Casa de Gato updates - Eli

Eli, littermate to Muffin, was a foster back in 2002 so he is also sixteen and a half years old. He had a major issue with URI as a kitten so he has scared tear ducts so his face is always a mess. As he has gotten older it has gotten better. I am not sure if it is because his body has compensated or he gets someone to clean his face regularly.

Because of the URI and the months of medication, he has always had a very healthy suspicion of us. For the first ten years of his life, he ran away from us every time he saw us. With some Rescue Remedy, we broke him of the association of fear so he would stop running. A while after that he realized how much he loves static and would come to us for attention in the winter months. And then, he voluntarily touched me. It was an incredible day for me.. (much like when Darcy climbed up on me the other day) Since then I have given him some CBD and it has helped his paranoia and fear quite a bit.  We have had company and workmen in the house multiple times since I started and he has been out for all of them.  Was it because of the CBD or because he mellowed in his old age? I'm going with the CBD, because he's still pretty high strung.

Eli also started losing weight recently. He dropped half a pound in less than two weeks and I started flipping out. I realized it when I went to give him a kiss and realized he had a sickly smell to him - something I recognized from fostering kittens. It wasn't strong, but it was there. I was about to run him to the vet but he was willing to eat so I decided to give it a couple of days to see exactly what was going on.  I even started giving him.. dry food

I also decided to deworm him, because why not.. and he is doing well, regaining the weight, and demanding dry food on a regular basis - which I am unwilling to do because of his 16.5-year-old kidneys.  He is incredibly spry and still regularly runs around the house like his tail is on fire - often because Twee is harassing him. He still demands attention when we have gone to bed where he gets in between us and I get to rub his belly. He still has several lipomas on his body, but like Muff's cyst, I am unwilling to put him through a surgery to remove them.

The post about Eli

Eli came to me in a litter of fosters in the first year I was fostering. It was probably August of 2002.  I had a mother cat and she came with four kittens.  Turned out not all of the kittens were hers.. I ended up taking seven more orphans shortly afterwards, and through a series of events that I am not going to get into here, I ended up adopting Muffin and Eli..  I do not know why it is Muffin and Eli.. but it always has been.  Kinda like when you are a kid and your presents come from 'mom and dad'.. So I consider Muff 'older' than Eli, hence his post being first (since again I'm working in reverse order here)

Eli started out life as a very normal very happy kitten.

But that above mentioned series of events, left him quite vulnerable and he got several cases of URI as a kitten and he did NOT like being medicated.  I was so new to medicating kittens, that I'm sure I bungled it more times than I care to even pretend to admit, simply adding to the problem. He actually got calcivirus, and had blisters in his mouth so badly that his whole tongue was all blister at one point.  He came very close to dying that Thanksgiving, and spent that weekend at the vet clinic being cared for.  As a result of all of this, he ended up with two blocked tear ducts and a huge fear of people.  Part of me wonders now if I had sent him on to a new home if he would have learned to trust new people, but I feared for him and wanted to make sure he had a good life, even if he wanted nothing to do with me.

His blocked tear ducts made his life VERY complicated. Because of them he had a lot of debris on his face constantly as well as backing up into his ears. I would often have to sneak up on him, and get a tight grip and clean his ears out for him to make sure he could continue to hear. At one point I talked to a vet and we did a 'tear duct flush' hoping to remove some of that scar tissue and make life easier for him, but it was unsuccessful.  The holistic vet who worked at the clinic suggested laser therapy, and twice a week for several months I would sneak up on him, catch him, load him up and bring him in and he would get laser. It helped a great deal, his ears stopped being so disgusting and full of gunk. As he started feeling better, Eli seriously started protesting the being caught aspect of this treatment, so I put a stop to it.

Years went by, and I could tell he had long ago forgotten why he ran when he saw us move, but just knew he had to. I had learned about Rescue Remedy about that time, and thought what the heck. I dosed his food, and dosed him when I could (dropping a few drops on his back). Soon I could see him giving himself those few extra seconds before running, trying to decide if I really was a threat.  I could then walk into the room with out his running.  Then I could walk across the room as long as I wasn't walking in his general direction, and then I could walk in his general direction as long as I wasn't making eye contact nor reaching for him.. His life improved DRAMATICALLY!  After a while I stopped seeing continued improvement and figured that it had done all it could for him.  I was glad he was more relaxed, but sad we didn't have a good relationship.

Then one winter he discovered his greatest and best love ever.. something he loves beyond reason, beyond fear.. something he just adores and will put up with me and my husband to get.  Static.  yes, that 'I walked across a carpet and shocked the living daylights out of myself' static.. He LOVES it.  it cries for it starting as soon as the weather starts getting cool (long before it will actually happen) and keeps crying for it all winter and spring, and used to get upset with us when it stopped happening - like it was our fault.  Often I will pat him in the dark and generate static on him, and you can watch it light up like fireflies. (or when you chew a wintergreen lifesaver in the dark)  I am hoping one of these days to get a video of it, but it will require that not only Eli and I are available in the dark, but a third party to do the filming (or generating the static while I film)

So his love of static (yes, he is weird, I know this) and time have helped him understand that we can be trusted and sometime after he turned ten he willingly put paw on my leg for the first time. I nearly cried.  When I looked up one day a few months later and he was sitting on my leg all on his own (he would sit there if I picked him up and put him there and continued to pat him) I announced to the world my joy.. now he's 12 and he regularly comes into bed and plops himself down between my husband and I and presents his belly for rubbin.  He has all that time to make up for.

Eli also has the nickname Squeaky, because he does not meow.. he makes a odd little squeaking noise.  He also responds to his name.. when he walks into a room we call "SQUEAKY!" and he squeaks back at us..

He also really REALLY likes his nip..

Wordless Wednesday - Eli

oops

I stepped on Fluffy today. I didn't mean to, and I didn't do an ounce of damage physically, but the poor thing was terrified of me afterwards.. So I picked him up and cuddled him, making sure everything was okay, and gaining back his trust. After a few moments I had it, so I put him down.. he was fine.. untill I stood up, then he was all cowering again. It would have been so adorable if I hadn't felt so horrible about it

Emerald has been on the PZI now for a few days and has been doing extremely well on it. Her coat is better, and she seems a bit more interested in what is going on around her.

I think there has been a slight improvement in Eli's eyes. He has been visiting the herbalist twice a week now for a bit.. she's using a laser on his face to stimulate growth of healthy tissue around his blockage. He's such a sweet little boy, but I think he's catching on to his Monday and Friday trips to the vet..

And the eye issues keep going on.

So Eli's surgery was a waste of time. *sigh* poor boy. He is blocked somewhere down where the tear ducts drain out into the nose. The surgeon tried everything he could, but to no avail. So he's a blocked little boy. He also recommended I put ointment in his eyes for a couple of days to help him after surgery. Eli was not thrilled with that idea. He HATES eye ointments.

He came through the surgery with flying colors. Woke up quickly. Downed the can of wet food they gave him (he rarely gets wet food at home) and went home at noon time. The only problem so far was he sneezed out a wad of mucus with blood in it.

This morning, Fluffy the foster kitty's eye was so swollen you couldn't see his eyeball.. so I packed him up and brought him down to work on my day off. The doctor who looked at him "broke" his eye and found a huge mucus plug. EWWW.. but at least we can see his eyeball now. I also have different ointment for him now. It has hydrocortisone in it.. so we should be seeing some improvements soon. I also brought Gracie in cause her URI was sounding horrible, and I wanted to make sure it hadn't gotten in her lungs. It hadn't. On the ride home, I took them out of the carrier, and Gracie cuddled up on my chest and went to sleep. Fluffy was full of spit and vinegar, and was a bit of a handful, but it was nice to see him so active. I still really hadn't settled on a name for him. I was calling him Sam, but I didn't really like that.. he's always just been fluffy.. so I called him fluffinutter.. which I liked.. then I called him the fluffinator.. which I LOVE.. :) He's got such big feet, and he's going to be such a big boy when all is said and done. I know that the name probably won't stick with him, but it is going to for now. I'll probably still call him fluffy for short.. but at least it won't sound so girly to me now.. :)

and I still can't express how much I want to adopt him. Especially when he rolls on his back and lets me pat his tummy.

(update 2016 - it breaks my heart to read that I fed my cats so poorly back then. *sigh* if I could go back in time and tell myself what I know now... )

Eli and the tear duct flush and kitten update

I talked to the herbalist today.. she recommends starting out trying a tear duct flush for Eli.. so I'm going to schedule that on a day that the surgeon who has had some luck doing the procedure is working. I talked to two of the other surgeons, and they haven't had much success doing it, which is why I wanted to go the herbal route.. but hopefully the surgery will work well, and we won't have to worry about pilling him. Dr. S does surgery on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. I was going to schedule it for Thursday, but then I remembered that I have the morning off. I like the idea of his being there the next day as well if perchance something goes wrong, so we are going to wait till next Thursday. a week isn't going to make much of a difference since it's been going on for so long.. and his eyes are actually much better recently, so I think this works out for the best.

now for the kittens. I took another look at the little girls eye, and it seems fine.. must have just been a trick of light. The little fluffy one decided he didn't want to eat yesterday. I put a bit of food in his mouth, and he ate that but didn't eat on his own. He seemed to want to eat, but just wouldn't. He's not sneezing, and looks healthy, except for the lack of food. I forced some KMR into him so at least he had some nutriants. I said to myself if he didn't eat in the morning I'd bring him in with me to work, but he actually ate about three bites, then gave up.. so I forced some more KMR into him, and stopped to get some meds. Hopefully, I won't need to use them, and he'll be ready to eat when I go in there... right now.

Eli's Trip to the vet

I brought Eli in to see the vet on Friday.. Wanted to have the herbalist look at his eyes.. see if there was anything she could recommend. Not going to comment on the actual day, as she has to mull the info over for a while, but now that he's home, he's a lot more friendly.. almost as if he's thankful I didn't leave him there.

Like I'd actually do that.. silly kitty. But I do appreciate the extra attention!

The Joy of Balls

The kittens have discovered the joy of balls. It's so cute. I tied a piece of string to one of them so I can move it around, and it is the BEST thing.. :) Miss Piggy also likes to play a rousing game of "give me five" if you put your hand out to her palm up, and wiggle your fingers, she'll slap your palm with her paw, many many times... its quite cute.

I clipped the kittens claws today. It went over about how I expected it too. Peanut hated sitting still. Fozzie wasn't too keen on me picking her up, but once I did was okay. I held her a bit yesterday and patted her, she almost fell asleep in my arms. :) yea.. they are getting uber cute and I like them.

I talked to the vet today about doing a tear duct flush on Eli. She said that it was probably scabbed over, and it wouldn't be much of a success. sigh. I've decided that I'm going to make a point of washing his face a couple of times a day and see what that does, cause last night I found a scratch on his face.. if the tears overflow badly, then it almost seems as if his eyelids swell a little. I was cleaning them with my finger, but I'm going to use a face cloth with warm water twice a day.. need it or not.. let's see how his face looks then. If it's still bad I'll bring him in. If perchance his tear ducts are just blocked, the longer I wait, the greater the chance that his natural defenses are going to turn it into scar tissue.. well that does seem logical.. to me..

22 kittens up for adoption

There are going to be 22 kittens up for adoption tomorrow.. I hope mine are adopted.. cause I absolutely hate leaving them there after they have been up for adoption for a day.

We had "day of beauty" for my kitties today.. I really need to make a point of doing that at least once a week if not more, cause they are starting to fight me on it.. I trim their claws, comb the fur, and brush the teeth. Ollie refuses to let me do it if there is anyone else in the room. It's like he is embarrassed. He still growls at me when I restrain him, but at least he's not fighting me. I'm so lucky that he keeps his fur so well. we get a lot of cats in the clinic with huge mats that get so tight they pull the skin and are uncomfortable. Every once in a while, he will get a matt, but they are small and are easy to pull out. Most of the time I can get them out without him getting too mad. I'm surprised the brushing of the teeth isn't harder than it is.. but since I only need to get the outer sides it works out well. I think they might like the flavor of the toothpaste too. Not overly, but it's tolerable.

I've gotten to the point with Eli that I need to talk to the doctor about his tear ducts because his eyes are looking horrible, the skin underneath is looking quite inflamed, and he hates it when I clean him off. I can't keep doing that, he'll never want to be around me. I'll let you know more about it when I work up the courage to talk to someone about it. hard to do since there isn't much time in the day to chat with someone at work.. and since I've only been there a short time, I don't want to seem like I'm taking advantage of the perks of the job..