Another visit - apparently there was an eye-related emergency, because we had to wait almost an hour for Scruffy's appointment. Dr. B. seemed rushed and stressed during the time we were there - although I notice that we were charged for the SST test, they didn't do it. Only $17, I guess.
Anyway, eye pressures were very good again - 13 in the right and 14 in the left. Under 20 is desirable. I got refills of the Flurbiprofen, and of the ulcer solution, and a prescription to send to Canada to order Azopt. A couple months ago, a woman that I knew from the EpiKitty Yahoo board posted on Facebook that she had some glaucoma drops that her father had purchased for his dog. (The dog had died.) Turned out, the drops were Azopt! The bottles were only 5ml, as opposed to the 10ml that I've been buying at Costco, but I was paying $117 for one bottle - these were $28 for two or three! I just finished the second of these bonus bottles, and despite an article I read from Consumer Reports about the hazards of ordering from Canadian pharmacies, I had no problems with the anti-convulsants I was ordering for Milkshake, and I don't expect any problem in getting glaucoma medication from there.
General report - 1) no regrowth of the iris mass, ocular pressures controlled, and 2) no change in the focal iris pigmentation
So, good news and no more appointments hopefully until January, 2012.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
8/11/11 Animal Communication
(I forgot to post this months ago, and now, since it's somewhat lighthearted and I am definitely NOT, I'm just trying to figure out a way to tack it onto an older post, instead of having it show up on top with all of the cancer stuff.....)
By August of 2011, Scruffy's "inappropriate elimination" was pushing me right over the edge. I was cleaning the carpets downstairs every week, and crawling around with my black light at night; sniffing when I came in from the garage, and paddling around in my stocking feet to see if there were wet spots. He was spending most of his time hiding. A couple of times a week, he'd poop right beside the litter box downstairs. I was so annoyed with him I could hardly bear to look at him. He hadn't come to sleep with his little head in my hand for months. He had also started what appeared to be an intentional technique for avoiding the prozac pill every morning - he would just go from dish to dish, vacuuming up the cat food, until he threw up. Once the pill was disposed of, he'd eat some more. I was feeling persecuted and angry and guilty about all the eye drops he hated and the pill-giving. I mean, after all, who rescued him from a short and miserable life outside? Who spent almost 4 years testing him and giving him insulin shots, and who got the tumor in his eye removed??? He OWED it to me to use the damned litter box. Only, unfortunately, he didn't seem to feel the same way.
Someone from the Feline Diabetes Message Board mentioned that she had been in contact with a new "animal communicator." It was a person who had been around the board for years and had been/is fostering a ton of diabetic cats. I had positive feelings for both the communicator and the communicated-with. And I was so desperate for help that I decided to try it.
My only other experience with animal communication was a couple of years ago, when Hope and Linda and Dale gave me an hour with a communicator in Ohio. (It doesn't matter where the communicator is; location isn't significant.) And it was very interesting. The communicator said that both Milk and Scruffy had spinal issues; I took them to the holistic vet here, who does chiropracty, and sure enough, without even knowing what the communicator said, he diagnosed the exact same problem location she had for both cats. And she had suggested some herbals for Milk's uncontrollable seizures. (I actually bought them from her, but couldn't bring myself to give them to him.) There were some other things she said that weren't particularly applicable, but......
So, I made the appointment on-line. Very well set-up website, very easy to pick a time. Kind of expensive - $30 for 15 minutes, one cat and $60 for 30 minutes, two cats. But, well worth it if works, right?
I wanted to be very organized about what I needed to know from her. My concerns were, well, of course, the Scruffy-peeing stuff, and Milkshake's weight loss. When the time came for our appointment, she asked only for the name of the cat and the color of its coat. (I think I was so desperate for help that I may have told her that Scruffy was making me crazy, but I'm not sure.) At any rate, she went away and came back in a couple of minutes and said, "Scruffy thinks you're mad at him." I said, "Well, DUH. I'm enraged!" She talked to him some more, and he told her that he didn't like the Prozac. He didn't like the way it made him feel. (And I had increased his dosage as his peeing got worse, which made me feel even more guilty.) He said he'd use the litter box if he didn't have to take the Prozac. I was VERY unsure about making such a deal. (And thinking that I had to be NUTS!) But, I agreed, as long as he actually was going to cooperate. He had to understand though, that because he was having a herpes attack, I still needed to give him zeniquin. She said he didn't have a problem with that. And she had to tell him that there was no choice about the eye drops, either. We talked about Milkshake, who she felt had something going on internally, but couldn't identify what the problem was, and then hung up.
That was at 2:00 PM on a Sunday afternoon. At 7:00 PM, Scruffy wandered into the kitchen and for the first time in months, PEED in the box. Right in front of me! I was stunned. That night, he turned up the minute I was ready to go to sleep, and snuggled into his old place. He started following me around again, waiting for me to sit down so he could sit on my lap. It was all amazing. And for a good two weeks, he seemed to have gone back to his old diabetic pattern - he peed twice a day, at the same time, right in the middle of his meal. I was ecstatic. At the end of that time, I again talked to Claudia. I wanted her to ask him how he thought he was doing with our little agreement. I didn't get that she understood my question, or that he answered it, but anyway, I felt comforted.
And then, I discovered a puddle in the laundry room. On the vinyl floor, and when I tried to get the smell out, it got worse and worse. (That was when all the downstairs peeing started - I moved a nice big litter box to the laundry room, thinking that he'd be happy to have a box down there. He wasn't, apparently; he peed all over the floor a dozen times and never hit the box once.) Eye-wateringly stinking. I tried talking to him. It seemed more hit and miss; sometimes he'd use the box, sometimes he didn't. I noticed, to my extreme dismay, that both Burble and Duncan were beginning to watch when Scruffy was in the litter box and to chase him afterwards. Not exactly what we needed.
And then - this was about 3 weeks ago - he peed on the floor right in front of me, twice. I was in a frenzy. I rushed to the computer after the second episode and looked up Claudia's website. And tried desperately to get an appointment to become available. Which never happened - I finally noticed that she was on vacation. So, I had time to calm down, and I "discussed" with Scruffy my annoyance and disappointment with his behavior.
The outcome of all this - well, in the end of November, 2011, or the beginning of December, I started him back on Prozac. Half the dose he had been on before. And it seems to have been successful. Haven't found more than a couple puddles on the rug since then. I hated doing it to him, but I just didn't feel like there was any choice. One more thing that I will be eternally sorry happened to my poor cat....
Anyway, eye pressures were very good again - 13 in the right and 14 in the left. Under 20 is desirable. I got refills of the Flurbiprofen, and of the ulcer solution, and a prescription to send to Canada to order Azopt. A couple months ago, a woman that I knew from the EpiKitty Yahoo board posted on Facebook that she had some glaucoma drops that her father had purchased for his dog. (The dog had died.) Turned out, the drops were Azopt! The bottles were only 5ml, as opposed to the 10ml that I've been buying at Costco, but I was paying $117 for one bottle - these were $28 for two or three! I just finished the second of these bonus bottles, and despite an article I read from Consumer Reports about the hazards of ordering from Canadian pharmacies, I had no problems with the anti-convulsants I was ordering for Milkshake, and I don't expect any problem in getting glaucoma medication from there.
General report - 1) no regrowth of the iris mass, ocular pressures controlled, and 2) no change in the focal iris pigmentation
So, good news and no more appointments hopefully until January, 2012.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
8/11/11 Animal Communication
(I forgot to post this months ago, and now, since it's somewhat lighthearted and I am definitely NOT, I'm just trying to figure out a way to tack it onto an older post, instead of having it show up on top with all of the cancer stuff.....)
By August of 2011, Scruffy's "inappropriate elimination" was pushing me right over the edge. I was cleaning the carpets downstairs every week, and crawling around with my black light at night; sniffing when I came in from the garage, and paddling around in my stocking feet to see if there were wet spots. He was spending most of his time hiding. A couple of times a week, he'd poop right beside the litter box downstairs. I was so annoyed with him I could hardly bear to look at him. He hadn't come to sleep with his little head in my hand for months. He had also started what appeared to be an intentional technique for avoiding the prozac pill every morning - he would just go from dish to dish, vacuuming up the cat food, until he threw up. Once the pill was disposed of, he'd eat some more. I was feeling persecuted and angry and guilty about all the eye drops he hated and the pill-giving. I mean, after all, who rescued him from a short and miserable life outside? Who spent almost 4 years testing him and giving him insulin shots, and who got the tumor in his eye removed??? He OWED it to me to use the damned litter box. Only, unfortunately, he didn't seem to feel the same way.
Someone from the Feline Diabetes Message Board mentioned that she had been in contact with a new "animal communicator." It was a person who had been around the board for years and had been/is fostering a ton of diabetic cats. I had positive feelings for both the communicator and the communicated-with. And I was so desperate for help that I decided to try it.
My only other experience with animal communication was a couple of years ago, when Hope and Linda and Dale gave me an hour with a communicator in Ohio. (It doesn't matter where the communicator is; location isn't significant.) And it was very interesting. The communicator said that both Milk and Scruffy had spinal issues; I took them to the holistic vet here, who does chiropracty, and sure enough, without even knowing what the communicator said, he diagnosed the exact same problem location she had for both cats. And she had suggested some herbals for Milk's uncontrollable seizures. (I actually bought them from her, but couldn't bring myself to give them to him.) There were some other things she said that weren't particularly applicable, but......
So, I made the appointment on-line. Very well set-up website, very easy to pick a time. Kind of expensive - $30 for 15 minutes, one cat and $60 for 30 minutes, two cats. But, well worth it if works, right?
I wanted to be very organized about what I needed to know from her. My concerns were, well, of course, the Scruffy-peeing stuff, and Milkshake's weight loss. When the time came for our appointment, she asked only for the name of the cat and the color of its coat. (I think I was so desperate for help that I may have told her that Scruffy was making me crazy, but I'm not sure.) At any rate, she went away and came back in a couple of minutes and said, "Scruffy thinks you're mad at him." I said, "Well, DUH. I'm enraged!" She talked to him some more, and he told her that he didn't like the Prozac. He didn't like the way it made him feel. (And I had increased his dosage as his peeing got worse, which made me feel even more guilty.) He said he'd use the litter box if he didn't have to take the Prozac. I was VERY unsure about making such a deal. (And thinking that I had to be NUTS!) But, I agreed, as long as he actually was going to cooperate. He had to understand though, that because he was having a herpes attack, I still needed to give him zeniquin. She said he didn't have a problem with that. And she had to tell him that there was no choice about the eye drops, either. We talked about Milkshake, who she felt had something going on internally, but couldn't identify what the problem was, and then hung up.
That was at 2:00 PM on a Sunday afternoon. At 7:00 PM, Scruffy wandered into the kitchen and for the first time in months, PEED in the box. Right in front of me! I was stunned. That night, he turned up the minute I was ready to go to sleep, and snuggled into his old place. He started following me around again, waiting for me to sit down so he could sit on my lap. It was all amazing. And for a good two weeks, he seemed to have gone back to his old diabetic pattern - he peed twice a day, at the same time, right in the middle of his meal. I was ecstatic. At the end of that time, I again talked to Claudia. I wanted her to ask him how he thought he was doing with our little agreement. I didn't get that she understood my question, or that he answered it, but anyway, I felt comforted.
And then, I discovered a puddle in the laundry room. On the vinyl floor, and when I tried to get the smell out, it got worse and worse. (That was when all the downstairs peeing started - I moved a nice big litter box to the laundry room, thinking that he'd be happy to have a box down there. He wasn't, apparently; he peed all over the floor a dozen times and never hit the box once.) Eye-wateringly stinking. I tried talking to him. It seemed more hit and miss; sometimes he'd use the box, sometimes he didn't. I noticed, to my extreme dismay, that both Burble and Duncan were beginning to watch when Scruffy was in the litter box and to chase him afterwards. Not exactly what we needed.
And then - this was about 3 weeks ago - he peed on the floor right in front of me, twice. I was in a frenzy. I rushed to the computer after the second episode and looked up Claudia's website. And tried desperately to get an appointment to become available. Which never happened - I finally noticed that she was on vacation. So, I had time to calm down, and I "discussed" with Scruffy my annoyance and disappointment with his behavior.
The outcome of all this - well, in the end of November, 2011, or the beginning of December, I started him back on Prozac. Half the dose he had been on before. And it seems to have been successful. Haven't found more than a couple puddles on the rug since then. I hated doing it to him, but I just didn't feel like there was any choice. One more thing that I will be eternally sorry happened to my poor cat....
