tripperfunster | Entries tagged with milky wave

RIP Milky Wave

Despite our best efforts, we just couldn't figure out what was wrong, and he passed away last night. The vet even did an autopsy today, and aside from knowing that he died of liver failure (due to lack of eating) she couldn't figure out why he'd stopped eating.
I'd been giving him fluids and even force feeding him, but it wasn't addressing the (unknown) underlying problem. He didn't seem to be in pain, and died quite peacefully. I really feel that every moment we'd had with him was pretty much on 'borrowed time', and we were grateful for all of it.

He'd cheated death more than once in the two years we'd had him. Frostbite, seizures, drowning and getting lost for two days in our heating ducts. God only knows how many close calls he'd had before we found him!

Mr. Moo, you will be sorely missed.

If you'd like the whole story, just click on the Milky Wave tag.

Thanks so much for everyone for you kind words and crossed fingers. And thanks again for the bunch of you who stepped up to help him out the first time around. <3

So, yesterday we did an x-ray. It revealed pancreatitis. (sp?) Basically, swelling of the pancreas ... buy why? Possibilities are an allergy to his food, a reaction to the oil base of his new meds, cancer or ???

Pancreatic cancer is no fun, and pretty much 100% fatal, and you can't just cut it out because um .. yeah, you need your pancreas to function. So we decided to get an ultrasound.

Today we went back for the ultrasound and the Doc was amazing! He really took his time looking around, pointed out all the 'landmarks' to me. "See that? That's the kidney, and those little things right there are where it drains. Normally, it should be this shape, but his are a bit lumpy, possibly from his bout with frostbite." "See this? That's the dermal layer, above that is fat, but right under it? That's where his 'six pack' is." and on and on and on. Sadly, everything looked like lumpy oatmeal to me, but it was very informative.

Even when I was preggo, and went for my ultrasounds, I couldn't tell if I was looking at a baby or the face of Christ.

Anyhoo, long story short, he didn't find anything abnormal. No mass. No cancer. No blockage. YAY! That's not to say there isn't any cancer, but nothing large enough to show up.

Now we just need to figure out why Milky is losing weight and not eating. Well, duh, one follows the other of course, but we need to know why. We stopped his old meds and the vet put him on steroids to shrink the pancreatic swelling, and it should have the benefit of upping his appetite a bit too. I'm still to give him fluids until he starts to eat properly. She says we should see some results within a couple of days.

*fingers crossed*

Ugh. Milky Wave is not doing well.

He's been doing great for almost two years. Seizure free and pretty much weaned off meds, fat, happy and playful. Then, he had another seizure. A pretty good one too. Not a big deal, he'd had tons when we first got him, but this one really changed him. I put him back on his meds, of course, and he had a couple more before they had a chance to build up in his system, but ever since then, he's just gone downhill. He'd stopped eating much, and became much more lethargic.

I had him to the vet, where she did an ass-load of blood tests. Everything came up absolutely normal. She actually said she'd never had a cat be SO average in that many tests. The only thing off was that one of his liver enzymes was slightly elevated. Possibly from the meds. So we changed his medication (from $20 every three months to $135!!) And, of course, he's not tolerating them at all. He stopped eating completely, and is vomiting 3 to 4 times per day. Just bile, as he's got no food in him.

We stopped the meds (on the vet's rec) and I'm going to give him some sub Q fluids tonight. We've got another appointment on Monday, where we'll probably get an x-ray, but she doesn't think we'll find anything. She thinks it's his brain. Not cancer, but just .. .yeah, fucked up cat-brain, which isn't beyond reasonable, with the seizures and such. If there's 'nothing' else wrong with him, we'll try an appetite enhancer and see if that helps.

Thoughts and prayers for the little guy would be much appreciated. He's used up MANY of his nine lives, let's hope he's got a couple left.

sigh* In typical 'country' fashion, my neighbours (no, not the usual shitty neighbours) but different ones, got themselves a couple of kittens. Except, of course, their kids have allergies, so these cats get to live outside.

I am honestly not sure WHY you'd want a pet (aside from a horse) that lives outside. Of course, like every other animal in a 50 mile radius, these cats have managed to make their way to my house. They're just little kitties, maybe 12 weeks old? And it's COLD outside. The first time they ended up here, it was quite a cold snap. I picked them both up and walked them back across the road. I knocked on the door, but nobody was home. Also, the kittens had food and water dishes, but they were both empty. So I went back home, got food and water for them, put them in their little dog type house and left.

They were both back within two hours. The people still weren't home (and were due to have a baby right around this time) so I set up a big kennel with food, water and a litter box and kept them inside my house until I could get ahold of the neighbours. THREE DAYS LATER I managed to catch them at home and give them their cats back. (and no, they had not had the baby yet...I have no idea where they'd been.)

Long story short, one of the kittens keeps coming back here, so I said screw it, set up a little warm spot for him in our mini barn, gave him some food and water and now he's mine. I mean, he's WELCOME to go back across the road any time he wants, he's got free run, but at least i don't stay up at night worrying that he's freezing/starving to death. I try to not think about the other kitten.

These people have gone through two dogs and twice as many cats since they moved in. *shakes head*
They had named him Tow-mater (from the Cars movie), but I've taken to calling him Tomato. Just because it's a ridiculous name for an animal. I'm not generally a fan of ginger kittens. The other one is a beautiful calico, but as they say, you don't choose them, they choose you.
( Kitty spam under cut )

Pffft! :D

A few people have been asking, so here's an update on our rescue cat Milky Wave.

If you don't know the story, I'll give you a tl;dr version.

He was found last winter on the side of the highway, half frozen. He almost lost a leg due to extreme frostbite, but thanks to great vet care and some very generous donations from my flist (and their extended flists) he kept that leg and is FAT and happy and healthy now.

Here's a link to one of the first posts about him. (with some pathetic photos that made me tear up seeing them again!!) OMG Pathetic cat ahoy

So here we are one year later.
He still has all of his legs, he hasn't had a seizure for over four months (he's on a daily pill for that) and man, he is HAPPY! He's still a dork, and has no idea how to groom himself, but he plays, and chases our other cat around (much to her chagrin).

He's still deaf, of course, and has never purred. He sometimes pulls out the fur on his front legs, (wth?) and although he's quite playful, he doesn't have a great sense of 'gentle'. I keep his claws trimmed, because OUCH!

( Here's some pics under the cut )

Thank you so much, to all of the people who so generously donated to the Milky Wave fund last year, and all the people who spread the word. He is a very valued member of this family now, and we are all so happy that he's become this fat, happy guy.

I'm sure Milky Wave would thank you too, as soon as he's done chewing the face off his baby.

So, our cat Milky Wave? He went missing. :(

We don't let him outside for obvious reasons. (deaf, half blind, seizures etc) but Saturday afternoon, me and the kids went: hey! I haven't seen Milky for a while!
We searched the house, and then, fearing the worst, checked the swimming pool. (he almost drown once already.) Nope. No Milky. (or Moo, as we call him)

We are super careful about keeping the doors closed (due to him) and even though we couldn't think of how he might have gotten out, we searched the yard and surrounding areas. Nothing. I even checked the highway for 'bodies' and thank god, no.

After a sleepless night of worrying, I got up early, printed out some Lost Kitty posters to put up at the post office and surrounding area, and we re-scoured the yard.
( Read more... )

Then, before heading out, I took a quick bathroom break. Whist reading my Oprah mag, I heard some odd banging. But it was really windy out, and I chalked it up to the wind. Then, I heard the distintive Prrrrrrr??? of The Moo. WTF??

HE WAS IN THE HEATING DUCTS IN OUR HOUSE! Or more specifically, the space AROUND the heating ducts. I swear to God, he is the oddest cat in the history of cattdom. And dumbest.

But man, I was so relieved. He would NOT survive outside for long.

Yay!

We figure he has used at least 7 of his nine supposed lives.

I"ll keep you all updated.
Edit: ha! Perhaps I won't post all of my phone numbers all over the interwebz. duh

IT LOOKS LIKE I WILL BE GOING TO INFINITUS AFTER ALL! :D :D :D :D

No luck on ex employee coming back (never heard from him, surprise, surprise) BUUUT, we've been talking about changing our store hours for a while (to make the days shorter) and thought, well hell! Why not now? So we did.

This enables us to work with less staff, which FREES ME UP TO GO TO INFINITUS!

Whoot!

Say, when are people arriving at the airport? I'd love to share a shuttle to the hotel! My flight arrives in Orlando at 1:09pm on Thursday. I'm going to try to just have carry on luggage, so less waiting. Anyone??

Other good news:

MILKY WAVE IS ROCKIN' IT!

He is down to only a couple of mild seizures per month and is packing on the weight! He's going to be a big boy.

Other than being a bit bald, and having a thicker hock joint than his other leg, his leg is pretty much PERFECT! He just has the slightest hint of a limp.

( picspam under cut )

As you can see, he has the same haughty put-out expression as any other cat on earth. A sure sign of health! :D

Milky is doing GREAT! His leg still hasn't healed, but it looks much better.

( cut for your pleasure )

And now random bitching:

So, it was my son Quincey's seventh birthday last week. My mom, who lives in a different province, called two days before his birthday and asked what Quincey might like. I told her that he'd REALLY like tickets to Bon Jovi.

On his actual birthday, my mom calls.

MOM: OMG! THE TICKETS ARE LIKE $60!!
Me:Uh yeah mom, it's a concert.
Mom: Well, I don't want to spend that much.
Me: So don't.
Mom: BUT I WANT TO BUY HIM SOMETHING HE REALLY WANTS.
Me: So get him something else.
Mom: But I don't know what he wants.
Me: He wants to go to a concert.
Mom: That's too much money.
Me: How much did you want to spend?
Mom: I don't know.
Me: *fumes*

My mother has TWO grandchildren, both mine. She just came back from a two week trip to to Cuba, and spent a month over christmas in Vancouver. She has lots of money. Since she lives far away, she doesn't contribute to them in a monetary way, and obviously doesn't babysit or anything.

I guess the fact that she didn't even think to send him a card in time for his birthday is really disappointing. I'm really not sure why I keep letting my parents disappoint me when it comes to my children. I'm not sure that they (my kids) even notice if their grandparents forget birthdays and stuff.

And now some funny Quincey quotes:

"Let's pretend we're in a movie, and I'm a hobo!" WTF?
and today:

"So, ... does Jesus look like Captain Jack Sparrow?"

ahahahaha!

The Vet wants to wait!!

I took him in this morning for the 'big' operation, and when I took him out of the kennel for Dr. Stogdale to take a look at him, he was happy, and active, and playing around like a kitten.

She was suprised and impressed that he was actually putting a bit of weight on that leg (after not doing so for 6 weeks) and also that he was attacking the door jam with great vigor.

His leg is certainly not out of the woods yet, but she said we should wait another week or two and see how it looks then. The leg is obviously painful and tender, but she said that if he were in GREAT pain, he wouldn't be playing around like that. It is likely that it won't heal on it's own, and then we'll be right back where we started, with the amputation, but why not give him a bit more time and see if he can keep that leg.

I will keep everybody updated, don't worry! And just so I'm completely transparent here, anyone who donated or purchased art, Paypal gives me 60 days from the time of payment to reverse it. If he DOESN'T need his leg removed, I will gladly refund your money to you. Just pm me.

Keep in mind that I already owe over $800 for what we've done so far, and even without the amputation, I'm sure there will be more costs for the boy. Thank you everyone for your wonderful well wishes. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if that's why he felt so good today. :D Also good news: he hasn't had a seizure for over 4 days now! That's a record!

( pics or it didn't happen )

Thank you again for all the kind words and warm wishes. I will continue to keep you updated!

Wow! Thanks for all of the lovely responses and kind words!

For those of you who are new, Milky's story can be found here

tl;dr I found him on the side of the highway, suffering from severe frostbite. So severe, in fact that it was right to the bone on one leg, and the resulting wound just will not heal. We've tried every alternative we can think of, but nothing has worked, so on Monday he is slated to have that leg amputated.

To help deal with his mounting vet bills I have decided to sell all of my art. I will put prices beside the pictures, and the first person to comment with both the TITLE and selling price wins. In the case of non priced items (not many, don't worry) highest bid (ending Monday evening midnight CST)wins.
Please don't pay for anything until I have confirmed with you! I will cross out items as they are sold.
All items are REAL art (ie pencil on paper) and I will ship the original to the winning 'bidder'.

Thanks again to everyone's kind words. It really means a lot to me! <3

( Harry Potter Art )

( Trek Art some nws )

My kids wanted to contribute too, so:

Quincey's Show $20 Marker sold to