Purrs for Mr. Max on Black Cat Appreciation Day

Mr. Max’s health has changed over the past two months and especially in the past week. His appetite has been iffy since last weekend, he’s needed sub-cutaneous fluids nearly daily, and he’s been lethargic. Most alarming, no poop for a couple of days, shocking for the cat with the totally runny poop. He’s also lost more weight just with a visual. I’ve been working toward an ultrasound for him since he was at PetWellClinic in May and June for a checkup and blood tests; if I hadn’t had the excessive insurance payments I’ve been trying to reduce with a new policy I would have been able to do that. I plan to get that done, somehow, on Monday or Tuesday. If you’d like to help me with that, information is below for how to donate.

I took him to an urgent care yesterday and X-rays looked pretty scary in his intestines. Likely the it’s not constipation but something else that’s stopping the poop but either an obstruction which could be a mass or lymphoma, or he is a known plastic eater and there may have been something lodged in there all this time. I’m not sure where this will go, but this change is likely a normal progression of whatever it is that’s been going on in his intestines since he’s been here. That condition may have begun when he was in the neighbor’s house after the neighbor died, stressful enough, but then the family started showing up to feed less and less and that would be traumatic, so he and Morty came here in 2021.

He’s such a fun and sweet cat, even the veterinarian and veterinary nurse voluntarily said that yesterday when they’d done the x-rays and done the exam and given him a big dose of fluids to go. He’s a joy to live with and I love him being here. I’m just not ready to lose another cat.

Donations

You can email me for more information: bernadette @ bernadette-k dot com or

PayPal: http://paypal.me/bernadettekazmarski1

Venmo: https://account.venmo.com/u/Bernadette-Kazmarski

Thanks for any amount you can give!

I’m headed off to the Farmers Market in a few minutes. Let’s hope it’s a good day for sales!

Timeline for Mr. Max

Here is a timeline of my posts on social media since May—when my websites were still offline so I didn’t get a chance to post here. In addition to these, I took him to my regular veterinarian last October but don’t have a post on that.

 

June 28

I’ve been a little concerned about Mr Max yesterday and today so we went to visit our friends at @petwellclinic_scott. He says they did some horrible embarrassing things to him and he won’t admit he’s feeling better but he is. I think the legendary Angel is convincing him otherwise. Looking forward to seeing his blood test results.

He’s been feeling good overall, eating better and gaining a little weight, less intestinal pain, and enjoying his time downstairs with the rest of the household and more time with me. Hoping to keep this trend going.

 

May 17

This looks like just an everyday photo of Mr Max enjoying a dish of food, but it’s actually a thrilling accomplishment.

We came back from the veterinarian on Wednesday with a few goodies for him including an appetite stimulant, but on Thursday he still wasn’t eating, not to mention all this time he’s had nasty smelly thin poop that’s obviously painful, and likely some intestinal cramps going on through the day.

I’ve been giving him fluids and an acid reducer, antiemetic, pain relief, a small dose of steroid, and some Chinese herbs. When Dr Elgersma visited Thursday she suggested Fortiflora on his food and an increase in the steroid, and before long he was eating all the food he could find.

Friday morning he looked worse than he had in days, dehydrated again, lethargic, dull. I went down the list and gave him all the things I had on hand for him, but he sniffed his food and would not eat. So I started hand feeding him and I did so all through the day.

This morning, he was a totally different cat though it still took a lot of the same palliative measures to get him up to full speed, and now he’s eating little bits of lots of different sorts of food all through the day. I don’t care, he is eating.

I suspect he’s probably had IBD all his life based on some of the lesser flare-ups he’s had since he’s been here. He does eat plastic, but it’s easy to tell when he’s managed to find the last little scrap of plastic somewhere or it’s a flare up of this. Why this got so bad, I don’t know, but he ate very little for at least 3 days, and then practically nothing for 2 even with palliative measures so the hand feeding was really a last resort. Pretty scary.

All of this was done with the advice of veterinarians who provided me with the means to keep him comfortable, I’m so grateful!

Now if I can keep him eating and stabilize him, we can do some real testing. He still needs some purrs, but he’s feeling much more like himself. And he likes being downstairs with us all day so I can keep an eye on him. Morty’s been joining us for a few hours each day too, mostly when all the others are asleep.

May 21

Mr. Max had a rough few days, especially yesterday, with what seemed to be intestinal cramping. Lots of meds and extras, fluids, and a smorgasbord of foods with toppers to make them enticing.

Today he’s feeling much better, most of the day eating really well and active and free of any cramping. Still nasty poop, though, that’s always been his thing. But I’ve got a lot of notes, and now we are ready for some testing.

Thanks to the amazing Dr. Elgersma for being available to suggest and tweak things for him!

It’s probably going to be a long process, so send some purrs for him!

May 14

I took Mr. Max to @petwellclinic_scott today. He had always had some bowel issues AND he ate plastic, both maybe the result of his traumatic experience being left in the house with his feline family after his human died.

When it flared up last year he lost weight and although he got his appetite back and seemed well, he never regained that weight. I took him to my regular veterinarian in September so we could start trying to figure him out, but then Basil’s symptoms started so I didn’t have a chance to take him back.

But over the weekend he quit eating entirely and by Monday morning he was pretty dehydrated so I gave him the set of medications and treatments that help him feel better and he did and ate a bit, but Tuesday morning he just felt crappy again. I did get him to feel better and even eat a little later on, then this morning he looked even worse. Slight fever, 102.5, walking around trying to poop.

I was out of some of the materials and meds I needed to give him and this seemed to be progressing rapidly so I decided he needed to see a veterinarian. I had enough of a stool sample which came up negative for any pathogens. Dr. Sudberg didn’t feel any stool in his intestines so he wasn’t constipated, and the way it’s been acting it mostly seems like bowel disease, not a piece of plastic that got stuck in there.

So we came home with more needles and an appetite stimulant and a plan. I gave him a dose of each as soon as we got home, and a few other things to help him get back on his feet. If he doesn’t start to eat by tomorrow we’ll do blood tests. But right now blood tests would show a cat whose levels are off because he hasn’t been eating, hard to tell if the levels were off because there was a disease present.

He’s such a sweet guy and really good at the vet, send him some healing energy so we can figure out what’s up. Likely an ultrasound is in his future.

It was good to see Dr. Sudberg and Angel again, after so many appointments in 2022 and 2023, always a little tense and sad. I always appreciate their calm demeanor.

 

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