More Hipstamatic!

Here I am in the morning with my guy, I was away for a couple days and when I woke up he was all cuddled up.  I pulled him a little closer to cuddle and he was purring while laying on my arm.  Such a sweetie!

Hipstamatic!

I just downloaded the Hipstamatic app for my Iphone and am a bit obsessed.  The previous picture in the last post was also from that app.  Sam is the best model to try out all the settings.

This is how my little guy cuddles with me.  He loves his pillows and uses anything close as one.  This time it was my cheek......awwwww!

Sam Meet's Lucy!

A good friend of mine recently stayed with us and brought her sweet dog Lucy.  Sam is very interested in Dogs and likes to stare at them and chase them around.

Vote for my famous kittys!

Click on the photos to vote for my guys at I can has cheezburger

moar funny pictures


moar funny pictures

New Pictures and raw food

These are all photos I have taken with my phone and adding to facebook via mobile uploads. I have a problem with taking only pictures of the cats. I can't help it, they do cute stuff all the time. Now that Sam is healed he has gained all his weight back, too much weight, we are starting the transition to feeding them only raw food. We already feed them really good dry food, but I know raw is the best and I want them to be really healthy, after dealing with the Hepatic Lipidosis (see beginning of the blog). I don't want anything else to go wrong, especially diabetes. I have been giving them 1/2 of their normal dry food (wellness weight control) and 1/2 a can of wet food (wellness) mixed with 2 medallions of the frozen raw food (thawed). They won't eat the raw food by it's self yet. I talked to a friend earlier who's cat has been eating mostly raw forever and she mentioned adding some warm water to the raw food, which helped. Sam actually ate some of it with out the wet food mixed in, but not much. I added the wet food again and then they both went for it no problem. This transition is a little stressful after dealing with the liver disease, I keep worrying the aren't eating enough. I think it will all work out, I'm just over sensitive from dealing with the liver disease.

I love the paw bouquet in this picture.

Handsome boy in his new favorite spot on the new couch!

They must be warm, usually if they are laying in the same spot they are cuddling.

Really relaxed, I love the curled back paws :)

Thats more like it!

awwws

Here are my guys this morning laying in the sun while cuddling.

I is verging on crazy cat lady!

My boys being sweet!es

These two brothers are so cute when they cuddle.  They have been doing it a lot lately.  I think when the weather gets a bit cold they like to cuddle for more warmth.  It's always a nice uplifting surprise to find them in such cute cuddle positions.

In memory of others peoples cats

While I was on my holiday vacations I took it upon myself to take pictures of many of my friends companions.  I also heard a sad story from a friend of a friend about her cat that recently didn't make it, who had the same thing my Sam had (Hepatic Lipidosis).  It was extremely sad to hear her tell the story about trying to save her cat.  I completely understood everything she had gone thorough, except my story had a much happier ending.  She was crying when she told the story, which made me cry too.  We were lucky to be in a position to afford to get the feeding tube put it, that made a huge difference for sam, and him being able to make a complete recovery.  So heres to the sweet girl who lost her friend and her one remaining cat.

This guy is named Fat Bastard, and is such a sweet lap kitty.   He is one of the biggest cats I have ever seen. 

New baby and her friend

This sweet fluffer used to live with me a few years ago and belongs to my friend, his name is Cosmo

Recent Pictures and Introducing Sam's brother Sylvester

Here are some more recent pictures of my guys.  Sylvester makes a appearance, he is Sams brother and A little bit of a menace.  Sam is the sweet gentle one, Sylvester is a bit fussy but can be really sweet when he is in a good mood. 

It's a Sam in a box

Licky loo's

Sleepy bunny

Sylvester loves to sit in the built in book shelves above the fireplace/heater

My little helper

I dumped out a bag of fake flowers as I was working on my costume for halloween, and I told David, as Sam was walking towards me that I bet he will lay down right in the middle.  Boy, do I know my guy.   I immediately grabbed the camera and got some great shots.  I might try to submit one to "stuff on my cat".

Which one do you think is the best???

Healed

I ended up not having to take sam in to check out his wound.  It just started looking better and better.  Now he is doing great.  Miracle healing accomplished. 

vet trip

Tomorrow I need to take sam in again to check his tube site.  It seems to not be healing properly so I want to have him checked to be sure if there is a problem or not.  Otherwise the little guy is doing amazing! I snapped some cute pictures today that I will upload soon! 

Fixed

Sam seems to be healed.  The doctor took out the feeding tube today and as soon as we got home Sam went straight for the food.  His hole where the tube is, is a little red and started bleeding but It should heal on its own soon.  I am so grateful to all the people at Mission Pet Hospital for all the help with saving Sam, especially our main vet Dr. David Gordon.  It was quite a chore for David's Bank account and my stress levels, but we did it.  He is o.k now!  Thanks again to everyone who read the blog and has commented and sent healing thoughts and energy to our sweetheart.  I will continue to post pictures of Sam and Sylvester periodically, as they are super cute!

the proof!

I took some pictures of sam when he started eating for the first time.  Here he is, eating and being cute!

Vet today

Sam's infection is gone, no fever, gained 4 oz, ate on his own earlier for the first time, today was amazing!!!  He is being all cute and rubbing up against us and being super cuddley, I think he knows we saved his life. 

He did it!

Sam ate on his own this morning!!!  We are going to the vet later today and we'll see what they says about removing the tube.  I think we should wait a few more days until he eats a larger amount.  We are so excited, he is on the road to being normal again!  Thanks so much for all your love and support, it has helped tremendously.

Some lovins!

I thought I would share some cute pictures from our fridge, something a little more uplifting.  Its been a crazy few weeks and I think we all need some cuteness in our lives to cheer us up.

Here are the brothers in seattle! It's so cute how sam loves to touch his friends.  He loves to reach out a paw and feel people and his brother.

and when they were tini babies, amazingly sylvester looks so mellow, that didn't last long.

And me, starting my kitty nursing as a baby myself, with mouse, and amazingly he is bigger than our monster cats. 

Soon!

I put some food in front of Sam, and wiped some of it on his nose. He licked it off. Then he sniffed the food and had a tini bite. This means he is getting closer to eating on his own! David and I were so exicted when he had just a tini bite and I got teary. Now he is just sitting there on the arm of the couch with some wet food in front of him on a paper towel. He isn't running away and he isn't eating it. Just sitting there, maybe he needs to get used to the idea of eating again. I can feel it, he is getting really close.

Good news

The vet says that the infection looked really good, no pus! He had to stich up the tube site because the skin it was attached to was all dried out and the tube wasn't connected to the skin anymore. Sam took his food really well when I fed him earlier, so that is great news! Going back to the vet on saturday!

Shots!!

We got Sam some more nausea shots and I guess thats all he was missing because now he seems to be doing so much better. I'm taking him to the vet now to get his infection cleaned out and a new bandage. I hope he starts eating on his own soon!!

bad day!

I just tried to feed sam for the second time today.  He puked it up immediately.  He has puked twice now today.  I am wondering if the surgery from yesterday made him not feel good, the anesthesia and such.  It's so hard worrying about this cat all the time.  I just want him to eat on his own and feel better and be his self again. 

So confusing!

There is so much going on with Sam.  He had that infection (abscess) that was removed/drained on monday, that infection was extremely bad bacteria that can be immune to antibiotics and can also mutate.   The vet also now thinks that something else might be going on.  As in why he stopped eating in the first place, Inflammatory bowel or some sort of intestinal disease.  If the infection comes back we have to pull the tube.  The vet says that Sam should start eating because his liver is basically healed now, good new for sure.   The only problem is that he still won't eat on his own and I tried to put some milk in front of him earlier and just smelling it made him puke.  I am so glad to know that his liver is better, now we just need the sammer to start eating on his own.  I am hoping he will do this really soon!  It's so sad to think of all he has been through and how he must have been feeling.   I hope he recovers soon and eats some snacks!

Draining

Sam's abscess is draining now and he seems ok.  The doctors and techs said he didn't really seem sick, he was in good spirits.  But we have to watch the wound to make sure it is healing so we can keep the tube in.   Poor guy has been through 2 surgeries and numerous other tests in the last 3 weeks.

frustrations

Today we took Sam in and now he is in surgery again.  He had a abscess and the vet, who is not our vet said she wanted to pull the tube out.   This is not a good idea, and we told her we didn't agree with that.  If we pull the tube he will have no way of eating, and he won't eat on his own yet.  She was saying all this stuff about him having internal problems because he is a pukey cat and things that she doesn't know about the whole ordeal.  Then talking about how he needs steroids, which our vet had never mentioned.  The abscess was not at the tube site and was contained inside of its self.  This makes me think that if they remove it the tube will still be ok, because the tube site has cleared up a lot since we started the antibiotics

She is going to lance the abscess and then wait 24 hours to decide about pulling the tube.  I really want to talk to our vet to see what he says because he knows all the history and seems to get what is going on better. 

David is also running out of money.  This has been a extremely expensive ordeal and we have no idea how much longer this will last.  I am so worried about Sam.  I have been working so hard to save him and I hope this new problem can be resolved with out removing the only thing that has kept him alive, the feeding tube. 

Please keep sending him healing thoughts and hopefully it will keep working.

Another step back

Sam has a new infection, not at the tube site but next to it.  The vet had to drain it, because it was swollen with fluid inside.  We now have all the bandages and tape to change the bandaging ourself.  This will not only save money, but time as well.  And now we can inspect the site ourself, which I good for me because I have turned into a crazy cat nurse.   

We also had a incident after the vet yesterday, the cat decided he needed to go bad, pee I mean.  David had taken him to the vet on his own and upon arriving at home he let him out of the carrier and Sam ran down the hallway all wet, David locked him in the bathroom and "tried" to clean up the mess.  Needless to say when I got home from work our house smelled terrible, like a crazy cat person with 10 cats.  I have been spraying natures miracle everywhere and It has gotten better but I think I need to get more of  it and mop the entire place with it.  The cat also smells terrible because he peed himself.  I need to get some of the cat or pet wet wipes like they used at the vet when he did the same thing there.  Frustrating to say the least.

 The feeding went well yesterday but I just fed him today and he puked it all up.  I think I went to fast.  He has been taking the food fairly fast lately and I think I got a little ahead of myself.  Slowing down is always good practice.

I think besides the obvious setback Sam is doing better, he doesn't seem as jaundice anymore and is still acting more active.

One more step

The next step we are hoping for is for Sam to start eating on his own.  Now that he seems less nauseous and actually goes up and smells the food, I think its not too far off.  I am still feeding him via the tube 3-4 times a day and he is doing really well with that.   No puking and no trying to run away!  Thanks so much everyone for you well wishes and energy sent our way.  It has definitely helped our little guy!

Happy happy joy joy

Sam's bilirubin level is 1/2 of what it was a week ago.  This means his liver is healing.   The level of the bilirubin is important because when his liver is not properly functioning it produces more of the bilirubin.  He also looks less jaundice.  His infection at the tube site looks much better as well. 

He hissed at sylvester today and raised a paw at him, kitty showdown avoided.   Hopefully soon he will start eating on his own again so we can think about removing the tube.  He did come to the kitchen when I shook the bag of food, so he was thinking about eating. 

Yeaaaa, for improvements.  All my hard work is paying off, it feels good. 

Where is my mind.....

So apparently I was supposed to work today and didn't remember ever knowing I had a client.  The receptionist called me half an hour after my client got there (she was early).  So needless to say my client was upset.  I was a little upset as well, I expected to get a reminder call, instead I got scolded by the 23 year receptionist.  I have a lot on my mind and after two days off, it was no surprise that I didn't remember having one client at 5:30 pm.  I was extremely annoyed with her for not reminding me and myself for being so scatter brained.

Anyway back to Sam, where my mind IS.  He had a good amount of food yesterday and also threw some of it up over night, after I gave him his meds.  The meds are making him a little nauseous, but today he had a nausea shot and I am going to wait a little longer before I give him the meds tonight, so he will hopefully keep them down. 

 Today he did some scratching on his post, some licking of himself and laid by the heater after staying under the bed for the last 2 weeks.  These 3 things are all things that he hasn't been doing lately so seeing him acting more normal is a improvement.   He also ate a tini bit of catnip, the first thing he has ingested on his own in a really long time.  I was so excited when he did that.  He seems to be improving a little bit even though he is still really sick.  Today also marked the first day we weren't at the vet, besides sundays when they are closed, also a improvement. 

Tomorrow it's back to the vet to see how his bilirubin levels are, as well as check his infection at the tube site and get his bandaged changed again.  

One step forward, one step back

We got new antibiotics on Saturday, they are to be given once a day.  Dr. Gordon Says that they were less likely to make Sam nauseous.  I gave Sam the meds last night before bed.  I went to feed him at 8 am,  he threw up, just a little bit.  I then waited until noon to try again and just gave him a little bit of food to see what happens.  I hope it was just temporary.  Today is also the first day that we haven't given him a shot for nausea in the morning.  There are just so many factors to consider with his treatment.  

In great news he was up and scratching stuff, liking himself and generally being more active.  It was great to see him up and around. Dr. Gordon also said that he didn't lose any more weight which is really good news.  I believe everything we are doing is helping, slowly.  

I tried to give him some regular canned food today, to see what he would do.  He sniffed it a bit then walked away, but after he walked away he was looking over at it a few times.   Then comes Sylvester to eat it all up.  He sure is eating a lot.  We were told to always leave food out for Sam in case he decides to eat, however Sylvester keeps eating it all. 

Saturday morning and the news is good

Just got back from the vet again.  Got Sam another shot of antibiotics.  The vet is looking into getting a new shot that is on the market that lasts for 10 days.  He's going to call some other vet's that he knows in the area to see if they have it because our vet doesn't carry it yet. 

In the best news so far, Sam woke us up twice in the night with scratching our rolled up carpet.   That means he is feeling better with more energy. He also ran away from us when we were trying to get him.  I can't remember that last time that he was up and being so active. Ever since we stopped giving him the oral antibiotics he has yet to puke up his food.  This is all great news!  

The healing seems to be happening, thanks again for all your help and well wishes!

Where everybody knows your name

The vet is becoming a very familiar place for us. We were back again today, which means we have been there everyday this week, sometimes twice. Today the concern was the antibiotics and the infection at the entry site of the tube. The antibiotics were making Sam puke and that is not good. He needs the food to heal the liver and that is what is most important. So instead of the antibiotics that we have we now are getting him a shot everyday to help with the infection. He also had his bandage changed again and the wound cleaned out really well. He seems to be in better spirits, but still not feeling well.

After the vet, we went to rainbow grocery and got him some tinctures to replace that terrible clogging pill. We got milk thistle which is really good for the liver as well as Sam-e which has other liver benefits. I hope adding these two things will help him heal. He has been keeping the food down until we give him the antibiotics which make him sick. I have upped his food from 40mls to 60ml and he seems to be o.k with it. We are trying our best to get the little guy's sweet, loving, fun energy back. Today was the first time in a while he was meowing at us in the car. It was sweet to hear his little peep of a meow again. He has the sweetest meow, luckily not at all like the crazy Siamese we saw in the vet. MEEEEEOWWWWWWWZZZZZZ. My mom's old cat had a crazy meow like that too.

Speaking of my mom, its her birthday! Happy birthday mom!!!

Blockage is over!!!!

I heart Dr.Gordon! He unclogged the tube after so many tries on our part and the night nurse. I was so ecstatic I almost cried right there in the waiting room, wait, I did get teary but not a full on cry. Now i just need to get some snackins in the boy! Today is turning out much better than the prior!

Update, snackins went well. He is now sleeping, and I don't blame him, the poor guy has had a really hard couple weeks.

Some good things!

I have been trying to doing some special things for sam, to make him as comfortable as can be.  After wanting to make a cat bed for years I finally did for my Sam.  It's really big, so both kitties can fit on it.  I used some vintage polyester and made edges for it and everything. Sam has been hiding under the bed all the time so I put it under there so he would be as comfy as possible.  When I woke up this morning both kitties were on it together, mission accomplished!

The new bandages are mulit colored!

Vet 3

We just got back from the vet again  (for the second time today), have I mentioned I have been there every day this week.  We tried to get help with the blocked tube, to no avail.  I am now leaving coca cola in it all night to see if it will dissolve the blockage.  I have to say the people at mission pet hospital are amazing and the night nurse was great.  She isn't even supposed to see patients but she was kind enough to help us try to figure out the tube.  While we were there she took off the bandage and we got to see the entry point of the tube in the neck.  It was quite infected and I'm thankful we went in so she had a chance to clean it up. It was just changed earlier today and was already quite pussy again.  She also gave Sam a shot of antibiotics because we can't give them now that the tube is blocked.  She said they should start working asap.  That makes me happy.  

This day has been exhausting and after such a promising day yesterday I am trying to not get discouraged.  The next possible step is to have a different tube put in via Sam's nasal cavity.  I hope we don't have to do that because this tube seems to work well, when it isn't blocked. 

I want to truly thank all of the readers, especially those who left encouraging words for Sam, David and I.  It means a lot to me to know that people are out there sending healing thoughts and energy to my little bunny!

blockage

The tube has gotten clogged two times today and I think this is the most frustrating thing that I have to deal with.  Not only is the site of the entry infected, so I worry about hurting him, it's now clogged so nothing can go into him.  The tube has been acting weird ever since I picked him up from the vet today.  They redid the bandages and it seems to be not flowing as well. 

Vet 2

I got the update on Sam's condition, his tests were mixed.  On one hand the test that shows if he is improving overall was worse.  But another test that was strictly for his liver was better.  So we still need to keep feeding, feeding, feeding because that is what is most important to fixing his poor liver.  He had one throw up today after a good hefty feeding, which might have been caused by the antibiotics.  They can cause nausea, which is already a problem.

 

Here is a list of all the things we are doing now.....

6am-nausea shot and milk thistle pill

7am- First feeding+Lcarnatine (feeding is 40-60ml of food mixed with water, with 10ml of water before and after)

8am-antibiotics

11am-Second feeding

3pm-Third feeding and milk thistle pill

7pm-Forth feeding and Lcarnatine

8pm-antibiotics

12am-Fifth feeding

vet

We went to have a check up today and although we thought sam was seeming better, he now has a infection in the tube site so now we have to give antibiotics 2X a day.   He also has lost weight.  I am starting him on a higher quantity of food today so hopefully he will gain some weight over the next couple days.  We find out more about the infection as well as his liver tests later today.  More updates to come.  

I am so stressed out, dealing with this situation is so hard.  I was so happy that he seemed to be feeling better and now we get some new of a set back.  The Dr. said that if the infection doesn't go away we will have to pull the tube out and replace it with another one that goes through his nose.  This one would be even smaller and he would be strictly on liquid food.  I'm hoping so much that he will respond to the antibiotics and the tube sight will heal.   Please keep sending your healing energy to our sweet Sam. 

Today was a good day!

Sam has had a really good day so far,  he has already eaten 4 times with one more to come in a couple hours, no throwing it back up either.  He seems to have a little more energy, as in trotting away when we are done feeding him, instead of slowly walking away.  I saw him rubbing his cheeks on the door too.  These are all good signs.  Tomorrow morning we go back to the vet to get some tests to see how he is doing and to change his bandages.   More updates tomorrow on the little guy!

feeding pictures

This is a side view of the bandage and the tube that sam has.  It was a little scary to see it at first but you get used to it.  In fact I almost lost it and cried when I first saw him in the vet, but I managed to hold it together. 

Trials and Tribulations

We decided to get Sam a feeding tube because the force feeding was almost impossible and was making him throw up too much.  This disease is best treated by feeding and getting nutrients into Sam so we are going to do anything we can to do that.  So far we have had him throw up a few times.  There are a few important things to remember when using the feeding tube.  Number one in our experience is to go really slow.  I think him throwing up was a result of going a little bit too fast.  I decided to buy a kitchen timer and set it for 15 minutes,  I take that whole time to feed him, going really slow with many breaks between each 5ml.  Another problem I ran into was the tube getting clogged because of some medication that was hard to crush.  We got a pill crusher and that seems to work well.   The vet told us to unclog that tube via a small amount of coca cola, letting it sit for 15-20 minutes.  I tried warm water first, then the 5 ml of cola and let it sit for 35 plus minutes.  After that I got a chopstick and stuck that down in the tube and it worked.  This was not suggested by the vet so use at your own risk and please be careful. 

Last night we woke up to sam puking.  We were relived to find out that not much came up and that he kept all the food down from a few hours before.  He was also missing the plug that goes on the top of the tube to make sure nothing gets in or out when not in use.  We looked everywhere and never found it.  I went to the vet and got another one  because the vet said it was important.  After he threw up early this morning he went directly to the littler box and had his first poo.  I was watching him and it looked like he was struggling.  The poo was really dried up on one end and the other end was normal and wet.  We think that he threw up because it was painful to pass that poo after not having one for a couple weeks. 

We have faith that we will beat this disease.  We are doing everything possible and Sam seems to be perking up a little bit.