen a number of different vets over the year and none of them can give me a reason for it, but since she responds very well to prednisolone I have a vial of pills that I am keeping on hand for when this happens.

Fleurp normally weighs 12 lbs.  When she starts having issues her weight starts to drop, so I weigh her on a regular basis. She has come to understand the routine and she sits patiently while the scale zeros out and is ready and when I give her the signal she climbs up and waits for her treat.

I start the pred when she reaches 11 lbs 3 oz. When she drops under 11 lbs 8 oz I will comb her and remove more loose fur and give her a can of food with some liqui-tinic, which gets some iron and amino acids in her system to help her rebuild red blood cells... so right after this photo she was furminated and when she had enough I got out a can of food and gave her a treat. (she is sitting next to a ball of her fur in the photo below, that is not her tail)

If you remember, earlier this season I took Fleurp to be groomed to try to remove excess fur from her because I have it in my head that the amount of fur she sheds is the problem. That seemed to help this year because so far we haven't had to put her on steroids. Since we are officially into Summer, I think we are past the worst of it and I'll just need to check her weight a few more times as she loses the last of her mane.

As this year went so well, I have plans to take her in to get a lion cut next year. Unfortunately, she reacts very badly to grooming and is more than willing to nip at you when she has had enough so to get a full lion cut she will have to be sedated. She's is just about 10 at this point and she has never needed a dental but maybe we'll get one of those too - cause if you are going to sedate a cat, you might as well get it all taken care of at the same time. We'll see when we get to that point and see what the vet recommends. Hopefully, we'll have found a local one by that point.

Fleurp - a before and after

Because of Fleurp's annual springtime anemia, and my attempts to figure out what on earth is going on and - or at the very least - prevent it, I decided to groom the living daylights out of Fleurp the minute she started molting.  It can take weeks from the first sign of her losing her winter coat until her anemia shows up, so I wanted to prevent her from ingesting as much fur as I can - since this is really the only difference in her life.

First, the Before:

February 5th

Feb 9 - morning pre-furminator

February 9th post furminator

February 16th

So I had been doing my best to get as much excess fur off her as I could, but she is NOT a fan of the furminator nor any other grooming device I have. Each session would end her being upset at me at best and nipping at me was not a rare occasion. She won't 'bite' but she will leave a dent in the skin with her teeth. Fair enough. I'd hate it if someone grabbed me and forced me to put up with what she had to go through.

This year I wasn't going to be deterred. I was amazed how much fur I was able to take off her and yet she still had a ton that needed to come off, so I made an appointment with a local groomer to help. I would have shaved her myself but she hates the clippers even more than the furminator. She has had so much blood drawn every year to check her RBC that I can't blame her on that one either. I asked to watch and the groomer had me help. We used her muzzle on and off. He tried to direct me to hold her a certain way and I explained if we let her have a paw free that she would make us pay for it.

The groomer was going for beauty which takes longer. After a while, I told him to be more concerned with getting as much fur off as we could and don't worry about pretty.

As an end result, we have this as the After:

I am probably going to try to clean up her armpits and furminator her a couple more times to pull out anything else that is loose. Paws crossed this works.

I'm molting, moooolllllting..

Despite what the groundhog said, Spring is coming and it is having its way with Fleurp. For longtime readers, you know that Fleurp becomes anemic every spring and every spring she loses her incredibly glorious mane and quite a bit of fur.

As a result, she leaves little bits of herself all over the place.

um, excuse me.. 

How is this post not all about me?

Seriously?!?

I have found a local place that grooms cat and I am going to make an appointment in the next few days to get Fleurp's belly shaved, because while I can groom her mane off (it is actually almost all gone now) and can work on her sides, she will not let me get to her belly. I am hoping this prevents the worst of her issues and I don't need to put her back on prednisolone. We won't know if it helps for several weeks.

The cats wonder when I'm going back to work

I took a couple of vacation days last week and then with only a half day of work on Friday, the weekend and then the snow day on Monday, I feel like it has been forever since I've been at work. I will say the rest was completely needed as I was feeling kind of burnt out and run down. Life is kinda harsh without kittens you know 😉

Snow. Yes, we received a bit of snow..

These images were taken at about nine am, and it didn't stop snowing until nearly 6 pm, so we received a couple more inches. Yes, the snow got inside the storm door.  The back deck was clear of snow last Wednesday, we received about a foot of snow last Thursday, and then this. The last photo is of the mailbox (and the neighbor's on the far right) Husband spent nearly three hours snow blowing the driveway once it was all over.. and we are slated to get two more feet on Thursday.. fun fun.. not.

Fleurp started showing signs of anemia. Her gums are still pink so I know her RBC hasn't dropped too far, but she started licking the mirror and her weight had dropped several ounces.

Fleurp's weight is normally around 11 lbs 10 oz. Any more than that and she really starts looking like a basketball with feet. Anything above 11 lbs 8 oz I consider good and 'safe'. Anything under 11 lbs 3 oz I consider a serious need to take her to the vet. She was eleven five. I weighed her the next morning just to be sure and she was eleven four and a half, so I started her on prednisolone. She hovered between four and a half to three and a half and I was starting to panic because I wasn't sure what else they could do for her. I started giving her liqui-tinic to boost her iron intake. But it was only when I started supplementing her with canned food that her weight started coming back up. I am fairly convinced that when her body is attacking its red blood cells she stops wanting to eat raw food. I have no idea why, but I think her early weight loss is the result of not eating.  She happily eats canned food and put the weight back on. I will continue to give her whatever she wants until she is stable again.  Last year it was once her coat was shed.

To help that along, I decided to help by shaving off some of the longer furs on her belly and some of her mane. She was not too amused by my attempts despite my attempts to make this as stress-free as possible. I fear that she had some traumatic events in the past with a vet I'm no longer going to which makes her fear the clippers because she associates it with blood draws. Anyway, I did my best, I went a little longer than I should have (and ended up with a warning bite on my arm for my troubles) but I was able to take off a good chunk..

She is not amused.. I'll probably try furminating her again later this week - Thursday if we have another snow day for sure.

Skippy hopes you have a lovely holiday

Jack, Muffin and Fleurp take a trip to the vet

My cats take trips to the vet in threes because my vet offers a discount when I bring three at a time.  It is nice that they do that, but a bit annoying because I end up waiting until there are three issues (as long as none of the issues can't wait.  If something needs immediate attention they go immediately).

I noticed a while back that Jack had a bit of tarter on his teeth, and I was doing my best to get it off, but I wasn't having much luck. One of his teeth on his upper right side was dark and seemed to bother him when I brushed them, and his eye started watering, so he was issue #1. My poor boy has so few teeth left, I feared they were going to have to take that one too, but they decided it didn't need to go. I'm glad.  He did really well and came home and immediately started screaming for food. He's still a bit wobbly from the sedation, it was a fun combination.  He has eaten and is now resting.

Fleurp needed to go too.  Well, I suppose technically she didn't NEED to go, but for my peace of mind, I wanted to get a CBC done on her to see if she is becoming anemic or not.  She had some obvious issues back in February and I put her on pred for several weeks, then slowly weaned her off of it.  I had her down to 2.5mg every four days and I was trying to decide if she should stay on it until June or if I should stop.  I opted to stop, and I made a conscious effort to groom her fairly regularly until her winter mane was gone.  See Fleurp grows a pretty impressive mane in the winter, but loses it all and looks like a kitten during the summer. If she became anemic in the fall, while growing her mane, it would make sense. Becoming anemic when her hair is falling out makes no sense at all... but on the random chance that consuming all her fur was interfering with something I furminated her almost daily for a few weeks.. so far *knocks wood* things are going well, and her blood work confirms it. I won't feel like we are out of the woods this year until summer officially starts.

For about six months now Muff has had a some of the oddest things going on.  No major red flag, just a bunch of tiny, little, minor things that were bugging me. Originally I brought her to the vet for going into the bathroom and doing her little half mew whine thing. She would stand near where Jack used to pee so I feared she was having urinary issues, but no.  Then in February, I brought her in thinking it might have been her anal glands. One was a bit bigger but it didn't seem to change anything once it was expressed. Lately, she has been less tolerant of other cats in the house and there would be major hiss offs if someone got to close to her. She would also get snippy with me if I touched her hips when she was laying on the bed. She previously had a tremor in her front legs, which seemed to go away after a few days, now she has something so slight that it could be a tremor, it could be a slight limp, it could be I was imagining things, but I thought I would go and bring her in and have someone put hands on her and see if she might have arthritis. Fortunately, and unfortunately, nothing was found.  We decided to do more bloodwork to make sure there isn't a thyroid or some other issue going on there.  The vet also recommended she lose two pounds on the off chance it is the beginning of arthritis.  So I'm going to cut out the random can of Fancy Feast I've been slipping her from time to time (because it is the only thing that pacifies her when she becomes whiny).  She is almost 14 years old, so we might just be entering her cranky old lady phase, but I want to make sure that there isn't something I can do for her to help her be happier.

So $600+ dollars later, I think we are set for a while - well as long as nothing pops on Muffin's blood work.

Blogging for peace my big furry behind

I am so not talking to you right now

So rumor has it today is supposed to be a day of peace (and sadly not piece, like in pieces of chicken which we totally love) but apparently our momma didn't get that memo (someone PLEASE help her, she obviously needs it) and decided today was to be as not peaceful as felinely possible.. 

Yes, you guessed it, I was taken to the vet!! To make things worse, she brought Muffin, Fleurp and Kit with me.. (and yes she drooled again, stealin all of my attentions) 

And yes, she forgot to bring a drool bib for Kit and slobber went everywhere.. I did my best to stay out of the way by staying in my basket of protection, but I hears everything.. 

I was there to make sure that my thyroid was doing well. It was so pointless, momma KNOWS it is doing well because I'm not peeing all over the house and I'm slowly losing the weight I gained.. but you know those doctor types, always wanting proof.. so I let him has some more of my bloods.. 

Muffin was there for a check up. She's been vomiting a little more than 'normal' so they took some of her bloods too. The doctor said that she checked out okay physically. Momma said she used to have a bump behind her ear that has been there for months, but wasn't there today.. isn't that always the way?!?

Fleurp was there to make sure her RBC is in the normal range. We expect that it is because things have been going well with her too. For some odd reason she has started licking the mirror lately, but I thinks she does it for attention.. (attention that SHOULD be mine!!) but again those doctor things like proof, so she had bloods stolen too.

Kit went because she has had a major case of ADR going on lately. No one symptom lasts more than a day or two. She was congested this past weekend and didn't eat at all but then went on an eating spree on Monday. Sometimes she purrs funny, today she had a bit of loose stool.. She is a petite little girl, and she is eight and a half so momma thought that she should have some bloods stolen too.. and the vet tooks them. *sigh* I hope he isn't a vampire.. 

Fleurp, don't stand on Muffin.. 

Even under duress I am handsome

The vet said we all checked out okay, but we do have to wait for the bloods to come back (where are they going? and I hope they don't hurt as much coming back as they did being taken) but now it is so very much naptime.. 

and I totally think the momma should be giving us lots of treats to make up for this.. I don't care if she has a splinter in her hand and it swelling, she can still open up those treats... I know because she just fed herself..  and at the very least she could be kissing me.. 

~Jack

The Crew and the vet

Yesterday Muffin and Kit went into the vet to get dentals. Muffin (13) has had very excellent teeth up until about a year ago when she started developing plaque and it got to the point that I couldn't keep up with it any more and she was drooling when ever she came up to me and purred, which is ALL THE TIME.

Because my vet offers a 10% discount when you combine services for three or more pets I decided it was time to get Kit (8) in there too.  She had some build up and it was time for her first old kitty blood work (I generally don't start them till they are nine, but she is tiny and fluffy and spends NO time with me so I would miss weight loss or other normal signs) and besides, Kit is horrible to take to the vet..

Because I wanted to do a senior panel on her, we decided to let her sit at the vet overnight (I certainly did NOT want to put her through the card ride four times) and so Muffin did too.  It was a little weird Tuesday night since Muffin lays on top of me each night and Kit lays on top of my husband.

Kit only lost one little front tooth, and Muffin lost one of her molars. When they made it home Muffin, my little tank, came out of the carrier and said "Okay, I went to the vet, where is MY CANNED FOOD!!!"  Kit however was quite drunk and stumbling around and it took her a while to get some semblance of herself back. It freaked my husband right out.

Both of them had very good reports blood wise.  Kit had a glucose in the 200s but the vet felt the need to make note that was because it was stress. I know it could be, and it very well should be... but I will be testing her in the next day or so to be sure.

Fleurp's blood work is looking better and better.  Apparently we need to send it out because her blood doesn't like the in house machine and constantly gives false reports.  We will do one more draw when she is off pred and make sure things are okay, and then spot check her a few times. The vet said he found a 'couple' of other cases of cats becoming anemic in the spring on a vet's only website (where they need to subscribe) so she isn't the only one out there.. but darn it.. she is pretty freakin unique.

Anyway, when we were all home I noticed the sun was making a spectacular display and I went to go and take some photos of it..

The whole house turned a beautiful orange color.  I went to the front of the house and our front door doesn't close unless you purposefully close it, and I apparently didn't because a moment later,

Bold as you please, she walked right out like this was yet another room in her house.  Now I have had cats that wanted to come outside with me before, but never Muff. She likes her nice quite safe under the bed when anything odd happens life.  I guess being drunk really does make a difference..

and then I thought sure she would take one look at the rain and turn right back around, my little (okay fine huge) delicate flower of a cat..

I can't believe she got her feet wet!!  She was investigating the garage for a bit and finally I scooped her up and brought her into the house before she could cause more trouble... Miss Sassypants.. :)

Later I noticed something about her leg where it was shaved for the catheter.  The photos aren't the best because was telling me in no uncertain terms that I needed to stop taking photos and start with the lovin because we  had a whole day to catch up on.

The first photo is the front side of her leg to show her normal pink color.. the second is the inside.. it was bright red.. quite bruised.  Sadly this morning she has a bit of a limp too.  I'm not happy about this. I hope she is better by tonight..

Our mysteriously Fleurp and her anemia

So several years ago, Fleurp started licking the cement in our basement and eating dirt out of our plants. It was such an odd thing (although sadly not the oddest thing ever to happen in my house - that distinction goes to Ollie who used to eat the pink fiberglass insulation) that I looked it up online. I found that it was a huge red flag that a cat could be anemic.

I made an appointment with the vet as soon as I could, although I am kinda sad to admit how much time had elapsed since I first realized the symptom and the time I got there, and low and behold her blood count was very low.  We put her on prednisolone and doxycycline and took x-rays (lots of x-rays before was all said and done since she had a huge chunk of cement in her belly)

We tested her for felv/fiv (negative) and hemobart (neg), but she responded so nicely to the pred and held her RBC that we let it go.

That fall she seemed to be having problems again so I brought her in for another cbc and she was fine.

The next spring, anemic again.  More tests. More pred.. Still no answers, and she bounces back like a rubber ball we cross our fingers.

Again, spring.. *sigh* went holistic route this time.. we got her through it with just holistic remedies. Didn't even test her that year, but she started losing the fur off her ears.  Vet was so busy that when I asked about it she told me to discontinue the remedy and didn't offer any other solutions.. she did fine off the remedy so we just let it go and crossed our fingers again.

Last year.. more anemia.  More discussions with the vet. Still no answers.

this year on June 12th

This year I spent the whole year preparing her body to do battle with anemia. I gave her regular supplementation of liqui-tinic to keep her body well stocked with b vitamins, amino acids and iron. I gave her semi regular supplementation of her raw food with Fancy Feast classics to keep her weight up (she has weight loss with her anemia) I brushed her regularly in case shedding had anything to do with it. I lavished her with love.

Yeah, love didn't cut it, neither did anything else. Her blood was so sticky that the machine that does the CBC read it as 3% (which is practically dead and needs a blood transfusion now) so they spun it and got 13. It was odd because she was still fairly pink up until that last day, and her weight was holding steady; and while she wasn't lethargic she was less interested in things just staring off at nothing unless we were actively trying to get her attention - which was very easy to do. This time she started licking the mirror.. just one mirror in the bedroom, and she did it every time after I gave her some canned food.

The vet.. I like the vet because she is thorough, but she takes every immediate symptom and runs through all of the scenarios, including the worst case one. Fleurp had a bit of an arrhythmia, and she is talking of blood tests and echo-cardiograms before we even ran her cbc.  When her blood count came back, I asked if that could cause the arrhythmia and she admitted it could, so I said we would worry about that afterwards. Since we have no idea why she becomes anemic every single late spring, she talked about all of the things we could test including a bone biopsy. It has been mentioned a few times that it might be immune mediated hemolytic anemia and that we can test for, with the Coombs test.  So we ran that... and oddly enough it was negative.

I REALLY want to know what this is, but I don't see the point in running tests, especially bone biopsies which has got to hurt, to prove what it might be if the treatment is always going to be a round of steroids when ever she starts having a problem. I need to have another good discussion with the vet about what it could be, what tests there are to prove it, and if it is what ever we are testing for, what is the results of knowing this.  If there is a possibility to fix what ever it is, I'm all over that like white on rice (well on white rice - since forbidden rice is black)

24 hours after starting pred.. she's getting into trouble again

So we tested her again on Monday, and her PCV went from 13% to 23%.  Like a rubber ball my little girl.. (in more ways than one) so we are going to continue her on pred twice a day until the 1st when we test her again (and Muffin and Kit are going in for dental cleanings) and hopefully we will have a stronger game plan, but if not the vet is talking about putting her on pred come the first of June next year and just hoping to keep this from happening again.

"What the?!?!" Wednesday

Yup, Fleurp has started hanging out in the bath tub..

For those of you who aren't quite familiar with Fleurp, she came to me in 2008 as a foster.. she was all by herself and I fostered her in my bath tub for a few weeks because we thought she had a bad URI. Turns out she was bitten by something and as a result she has scaring in her left eye..

Several years ago she developed anemia in the spring. I brought her to the vet and theories were bandied about, tests were run and a treatment developed (steroids and antibiotics) and she got better. In the fall she started showing signs of anemia and I brought her in to be tested again (and again) but she wasn't anemic.. so we just rode it out. The next spring she showed more signs, more anemia, more steroids and more treatment.. and round and round and round.. This last spring I brought her to a holistic vet and we tried something other than steroids and things got better with out them which I am very thankful for. But once the fall equinox showed up she started showing signs again.. they started becoming undeniable (licking cement right in front of me) so I've started giving her additional food and an iron supplement - which seems to be enough to get her through her fall symptoms.. but she started hanging out in the bathroom where I slip her additional food instead of the kitchen where she normally hangs.

But now she has decided IN the bathtub is the place to be. I am constantly finding her in there. It saddens me that the six other members of The Crew will be hanging out in bed with us, but she'll be lounging in the bathroom all by herself.

I am hopeful this too will pass and she'll start joining in again.. but I do have to say, it makes for some very interesting conversations in the house when either I or my husband wonder where the Fleurp is..