CATS
Pumpkin and Mustard were 2 boys who came from the CPL. They were pretty much feral when they arrived in 2004 at a year old. It took us 30 minutes to get them from the small cage they were living in and into a box. Slowly they have accepted us and we can do most things needed to look after them. When they arrived we could see that Pumpkin walked funny, and after dicussing it with our vets we concluded he had maybe been in a car accident when young. However he became very lame in 2007 and we got x-rays taken, it turned out he had permanently dislocated kneecaps and due to this his cruciate ligament had ruptured on one side. Our vet did an operation to fix the cruciate ligament and tried to create a groove for the kneecap to sit in. The cruciate op was very sucessful, but it was hard to make a groove as they was practically nothing there, so it has been partially successful. A year later the other kneecap was fixed, this was much more successful because there was no complication due to the cruciate damage. Pumpkin is now an indoor cat, we cannot risk him being out and perhaps doing serious damage.
Mustard sadly passed away in March 2010, due to complications from heart failure.
Candy also arrived in 2006, aged 10. Her owner had died and she was going to be PTS, so again she came to live with us. Candy is quite a feisty old girl and was not easy to handle, over time she has improved, but is still the most likely to bite! In 2008 she started to be sick a couple of times a day, so she went in for tests and we think she has IBD, she gets zantac when she is particularly upset, but we seem to be managing it with diet , fish fillets and cat food with lamb and rice only, at the moment, although at some point she may go onto steroids.
Misty was 18 when she came in 2007, her owner was very ill and it looked like Misty was going to be PTS, when we got her she was given a blood test for normal function and her thyroid, and amazingly she was very healthy, no problems. She spends most of her time sleeping, in a cat bed right beside a radiator, it is left on all the time for her! At the start of 2009 she stopped eating and we were worried that this was the end, again she was given blood tests, and ECG and x-rays. Nothing other than arthritis showed up, and when we started to feed her fish fillets she perked up again, I suspect she may also have developed a form if IBD as she was a bit sick for a while, but is doing very well on her new diet, which is the same as Candy's. In the middle of 2009, Misty was also diagnosed asstarting to show chronic renal failure. She is now on a renal diet. rubenal and ipakatine, later on she may also have to go onto fortekor. At the moment she is eating well and seems happy.
Sooty also arrived in 2007 aged 7, his owner had sadly died and we were asked to take him. He is a lovely boy and is about the only cat we have without health problems, so is the only one who goes outside.
Tabatha is another hyperthyroid cat, who arrived in 2008 aged 13. Her owner was moving abroad and it looked like she would have to be PTS. We had just lost Triger to FIV and had all our other cats were tested for it just before we were asked to take in Tabatha, they all came back clear. We asked that Tabatha be tested and she came back positive, we didn't know what to do. We finally decided to try her as the study cat, and she has settled well. She sits beside me when I am on the computer, and hits the escape key with her head, deleting the page of boring stuff I've written!
Jimmy arrived in October 2009, his owner was an elderly gentleman, who could no longer look after him. Jimmy is 15, has one eye and suffers from constipation. A month after he arrived, we noticed he was losing weight, so he was blood tested for a hyperthyroid, and sure enough, he has one. Jimmy is stable at the moment and coping very well with his new lifestyle.
Fluffy arrived in December 2009 aged 12 years old. She came for a difficult background, where her owner suffered mental health problems. Fluffy had erratic care and at one point had to go into care with a local rescue. Her owner died in 2009 and she was again taken in by the rescue, unfortunatly because Fluffy had an uncontrolled thyroid problem, is seemed likely she would be difficult to rehome, so we took her. She has settled well, although we are trying to get her used to having her tummy groomed, being long haired she needs it. Fluffy has been very difficult to stabilise, and is now on 30mg of vidalta, she may however need her drugs to be changed or even a thyroidectomy.
Loki arrived in March 2010 aged 3 years old, his owner had become ill and he ended up with no where to go, it was starting to look like he may have to be PTS We were called by a friend who is also a nurse and said we would take him. He has settled in well, been tested forFIV/Felv and the next step will be his boosters and an introduction to the big outside world.
Available for sponsorship.
Helga ,9 years old, came to us when her owners booked her in at the vet to be PTS because she was urinating in the house and they could no longer cope. Helga was severely overweight and had chronic cystitis, she weight in at 8 kgs ( average cats are between 3.5- 5.5kgs). Her bottom was also very sore because she could not clean herself. She was giving antibiotics to clear the infection and we washed her bottom nightly and then applied a soothing cream. Her bottom got better very quickly and cystitis soon was cured. She was also put on a diet, but this will not be quick, in the first 6 weeks Helga has lost a kilo and is now living with the other cats, hopefully she will continue to lose weight, we will keep you updated.
Mr Tomsk ( a proper tabby, entire tomcat) chose us for a change. He has been living on the yard all winter as a stray. Initially he would just wander around calling to us, but not coming near and we didn't feed him to begin with because we thought he may belong to somebody local. Gradually he would come up to us for cuddles and we could feel he was quite thin and covered in ticks, he was also riddled with worms. We started to feed him because it was apparent he was living in the stables. We asked all the neighbours and checked to see if he was microchipped but nobody claimed him, so we had him microchipped, neutered, wormed, de-ticked, tested for FIV/Felv ( he was high risk being an un-neutered tom) and vaccinated. He has been living in the house for the last month while recovering from his op and getting his vaccines and has been a fairly good house guest. We are trying to introduce him to the others but he is a bit overwhelmed at the moment, he has stopped spitting quite as much as he did though.