One year ago . . .

One year ago yesterday, we went to the animal shelter looking for an older male cat. We ended up bringing home the scrawniest, sickest, 6 week old female kitten they had. We had to sign a "she-might-not survive" waiver before they'd let us take her because 2 of her litter mates died at the shelter from unknown causes.



Now, despite having feline leukemia, she's one of the healthiest and by far the most athletic of all our cats.


-Chelle

Thanks.

Cobra5.0Jeep said:

What are you doing about the Lukemia?

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She (Tennessee) isn't showing any symptoms (she's probably just a carrier) but we're giving her colostrum (all the cats get it), vitamin C, and CoQ10. And just in case she does crash, mom has a list of medications to try that have been known to bring FeLV cats from the brink of death.

We also have another cat (Toonces) that tested a slight positive for FeLV about a year ago, but we had her tested again when we adopted her and now she's negative (could have been a false positive, could have fought it off, or it could just be dormant). We've vaccinated her against the FeLV just in case it was a false positive.

And we just took in a stray (Ghost Kitty) and he tested a slight positive for FIV, but we're going to have him tested again next month to see if it was a false positive. He's vaccinated against FeLV and is getting everything Tennesse is getting just in case he really is FIV (different viruses, but they do pretty much the same thing).

Plus we have 2 more cats (Emily & Romeo) who are negative fore FeLV & FIV and vaccinated against FeLV (FIV vaccine isn't readily available here). But Emily is neurotic/bipolar and Romeo has allergies.

LOL. We don't have any normal cats.

-Chelle

He's cute.

Here's my other kitties:
Emily - she's majorly bi-polar.


Romeo - Tennessee's best friend. His 1 year anniversary is coming up soon.


Toonces (the othe cats are afraid of her)


Ghost Kitty - We didn't want a 5th cat, but he's lived in our laundry room & on our back porch since December. We figured that if we're going to be feeding him and getting him his shots (don't want an unvaccinated cat hanging around the house), we're taking him in.


-Chelle

Thanks.

I always told myself that after Lizzy (17 year old maine coon with cancer) died, I wasn't going to get another cat. But darn it, they're just so lovable.

One of these days my parents & I want to start up a shelter/sanctuary for special needs cats. Most FeLV & FIV cats get euthanized immediately even if they're otherwise perfectly healthy (like Ten, Toonces, & Ghost). And it's a shame because some of them can live long, perfectly normal lives. Or the test could have simply a false positive (not uncommon) and a totally healthy cat is put down. It's really sad.

-Chelle

milner351 said:

I'm interested in the benefits of COQ10 for pets, we take it ourselves, but don't add it to the dogs food.

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It's supposed to help prevent cancer and I think it acts a little as an immune booster too (mom is the one whose done most of the research on all that stuff so she knows a little more than I do).

all over Iams food for large breeds.

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Have you ever looked into Chicken Soup for the Dog/Cat Lover's Soul? That's what we feed our animals. It's all natural. No by-products and no preservatives or other chemicals. Just real meat, veggies, herbs, vitamins & amino acids. When our 20 year old cat crashed with kidney failure, we did a lot of reading and before they started adding all the chemicals & by-products to pet foods, kidney failure was almost unheard of.

Chelle, I still think Emily is the coolest of the cats. However, Ghost looks great! big husky guy, looks like he could take care of himself in a pen full of Dobermans!

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LOL. Actually Ghost is a big baby. He's afraid of the other cats. Of all our cats, Toonces is the most aggressive. She just has to look at the other cats and they run. But she's also the most skittish around people & new things. When we first got her, it took a week before she'd come out from under my bed.

Our kitchen counter looks like a drug store and it's all for the animals.

Ten - Colostrum, CoQ10, Vitamin C, and now Amoxicillin (she was throwing up this morning so we took her to the vet. He couldn't find anything wrong with her and she's fine now, but he wanted her on some antibiotics just in case because she is FeLV+)
Emily - Amoxicillin, prednisolone, & a topical ointment (she started licking her leg for some reason and made it really raw and really bald)
Romeo - Claritin (he has allergies and was scratching all the fur off the sides of his head. The vet also officially declared him unpillable so it's quite interesting getting the claritin down him.)
Ghost Kitty - Colostrum, CoQ10, & vitamin C in case he really is FIV+ (getting him retested in a couple weeks)
Trixie (my dog) - Benedryl & childrens asprin - she has allergies & arthritis.
Toonces - NOTHING! LOL We adopted her specifically be cause she had tested positive for FeLV and it turns out not only is she now negative, she's our healthiest cat.

I'm just glad we have an amazing vet (very old fashioned, but very good - people from out of state bring their animals to him) who is extremely inexpensive. When Romeo ate something toxic (probably sawdust - the little goober eats about anything, even foil ), he had to stay at the clinic for 3 days and get all kinds of antibiotics & some blood work and the whole thing only cost $40. Plus, we gave the vet the okay to take x-rays if necessary. Any other vet would have done it just for the extra $100+ but our vet didn't think it was necessary so he didn't do it.

-Chelle

Just a little update:

We took Ten, Ghost, & Emily to the vet today for shots/testing.

Ghost had previously tested as a slight positive for FIV. Today he was a negative. So chances are, the first was was nothing more than a false positive. He also got his 2nd FeLV shot so he's out of quartantine and can play with the other cats. We were initially really worried about him & Romeo getting along because they're both males, but so far, he's getting along better with Romeo than the others. And we got him microchipped so I guess that makes him officially ours.

When we got Ten her shots, we also had her tested again for FeLV because we've been giving her all the immune boosters in hopes that she would kick it. Back in January, she tested as a strong positive twice. Now, she's a weak positive. So it looks like she's starting to kick it. The vet showed us how to read the tests.There's a blue dot in the middle that's the positive control. Ten's dot was about half as dark as the control. We'll probably have her tested again in 6 months - 1 year and hopefully by then she'll be a complete negative.

Oh, and Emily & Ghost weighed in a 13lbs each.

-Chelle

1320stang said:

Man, a blast from the past. Your cats name (Toonces) is so similar to the forum member Tooncis, I'd forgot about him. I wonder what he's doing now?

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Yeah. I'd never seen the SNL skit before so when I saw her name on Petfinder, I immediately thought of "Tooncis" from here on the forum. I eventually did do a search though and watched a few clips of Toonces the driving cat. She really doesn't look like the original Toonces, but her foster parents named her and she was used to the name so we kept it.

-Chelle